Dual System: Ascension of A Nameless Nobody

[Blood Forger System: Awakened.]

"What's this…?!" Hongkee screamed out.

Dropping from the vents as the metal lid fell to the ground as well, the white-bearded old man revealed himself with a frustrated twist to his expression.

"...So loud. Don't you have any manners?" He asked calmly, manipulating the seeping blood from the bulbous spirit around his spear.

Hongkee growled, "--Nothing's changed, brat! You'll still be my prey, nonetheless! Slaughter him, my minions!"

From the command of the summoner himself, it seemed all three of the manifested butchers were amplified by his call, being enamored in a crimson, violent aura that made even the cleaver-wielding one continue to fight even with a hole through its gut.

"How pointless."

As he dodged around a slam of the cleaver, he used his blood-clad spear to cut through the same, gaping figure, causing its crimson fluid to spew out like a fountain.

But before it could fall to the ground, he waved his hand, controlling the freshly spawned blood and shaping them into small bullets, "Crimson Rain."

"Hm…?! What is this power–?!" Hongkee asked himself.

It was only in the last moment that the old man clapped his hands together, manifesting a living shield for himself, "Rise, Nether Tortoise!"

From directly in front of the wrinkly summoner, a black-shelled, giant tortoise rose, shielding him from the barrage of blood-bullets that shot out rapidly through the hall.

These blood-bullets skewered the butcher trio, filling them with countless holes while violently pelting the hellish tortoise's shell, beginning to crack it as the force and speed seemed to increase.

This strength–it shouldn't belong to that sniveling coward! What kind of ability is this, anyway? He's manipulating blood! Hongkee thought.

Though the old man's thoughts were interrupted as a force slammed against the other side of the tortoise he hid behind.

Just in time, the wizened player killer hopped back to witness the crimson-wrapped spear thrust through the black-shelled creature with a powerful blow.

Sol looked up, seeing the man still in the midst of jumping back as he calmly invoked: "Scarlet Release."

With the spear still inside of the hellish, giant tortoise, the creature suddenly exploded into a mass of blood, being maintained in a spherical orb of scarlet liquid.

The blood gathered to that same orb from the butcher trio that had been annihilated by the blood bullets, being reshaped into lengthy, visceral blades forged of the life-sustaining fluid.

I must kill this boy! Hongkee thought.

"Rise:--!"

As the old man clapped his palms together, preparing for another summon–

Squelch.

Those two hands he used to invoke the summoning ritual were cut off in an instant, lobbed off by a swift extension of one of the blood-formed blades.

"Huh…?" The old man let out in quiet shock.

The blood-forger remained calm, watching as the wizened, black-uniformed man landed on the floor, looking at his handless, bleeding wrists in horror.

"My hands…" Hongkee repeated quietly to himself as crimson squirted from the freshly-made wounds.

"Your first mistake was giving me fodder to draw blood from," he told the wrinkly, old man.

But, the old man began to laugh even with his missing hands, starting with a quiet laugh then breaking into a maddening cackle.

"...?" He looked at the old man with his calm, scarlet eyes.

"Do you think I need my hands to summon?! Your hubris is your undoing, boy!" Hongkee yelled out.

The pale-bearded man slammed his stumps against the ground, allowing his blood to seep into the carpet.

Before he could rush over to stop whatever was coming, a strong surge of magical energy propelled outwards, keeping him back as a malevolent aura spiraled into the corridor.

Instead of a summoning circle manifesting on the ground, a portal opened up on the old man's body, housing an abyssal-black swirl of nefarious energy in its boundless depths.

"This is…?" He let out quietly.

Hongkee smiled a twisted joy, "...Use my life and arise, Duke of Hell: Amdusias!"

Sprouting from the depths of the hellish gateway, decrepit hands with lengthy claws stretched out, gripping onto the sides of the wizened man's body.

As what laid in the abyssal depths of the summoning gateway began to pull itself out, the old man's body began to be torn apart and be deflated, soon falling to nothing less than a sack of skin as the entity birthed itself.

"You crazy old man…What the hell did you do?" He mumbled, watching in disgust at the unorthodox summoning.

It bore the body of a man, covered in dark-gray skin, layered in dark hair, with the head of a horse with curving horns, and trails of black lightning coiling around its limbs.

[Enemy Identified: "Lesser Duke of Hell: Failed Incarnation Amdusias" | Level 32]

As soon as he met the black eyes of the horse-faced, half-man demon, seeing the celestial, enigmatic shapes within them–it was in front of him.

Trails of black sparks were left behind the tall, monstrous entity as it was mere inches away from him in the blink of an eye.

He raised his arms in a guard, hardening the crystallized blood-armor around his forearms as the demonic entity slashed its lightning-coiled claws against his guard.

"Ghh…!"

There was much more force behind the swipe than he expected as he was lifted into the air by a meter from the impact.

Crack.

It managed to cut through most of the armor around his forearms, just barely stopping before leaving deep lacerations on his skin.

But, that wasn't all that came from the attack–ZAP.

Just as he landed back onto his feet, an electrocution surged over his body as the black lightning belonging to the summoned demon took hold of him violently.

…Can't move, he thought.

The mystical lightning wrapped around his limbs, extending throughout his body and seizing his actions as it caused his muscles to twitch and cramp up.

While he was stunned by the black electricity, the towering, non-verbal demon appeared in front of him again, using a low dash to send its fist straight into his gut for a brutal impact, causing him to fling up and crash against the ceiling before falling back down.

"--"

The horse-faced demon exuded steam from its flared nostrils, looking down at him as it planted its foot down against his back.

An inhuman, uneven laugh gargled from its throat as it pressed down with its heavy weight, causing the floor beneath to croak and crack, the same as his blood-forged armor.

"Ngh…!"

This thing is fast, and strong. Not to mention this black lightning it has is troublesome…He thought.

"--"

It continued to exude steam from its scarred nostrils while pressing down on his back, cracking his crimson armor before slamming its foot down again, shattering it nearly fully.

Still, the black lightning clung to his body, continuing to keep him unable to respond to the violent, cruel actions being cast down on him.

"Scarlet…" He slowly moved his lips.

Just from the beginning of an invocation, unknowing to the cruel demon, the fallen, seeping blood from the grotesque corpses in the corridor began to rise.

"...Imprisonment," he finished the invocation.

In a hasty coalescence, the risen blood from all angles formed into red bindings, wrapping around the muscular, horse-faced demon.

"Raagh–?!"

The horned, equine-esque let out in confusion as the multiple ropes of blood tightened around its body.

He used another invocation after the demon stumbled back, lifting its weight from his back, "Scarlet Reinvigoration."

The blood manipulation was internal, rather than external–causing his blood to pump through his veins with a heightened pressure, increasing the heat to generate a pulse of safe, regulating warmth for his body that repelled the lightning.

I wasn't able to use "Reinvigoration" while he was putting pressure on my lungs like that, he thought.

As soon as he stood back up, he used the residual blood left around the floor to reinforce his armor, rebuilding the crimson, sturdy set in mere moments.

However, it was only just enough time bought for him as the demonic half-man, half-horse which stood above two meters, flexed its body, bulkening its physique momentarily as it shattered the blood restraints around itself.

"...Mad, are you? That makes two of us."