INTERSTELLAR ERA: MY MIND IS A LIBRARY

Chapter 135: BLOOD

Asher controlled the blood needles with the elegant grace of someone who was well versed in blood manipulation.

He did not take a single step away from his position.

He never needed to; everyone who approached the door was ended with a blood needle.

Those who proved to be tougher were split cleanly from the torso without ever finding the cause of the slice.

His focus was still on the room.

Since the ship shook a few minutes ago, his fear had increased.

"Hopefully, he is fine," he muttered, turning his attention back to the enemies swarming him.

But he found someone who was different.

This one radiated the aura of a paragon tier fighter.

Asher frowned.

’How many of these do the enemies have?’ He mused.

Not that he cared; as long as they did not come close to Silas, he was not going to actively seek them.

But this one had come.

A silver sword appeared in his palm.

The blood needles in the sky began to rotate.

Of their own accord, they shot down, piercing through the skulls of the enemies.

From the skulls, blood began to flow out, condensing into new blood needles that followed a similar trend.

Asher had flickered out of his previous position, appearing directly over the paragon tier enemy he had seen.

He swung his sword down from above, plasma forming along its edge as it descended.

The enemy raised her hand, metal covering it from palm to arm as she caught the blade.

Boom.

The floor beneath her quaked, ripples spreading out till the very floor was destroyed.

Neither of them waited; Asher backflipped, then lunged again, flames bursting out from the soles of his feet to push him faster.

The lady raised her hand.

It felt like reality had lagged, her body freezing entirely as time paused for her.

Asher stepped to the side, his blade whistling through the air as it tore towards her neck.

Clang.

Steel met steel as the lady broke out of the pause.

Asher’s blade smashed into the metal casing that formed on her neck.

He did not linger; he pulled back, sending his foot into her chest like a rocket.

The lady caught the attack with her palm, ice forming from that point till it covered all of Asher’s legs.

Aether surged through his body as he tapped into his flame core.

Flame surged upward from the leg, burning the ice before it could fully form.

Asher, using the same leg, kicked the lady on the head.

Again, metal.

Asher sighed as he leapt back.

Both of them were at a standstill, but not for long.

Asher caught a glimpse of thousands of blood petals on the other side of the battlefield.

He looked at the lady, then smiled.

With a single snap, the petals collapsed back into blood, surging towards him like a crimson tide.

The blood needles that hung in the air above him joined, everything mixing together, then forming thousands of threads that latched onto the lady.

Asher gripped his sword again, then began to pour aether into it.

He tapped into his plasma core, then his flame core.

Plasma and flames collided, creating a mix between red and blue.

Then, orange.

His lightning core, freshly formed, was drained of half of its power instantly.

Boom.

The gap was closed like it had never existed.

Asher swung his sword at her neck.

The sword created an arc of chaotic energy as it ripped towards her neck.

Ice and metal appeared at the point of contact.

Both forces connected, but before it could ripple outward, time paused, for just the tremors.

Asher did not care to see what he had done; he focused on the lady, pulling his sword back.

He had created the wound he needed.

The blood threads surged, releasing the lady and pouring into her body through the wound.

Her eyes widened slightly.

Pop.

On the other side, Billie looked around.

’There seems to be no end to them,’ she muttered as she stopped to catch her breath.

Her chest rose at an irregular rate, each breath erratic and seemingly forced.

She squinted her eyes as she peered into the heart of the chaos.

There she saw it, a man who towered over twice those around him, with muscles so well toned that they looked inflated.

He stood in the middle of the other candidates, his hammer smashing them into a mess of gore, flesh, and blood.

Everywhere he moved, blood lay in his wake.

She did not hesitate; her katana appeared in her right hand, and she switched her dagger to her left.

Her body jolted forward, weapons gleaming with a silver sheen as she crossed the gap between them.

Her body vaulted over one of the students in her way, twisting mid-air as she pierced downwards, towards the man’s exposed head.

He caught sight of Billie in the air, and he leapt back, avoiding the attack by a tiny margin.

His body crashed into one of the candidates, throwing the candidate backward like a ragdoll.

The man’s gaze shifted towards Billie.

He did not try to reason with her, and Billie did not try to reason with him either.

The candidates that surrounded them felt the brewing tension in the air.

They did not need anyone to tell them before they ran away, choosing to focus on other enemies.

The giant-looking man roared, enraged by Billie’s audacious behavior. freёwebnovel.com

He did not exchange words; he lunged, like a crazed beast locked onto prey.

His hammer was raised over his head, ready to pummel Billie at any time.

Billie jumped backward as the hammer bore down on her.

She lunged again, her katana and dagger moving in tandem.

She drew from the dagger’s reserves, coating both weapons with a pale blue light.

Her dagger tore a short blue line through the air as it sliced towards the man’s chest.

The katana whistled forward, towards the man’s torso.

He pulled his hammer back, catching the katana with its shaft before it could advance forward.

Aether flared across his frame, pulsing and rippling outward till everything condensed into an armor over his frame.

The dagger connected with the armor of aether, and the unthinkable happened.

The aether on the man’s body flickered, warping till it was sucked into the dagger’s blade.

Not all of it, but enough to create a gap for Billie to capitalize on.

Her dagger drove forward, unimpeded as it pierced through his chest.

Blood spluttered into the air, the man’s eyes widening in shock.

The injury was not deep; it was barely able to touch any vital organ.

But the fact that his aether was sucked into a dagger was enough to frighten him.

Billie leapt back, landing softly with enough gap between them.

Her eyes were fixed on the dagger. At this moment, she did not know what to say; the passive effect of storing aether was already good enough, but now it had shown the ability to take a certain amount of aether from aether constructs.

"Truly worthy of staying in the treasury of a clan as large as the Orion clan," she muttered.

The man was further enraged.

He held his hammer in front of his chest, his mouth wide open as he lunged.

"Meteor Hammerfall," he yelled, bringing his hammer back as he charged at her.

It began to charge with aether, and the aether began to transform into flames, ones hot enough to melt the floor they passed.

As he neared Billie, he swung down, bringing his hammer with all the force he had gathered towards Billie’s head.

Billie’s eyes widened, shock eating at her mind as she jumped backward.

That was not enough.

As the hammer smashed into the earth, it rippled outward, sending smaller balls of flames flying.

Billie dodged one, then another, then sliced through one, but she could not avoid all of them.

One of the balls caught her arm, burning it to ash before she could even register she had caught fire.

Her mind almost exploded.

From the pain.

She fell to her knees, her eyes blank.

The pain was just too unbearable.

The man looked at her.

He did not care that she was vulnerable.

In fact, he liked that she was vulnerable.

A single tap on the floor and he was already over Billie.

A grin flashed across his lips as he looked at her.

He knelt on the floor, looking her in the eyes before raising a hand.

He gripped her hair tightly, enough to snap a few strands.

Bang.

The floor cratered, cracks spreading through as Billie’s head smashed into it.

The man raised it again, looking at the blood on her face, and the few broken teeth.

A smile spread on his lips.

It felt as though he was enjoying this scene.

Again, then again.

Blood was the only defining feature on Billie’s face at this point.

"Your head will make for a nice trophy."

As he said those words, he pulled out a dagger from his belt.

His eyes remained on the dagger, still not using it.

Then, a loud thud, one that jolted the already unconscious Billie awake.

The man fell to the floor.