*Hahaha, no way... no way I'm trembling against a kid like him, right?*
The vampire tried to convince himself with forced laughter. His hands raised high, blood began flowing out rapidly from both his palms, forming five blood spheres the size of basketballs hovering in the air in a circular pattern.
Without further ado, he launched all five blood spheres simultaneously toward Nova, who still stood motionless in place, his body covered in burn wounds but his posture upright.
SYUUUT! SYUUUT! SYUUUT!
The blood spheres shot forward rapidly.
But Nova didn't move.
He just stood there, watching the approaching blood spheres with a cold gaze.
And when the blood spheres were very close, Nova finally moved.
But not to dodge.
His right hand swung extremely fast. His fist struck the first blood sphere.
SPLASH!
The blood sphere didn't explode as it should have. Instead, it shattered like a water balloon being punched, breaking into liquid fragments that dripped to the ground.
His left hand followed, destroying the second sphere in the same manner.
SPLASH!
His leg spun, kicking the third sphere.
SPLASH!
In a matter of seconds, all five blood spheres were destroyed, none managing to explode, all becoming mere puddles of liquid on the ground that slowly seeped away.
"HAH?!"
The vampire was shocked to see his attack destroyed so easily.
Not only that, when he blinked once, Nova was no longer in his original position.
And when he opened his eyes again—
Nova was already right in front of his eyes. That cold face staring directly into his red eyes.
*How—?!*
The vampire, anticipating an attack to his face—the same place as the previous punches—with an extremely fast reflex immediately created a solid blood wall in front of his body. The wall was thick, almost half a meter—with a density far higher than steel, reinforced with explosive energy ready to detonate if struck.
But—
CRASH!
One of Nova's hands—his right hand with reinforced bones—easily shattered the blood wall like piercing through wet paper. No explosion. No resistance. The wall crumbled into small fragments scattering like shattered glass.
"WH-WHAT?!" The vampire didn't even have time to finish his sentence.
Because at that moment—
WHAM!
Nova's fist had already struck his face with a force far—FAR—greater than the previous punches.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
WHOOOOOOSH—
The vampire's body flew backward at tremendous speed, not floating but truly launched like a projectile from a cannon. He pierced through three large trees in succession—CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!—their trunks collapsing.
His body skidded across the ground rapidly, creating a groove one meter deep and nearly a hundred meters long before finally stopping by slamming into a large rock.
DUUUUM!
The rock cracked deeply in the middle, nearly split into two pieces.
As the vampire's body still lay among the rubble—still trying to process what had just happened—a dark shadow suddenly covered his vision.
He looked up with eyes still blurred.
Nova was already up there—hovering in the air directly above him. His right hand raised high above his head.
*When did he—?!*
Nova had used all his leg muscle strength in one stomp when the vampire flew. Nova leaped with force that created a small crater in the ground where he stood. In an instant, he had already caught up and was above his target.
And now—
His right hand swung downward like a giant sledgehammer dropped from a height.
BOOOOOM!
The punch struck the vampire with extraordinary destructive force. The vampire slammed into the ground violently—not merely falling but forcibly planted—creating a crater five meters in diameter and three meters deep. The surrounding ground cracked, spreading to a radius of twenty meters.
The shockwave from the impact made the surrounding trees sway violently, leaves falling.
Dust and debris billowed high, covering the crater for several seconds.
When the dust began to settle, the vampire could be seen lying at the bottom of the crater with a severely injured body—ribs broken in several places, left arm bent at an unnatural angle, blood flowing from his mouth and nose.
But as a vampire with high-level regeneration, his wounds began healing rapidly. Broken bones fused back together, torn skin closed.
The vampire rose slowly with unsteady movements, his nearly healed face looking up—toward Nova standing at the crater's edge with the same cold posture.
"YOU... DAMN IT! DIE, YOU CURSED BRAT!"
The vampire raised both hands high into the air. Blood began flowing out in extraordinarily large amounts—far more than previous attacks.
In the dark sky above, the blood began gathering and taking various creature forms. Large masses formed—some resembling giant bears five meters tall with claws the size of cars, wolves with fangs as long as a human arm, even small dragons with wide wings filling the sky.
Dozens—no, maybe nearly a hundred—blood creatures formed in a short time, all hovering in the air.
"ATTACK! KILL HIM! DESTROY THAT BOY UNTIL NOTHING REMAINS!"
With that command, dozens of blood creatures swarmed Nova from all directions—from front, back, left, right, above, below—They moved quickly.
However, instead of dodging or retreating as he had done before—
Nova instead advanced forward at a speed even faster than those creatures.
His hands moved with incredible speed. Each punch destroyed one blood creature before they could explode or attack.
SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH!
The first giant bear—leaping with raised claws—was destroyed with one punch to its head.
The wolf trying to bite from the side—was destroyed with his quick kick.
The small dragon spewing blood from its mouth—was slapped until its body burst into liquid.
Nova's movements flowed like water—no wasted motion, no futile steps. He jumped right, destroying three creatures at once, spun in the air destroying five more, landed in a low stance and swept with his leg destroying creatures attacking from below.
When one blood creature—a bear larger than the others—began glowing with red light indicating it would explode, Nova had already reacted faster. His hand pierced the bear's body and destroyed the energy core inside before the explosion occurred.
The creature just melted into a pool of blood without exploding.
*What is this?! Why can he become this strong in such a short time?! This doesn't make sense!*
*Not only that—he's also become so fast! His movements are like they've been trained for years! The way he punches, the way he dodges, these aren't the movements of a kid fighting for the first time!*
*It feels like I'm fighting someone completely different! Like there's someone far more experienced controlling that boy's body!*
Nova—who had already destroyed dozens of blood creatures in seconds—immediately realized the real enemy was the vampire himself.
Quickly, Nova changed his movement direction. Instead of continuing to destroy blood creatures, he shot straight ahead, breaking through the blood creature formation, heading for the vampire standing in the center of the crater.
*This boy... He immediately knows who the real enemy is. He's not caught by distractions. It seems I really underestimated him from the start. This is a fatal mistake.*
As Nova was almost there, suddenly—
GRAB!
Both his hands and both legs were bound simultaneously by blood tentacles emerging from underground like giant anacondas ambushing their prey. The tentacles were thick—the size of tree trunks—and very strong, coiling around Nova's body.
Nova stopped abruptly, his body suspended in mid-air.
"FINALLY CAUGHT!" The vampire smiled widely. "NOW, TAKE THIS, BOY!"
It turned out the vampire had prepared a trap from the beginning. While Nova was busy destroying blood creatures, the vampire used that time to do something.
He transformed part of his blood into liquid form with extremely high temperature and inserted it into the ground through small cracks. The hot blood burned the ground from within, creating hollow spaces beneath the surface.
In those hollow spaces, he placed "explosive blood spheres"—small spheres densely packed with extraordinary destructive energy, functioning as mines that could be detonated at any time. And the blood tentacles now binding Nova were directly connected to those explosive spheres.
The vampire swung his right hand, now enveloped by a very thick layer of explosive blood. His hand moved quickly toward Nova's face.
If that explosive blood hit Nova's face, even just touched it, a massive explosion would occur that would destroy not only his head but his entire upper body.
But—
One second before the punch landed—
CRACK!
Nova's right leg managed to break free from the tentacle binding with pure strength—his leg muscles tensing with extraordinary force until the blood tentacle tore like fabric pulled too hard.
And in a very quick motion—he immediately kicked the vampire's attacking hand.
WHAM!
The kick hit the vampire's wrist. The vampire's hand was thrown aside, thwarting the explosive attack. The explosive blood in his hand exploded in the air—BOOM!—creating a small fireball that hit no one.
But Nova didn't lower his leg after that kick. Instead, he raised his leg even higher, then stomped it downward with all the strength he had.
BOOOOOM!
The axial kick pierced the ground with force that destroyed everything in its path. The ground cracked in a radial pattern, and the kick penetrated to the underground space created by the vampire, destroying all the hidden explosive blood spheres there before they could be detonated.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The spheres exploded in succession underground, creating massive vibrations on the surface. A crater two meters deep and ten meters wide formed from Nova's single kick.
With the main trap destroyed and the tentacles losing their energy source, Nova easily freed both his hands and left leg. His body was now completely free.
The vampire, realizing his main trap had completely failed, tried to retreat in panic, his legs moving backward hurriedly.
But—
Nova was already behind him.
*When—?!*
Nova's right leg—still raised after destroying the trap—swung horizontally with full force toward the vampire's head from behind.
WHAM!
The kick struck the vampire's head, not the face, but the back of the head where the skull meets the neck bone.
CRACK!
The vampire's head jerked forward. His body was pushed forward with uncontrolled momentum—and the vampire's head was embedded deep into the ground until only the body from the neck down was visible on the surface.
The ground around his head cracked in a circular pattern.
Nova landed lightly on the ground. He looked down with a cold gaze, observing the vampire whose head was embedded in the ground.
The embedded vampire's body began to change. Its texture changed from solid to... liquid. Like melting wax, the vampire's body began turning into thick red liquid that seeped into the ground rapidly.
In seconds, the entire vampire's body had become liquid and disappeared into the ground.
Nova stared at the ground beneath him with slightly narrowed eyes. The vampire had transformed his body into liquid to escape through the ground.
Suddenly from behind, a giant blood creature shaped like a gorilla seven meters tall emerged from the ground and immediately hugged Nova with both its enormous arms.
GRAB!
The embrace was very tight. Nova's body was trapped.
But Nova had already reacted even before the embrace fully locked. With a quick movement taking advantage of a small gap, he freed himself—twisting his body, he jumped backward to a safe distance.
BOOOOOM!
The gorilla creature exploded right after Nova jumped—a massive explosion creating a small crater where Nova had been standing seconds before. Fire and smoke billowed high, tremendous heat spreading in all directions.
If Nova had been one second late, he would have been caught in that explosion.
Nova now stood on a tall tree trunk, looking around.
But nothing was visible. Only destroyed ground, fallen trees, and craters from explosions.
From underground—about five meters below the surface—the vampire peeked through small blood droplets he had placed at various points on the ground surface. The droplets functioned like surveillance cameras, allowing him to see Nova's movements from a safe distance without having to emerge from hiding.
*Damn it! Damn it! DAMN IT!*
The vampire screamed inwardly with frustration, his hands—now in liquid form—clenched tightly even though there was nothing to grip.
*How do I defeat this boy?! All my attacks failed! All my traps were destroyed! He's like he can predict my every move!*
*What are the limits of his body's capabilities?! How long can he endure with wounds as severe as that?!*
*Why doesn't he look like he's in pain at all even though he's so badly injured?! Burns all over his body, bones that should be broken, blood constantly flowing—but he moves as if he feels nothing!*
*Can he not feel pain?!*
*What exactly am I fighting right now? This is no longer the kid I was fighting earlier.*
*How do I kill this child when he himself doesn't care about the pain that should paralyze a normal human?!*
*I have to do something... I have to do something before he finds a way to locate me down here...*
*No words want to emerge in my head. My head feels empty now! This is the first time... the first time in my life, I don't know what to do...*