Blood Awakening: The Strongest Hybrid and His Vampire Bride

Chapter 585: Sick of Running. Let’s Fight!

Nikolai stood panting while encircled in the red sand, his body covered in countless wounds ranging from light cuts to deep lacerations across his chest. In this strange world, his regeneration and miraculous abilities almost felt stunted, as if something surpassing mortals restricted him from reaching his limits.

“Haa….”

He spat blood at his feet before straightening himself out.

Although the mysterious pressure limited his explosive power and regeneration abilities, it seemed to target his Blood Arts themselves, nothing else. Thanks to his overwhelming physical force and ability to crush the demons, this restriction didn’t affect him as much as he thought.

This realisation gave him quite a clue to breaking through the situation.

What surprised Nikolai the most was that the demons couldn’t stop his greedy devouring of the energy flowing into Hell from the various gates and cracks in the sky.

‘It’s a good thing my focus for the past hour was on stealing this energy.’

His lips curled into a bitter smile, his abdomen so stuffed with foreign energy, it was like he’d stuffed himself full of 15KG of turkey or pork.

The aching sensation in his pelvic muscles burned as if they might burst.

“Come on then, you ugly fucks!” Nikolai lifted his bloody spear, leaning to the side as his Obsidian Tide slowly broke down the foreign energy, then deposited it inside each of his three hearts, allowing them to grow further.

While fighting, Nikolai examined the strength, limit and abilities of each demon. The weakest imps could barely reach the level of a mature monster. While the Dogs had poor intelligence, they had immense strength and agility, reaching a mature monster’s level.

Some even matched an Elder; those dogs were larger and a little unique.

The flying eyes weren’t dangerous physically; their movement was sluggish for floating eyes. However, Nikolai couldn’t deny the danger of their eye beams. Nikolai took one and a half of his arms, and the flesh melted in seconds.

A feeble support type with Great Elder level ranged damage.

‘The Tyrant’s strength just barely surpasses a Great Elder. No, maybe if that black steroid mist stopped juicing him up, he’d be lower.’

This knowledge gained through fighting granted Nikolai confidence.

Nikolai shifted his glance to the throne, which seemed much smaller than before, and the Tyrant sat holding a giant meat cleaver that you’d find in a Chinese restaurant. He appeared to struggle breathing, panting while sitting down.

‘Hm…’

The Tyrant’s chest rose and fell unevenly, thick black vapour leaking from the seams of its armour-like flesh. The mist that had once surged into it now flickered, unstable, thinning each time Nikolai inhaled and devoured more of the strange energy.

‘So that’s it! Hell didn’t favour the Tyrant. It favoured the strong!’

After Nikolai began to steal the energy and defeat the demons using pure bravado and physical force alone, this world stopped prioritising the Tyrant’s regeneration, and slowly, threads of the energy from the tower began to tether from Nikolai’s chest.

Nikolai dug the butt of his spear into the sand and rolled his neck, vertebrae popping one by one. The painful stab spread, but a comfortable pleasure soon followed each crack. His torn muscles throbbed across his torso, but black fire burned from Nikolai’s eyes.

“This place really is a PvP server.”

For every step Nikolai took, the demons shifted back.

Was it fear, or just the instinct when faced with something beyond their control and ability to fight back? The imps shivered, barely able to look at Nikolai, while some of the weaker dogs whimpered, growling desperately as if to ward him off.

Thanks to his brutal and borderline suicidal attacks, he’d chipped away at the aura protecting their fragile minds.

The Tyrant’s aura vanished.

A howl cut through the red sky.

“Well, it couldn’t be that easy, right?”

Three Elder-class hounds charged together, their bodies swollen with dense muscle, bone plating jutting from their shoulders and spines. They matched their movements, tightly coordinated like a cavalry charge.

“Well,” Nikolai curled his lips into a smile. “Show me something interesting!”

He twirled his spear, stepping forward, refusing to back down even as his muscles screamed.

The first hound pushed off the ground, spreading the desert into a massive wave of red. Its body vanished in the sand screen before leaping at Nikolai from above.

Nikolai twisted his torso and rammed the spear upward, skewering it through the jaw and out the skull. Black flame erupted, consuming its body mid-air. He kicked the corpse aside just as the second slammed into him and dragged both claws across his ribs, raking his flesh deeply.

Crack!

There was a slight crack from the collision.

However, Nikolai’s eyes beamed brighter, he wrapped an arm around the beast’s neck, and smashed his head into its snout. Once, twice, thrice. On the fourth impact, this blow caved its skull inward.

He tore the head free and hurled it like a projectile, smashing an imp into blood mist.

“Now it’s only you.”

Nikolai beckoned to the enormous hound, clearly the leader of the trio which circled him warily, yet the pounding of his heart only grew faster.

‘This is so exciting!’

The beast he usually tamed, controlled and held back was released freely in this Hell, no need to care about murder, death or loss.

The hound wailed, lifting its foot.

It hesitated as if coming to the realisation it would die.

That Nikolai wasn’t prey, but the predator.

“Too late.”

Nikolai lunged forward, his steps in the sand like bombs, exploding huge waves that hid his movements and aim. With a single brutal swing, he slashed from the beast’s shoulder to its crotch.

A silent moment passed, with the demons grumbling behind the red sand clouds.

The floating eyes adjusted their angle and prepared a salvo of plasma to end the arrogant dog. At least that’s how Nikolai imagined their thought to be. He saw the situation as if an ant stood against a human and won.

Nikolai inhaled deeply.

His target wasn’t oxygen, but the energy lingering in the air. He wouldn’t let them recover the black mist from the three corpses.

It was all his!

The more energy poured into him, the closer he came to transcending his limits. The stabbing ache jolting through him resembled the moment he reached Great Elder, but hurt a thousand times more; it was hell.

[STOP HIM!]

Groaned the Tyrant, his loud stomps echoing from the distance.

Nikolai’s lips trembled, curling into a wolfish grin.

The cracks in the sky exploded in protest, the flow turning violent as he ripped more power free. His hearts hammered in unison, struggling to refine what didn’t belong, but they held anyway.

‘I won’t let this chance go! To fight against these bastards, to destroy Alucard! I need all I can get.’

A black tide surged through his body, penetrating his bones, tenderising his muscles. Everything inside Nikolai momentarily became ink-coloured. His eyes oozed blood as the tiny capillaries burst from the immense pressure.

‘Shit, I might die of a heart attack!?’

Nikolai staggered and coughed up blood; his hands trembled like someone with Parkinson’s disease.

His knees bent slightly as all three hearts thundered and swelled with the excess energy and blood, converting the energy into black blood and then sending it through his body.

Each beat tore through him like a blade, his veins turned jet black and bulged beneath his skin, crawling up his neck and across his jaw like serpents.

“Haa… haa… haa…”

Blood spilt freely from his eyes now, thick and dark, dripping down his cheeks and sizzling as it struck the heated ground.

[YOU WILL DIE.]

The Tyrant gave Nikolai a death sentence instead of warning him, but the damn werewolf just smiled.

When in doubt, smile.

When about to lose, smile.

Do everything possible to piss off the enemy.

The Tyrant shouted again, but its voice cracked, unable to control its anger.

The floating eyes fired.

Bolts of condensed plasma shrieked through the air, carving trenches where they passed. Nikolai glanced up, not even trying to dodge or avoid them. He simply snorted and gritted his teeth, gathering a surge of energy around him.

“Piss off.”

A beam curved, burning his shoulder.

The flash of purple and blue vanished with a howl, yet Nikolai didn’t flinch; he just stood silently as the flesh bubbled and evaporated, revealing bones. The white-hot glow showed the strength of their plasma.

And yet he remained calm.

Squelch!

Flesh tendrils formed instantly, interlocking and rapidly healing the wounds. A moment before, Nikolai couldn’t manage this; it was impossible for him to do so.

However, his energy broke the limit.

Nikolai dropped to one knee, claws digging deep into the sand, carving molten grooves. Steam rose from his wounds as regeneration resumed faster than before he entered.

He laughed like a madman.

“Hahaha, guess it’s over.”

The demons hesitated.

Even the floating eyes drifted backwards.

As for the Tyrant, its hand gripping the meat cleaver trembled, facing a monster that could absorb the energy of hell was enough. But now the monster’s actual abilities were unsealed!

He raised his spear.

The Heaven-Slaying spear darkened, its silver edge stained black as foreign energy bled into it, the weapon humming as if alive.

“I get it now,” Nikolai muttered, staring at the Tyrant. “Hell doesn’t care who sits up there, as long as they provide energy and take no prisoners!”

The Tyrant rose unsteadily from its throne, cleaver trembling in its grip as the black mist around it thinned further, siphoned away by an existence it could no longer suppress.

[MONSTER.]

Nikolai’s grin widened, sharp and feral.

“Funny,” he said, blood dripping from his chin. “How ironic! But, wouldn’t you say I’m a little too handsome to be a monster?”

The moment he leaned forward, the ground burned, sand melted into bubbling lava, and his eyes focused on the chest of the Tyrant.

“I’m going to kill you now.”

[Braggart!]

“Here I come!”

BOOM!

Happy New Year!

Dead… still dying… !!!