Chapter 84. Kael’s Finishing Move

Chapter 84: 84. Kael’s Finishing Move

Kael walked forward across the cracked earth, mulberry sword already in hand.

The Oni watched him approach with open contempt, living metal coiling tighter around the chain-fist with a low metallic scrape.

A blur of silver-white hair cut across the open ground.

Seraphine appeared at Kael’s side in a single step, dagger still drawn, breathing a little heavier than usual.

"We have to take him down together," she said, voice low and firm.

"I’ve been fighting too long. I’m not at my best right now. So...uhm... If I can get some blood..."

Kael did not hesitate for a second.

"Drink it from me."

Seraphine’s crimson eyes flicked to his neck for only a second.

She stepped in front of him, close enough that the torn fabric of her dress brushed his chest.

Her two canine teeth lengthened with a soft, wet sound.

She tilted her head, found the side of his throat, and bit down cleanly.

Schlk.

Warm blood flowed into her mouth at once.

Kael’s thoughts moved slower than the pain.

’I almost forgot she was a vampire. I’ve never actually seen her drink blood before.’

Seraphine’s body reacted the moment the first mouthful hit her tongue. A low, involuntary moan vibrated against his neck.

"Nn... ahh~"

Her thighs pressed together as her pussy clenched hard and grew wetter with every swallow.

The blood of the man she had already claimed in every other way tasted richer than anything she had taken before.

She drank deeply, greedily, the soft wet sounds of her throat working filling the short space between them.

Glk~glk~glk~

Each pull sent another pulse of strength back into her limbs even as Kael felt the drain settle in his own body.

His hand rose almost without thought and rested lightly against the back of her head, steadying her while she took what she needed.

Seraphine’s free hand curled into the front of his tunic, fingers tightening as another soft, shaky moan escaped her lips around the wound.

"Mmnh~ hhah~"

Behind them, Eira still sat where Kael had left her.

The last traces of ashen-violet and midnight-purple hair were fading back toward the familiar split of white and black, but the timid Eira remained trapped yet.

She watched her sister latch onto their stepfather’s neck with clear annoyance and something sharper underneath it as she told her.

’She’s drinking from him right in front of me like they’re some lovers. We also have to move fast if we want to have him, sister.’

Seraphine’s thoughts remained focused even as pleasure curled low in her stomach and her inner walls fluttered around nothing.

’Our lineage is only supposed to take blood from a mate. I already crossed that line with him. It doesn’t matter anymore. I need to be in my full strength to defeat the demon.’

She pulled back at last with a soft, wet sound, lips stained red, a thin trail of blood running down the side of Kael’s neck.

Her breathing had steadied, though a faint flush still colored her cheeks.

The fatigue in her limbs had lessened.

The crimson of her eyes looked sharper, hungrier, fully focused on the demon waiting ahead.

Kael wiped the blood from his neck with the back of his hand.

The small puncture wounds had already begun to close under the lingering trace of her saliva.

He raised his sword.

The Oni had not moved during the exchange, but the living chains around his body had drawn even tighter, spikes glinting under the fading light with a quiet metallic rasp.

Seraphine settled into position at Kael’s right side.

A faint sheen of wetness still clung to the insides of her thighs, and the lingering heat of the blood still pulsed low in her core, but her stance was steady and her gaze was cold with focus.

Eira remained on the ground behind them, eyes narrowed, the faint residual power of the fallen presence still flickering in her mismatched gaze as she watched the two of them prepare to face the demon together.

Kael and Seraphine moved forward as one.

Seraphine struck first.

Scarlet Mirage!

Her form blurred into a streak of crimson afterimages, razor-thin mana threads trailing behind each false image as she closed the distance in a single heartbeat.

The Oni’s chain-fist swung in a wide arc to intercept, living metal shrieking as it met the leading afterimage and tore through empty air.

Real Seraphine was already inside his guard.

Her blood-forged dagger flashed once, carving a deep line across the metal plating on his ribs with a wet, metallic screech.

The Oni snarled and answered with a spray of spare chains that erupted from his shoulders like striking snakes.

Seraphine leapt backward, body twisting mid-air.

Her free hand swept forward.

Ten blood-forged daggers flew from her spatial ring in a tight, deadly fan.

Schlk-schlk-schlk!

The daggers met the incoming chains head-on.

Crimson edges bit deep into the chains.

Several links shattered under the impact, the broken pieces clattering across the cracked ground.

Seraphine landed lightly, already sliding into her next stance.

Kael used the opening.

Quick Step

His body vanished from the Oni’s peripheral vision and reappeared at the demon’s blind side in a short, high-speed burst.

Mana condensed into a single dense node at the tip of the spare sword he still carried.

One-Point Sever!

The concentrated cutting line shot forward.

The Oni turned just enough to catch it on the compact chain-fist.

Metal rang against metal in a sharp, ringing clash.

The attack left only a shallow groove.

The Oni’s eyes flicked toward Kael for less than a second, dismissed him, and locked back onto Seraphine.

’The vampire bitch is the real threat. The human is still weak.’

He lunged after her with renewed aggression, metal coiling into another Shackle Spiral aimed to pin her legs.

Seraphine’s dagger met the spiral in a flurry of precise, surgical cuts.

Sparks and blood flew.

Each exchange forced the already-injured Oni to spend more of his remaining mana just to keep her from reaching his throat.

Kael stayed on the periphery, testing and probing him with simple move.

The Oni’s attention stayed fixed on the silver-haired vampire who moved like a blade.

That was exactly what they needed.

Across the open circle Brianna and Tina had already read the rhythm of the fight.

Brianna slammed both palms into the earth.

Thick green vines erupted in a wide arc, racing toward the Oni’s feet to restrict his movement.

Tina’s bowstring hummed.

Three wind-charged arrows streaked in from different angles, forcing the demon to waste another burst of chains just to deflect them.

Seraphine’s crimson eyes met Kael’s for a single, clear heartbeat.

She understood.

Her hand blurred again.

Seven blood-forged daggers shot forward in a rising arc aimed straight at the Oni’s chest and face.

The demon reacted exactly as expected.

Metal surged upward in a dense wall of interlocking shackles to intercept the deadly projectiles.

But the daggers never struck his body.

At the last possible instant they veered downward and slammed into the ground in a perfect circle around him.

Blood Threads!

Crimson mana threads erupted from each embedded dagger, weaving together into a tightening web that wrapped the Oni’s legs, waist, and remaining arm.

At the same moment Brianna’s vines constricted harder, locking the lower half of his body in place.

Tina’s next arrow buried itself in the soft joint of his chain-fist, disrupting the metal’s flow for a critical second.

The Oni’s eyes widened.

Kael was already moving.

He discarded the spare sword without a glance and drew the mulberry blade in one smooth motion.

The strange pinkish-mulberry steel seemed to drink the fading light.

He planted both feet drawing a single deep breath, and poured every remaining drop of his mana into the weapon.

The air above the battlefield changed.

A pure white flash descended from the cloudy sky and poured straight into the mulberry sword, so bright that every fighter across the field both demons and humans froze for a single stunned heartbeat.

The blade hummed with a deep, resonant power that had never been felt from Kael before.

Kael’s arms shook under the strain.

Almost all of his mana was gone in an instant, yet he forced the technique to completion.

Heaven-Cleaving Arc!

He brought the sword down in a single vertical slash.

A line of pure white force tore through the air, screaming as it fell.

It tore through the ground in a straight line instantly reaching toward the demon.

’I HAVE TO ESCAPE.....’, the Oni panicked and tried to escape from the binding but it was too late as the white light flashed before his eyes.

The crimson Blood Threads and green vines holding the Oni parted like paper.

The concentrated arc of energy struck the demon dead center from head to groin.

A deafening crack split the field.

The red Oni’s body was sheared cleanly in two.

The left half, still gripping the chain-fist, toppled sideways with a heavy, wet thud.

The right half, eyes wide with final disbelief, collapsed in the opposite direction.

Blood and broken living metal spilled across the cracked earth in a wide, steaming arc between the two severed pieces.

Silence rolled outward from the point of impact.

Kael dropped to one knee, the mulberry sword tip resting against the ground, both arms trembling violently from the complete drain of his mana.

Seraphine landed beside him a moment later, dagger still raised, breathing hard but eyes sharp with surprise as she scanned the remains for any sign of regeneration.

The C-plus ranked Oni was finally dead.

Across the wider battlefield the sudden, overwhelming flash and the death of one of the strongest demons present sent a visible ripple through both armies.

Lily and Lina’s opponents hesitated. Lower-ranked demons faltered.

Even Lust’s pink eyes narrowed with fresh interest as she studied the human who had just unleashed a technique far beyond what his rank had suggested.

Kael stayed on one knee, chest heaving, the last traces of white light still fading from the mulberry blade.

Seraphine’s hand settled briefly on his shoulder as she looked toward him in new light as she thought about that move.

’That move was dangerous. I don’t know if I can even survive that attack!’

As she looked toward the split dead body of the demon across the ground where there formed a straight line of crater, she thought.

’Probably not!’

Behind them Eira watched in silence, quieter and more complicated as she looked at the straight line of her stepfather’s back.