I Died and Became a Noble's Heir

Chapter 755: Jack vs. The Red Herald Part V

He didn’t cast a grand spell or attempt some elaborate draconic technique. The Herald ran, a direct, explosive charge forward at a velocity that made the ground crack beneath its feet. Its massive claws struck stone, leaving claw marks eight meters deep.

The creature’s jaw opened as it approached, teeth the size of giant two-handed swords glinting in the red aura surrounding it.

The wind displacement created by the Herald’s charge was sufficient to push Jack backward slightly; the air itself seemed to recoil from the creature’s approach.

Jack remained stationary, his vertical pupils precisely tracking the Herald’s advance.

His grip tightened on Oscar, but his feet remained planted exactly where they were. The Herald accelerated, closing the distance with terrifying speed.

The creature’s jaws opened wide enough to swallow Jack whole, the desperate intention clear.

Close the gap, crush the human under sheer mass and ferocity, end this fight through brute force and the weight of an Emperor rank dragon.

Jack raised his hand, and [Red Web] activated.

Crimson threads erupted outward in a sphere that expanded to encompass a fifty-meter radius. The webbing materialized from Jack’s mana in an instant, each strand thick as rope and glowing with demonic power.

The threads didn’t merely emerge; they materialized with violent force, expanding outward like an explosion of crimson energy that seemed to have its own gravitational pull.

The webbing filled the space between the Herald and Jack in a fraction of a second.

The Herald’s thrashing limbs contacted the webbing.

The impact was severe. The creature’s advance decelerated as the crimson filaments enveloped its claws, limbs, and its formidable tail.

The webbing clung to the Herald’s scales with adhesive force, each strand acting as a brake on the creature’s momentum.

The threads were stronger than steel, woven with demonic power that made resistance almost impossible. The Herald’s speed dropped precipitously. Forty percent of its velocity was bleeding away before anyone could blink.

The creature still moved forward, its massive weight and desperation pushing it through the webbing despite the restraining force.

The Herald’s body crashed through some of the strands, the thicker threads snapping under the sheer kinetic energy of the creature’s charge.

But enough of the webbing remained intact to significantly slow its final approach.

Jack remained exactly where he stood, watching as the Herald’s jaws snapped at empty air where he should have been positioned. The creature’s momentum spent just enough that it couldn’t quite close the final gap.

The Herald’s massive jaws opened wider, repositioning for another attack. The creature wasn’t going to crush Jack with brute force anymore. Instead, it would burn him away.

A blast of pure, superheated plasma built within the Herald’s throat. The energy was so intense that it distorted the air around the creature’s mouth, creating a visible shimmer that looked like heat waves rising from summer asphalt.

The plasma was primal draconic power, fire mana stripped down to its most destructive form, heated to temperatures that would vaporize matter on contact.

The Herald’s entire mouth seemed to glow with internal heat, scales turning translucent as the power building behind them intensified.

The plasma erupted forward in a concentrated beam aimed directly at Jack’s face.

The energy was so intense that it left a visible trail of ionized air in its wake, creating a corridor of destruction that extended from the Herald’s jaws toward where Jack stood.

The plasma moved too fast to follow visually.

A blur of superheated energy that seemed to bend the light around it.

Jack’s form flickered under the pressure of the attack.

[Shadow Mirage]

The ambient shadows around Jack’s position shifted violently, becoming almost animated with independent motion.

The darkness surrounding him seemed to gain substance.

To the Herald’s fractured vision, Jack’s form split into multiple overlapping displacements.

Phantom images that occupied the same space, each one appearing identical, each one seeming equally real.

The plasma blast tore through empty air.

It passed directly through where Jack should have been, incinerating nothing but shadows and mist. The energy continued forward unabated, hitting stone fifty meters beyond and vaporizing it instantly.

The blast created a crater in the landscape, evidence of power so concentrated that rock ceased to exist in its path.

The vaporized stone became dust that hung suspended in the air, a visible reminder of the plasma’s destructive potential.

Before the Herald could register what had occurred, before the creature could reorient or reposition, [Shadow Slip] activated.

Jack’s form sank into the dark smoke from the plasma blast, his body dissolving into the shadows.

The transition was seamless, the human form becoming one with the surrounding darkness as if he had never been anything else. The Herald’s eyes tracked where Jack had been, finding only empty space and lingering smoke.

Jack erupted directly beneath the Herald’s neck.

The positioning was surgical, placing Jack inside the Herald’s guard at the worst possible angle for the dragon to defend.

The creature’s jaw was still open from the plasma attack, the massive mouth frozen in the moment between offense and defense.

Jack’s blade was already moving before the Herald could register his presence, Oscar’s edge gleaming with demonic power.

​[Blood Demon Arts 4th Form: Abyssal Rupture] activated for the first time.

Jack executed the high-speed X-shaped double-slash with absolute precision. His blade cut diagonally down-right with velocity that made the air scream, then instantly cut diagonally down-left with equal force, creating two overlapping blood crescents that collided directly on top of each other mid-flight.

The crescents didn’t merely hit the Herald; they detonated on contact, creating a localized fluid explosion that erupted in the creature’s throat and mouth.

[-4,312,030 HP]

The Herald’s health dropped from [42,688,158/50,000,000] to [38,376,128/50,000,000].

Nearly four and a half million health obliterated in a single strike. Jack had never done damage like this before.

Lost in the fight, unaware of the consequences of his actions.

He screamed at the unforeseen damage he took from one strike from Jack.

Blood erupted from its open jaws as the internal explosion tore through tissue and bone.

The Herald’s massive head jerked backward, the creature’s jaw slamming shut.

The creature’s entire body convulsed from the impact, muscles spasming involuntarily as pain receptors fired at levels that transcended normal comprehension.

[Abyssal Rupture] activated again.

Jack’s blade flashed through the air in the same X-shaped pattern, the crescents of blood detonating with identical force.

The Herald’s head convulsed, its entire body shaking from the impact of the secondary explosion occurring inside its own mouth and throat.

Tissue burst outward from between the creature’s teeth, creating a grotesque fountain of blood and viscera.

[-1,724,812 HP]

[Abyssal Rupture] activated a third time.

The pattern repeated, two slashes creating overlapping crescents that detonated with catastrophic force.

The Herald’s jaw was forced open despite the creature’s attempt to keep it clenched, blood and tissue spewing from its mouth in fountains that painted the air red.

Chunks of the Herald’s jaw were exposed, damaged beyond repair by the repeated detonations occurring at point-blank range inside its own body.

[-1,724,812 HP]

The Herald’s health dropped to [34,926,504/50,000,000].

Tharaxis’s voice cut through Jack’s consciousness with crystalline clarity.

‘A severe lapse in defense, Jack. Your ribs are fractured, and your health is dipping into the red. You cannot afford to let this beast hold the high ground. Move now.’

The observation was accurate. Jack’s body was bleeding heavily from his own attacks.

This was the cost of using Blood Demon Arts. You trade serious damage in turn for your own body as collateral.

Family vacation. I will still post chapters. TOD uncertain.

Family vacation. I will still post chapters. TOD uncertain.