Sanguine Paradise

∼ Day 24 ∼

The only things louder than the screams and wails of my group getting savagely dismembered and brutalized were the ever-increasing roars of bated bloodlust bellowing out from the sea of greenskins from the spectator stands. Not a single one who wasn't reveling in the scenes of carnage on display for their amusement and entertainment.

Looking down, I cringed at the cracked carapace of my abdomen. The blow I had gotten from the reaver's head extremity had been directly on the small spike protrusion at its edge. It had punched a hole straight through my defenses and a cracked web of damage in the area around it could now be seen. Luckily the damage was relatively superficial as the protrusion-like horn was very short and hadn't run me through and through. Most of the damage had simply come from my body absorbing the immense force of the blow that had thrown me at least a dozen meters away.

With Mana Mending barely even slowing the bleeding, I needed a solution before I was ready to get back into the fight. By now only less than a minute had passed since my untimely collision with the reaver, but the reaver had already killed quite a few. Instead of running, most of the group had taken up the courage to desperately nick and hack at the lumbering predator as it continued its bloody onslaught. Steadily, it was actually starting to get quite a few shallow wounds and cuts.

Unfortunately, those wounds simply couldn't even begin to hinder the monstrous beast as it still had more than nine-tenths of its health remaining. It had also already killed or maimed about eleven out of eighty of the group's fighters. Not wanting to allow the beast to continue widdling down his fighting force, I looked around in search of something.

It didn't take long before I locked my gaze on the unmoving form of the beastkin that I had previously slain. Limbing towards the corpse, I didn't hesitate as I plunged my sharp teeth and fang-like canines directly into an artery when I reached it. While the corpse had already lost a lot of blood, there were still most of it left. In mere seconds, I had completely turned the beastkin's formerly impressive figure into a husk of his former self.

The corpse now looked completely emaciated as if had already been dead for multiple days, and even I couldn't help but be surprised at the ease and speed at which I simply emptied the beastkin's corpse for blood. It had always been fast when using my fang-like canines as an Azde, but I think with the help of Blood-Born, it has increased even further. And that was not even mentioning the sheer volume of what I had just drunk.

But I didn't have time to ponder that further currently, as I saw an immediate effect on what I had hoped to accomplish. Quickly staunching the bleeding of my chest, Blood-Born's healing ability was activated. I could feel a surge of power flood through my system, boosting my attributes and creating a haze of bloodlust that blotted out the pain.

The boost had seemingly increased my physical attributes by a full 10%, which actually was quite a lot. Not even that, I had also healed my body to some extent, even though it wasn't nearly as strong as a charge of Mana Mending, it was still very good. Getting to my feet, I burst into action.

While pain flared in my abdomen as I agitated the wound, this pain was nowhere close to what I had experienced in the hands of Jeerbal, the sadistic gremlin. Simply shrugging off the pain as I reveled in the feeling of power surging in my muscles and tendons, I closed in on the back of the bloodied reaver currently gouging out the entrails of an orc woman.

Almost as if sensing danger, the tail, that turned into a serrated blade at its tip, suddenly whipped towards my charging form. Without breaking stride, I dodged the attack by using Blink. The beast had apparently anticipated that though, as the tail immediately lashed around to flagellate my back with the sharp and jagged edge of the bladed tail.

[Reaver has taken 124 damage!]

Or that was what had intended to happen but only the clang of metal rang out as the tail struck something, and in the very next moment, the shrill shriek of the reaver sounded out, this time from pain. Quickly using Blink again, I got back to safety, out of the beast's striking range.

I had actually this time used a similar tactic to the one I had used on the beastkin. Already knowing that the reaver had the ability to anticipate the use of Blink, I picked up an abandoned and bloodied gladius and simply hurled it towards the large back of the beast just before using Blink.

This had caused the reaver to lash out at the weapon instead of me. Not one to waste a golden opportunity, I tore a large and deep gash into the muscle and sinew of the predator's hip. While the reaver's skin and body were tough enough to shrug off most of the shoddy weapons given to us, my claws were insanely sharp tools of killing and rending flesh.

Not wasting the opportunity to strike as the reaver had its back turned towards me coupled with its tail being distracted, I in a single moment tore deeply into the hip where its leg met the body. After slaughtering countless creatures over the soon to be month ever since I've come to this world, I've gathered an extensive amount of knowledge and experience of the biology and body structure of creatures.

While all creatures varied in many different ways from each other, there was always a pattern and general similarity between groups of creatures. Using this to my advantage, I had specifically targeted the important muscles and tendons that operated its leg. So even though its mass and size made it hard for my short claws to make any serious damage, targeting those vital spots had practically immobilized or at least impaired that leg from any further use without even causing a deep or serious wound.

Although I used this opening to only strike its leg instead of some vital like its head or throat, I would almost certainly die if I had tried to do so. While I had fooled the tail, moving any closer towards the head would've been like I had invited myself into its waiting jaws. So I instead opted for the safest option, and attacked from an area it couldn't easily reach.

Even if an attack against the throat or head would've been possible, it wouldn't have done much. First of all, the sheer thickness and hard nature of its skull allowed for no instant kill by destroying its brain. If it's extremity on the side of its head was any indication, then I had no chance of penetrating the hard bone of its skull.

While there were usually different avenues of approach when wanting to forego going through a cranium, they were essentially unavailable. Its eyes were blocked by clumps of metal, and the ears didn't provide any weak point either as it's disk-shaped nature like that of birds had provided no easy or straight access directly into the cavity of its brain. Taking the neck and throat into consideration, it was simply too large for me to make any deep enough cuts without being eaten first.

As the massive monstrosity of a predator tried to turn around to face its assailant, it stumbled clumsily onto its side as one of its legs didn't follow its body's coordination. Without missing a beat, I bellowed from the top of my lungs.

"NOW!" - Me

With a collective moment of shaking themselves out of a stupor, each of the remaining monsters from the group charged the prone form of the reaver with their weapons at the ready. Due to the reaver being a bipedal creature without actually having the greatest mobility and range of motion with their small arms, they had a hard time getting back up when laying on their sides.

By twisting and contorting its body to desperately get back on its feet, it only managed to flail around as it still didn't fully comprehend that its leg was out of commission. But just before it actually managed to find some purchase with its tail that would help it back up, the weapons of sixty to seventy monsters penetrated into its hide from almost all sides.

I hadn't been standing still idly as well, as I had gouged a long slash across the reaver's muscles and tendons of other different spots. With pained screeches and wails of desperation, the reaver began slowly losing motory functions of various limbs of its body. While I could have gone for some more vital places, I dared not to approach the more weaponized parts of its body as it was still wildly flailed about, hitting some careless monsters who had gotten impatient or had lowered their guards.

There was even a tail swipe that had literally bisected three orcs and maimed two more as they had gotten too close. With wounds getting deeper and more numerous by the second, the reaver's wails turned to almost a whimper while its voice started to slowly die down. Quickly pulling up its status, I saw we were getting there.

-Appraisal!-

[Appraisal: Reaver]

Name: "???"

Race: Reaver

Sex: Male

Rank: D-

Level: 20/50

Health: 324/1291

Stamina: 520/820

Mana: 0/0

[Attributes]

STR - 78

VIT - ???

AGI - ???

DEX - ???

INT - ???

CHR - ???

WILL - ???

MAG - ???

[Trait, Titles, and Skills].

Skills - ???

Traits - ???

Titles - ???

[Resistances]

Phy. Resistance - ???

Mag. Resistance - ???

Men. Resistance - ???

But the relief from seeing the dying reaver ever close in on its death was quickly dashed as my danger sense screamed in my head. Barely using Blink in time, I dodge the charging form of another reaver as it charged headfirst into the crowd of monsters assaulting the dying monster on the ground, eliciting screams and roars of surprise.

The dying reaver had called for help... fuck me...