Chapter 124

Chapter 124
## Chapter 124

The Ufersh Clan (3)

Mulo immediately identified Harley, who had crashed into the room so abruptly, because he had been personally overseeing every aspect of the partnership with Hubert’s Trading Company under instructions from Heinz.

Naturally, there was one detail he was discovering right this moment…

‘That arm, those look exactly like dragon scales. Could he possibly be a Dragonborn? That would explain how he passed through my barrier so effortlessly. I have no idea how he managed to track down this location, though.’

And taking in the current state of affairs, it was clear he had arrived with the specific intent of targeting the Ufersh Clan.

The unexpected arrival of such a powerful ally was a massive relief in a predicament like this.

Brushing aside his complicated inquiries, he began calculating how to best exploit this sudden shift in momentum.

Yet, Mulo was not the only one whose expression darkened upon processing Harley’s declaration.

Theodore Ufersh, the mastermind who had commissioned the hit, and Klein, the Pureblood vampire who had executed the assignment, both grimaced deeply.

“…Klein.”

“T-Theodore! I obliterated every single trace of my presence! You have to believe me!”

“Are you honestly going to deny your failure when the person hunting you down is standing right before us?”

Klein wore a look of pure desperation, as he had honestly been as meticulous as he always was, but Theodore merely fixed him with a freezing glare.

He was already incredibly stressed because the current offensive was stalling, and now everything was becoming even more chaotic due to a subordinate who couldn’t even clean up after a routine execution.

The preemptive strike they had ordered to guarantee a smooth campaign had completely blown up in their faces, and his head throbbed at the mere thought of trying to justify this to Visque.

‘Even if Klein left a trail, he traveled back via the Blood Gate. How on earth did they pinpoint our location?’

It was highly alarming that they had managed to intercept them directly at this exact hour.

Unless Brokoslack had somehow anticipated their movements and engineered safety measures beforehand…

‘Could striking Hubert have been a fatal mistake? Did they piece together our strategy because of that? No, their logistics aren’t that sophisticated. We still maintain the upper hand. Then what could it be…’

Theodore, having orchestrated this entire strategy, found himself deeply unsettled.

Naturally, Harley paid no attention to their inner turmoil.

Crack! Creak—!

Grating, metallic vibrations echoed from his intensely condensed musculature, while “Bio-Aura” and sheer frenzy erupted like roaring blazes across his frame.

Deep crimson dragon scales began to creep over his glowing runic markings, and a mixture of scarlet and emerald light gleamed within his slitted, reptilian pupils.

“Haa—”

Whoosh—!

Thick plumes of white vapor billowed outward with his heavy exhalation.

Every cell in his anatomy, fully primed for slaughter, was pushed to its absolute maximum capacity, burning through energy reserves and radiating a distorted heat haze alongside the heavy steam.

“Kuhit… Kkahahahat—!”

The madness took complete control of his mind, and maniacal laughter tore from his throat involuntarily.

The vampires’ features steadily grew rigid as his booming, echoing amusement reverberated through the chamber.

The ambient mana, responding to the surge of his raw emotions, turned violently unstable, as the ambient insanity floating through the air fused directly with his presence.

“The bastard who pulled the trigger and the bastard who gave the order… no, every single one of you accomplices! I am going to make you bleed for laying a hand on our Hubert!”

Harley, the savage berserker, now holding the gaze of everyone in the room, flashed a bloodthirsty smile and sprinted straight toward the Ufersh Clan.

With that, the vampire conflict, which had been momentarily frozen in place,

Ignited once more with the introduction of a lone Dragonborn.

—

Sacred Bloods were universally recognized as the absolute pinnacle of Auterica’s vampire society, yet the true extent of their capabilities remained shrouded in mystery.

This was primarily because every Sacred Blood served as the prime source of their respective lineages, and precious few remained in the current age.

Houses whose foundational bloodlines perished early on withered into minor factions, whereas the houses that preserved them over centuries grew into the reigning three dominant vampire clans.

Ufersh, Brokoslack, and Obaifo.

Among these, Ufersh represented a rare instance where the transition of power between Sacred Blood generations had been flawlessly executed. Consequently, if the remaining two lines failed to pass down their Sacred Blood…

Ufersh’s supremacy would likely endure for centuries to come.

Crackle—!

Of course, such speculation was entirely irrelevant now that two Sacred Bloods stood locked in mortal combat.

Whichever side fell here would be utterly erased from the historical record.

Their duel was simultaneously motionless and hyper-dynamic.

* Visque lunged forward to crush Briki’s throat.
* She sliced across his shoulder to abort his reaching hand before it could connect.
* He sidestepped her blade easily, severing her leg at the hip as she pressed the advance.
* She manifested a crimson javelin aimed straight for Visque’s core, timing the thrust perfectly with his forward step.

Crackle—!

The progression of time and cause-and-effect looped and tangled within their perceptions, while blinding sparks erupted from the violent friction of their overwhelming presence and sanguinary sorcery.

“Oh dear, whatever shall we do? Your followers are being absolutely pulverized by that brute. Shouldn’t you step away to assist them?”

“Hmph, regardless of the chaos, my officers are far too resilient to fold immediately. My people are highly capable.”

“You possess an incredible amount of audacity to speak so proudly when you only hold the advantage because you ambushed us.”

“Masking your own vulnerabilities while striking when your enemy lets their guard down. Is that not the fundamental law of survival? The blame lies entirely with the fool who grew complacent.”

To an outside observer, they appeared to be merely standing still, trading insults, but they had actually been locked in a brutal, imperceptible war of attrition since the second they crossed paths.

Had an uninitiated bystander wandered into their perimeter, they would have been disintegrated into ash instantly without ever comprehending what killed them.

* Briki, evading Visque’s strike, launched a counter-offensive and pulverized his skull.
* He instead ducked underneath her guard and impaled her through the chest.
* She extended her palm the instant Visque closed the distance, binding him completely with blood manipulation.
* He refused to advance, choosing instead to lop off Briki’s outstretched fingers.
* And she…

Throb—

“Ugh…?”

She winced involuntarily as a sharp, sudden migraine struck her skull.

It lasted for a mere fraction of a second, but in a duel of this caliber, it was fatal…

Crackle— Swoosh—!

And that error instantly manifested in reality.

Crimson fluid erupted, and Briki’s right arm was lopped off, suspended briefly in midair.

Yet, that imagery did not endure.

As though reality itself was pulling backward, the droplets scattered through the chamber rushed backward into the wound, and the severed limb flew right back to its original position, sealing itself perfectly as if it had never been removed.

“Tsk…”

She massaged her right forearm as she reoriented herself.

Naturally, the recovery was purely cosmetic; there was absolutely no scenario where she could sustain an assault from a fellow Sacred Blood without consequence.

By permitting that strike to land, she had sustained profound trauma to her very core, including her psychological focus, her vitality, and a massive portion of her inherent sanguinary essence.

The lingering damage would undoubtedly jeopardize her performance in the continuous struggle ahead.

“Heh… Brokoslack, I must admit this is a surprise. You are overextending yourself quite severely, aren’t you?”

Visque, having finally secured a definitive advantage, grinned malevolently and cast a knowing look in her direction.

‘Had I been in my prime, an exchange like this would be trivial…’

Briki, her severe weakness laid bare, knit her brows in frustration.

She had entered deep stasis specifically to prolong her existence as much as possible, but her natural lifespan was already rapidly approaching its absolute end.

Furthermore, her slumber had been violently disrupted ahead of schedule, meaning she was operating far below her peak performance.

Her combat efficiency had been severely compromised by an accumulation of unfortunate variables…

Leaving her to inadvertently expose a vulnerability during this protracted psychological clash.

“Even so, I possess more than enough strength to put down an upstart like you.”

“Hehehe, your posturing only grows grander because you can feel your own demise approaching. Do you honestly believe such empty threats will work on me?”

Just as he noted, there was a strict threshold to how much she could compensate for her dwindling reserves using refined technique alone.

Mulo’s barrier was incapable of suppressing individuals of their status as Sacred Bloods, forcing them to rely entirely on their personal capabilities, and the balance of power had shifted drastically following her recent lapse in concentration.

‘I can maintain this defense for the moment, but I cannot predict what will happen as the minutes drag on…’

Briki, projecting an aura of absolute serenity to the room, ground her teeth in secret while cold sweat dripped down her neck.

She refused to display a humiliating performance in front of her descendants, vowing to fight with everything she had left.

And while the quiet, subterranean war of the Sacred Bloods raged on,

There existed another sector of the room that was far more violent than any other—.

The zone where Harley was unleashing absolute devastation.

“Kkahahahat! You bastards are resilient! Ripping you apart is an absolute blast!”

“Ugh, what a freakish anomaly!”

“Do not attempt to block him directly! That bizarre vitality he is emitting is actively suppressing our healing factors!”

Three True Bloods were currently allied against him.

Every single one of them, save for Theodore, had thrown themselves forward to halt his momentum.

Only after multiple Purebloods had been messily dismembered trying to engage him did the three True Bloods manage to establish a fragile stalemate.

“Ahahat! Where do you think you’re going! Get back over here!”

“…Curse it all!”

They had been attempting to trap Harley and minimize direct physical contact as much as possible, but evading an opponent possessing such explosive velocity proved nearly impossible.

Ultimately, the True Blood tasked with holding the frontline due to his superior defensive properties and hyper-regeneration gritted his fangs and forced his blood magic to flare once more.

His entire body was already heavily coated in compressed blood armor to disperse physical shock, but he knew from their brief, brutal exchanges exactly what to expect.

Crack—!

“Ugh!”

He knew that these defensive layers would crumble rapidly against those devastating, predatory talons.

The sanguine shield that had solidified to block outer trauma shattered into fragments, and the muscular tissue beneath was pulverized, spraying gore across the floor.

Yet, at that exact juncture,

“Now… freeze right there, you freak!”

The fluid erupting from his torso instantaneously reshaped into a web of thick tendrils, wrapping tightly around Harley’s limbs and pinning him securely to the stone floor.

‘This restraint won’t hold him for more than a breath given his monstrous power…!’

However, those brief seconds provided more than enough leeway for his allies to strike.

“Die!”

“………!”

A massive, crimson demonic claw swept down toward Harley’s exposed spine with razor-sharp talons, while a soundless, invisible blade sliced cleanly toward his throat.

Crackle! Splat—!

The dense dragon scales split apart, and dark blood sprayed outward.

The coordinated, full-strength strikes of the True Bloods dealt what should have been catastrophic trauma to his anatomy.

A massive gash split his back open, exposing the skeletal structure beneath, while his neck was halfway cleaved through, fluid spurting out like an open floodgate.

Against a standard combatant… honestly, even against a typical Dragonborn, a strike of this magnitude would have completely incapacitated their fighting capabilities.

But…

Crack—

Harley’s physical form…

Was completely repaired in the blink of an eye, as if the damage had never occurred.

“…Since when do Dragonborns possess a recovery speed of this magnitude?”

“I would tell you if I had ever encountered one alive before… Dammit.”

The Ufersh True Bloods spat curses, struggling to regulate their breathing.

His self-healing speed vastly eclipsed their own, and they were True Blood vampires.

Their understanding of the Dragonborn demographic was highly limited due to the extreme scarcity of the species, but they were certain it shouldn’t look like this.

“Dragonborn blood. Let’s see what it tastes like… Ugh! Blegh! Ugh.”

A True Blood, having swiped a taste of Harley’s blood from his own hand, grimaced in immediate disgust and began hacking violently.

“What the hell is this? Is dragon blood universally foul? This tastes significantly worse than corrupted beast blood!”

He had anticipated the legendary properties of dragon blood, which was exceptionally rare to acquire, but this fluid—altered and contaminated by countless external factors—was entirely unpalatable.

Standard monster blood was practically a delicacy compared to this garbage.

“Worse?! That is incredibly offensive!”

Harley, who had achieved a flawless recovery, shouted back in irritation at the scathing review.

Who could possibly be in better shape and purer than him!

Granted, his diet consisted entirely of raw meat to sustain his high-burn metabolism…

‘Still, managing three True Bloods simultaneously is proving a bit tedious. It’s a shame I haven’t entirely integrated the Mad Dragon’s Heart into my system yet.’

Furthermore, the Ufersh True Bloods maintained a higher average tier of martial prowess compared to those serving Brokoslack.

They wouldn’t have stood a single chance if they hadn’t been artificially elevated by the “Refined Blood Essence”.

‘Now that I have been empowered… I can secure a minor upper hand. But I honestly didn’t anticipate the disparity in raw capability to be this massive. It makes total sense why Brokoslack isolated themselves to the frontier despite being categorized as one of the big three houses.’

They had only managed to preserve their reputation by seizing control of a minor principality after an exhausting, protracted campaign.

Harley executed a quick stretch and methodically re-evaluated the entire room.

His focus moved past the three tense True Bloods who were bracing for his next movement, checking the status of the surrounding conflicts.

The remaining engagements were progressing far more smoothly precisely because he was anchoring down multiple high-tier True Bloods.

Freesia, who was locked in a direct duel with Theodore Ufersh, was mounting an incredible offense against a foe she wouldn’t have dared to challenge under normal circumstances.

Meanwhile, Mulo was effortlessly routing a force of over forty Purebloods, directing his subordinates with expert precision.

He spotted the elusive assassin who had been his primary target embedded within that crowd, but he would have to delay his personal retribution for a later moment.

However…

‘Uh, wait… is everything okay over there?’

In the clash between the Sacred Bloods, which ultimately served as the anchor for this entire war,

A critical fracture that would dictate the final victory of this engagement was beginning to widen.