Dawn Walker

Dickoff stared at his hand.

"This power..."

His voice had changed. It sounded deeper, as if another vibration existed beneath every word.

Sekhmet did not answer.

Dickoff looked at him and smiled again. This time, the smile held more confidence because he could feel what had entered his body.

"You saw it, did you not?" Dickoff asked. "You have some kind of appraisal skill."

Sekhmet remained still.

Dickoff lifted his right hand and looked at the black lines moving across it.

"I do not know what Mihos gave me, but I know what it has made me. You cannot stand against this."

Sekhmet glanced at the System countdown.

[External Energy Remaining: 09:42]

The time had already begun falling.

The energy was not permanent.

That meant Dickoff did not need to be defeated immediately.

He only needed to be kept busy long enough for the chaos stones to run out.

Sekhmet formed a Blood Sword in his right hand. Blood moved from his palm, hardened, and extended into a dark red blade.

Dickoff laughed when he saw it.

"You still want to fight?"

"You spent everything your house owned for less than ten minutes," Sekhmet answered. "You should use the time instead of talking."

Dickoff’s face changed.

The words struck the part of him that the power had not repaired.

His business was still gone. His guards were still dead. His wealth was still being consumed around him.

Even if he killed Sekhmet, he would finish the battle as the master of an empty mansion surrounded by ruined property.

Dickoff moved.

Sekhmet barely saw the first step.

The floor exploded beneath Dickoff’s feet. Black stone cracked outward, and his body crossed the distance between them before the fragments finished rising.

Sekhmet raised the Blood Sword.

Dickoff punched it.

The blood blade shattered.

The force continued into Sekhmet’s chest and threw him across the hall.

He struck one of the dark pillars with enough force to crack it from the middle. Pain spread through his ribs. Several had broken. Blood filled his mouth, and for a moment his right arm lost feeling.

Dickoff appeared in front of him again.

Sekhmet used Blood Control.

The blood spilled from his mouth and the small cuts across his body gathered between them, forming a thick red wall. Dickoff punched through it without slowing.

Sekhmet moved sideways at the last moment.

The fist missed his head and struck the pillar behind him.

The entire pillar broke.

The upper half collapsed toward the floor. Sekhmet jumped away while Dickoff stood inside the falling dust. A large section of stone struck his shoulder and broke apart without moving him.

Sekhmet landed several steps away.

His Blood Regeneration activated.

Chaos energy entered his damaged ribs. The broken bones moved back into place. The bruised flesh tightened. The pain remained, but his body returned to a condition where he could continue fighting.

Dickoff turned toward him.

"So that is how you survived so much."

He looked at Sekhmet’s chest where the damage had already begun disappearing.

"Can you heal?"

Sekhmet created another Blood Sword.

Dickoff’s eyes moved toward it.

"It will not help you."

He attacked again.

This time Sekhmet did not try to block directly.

He moved backward and sent several blood blades from the floor. The blood came from the remains of Dickoff’s broken furniture and from the small amount Sekhmet had already spilled. The blades struck Dickoff’s legs, stomach, and neck.

Most of them broke.

One cut through the skin near his jaw.

A thin line of blood appeared.

Dickoff stopped.

He touched the wound.

The blood on his finger was already turning darker.

Sekhmet looked at it carefully.

The object had changed Dickoff’s body, but it had not made him completely invulnerable. Blood attacks could still injure him if they reached the right place with enough force.

Dickoff looked at the blood on his fingers and became angry again.

"You still injured me."

Sekhmet raised the new sword.

"You expected the power to fight for you while you watched?"

Dickoff rushed forward.

Sekhmet moved before the attack reached him. He jumped onto the side of a broken pillar, pushed away from it, and passed above Dickoff’s shoulder. The Blood Sword cut across the back of Dickoff’s neck.

The blade entered less than an inch before stopping against the hardened flesh.

Dickoff turned and grabbed Sekhmet’s leg. His hand closed around the ankle.

Sekhmet immediately knew he could not break the grip with physical strength.

Dickoff swung him across the hall.

Sekhmet struck the floor once, then a second time, before Dickoff threw him toward the wall. The impact broke through the iron decoration and cracked the stone behind it.

Blood covered Sekhmet’s back.

The Blood Sword disappeared from his hand.

Dickoff walked toward him without hurrying now.

Each step left a shallow crack in the floor.

"You believed you were stronger because you defeated my guards," Dickoff said. "You believed destroying my business made you the winner."

Sekhmet pushed himself away from the wall.

The wounds across his back were already closing.

Dickoff continued, "You should have stopped after the first round. Mihos might have allowed you to live."

Sekhmet wiped blood from the side of his mouth.

"You are still speaking for him after he gave you something that is destroying your body."

Dickoff stopped.

For the first time since the power entered him, uncertainty appeared in his eyes.

Sekhmet had seen the System warning.

The target’s body was unstable.

Dickoff had not.

He only felt strength.

He did not understand the black lines spreading closer to his face. He did not notice that the fingers on his right hand had become less flexible. He did not know whether the seed would leave his body when the ten minutes ended.

Dickoff looked down at his arm.

Then he forced the concern away.

"You are trying to frighten me."

"I do not need to."

Sekhmet glanced at the countdown again.

[External Energy Remaining: 08:31]

Only a minute and a half had passed.

It felt longer because every direct hit could kill him if it reached the wrong place.

Dickoff attacked again.

Sekhmet released blood from both hands and created several long blood ropes. They wrapped around the remaining pillars and pulled him upward before Dickoff reached him. Dickoff’s fist struck the floor instead.

The impact sent a black wave across the hall.

The stone rose like water.

The force reached Sekhmet while he was still in the air and threw him toward the ceiling. His shoulder struck one of the upper beams. The wood broke, and part of the ceiling came down with him.

Outside the hall, Lily heard the impact.

The entire corridor shook.

Dust fell around her and Mira.

Lily stepped toward the door.

"He is fighting."

Mira caught her arm.

"He ordered us not to enter."

"He could be hurt."

"He is hurt," Mira answered. "That does not mean we can help against whatever is inside."

Lily’s eyes became redder.

Her body was already preparing to transform.

Mira tightened her grip.

"If Sekhmet calls us, we enter. If we rush in now and that thing kills one of us, he will have to protect us while protecting himself."

Lily hated the words because they were true.

On the other side of the hall, Vera and Vela stood beside another door. They could hear Dickoff’s voice and the repeated impacts. Both had already drawn their swords.

Vela placed one hand on the door.

Vera shook her head.

"Not yet."

Vela’s jaw tightened.

"He is being thrown around."

"I know."

They could feel Sekhmet’s condition through the bloodline. Pain moved through the connection, but it was followed by regeneration. He was still conscious. Still fighting. Still in control of his decisions.

Inside the hall, Sekhmet pushed broken wood off his body.

Dickoff reached him before he stood fully.

A black-covered hand closed around his throat and lifted him from the floor.

The grip tightened.

Sekhmet felt the bones in his neck begin to strain.

Dickoff held him in front of his face.

"You cannot keep healing forever."

Sekhmet looked into his darkened eyes.

"Neither can you keep this power."

Dickoff slammed him into the floor.

The stone broke beneath Sekhmet’s back.

Before Dickoff could strike again, Sekhmet released Blood Control through every drop of blood he had spilled across the hall.

The blood moved at once.

Thin lines rose from the broken floor, walls, pillars, and furniture. They wrapped around Dickoff’s wrists, ankles, neck, and chest. More lines joined them until the entire room looked covered in red threads.

Dickoff tried to move.

The first layer broke.

Then the second.

The third held him for half a breath.

That was enough.

Sekhmet rolled away.

Dickoff broke the remaining blood restraints and punched downward. His fist struck the place where Sekhmet’s head had been a moment earlier, creating a deep hole in the floor.

Sekhmet moved behind a pillar.

He did not have enough blood in the hall to hold Dickoff for long.

But he had something else.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!