Path of BlooDld

The ground trembled once more…

The wreckage of their first clash hadn't even cooled, and yet the two beasts stood amid the ashes—bleeding, breathing heavily, but their eyes still ablaze.

Ashen moved first.

With his scorched body, a domineering bloody aura burst from his chest…

Blood Frenzy – Five Stars!

His body trembled, then surged with waves of brutal violence.

The air itself caught fire, his muscles doubled in size, and the three chains moved faster than ever, trailing crimson lines through the sky.

On the other side, Raizen clenched his fist.

A ferocious bloody aura exploded around him—darker than blood, more savage than madness…

Blood Frenzy – Four Stars!

His veins ignited, his body became a deadly shadow,

and his spear… turned into a flash of death too fast to see.

Ashen shot forward like a meteor, his scaled and armored body pounding the earth with every step.

The first chain lashed toward Raizen's neck, the second toward his chest, the third toward his leg…

But Raizen had vanished!

He appeared right behind Ashen, spear aimed at the weak point behind his shoulder,

but Ashen suddenly twisted, launching a massive blood fist from behind his back, blasting into Raizen's face and throwing him back violently.

Raizen rolled across the ground, but didn't stop…

Suddenly, three small fists appeared, spinning rapidly around Ashen—

One struck from below, the second from above, the third aimed at his back!

Ashen dodged with unbelievable movement,

his body melting and reforming, the rune of the leopard igniting beneath his feet.

In an instant, he became a storm of blood chains, swirling around Raizen,

striking from ten different angles at once!

"Hahaha! Yes! Come, Ashen—but do you think illusions exist only in the mind…? Reality itself is an illusion."

"…Hell of the Devil…"

Illusions began appearing around Ashen—shadows of Raizen moving swiftly, stabbing, dragging, deceiving.

But he sensed a faint difference in the blood spectrum…

Ashen struck the shadows without hesitation, blasting them apart with his chains, tearing through the illusions nonstop.

At that moment, Raizen stood atop a cracked boulder…

The three small fists suddenly merged into one massive punch!

It fell like a meteor toward Ashen, but he used the fist itself as a springboard,

launched himself upward, his chains swirling around him like a hellish vortex, then—

"CHAAK!"

He drove them directly into Raizen's left shoulder—blood burst out, but Raizen didn't flinch.

He grinned like a madman and instantly transformed the giant fist into a demonic eye.

The massive eye opened…

A dark, ominous aura radiated from it, and a concentrated bloody beam formed at its center.

Ashen tried to move, but the evil aura weighed him down…

Then—

"KOOOOOOOM!!!"

The beam exploded—everything around them shattered.

The earth flipped, stones corroded,

and Ashen's chains partially broke from the impact…

But amidst the destruction, his body still stood—

breathing, regenerating at insane speed.

The Blood Frenzy was operating at full power.

Everything had turned into a moving hell.

Raizen began weaving his attacks like a death symphony:

He launched a small fist to open a gap,

followed it with a sudden spear lunge,

then switched to the massive fist to block Ashen's counterattack.

He spun three fists around Ashen in a tight arc, forcing him toward the center of the demonic eye.

Between each strike, he used illusions to deceive Ashen's senses,

all at terrifying speed, powered by his Blood Frenzy.

"Damn… His blood control techniques are incredible. So diverse… They shut down every escape… And those reactions… and illusions…"

"Come on then, Raizen—again!"

But Ashen had become a primordial beast.

His body would not break.

His speed doubled.

His chains became like whips—each strike precise and deadly.

His defense renewed, responses instant, and his attacks relentless.

Each time Raizen's fists caught him, he exploded and escaped with a blood transformation.

Each time Raizen struck with the spear, Ashen countered with a chain wrapping around to strike from behind.

The ground turned into a bloodbath.

In a single moment…

They both charged in a straight line toward each other.

Ashen's three chains blazed in the sky,

and Raizen focused all his fists into one massive punch on the verge of bursting.

In the center—

The collision happened.

The massive fist met the chains.

The spear clashed with the iron armor.

The demonic eye met the fifth-star frenzy aura of Ashen.

Explosion. Shockwave. Void.

Sound vanished.

Color faded.

Then—

The sky emptied.

When the dust settled,

nothing remained but a massive crater—shaped like a blooming

, explosive blood flower.

At its center, two bodies…

Bleeding, breathing, staring at each other…

But neither had fallen.