Second Genesis

Grey shook his head and then yawned when Blood didn’t realize what was going on. He could have attacked the man from the back, but just now when the two of them had been close, Grey felt a very odd fluctuation coming from Blood.

One part of him recognized it. It was a signature very similar to that of the Vampire Lord.

The first thought Grey had was that maybe Blood’s name wasn’t so coincidental after all. The second thought he had was that Blood’s explosive power and strength might very well come from a hybridization between the vampires and likely something else.

This changed the calculus for Grey. That was because Blood wasn’t just some random enemy he had to fight anymore. Blood just might be a key piece to understanding what he had to do to clear this Instance or find that item Baron Giyoto wanted.

The altar was related to the Savage Races, and there was some connection between the Savage Races and the Dark Kin. The vampires were obviously of the latter group.

’But this isn’t adding up. The armor had a pattern similar to what appeared on the politician bastard’s head. But a Bishop was reverential to it. So how could an armor that a Bishop would be respectful of be related to the Savages?’

There was already an idea formulating in Grey’s head about the answer to that question. As for what was triggering that idea, it was something in his own body.

After all... hadn’t his Goblin Warlord Spirit somehow evolved into Paladin Spirit?

Maybe the connection between the Savage Races and the Church wasn’t so clear after all.

Grey felt like he was holding many pieces, some of which could fit together, but even if he did, he was still missing something... and he felt like he wasn’t that far away from finding out what it was.

The roar of Blood woke Grey up from his thoughts.

Up in the stands, the king hadn’t moved, but his jaw was clenched tight. He thought that Grey’s lack of attempt to attack Blood from the back was a pure act of mocking him for his so-called "champion".

In reality, that was exactly something Grey would do. It just wasn’t the case this time.

’You will regret it.’ The king thought coldly, a chill radiating from his steely blue eyes. ’Even if you had attacked Blood from the back, you would not have penetrated his defenses. But now you will stand even less of a chance.’

Blood spun toward Grey, his head looking back with the menace of a creature that had lost all rationality.

Grey was speechless. "You have the IQ of a grapefruit, what do you have to be insulted about?"

Blood vanished and Grey suddenly felt a shadow block out the sun. He looked up into the skies and found the behemoth of a man bounding down from above.

Grey shook his head and raised up a hand. Blood had brought his chains back, nearly scratching his back as he flexed the full might of his triceps.

"Idiot."

Grey’s cargo pants flared, burning all 1000 units of energy in a single instant. His Intelligence leapt up by a full 100 stat points and Helion Resonance burned.

The chains Blood had been relying on suddenly wrapped around his ankles. When he tried to rip them forward, he snapped his back in the wrong direction instead.

BOOM.

Blood crashed down to the ground head first, but Grey was under no illusion that the behemoth of a man would die from that alone. But Grey didn’t mind it. He didn’t want Blood to die that easily, not yet.

Grey stepped onto the man’s back after weathering the waves of rolling earth. Raising an open hand, he squeezed it shut tight and the chains looped around Blood’s wrists and ankles, trussing him up like a pig.

Blood roared in pain and fury, but could hardly move properly. How could he? He had broken his own back.

Grey, though, was trying to see something. He pressed a palm to Blood’s skin, secretly summoning the fang dagger.

The result wasn’t what Grey expected at all. All he wanted to do was cut Blood and see if the man actually bled. Depending on how Blood reacted to being injured, maybe he could confirm if he had vampire abilities.

Grey’s senses had always been sensitive to changes in the circuits around him. If Blood used anything like Hemorrhagic Regeneration, he would feel it instantly.

What happened instead though was that Blood became even more rabid than before, the fang necklace around Grey’s neck suddenly wanting to peel its way out from under his skintight flexible armor.

Grey had hidden the fang necklace beneath it, and the defenses of his flexible armor didn’t need to be explained any further. But Grey could faintly feel that the fang necklace was about to rip itself free.

It wanted to drink Blood’s, well... blood.

’Is that so...’ Grey chuckled. ’Well I’m the master here, not you.’

Grey retracted the fang dagger back into his body and the fang necklace was forced to calm. He had a feeling he understood what the ability of the wolf spirit in his necklace would be when he finally got around to making a new mechanical jaw, though.

Grey looked up at the king as the crowd slowly began to realize that the blood they were out for wasn’t going to happen.

Let alone a great battle, it all ended so... anticlimactically. Ironically, the first battle had been much better.

"Hinging everything on a champion without a brain is a bit idiotic, don’t you think?"

The king didn’t reply, but Grey could see the fury in his eyes.

’Now what, Grey? What are we going to do here, exactly? Fly by the seat of our pants, that’s what.’

Grey was half prepared for a battle royale. He was already thinking of making it back into the cells to free as many prisoners as possible so they could maybe cut their way out of here.

What he didn’t expect was for someone to get to it before he could.

BOOM.

An eruption came from the gates of the coliseum. Not from the direction of the dungeon, but instead from the outside.

A radiant energy spilled out in all directions.

’Holy energy!’ Grey realized instantly.

"ENEMY ATTACK!"

"THE CHURCH IS HERE! READY YOUR WEAPONS!"