Scarlet

I can’t help but frown once I reach Crimson Gourd’s tower and find too many scents lingering in the area. Or at least I think it’s too many scents? My hearing is a lot better than my sense of smell as a blood lycan, so I can’t tell for sure. But I think I smell more scents than I hear people.

Maybe it’s just my imagination?

“I wouldn’t let my guard down just in case,” Tar warns me, and I can’t help but nod in agreement.

After a quick check to make sure my mana is filled to max capacity, I begin climbing the tower.

The mere fact that Molten Angel is still here despite his cooldown long having since worn out means he likely knows I’m here. Probably due to their diviner of a teammate. But from what I’ve heard, that diviner shouldn’t be able to tell important details like our actual plan yet. So we should be safe from them learning that I’m heading here alone. Or at least that the others aren’t planning on attacking.

Honestly, I hate the entire idea of diviners. I hate prophecies, I hate any and all of that garbage. Not only is it just bullshit, but the whole prophecy thing where half of the stupid things are all self-fulfilling? I just hate them.

I frown for a moment as I climb before shaking my head.

Diviner aside, there’s only the sound of a single person up there, unless the others are just stiffly standing in place and not making a single sound somehow. So it should be fine.

Although it’s moments like these that I kind of wish I had a better sense of smell to go along with my hearing.

I continue rushing up the tower, getting closer and closer to the top. But right before I start climbing the final staircase to the roof, I pause. Then I have my blood shadow – which has been following me around for a while now – go up as I instead jump out of a balcony on the fifth floor and climb straight to the top, soon hearing a commotion sounding from the roof.

A grin makes its way onto my face when I jump over the battlements of the tower’s top to find my blood shadow having blocked a spear of water with a spear of blood that I’d armed it with a while ago. The spear of water clearly having been sent towards it by Aqua, their team’s combat focused water magic user.

“The hell?!” she shouts, the Life Weaver – their team’s healer who has one of if not the absolute best healing magics in existence, life magic – grimaces as he stands next to her with his hand on her shoulder, whatever cloaking magic the man was using having broken the moment she attacked. Because he had to have been using his life magic to cloak them both otherwise I’d have heard them before now.

I can’t help but compliment his cloaking magic in my head though, but at the same time, it’s life magic. A magic that theoretically might be able to cloak someone’s life energy entirely, much less any sounds they’d make. And they weren’t moving at all, simply waiting at the top of the tower for me unlike the stealth focused Guardian from before who was moving around.

Something I should’ve considered, but it’s too late now. Good thing I prepared.

Without a moment of hesitation, as the Molten Angel and Aqua push forwards closer to my blood shadow, I break into a sprint straight towards Life Weaver, my arm shifting mid leap and blood claws forming around both of my hands. And before any of them even notice me, I tear my claws straight across Life Weaver’s back, making him let out a cry that attracts the others’ attention to me. They then turn around and begin rushing towards me, but to no avail as I follow my strike up with half a dozen blades of blood that directly tear into Life Weaver from various different directions. And to finish things off, after my feet touch the ground, I straighten up again and grab the healer by the neck before snapping it like a twig, the man’s physical capabilities likely having been rather abysmal as a life magic user.

“David!!!!” Aqua practically shrieks, her voice irritating my ears into twitching as she rushes towards me with a look of hatred on her face.

Oh, right. I’m pretty sure those two were dating. If the research I did into their team was anything to be believed that is.

Kind of surprised I remembered that fact to be honest. Probably only remembered it because of how rare it is for two Guardians in the same team to date though. A lot of teams don’t like that sort of thing because of the high fatality rate of Guardians.

Which I don’t really understand considering that if they’re gonna die while on the job it won’t really matter if they’re on the same team or not, but whatever.

Either way, the girl – who should only be a single year older than me – rushes forward rather recklessly while sending blades of water at me. Blades that I quickly counter with blades of blood before using blood boil and life drain on both her and Molten Angel, making the girl stagger.

Surprisingly though, Molten Angel only flinches slightly as he ignores me and attacks my blood shadow that was going for Aqua’s exposed back.

Oh, I guess that’s why a lot of people don’t like dating in teams.

Aqua’s current reaction to her boyfriend being killed in the magical reality setting a good example of it.

I step past the healer’s corpse right as it vanishes before burning my blood and jumping straight towards Aqua, clearing the distance in seconds while bringing my claws straight down on her while she’s still regaining her balance. But somehow she still manages to bring up her arms and make a large shield of water that actually manages to block my claws. Until, that is, I slam into the shield with my entire body, knocking her over onto her back. She then sends waves after waves of water blades from all angles around us towards me, most of which I manage to counter with blades of blood. But some of them break through anyways.

Ignoring the pain of the water blades that only barely manage to pierce into my armor, I push down on her shield with my left arm while reaching over towards her throat around the shield with my shifted arm. And the moment my claws are about to reach her throat, I hear Molten Angel shout, “No you don’t!” following which I feel an impact hit my side. But against his plans, the impact manages to send my claws straight through her throat as I’m knocked off of her and sent spinning into the battlements of the tower with a grunt of pain.

Fortunately the battlements themselves manage to hold me without breaking and sending me off the tower, but only barely as parts of it do crumble in my landing. I quickly climb to my feet again, just to grimace slightly as I feel pain blossoming in my waist, likely from a broken rib or two. Then I focus once more on Aqua and Molten Angel, finding Aqua currently vanishing into nothing, my accidental attack apparently having been enough to rip out her throat. Meanwhile Molten Angel looks pissed.

Very pissed.