Chapter 170: Awakening
Staring at the enemy ahead, everything else thinned out, until only the red aura remained. The roar of battle dulled to a low pressure in Seo-jin's ears. Even the faint glow of his interface went ignored at the edge of his vision. No planning. No weighing cost against gain. Just breath in, breath out, and the feel of his claws tightening around steel.
This was about getting back to basics.
Chaos tore through the city around him. Lesser broodlings crashed into walls and bodies alike, shrieks and tearing metal echoing through the streets as they kept the aggro high. The locals knew better than to focus on the vent bugs; every strike only drew more. But with nearly a thousand frenzied demons ripping through stone and flesh, dust and blood clouding the water, the people of the city were left with one choice. To fight.
'You look conflicted Liao Tzu! Let me simplify things!'
Seo-jin bent his knees, coral grinding under his feet, then drove forward in a single violent push. Water parted as he tore straight toward the shard entity like a missile.
Liao Tzu hesitated, caught between the demon closing in and the disaster unfolding around him. Fear rolled off his men in waves, death swarming from the dark like locusts, but when he saw the demon, the prize that was meant to secure their escape, charging straight at him, his jaw tightened and anger drowned his doubt.
'Evil thing!'
Orange light burst from his palm, heat radiating through the water. His fingers snapped through a series of signs in the blink of an eye. Just as Seo-jin closed the last stretch, Liao Tzu clapped his hands together.
DONG!
The sound struck like a physical force. An enormous ethereal bell, etched with faint patterns, slammed into existence around Liao Tzu an instant before Butcher's Wrath landed. Steel met light. The impact reverberated through Seo-jin's arms and into his chest, but the barrier held.
Blood flooded his mouth as the recoil hurled him backward, his body tumbling through churned sand.
[-123HP]
[HP—]
'Turn off my UI!'
[I don't think that is a—]
'NOW!'
Grinding his claws into the ocean floor to stop his slide, Seo-jin felt the system fall silent. The floating numbers vanished, the faint overlays disappearing from his sight. He wanted no measurements, no assistance, just the weight of his body and the burn in his lungs.
The glowing bell flickered, then dissolved into motes of orange light that faded into the water. Without pause, Liao Tzu shifted his stance, hands weaving again before he slammed his palms flat against the ocean floor.
Fractures ripped outward from his hand like lightning, stone splitting with sharp cracks that raced toward Seo-jin and stopped directly beneath him. The tremor hit before he could react.
The ground detonated.
Stone and sand erupted upward, and what rose from the blast was not flame but a coiling mass of earth shaped like a flood-dragon. It surged up and around Seo-jin in a single fluid motion, its body wrapping tight as the pressure built, grinding against his armor and locking his limbs.
'Pathetic! All this death for this?! All you had to do was wait to die!'
Stone scales ground against his ribs, each tightening coil forcing air from his lungs in short bursts. Grit scraped across his armor and skin. His spine bowed under the pressure, joints creaking, but instead of thrashing or yelling, Seo-jin bared his teeth and smiled through the metallic taste rising in his mouth.
'Acting brave won't lessen your sin! These deaths are yours to—'
'Acting?! Whose the one acting?! Why keep pretending when we both know that aura is fake! How shameless!'
The dragon constricted again, compressing his chest until his heartbeat pounded in his ears. Around them, bodies collided, steel rang, and something large crashed through stone. This was the field he wanted...death spreading wide, the water thick with dirt and blood. Pain crawled across every inch of him, sharp and constant, and beneath it he felt the surge from Butcher's Wrath, hot and eager. Both of them were drinking in the moment. He let it burn, but only for a breath. He couldn't drag it out.
No matter how much he wanted to.
Liao Tzu stood rooted, robes stirring in the disturbed water, eyes fixed on Seo-jin with a steady glare. With a casual sweep of his palm, he crushed a cluster of lesser broodlings that had gotten too close, their bodies snapping mid-lunge.
'We do what we must sometimes. Honor doesn't gain you freedom in a place like this.'
Lifting two fingers to his lips, Liao Tzu murmured under his breath, the words swallowed by the clash of battle.
Seo-jin's grin widened despite the weight still clamped around him. His ribs ached with each shallow inhale, but relief slid in cold and clear. He hadn't been certain. Now he was.
The red haze around Liao Tzu thinned and peeled away, color draining until only a steady yellow glow remained, cool and controlled.
A faint crease formed between the shard entity's brows when he caught the shift in the demon's expression.
'Revealing this changes nothing. You are still trapped, you will still die.'
A short laugh pushed out of Seo-jin, rough against his throat.
'You're right. It changes nothing.'
Bloodlight burst outward from his body in a violent surge, the glow forcing cracks through the earthen coils. The stone dragon exploded under the expanding pressure.
Liao Tzu smashed aside a chunk of the shattered construct as it shot toward him, and his eyes widened.
'Impossible!'
Freed from the constriction, Seo-jin straightened slowly. He rolled his neck once, joints popping, then tilted his head.
'Not impossible. You're just weak.'
'We'll see who is weak!'
Liao Tzu vanished and reappeared in front of him, robes snapping tight as his palm drove forward. The strike carried no wasted motion, only power.
Seo-jin shifted half a step, brought his forearm across to intercept. Bone met bone. The impact cracked like timber splitting. The force still bled through, skidding him backward.
A second palm followed. Then a knee. Then an elbow that came from nowhere.
The true battle had started.
No distance. No space to breathe. Cleavers cut. Palms hammered. Tail lashed. Fingers snapped into joints and tore free before a hold could settle. Their bodies blurred between shattered buildings, colliding through walls, erupting from clouds of murk only to crash again somewhere else.
Each reappearance came with the sound of breaking.
Steel rang. Coral huts imploded. Bugs burst under stray shockwaves. Prisoners screamed as the ground beneath them split. Lesser broodlings died by the dozens, caught between pressure waves neither combatant cared to control.
Palm. Cleaver. Fist. Tail.
Gone.
Reappear.
Crash!
Liao Tzu's technique flowed tight and economical. Every strike arrived with structure. Every retreat placed him exactly where he needed to be. He moved like someone who had spent a lifetime refining one answer.
Seo-jin met it head on.
Not thinking or calculating. Just reacting.
Another exchange broke clean through a stone watchtower. Liao Tzu's hand caught Seo-jin's wrist mid-swing, twisted. A heel drove into his sternum. Breath left him in a violent rush. Before he could re-anchor, two rapid strikes landed—throat, ribs—followed by a palm that detonated against his jaw.
The world flipped.
He hit the ground hard enough to crater it. Liao Tzu was already descending, hand raised for the finish.
Butcher's Wrath snapped up just in time, deflecting the blow. The ground beneath Seo-jin shattered instead, the impact driving cracks through the ocean floor.
They separated again.
Blur. Clash. Another hut collapsed. Another wave of lesser broodlings vanished in the crossfire.
Seo-jin has starting to feel something, his body and mind reaching without guidance.
'No, that's not it...'
A palm skimmed past his cheek, grazing horn. He answered with a short cleaver strike that forced Liao Tzu to pivot away instead of advancing.
'Was it like this?'
They traded ten more strikes in the span of a heartbeat.
This time, when Liao Tzu shifted weight to his rear foot, Seo-jin didn't just block. He cut the angle. Forced the pivot earlier than intended. A blade slid along the shard entity's forearm instead of missing entirely.
'I know I'm right, I didn't imagine it.'
The rhythm sharpened.
Liao Tzu struck. Seo-jin redirected instead of absorbing. Palm came high. Seo-jin slipped inside.
Elbow followed. Seo-jin jammed the shoulder before it could extend.
Another series detonated through a half-standing building, debris raining around them. Liao Tzu's expression tightened. The exchanges were no longer one-sided bursts of superiority.
Seo-jin wasn't just enduring.
He was learning.
Palm. Redirect. Counter. Knee. Turn the hip. Force a reset. Strike. Slip. Faint.
Their movements carried them across rooftops and through open streets, each clash warping the air, each missed strike pulverizing whatever stood behind it.
Liao Tzu pressed harder, speed climbing, technique tightening further. His hands blurred in layered patterns, seeking openings through pressure alone.
Seo-jin stopped chasing with strength. He let the attacks come. Let them pass.
Clipped one wrist aside. Let the second palm slide past his shoulder. Pivoted.
The next strike came with commitment. Too much. Liao Tzu stepped in fully, driving forward with a decisive blow meant to end it.
The attack cut through empty space.
Seo-jin's tail snapped upward in the same breath, wrapping tight around both of Liao Tzu's horns. Muscle locked.
He yanked.
The shard entity's face was dragged downward just as Seo-jin's knee came up.
Metal met bone.
Before Liao Tzu could recover, the flat of Butcher's Wrath smashed across his cheek in a brutal backhand.
The force launched him through a row of coral huts like a thrown spear, walls imploding in sequence as his body skipped and crashed through the structures, disappearing in a plume of shattered stone and dirt.
'There! That was it!'
Instead of pressing the advantage, Seo-jin hung in place above the shattered street, feet drifting over broken coral and splintered beams. He went still. Replaying that sensation again and again while debris settled and the oxygen burned in his lungs. He barely registered the scrape of stone and the crunch of wreckage as Liao Tzu dragged himself free.
The shard entity rose from the rubble looking nothing like the composed figure from before. His long black hair hung in tangled strands across his face, one eye swelling shut, blood running warm from his broken nose. His robes were ripped open at the chest, fabric flapping in the current. One jade horn atop his crown had snapped cleanly in half, and a thin stream of glowing elixir leaked from the fracture, dripping down the side of his head and hissing where it touched.
Eyes wide, Liao Tzu threw his arms out to either side, fingers trembling as his aura detonated.
'Enough!'
He brought his palms together with a sharp crack, and symbols bled from his chest in streaks of light, hovering in a slow orbit around his body, each one humming with contained force.
Seo-jin barely reacted. He remained suspended in the water as if time had forgotten him, eyes open but distant, the taste of iron still on his tongue while Liao Tzu's aura swelled and thickened. Around them, the fight faltered. Prisoners staggered. Broodlings froze mid-lunge. Even the vent bugs went still, chittering fading into a low, uneasy vibration.
All of it turned toward Liao Tzu as he lifted his head and roared, the sound tearing through the blood-filled water.
'Bloodline Ascension!'
The floating symbols snapped inward all at once, slamming back into his chest in a burst of light that bent the air around him.
Only then did Seo-jin's gaze sharpen. He looked down from where he hovered, face steady, breath slow, as the pressure below continued to rise.
Light split from Liao Tzu's skin.
His spine bowed first. Vertebrae popped in sequence, each one pushing higher as bone lengthened and reshaped. His arms twisted, fingers fusing, stretching, thinning into talons as muscle rethreaded.
Scales burst through flesh in a rolling wave. Deep orange. Glossed in heat. Each plate locked into place with a grinding sound, some etched with tight, angular symbols that flared to life the moment they settled. Those markings pulsed in steady rhythm, light traveling across his body like breath moving through lungs.
His torso elongated. Ribs cracked and reformed. Legs snapped backward and dissolved into coils of scaled mass. The ground split beneath him as fifteen meters of serpentine bulk uncoiled through the ruined street, crushing coral huts flat and grinding shattered beams into splinters.
A mane of flame-like whiskers spilled from his jaw. Twin horns curved back from his skull, the broken jade fragment now regrown into a burning crest of orange crystal. Smoke rolled from his nostrils as he lifted fully, body undulating, tail carving trenches through what remained of the city.
The symbols across his scales brightened. Heat followed.
He leveled his head at Seo-jin.
Massive jaws parted, rows of curved fangs framing a throat that began to glow from within. Light condensed deep in his maw, first a spark, then a sphere, then a tightening core of orange radiance.
Across from him, Seo-jin lowered his center of gravity.
Feet grounded. Shoulders angled. Cleavers held loose at his sides.
Bloodlight began to bleed from his skin in thick waves. It rose around his body like a tide reversing direction, pushing against the dragon's heat in visible ripples.
Orange met red.
The two auras collided midair, pressure slamming outward and flattening what little remained standing. Blood in the water evaporated. Bubbles lifted in sheets and then crashed back down. The air itself screamed between them.
The beam in the dragon's mouth tightened further, compressing until it looked solid.
Seo-jin's bloodlight flared—
Then faltered.
The red haze around him trembled, then began to draw inward in slow, deliberate strands, feeding into Butcher's Wrath as the weapon drank.
Orange burned brighter.
Red thinned.
And the Vent Cathedral held its breath.