God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Dan let out heavy breaths as he summoned a bottle of potion from his inventory for the umpteenth time.

Blood ran down from numerous lacerations and holes on his body, causing him to wince in pain as he shakily downed the HP potion in his hand. He stared at Francis who approached him slowly with a sinister grin. His face was completely bloodstained as well, and his body was also filled with wounds of varying lengths. Despite all that, he looked much better than Dan and was able to support his weight.

Dan on the other hand looked like he would topple over at any moment...

"I didn't think you'd be able to struggle for this long," Francis said, blood dripping from his two blades as he approached.

In response, Dan said nothing but gathered the mana in his body to recreate the ice assassin form. Slowly, the broken armor of ice began to regenerate, causing him to become invincible once again.

"How many times do you need to be stabbed for you to know that such unrefined use of mana is useless around me?" Francis said, licking the blood around his lips as a cruel light reflected within his eyes.

There was silence for a while before it was formed by and icy light that broke through the void. Dan reappeared extremely close to Francis with two incredibly sharp Ice daggers. With deadly accuracy, he stabbed at his back, one aimed at the back of his throat, while the other raced for his lungs.

However, before his blades could reach their destination, magic circles appeared behind Francis, before they were quickly replaced by {Blood Spikes}. It was the same process that had repeated itself numerous times during their fight.

Asa follower of the Blood god of War, Azimuth, Francis had access to a wide range of blood-related skills. Since he also had a system, he could modify those skills to suit his battle style as well as create skills that could complement them or increase their power.

The skills, {Soundless Echo} and {Bloody Footsteps} that Francis had created by applying the principles of blood magic made it so that Dan's invincibility was nearly useless before him.

{Soundless Echo} allowed Francis to hear the sound of blood flowing within the body of nearby living beings. This way, he would be able to detect changes in pulse or heartbeat and could use it to tell if someone was telling him a lie, or generally just to discern their emotions. With such a skill, he was able to tell when Dan got close to him due to the increase in the sound of his blood flowing.

As for {Bloody Footsteps}, it could allow him to trace the path an incoming attack was traveling in. This also held the same for the attacker. In his eyes, a split second after Dan made a step, a bloody outline of his footprints would be revealed.

The combination of these two skills made it nearly impossible for Dan to sneak up on him. Worst of all, these two skills had been evolved by Francis to counter Dan during their battle.

However, this didn't mean Dan was completely hopeless...

A breath of cold air escaped from his mouth as a frost-blue light shone in his eyes, revealing a set of complicated runes and sigils floating within them.

This wasn't a devil eye, but a modification Dan had made relying on Ice magic to replicate the functions of a {Devil Eye}. In a way, he had created a skill similar to a {Devil Eye} by relying on desperation and magic theory...

With a dexterity that was so terrifying, it seemed as though he was phasing in and out of existence, he smoothly dodged all of the {Blood Spikes}. A pair of magic circles appeared on his hands as the daggers in his hands extended to turn into swords that he slashed at Francis's back.

The magic Dan had created was a complicated spell that relied on many factors for it to work. Because he couldn't attack Francis simply by charging in with his invisibility, he decided to take a more refined approach. First, he created near-invincible panels of Ice that could act as mirrors, reflecting the light in their surroundings.

He then formed a link with these panels of Ice in his mind. This connection was an invincible spiritual one and allowed him to in a way, see what they saw. Due to this, he was able to view, in real-time, the 360° view of his surroundings.

The panels were arranged in such a way that not only did they cover the sky above the area he was fighting in, but they also followed him as he moved, and possessed the same invincible properties as his suit of ice, making it a skill that was almost impossible to decode.

The skill didn't make use of a large amount of mana, so he was able to keep it activated without needing to worry about it being noticed by his opponents in an area filled with conflicting mana flow currents.

As such, he had dubbed the skill, {White Eye}...

However, despite his improvements, Francis just seemed to be one step ahead. Without turning around his two weapons stabbed backward like snakes seeking their prey. Dan's eyes were still cold as he relied on the power of the {White Eye} to perceive the trajectory the blades were moving in and predict the most optimum movement to make in a split second.

Dan immediately tucked his elbows in and turned the long ice blades back into daggers. The stream of frosty air leaking from his mouth never stopped as he took a step forward. This way, he was so close to Francis, their hairs were nearly touching and their backs were against one another.

Using his back as leverage, Dan performed a 270° spim, with his hands stretched out. He was so fast, the air around them became turbulent as he stabbed a blade toward Francis's chest.

SPLURT!

This time, Francis wasn't fast enough to dodge the blow and Dan managed to successfully lodge the ice dagger in his chest.

'I did it!' Dan thought to himself.

Francis shuffled backward as he held onto the dagger in his chest.

"Hmph! Your overconfidence will send you to hell, Francis." Dan said to himself with a sneer.

'Although he has the upper hand for now, the difference in our skills isn't too much. He is only able to compete with me due to the power of this so-called Blood god.' Dan thought as he created two more ice daggers. He wiped a bead of sweat that had mixed in with blood as he took on a fighting posture once again.

"Kekeke..." Despite having a huge hole in his body, Francis still had the same unbothered expression he always had as he sported the same grin that made Dan crave standing over his dead body.

"You have been a great opponent, Danny-boy. You haven't disappointed. I didn't expect you to have grown to be so strong." Francis said. He placed a hand over his mouth and an HP regen potion quickly appeared over his lips as he attempted to quickly undo the damage Dan had done.

Although they felt pain, as trained killers by profession, they had been conditioned to bear a level of tolerance to pain. Coupled with the fact that increases in their stats also passively increased their pain resistance, enduring the pain induced by a stab or twelve wasn't too much of a big deal.

What was most important was causing the opponent to deplete all their stamina points as it was difficult to increase that over short periods or better yet, reduce their HP to zero at once

"Cut the shit-talk, if you want to fight, I'll keep you occupied." Dan knew he might not be able to beat Francis, but that wasn't his intention in the first place.

He planned to stall Francis until reinforcements could arrive. He was well aware of the limits of his strength and he knew that while he had a chance of victory, that chance was very slim.

This is because he was aware of the rate at which Francis was adjusting to him. He wouldn't be too surprised if Francis eventually figured out a way to take care of his {White Eye} ability, leaving him helpless.

"Although I wanted this fight to last a bit long, I did make a promise to you. Sigh... Just when things were getting interesting..." Francis let out a sigh as he relaxed his muscles. As soon as he did this, Dan felt a feeling of dread and helplessness wash over him like a waterfall...

"Blood Sacrifice..." The runes on Francis's body began to light up, glowing with an eerie light. They etched out beautifully complex patterns onto his flesh. At the same time, cracks appeared alongside the runes on his skin and erupted with blood mist that dyed the surrounding air crimson.

"Blood Fog..."

Suddenly, Francis activated the {Blood Fog} skill once again, only this time, it took much lesser time for the fog to spread. Before he was able to react, Dan found himself covered with the {Blood Fog}.

Dan made a frown as he prepared to activate {Ice Craft: World's End Frost}. His heart was filled with horror when he found out that he was unable to circulate the mana within him. He was also completely unable to move his body as he was completely trapped within the mist of blood.

"The true nature of the Blood Fog isn't to manipulate the senses of the enemies of the blood god. It is to immobilize them. Turn them into sitting ducks that await the slaughter. The blood seeps into your pores and kills the connections between your nerves, causing you to lose control over your body." Francis began to narrate under the coverage of his bloody fog.

Dan was unable to see him, but he could feel his presence everywhere...

A deep fear gripped his heart as he wondered what Francis was planning for him.

"Not only that, a special limiting magic circle is created in the spiritual space around you, blocking your connection to the spiritual plane. Within the blood fog, any form of protection you think you have is worthless... Meaningless..."

These words hammered deep into Dan's soul...

Coupled with the fact that he was unable to move, Dan had no choice but to stare into the cloud of blood in despair...

"Blood Hedge..."

SPLURT!

SPLURT!

SPLURT!

On his knees, Dan was unable to do anything as numerous blood spikes pierced through the air and into his body, some penetrating his organs as well.

Blood rushed down his mouth as he sprayed a mouthful of crimson out. His eyes turned bloodshot as he tried his best to move so he could stop the torture. In his current state, he couldn't even beg for his life.

"I wanted to keep the fight going for longer, but there isn't a lot of time to waste playing around, no?" Francis's voice echoed like the beckons of death.

'It feels so cold...' Dan thought to himself as he was held in place by several {Blood Spikes}. Blood flowed out of him and into the blood spikes, causing them to increase in integrity.

The blood fog cleared up to reveal Francis with a relaxed expression. Despite his expression being relaxed, his face was sickly white, contrary to his rosy features before they began to fight. It was clear he had just expended a large of mana to take Dan down, giving him no time to respond.

'So this is where I die?'

His eyes turned blurry as he struggled to breathe due to his lungs and many other organs having been punctured.

The last thought that filled his mind was the image of the grey pearly blankets. They provided no light in the gradually darkening world, but still managed to create a tranquil environment that was filled with the aura of nature. A tranquil world that had no care for the death of its inhabitants...