Orou watched as Nim drove down the blade into Grizz’s body. He wanted to go and help, but it would take time to release the wolf beastman and sprint towards him, so all that Orou could do was hope for the best and try to murder the wolf beastman as fast as he could by driving his fangs deeper into his neck. The fox beastman was running forwards, but Orou’s gaze was locked on Grizz, who was struggling on the floor, his hand reaching for something in his pocket. The blade narrowly avoided his heart as it stabbed through him, but Nim wasn’t done there. He wrenched the blade, violently twisting it and causing Grizz to yell out in pain, a sadistic grin on his face.

Finally, Grizz seemed to grab something from his pocket and a moment later, he tossed it at Nim’s face. It was the brown powder Orou had seen him prepare earlier. It scattered throughout the room and this time, it was Nim who was yelling out in pain. He had covered his face with his hands and was trying to wipe the powder off of his face, but it only seemed to make his suffering much worse as the powder burned his face, quickly becoming a deformed monstrosity. Grizz bore through the pain and used his daggers to strike Nim, but even with Nim’s eyes closed, he could land only a few out of many blows.

Seeing that Grizz was fine, Orou let out a sigh of relief and returned back to his own battle just in time to see the fox beastman stab at his head. Deciding that he had probably injected a lethal amount of venom into the wolf beastman’s body, he released his grip on the beastman and retreated a bit, waiting for the venom to take its effect. The wolf beastman was desperately trying to catch his breath, having nearly died from being constricted and crushed to death as well as battling with Orou’s deadly venom.

The fox beastman passed another vial, similar to the one he had drunk earlier to the wolf beastman and cautiously stared at Orou that was staying still and looking at a spot above him. A moment later, the fox beastman’s ears twitched and his voice, full of panic, resounded through the room: “He’s casting a spell!”

Nim’s head snapped to Orou as Grizz caught him with another dagger slash, his body bleeding from countless spots already. The two beastmen rushed towards Orou simultaneously, the wolf beastman’s steps still a bit wobbly but his eyes were determined to reach Orou. The fox’s ears were constantly twitching and his expression got worse for each second that passed. It seemed that even the fox beastman was a bit affected by Orou’s venom as his legs refused to obey him, his speed much lower than that he had shown at the start of the battle. The fox beastman desperately looked at Orou and shouted out: “It’s a powerful advanced spell, disrupt him no matter the cost!”

Even though the fox beastman was shouting and screaming, it didn’t change the fact that Orou’s spell was almost completed. A formation of a serpent, half resembling a ribbon, was being silently formed in the air. The finishing touch, two large and menacing fangs made from spirits was all the formation needed to be completed and the two beastman stared in surprise as a serpent, made entirely out of blood and very closely resembling Orou, started to fly towards them.

The two of them split up and went to both sides of Orou as the blood serpent flew towards them. Orou assessed the situation and decided it was better to get rid of the fox beastman first, his ability to sense both danger and spells had ruined both Orou’s and Grizz’s plans. The blood serpent turned to the left as Orou instinctively tried to make the blood waves within it push it forwards. While the blood serpent didn’t have a blood core, it seemed that there was something else within in propelling it forwards, though Orou wasn’t sure what it was. The blood serpent moved at a speed that was slightly slower than Orou’s own speed and adding in the fact that it could fly, the fox beastman had nowhere to escape. The blood serpent’s mouth opened up and two large blood fangs struck out at the fox beastman.

He avoided the blood serpent for as long as he could by relying both on his speed and his twitching ears, hoping to give as much time to the wolf beastman as possible, but as the fox beastman looked around, he saw that he was pushed into a corner. Holding his two shortswords in his hands, he charged forwards to meet the blood serpent. His shortswords slashed through the blood serpent, leaving splatters of blood on the walls and the ceiling but not stopping the serpent from charging forwards. Just like Orou had done to the wolf beastman, the blood serpent started constricting around the fox beastman.

The fox beastman let out an ear-piercing screech as he writhed in immense pain, the spots of his body that had contact with the serpent were rotten and blackened. If a regular person were to be observing the scene before him, he would be horrified out of his mind. The serpent seemed to be draining the fox beastman’s blood and one could see a steady stream of deep red blood entering the serpent’s body and dispersing within it, becoming a deeper shade of red each second. Just for a second, Orou could see the black line appear in the middle of the serpent, it seemed to be growing larger along with the serpent.

The blood serpent released its hold on the fox beastman and all that was left was a dry husk of a body, completely devoid of any blood. The serpent seemed to have a slight grin on its face as turned its attention to the wolf beastman, but before it could reach him, Orou’s concentration waned and the blood serpent unwillingly dissipated into the air, letting out a screech as it did. The wolf beastman’s greatsword had deeply cut into Orou’s body and would have severed it in half if the blood waves didn’t slow the sword down at the last second. Orou hissed in pain and immediately turned to the wolf beastman, using his tail to retaliate back and knock the wolf beastman off balance. He struggled to get up as his limbs simply didn’t want to obey him, but somehow, through the sheer force of will, he stood up.

Orou had retreated several meters back and was starting to cast another spell, this time, a spell to heal his worrisome injury. For some reason, the wolf beastman didn’t immediately charge towards Orou, instead, he turned to his dead partner and simply looked at him. Orou saw the beastman take out a crystal from his pocket, a deep red crystal similar to that Grizz owned, except, the crystal was half cracked and had several black spots on it. The wolf beastman hesitated for a few seconds before tightening his hand and crushing the crystal. As soon as he did that, Orou saw the black spots from his crystal travel down his arm and the wolf beastman shed a tear. His emotions got out of control as soon, he started sobbing into his hands and a mysterious phenomenon happened. The wolf beastman’s fur started growing at a visible rate, his eyes become completely red and he let out a ferocious but sad howl, directed at Orou.

Picking up his greatsword, the wolf beastman started sprinting towards Orou. Each of his steps broke the stone underneath his feet and he shot forwards with unrivaled speed. Ferocious wind reached Orou before the wolf beastman did and at the last second, he got his spell off. A soft golden light enveloped his wound and started closing it at the expense of Orou suffering immensely. The wolf beastman arrived a second later and struck down at Orou with his greatsword. Orou practically didn’t have time to dodge as the sword travelled down with immense force, the wind caused by the swing hurting Orou even before the sword could. Orou guided his blood waves to cause his body to twist in an unnatural way, barely avoiding the strike, but not getting out unscratched.

The ground cracked and the impact from the strike travelled through Orou’s body and ravaged his body from the inside. Orou wanted to flee from the wolf beastman, but surprisingly, he found out that his body was mid-air. The wolf beastman’s strike had completely collapsed the ground beneath them, sending both Orou and the wolf beastman crashing down onto the first floor, directly onto one of the playing tables. Both of them were fine, a fall from several meters couldn’t phase their battle-hardened bodies. A tense second passed as both of them stared at each other and stood completely still before leaping to action.