Zhan Shen calmly placed his right fist upon the left palm and bowed.

Miles followed his guardian’s lead, ending with a practiced bow of his own.

With a smile, the old butler stood back up, and began to speak, “Master Miles, these are the rules of our bout. You may use any ability or skill available to you. While I will be limiting my most enhanced attribute, Agility from the 1600s to a mere 20. However, I will be using the currents of the stream instead. Agreed?”

Miles nodded, his eyes shining with excitement, “Stream-enterer… Sotapanna, right? Old Zhan, show me the power of this stream. Prove to me its worth.”

Zhan Shen simply smiled.

All pleasantries taken care of, it was now time to fight.

The old butler’s smile grew wider, as he confidently beckoned his ward to come and strike.

Miles raised an eyebrow. Taking initiative was important, but he knew that he couldn’t let Zhan Shen control the pace of the fight either. Striking as he asked, would achieve nothing else.

With a thought, he willed the status to appear and glanced at his blood points.

(Blood Bank: 48/100)

While Miles had been practicing his skills, he had replenished the blood points as soon as they were used. The only reason he was 2 points short of reaching 50 was due to the last two blood spikes he had shot.

But no worries. 48 was enough. He should be able to work with that.

So with a grin of his own, Miles rushed forwards, his fist raised.

The butler calmly widened his stance, preparing to defend against the punch.

But just as the distance between them became less than a meter, Miles’s fist twisted into a palm.

Ironblood Spike!

In a single second, the blood points drained out of him crystallizing into a blood spike. And in the next second, the spike shot forwards.

For a moment, Zhan Shen was taken aback by the sudden change from punch to spike. But after years of training with each other, he knew how Miles liked to fight; with feints, gambits, and trickery.

He would be lying if he said he hadn’t expected something like this, so with relaxed ease, he blocked.

Boom!

The blood spike exploded harmlessly in a cloud of blood shards, illuminating him in scarlet red light.

But the moment the dust cleared, Zhan Shen was surprised for a second time.

The fist that had initially shifted into a palm, was a fist once more. This time, right before his face.

It was a double feint. A second punch, hidden behind the spike, hidden behind the first punch. As expected of the young master.

With a relaxed smile, the old butler closed his eyes.

Thud!

Miles felt his punch strike true, but… to him, it was more like a rock than a face.

His entire arm shivered as some strange force rippled against him, pushing his fist back and repelling it away.

‘Is that the Current? The power of the Stream?’

Curious, he observed the old butler.

Zhan Shen’s eyes were closed, and once again his face was pale, two faint black circles surrounding the eyes. However, Miles noticed that these markings were much lighter than when they had fought Xavier.

‘Could the extent to which he takes power from the stream be linked to the distinctiveness of the markings on his face? Interesting…’

Zhan Shen’s eyes flashed open, and his lips curved into a wild grin.

Whoosh!

In a blur of wind, the old butler rushed forward.

He was fast, quite fast. But with the limit on his agility attribute, Miles could not only observe his movements, he could even react. He raised his palm.

Ironblood Spike!

In a single second the spike formed, but before it could be launched, Zhan Shen arrived before him.

Kacha!

With a relaxed grab, the butler reached towards the blood spike floating in the air and crushed it.

Miles was shocked, not having expected Zhan Shen to be faster than the time it took for the skill to activate. It only took two seconds to create and launch the spike, but apparently, even that was too slow.

And that was when he felt it.

On his skin, a rush of wind, an air current. Fast and dangerous, bursting towards his torso. A punch.

Miles barely had the time to stabilize his feet and lower his hands in defense.

Crack!

He was instantly pushed several meters back, barely preventing himself from falling thanks to his stable form.

But suddenly, he winced, reaching for his left hand. He felt a throbbing pang, a burning pain.

Frowning, Miles looked down, and his eyes widened in shock.

He had defended against the attack with his right hand, the left providing additional support. But even that hadn’t been enough to save his hand, to prevent the wrist bone from snapping backwards.

[HP: 8/10]

[Internal Bleeding Detected. 1 BP lost.]

[0.7 BP lost.]

The awkward and bent shape of his wrist looked unnatural, horrifying even. Perhaps due to having been in a fight moments ago, or perhaps due to shock, the pain of the broken bone had yet to truly hit him.

Thankfully, before it did, another system notification rang out.

Ding!

[Conditional Undeath activated.]

Instantly, Miles felt the pain begin to lessen, as blood rushed to the source of his injury, slowly healing the area.

With his practice in controlling blood points, he could now sense the unnatural flow of the blood, something he had failed to notice on prior occasions.

It appeared that besides the blood points lost due to the injury, some more was used up in actually healing the wounds. Without a doubt, the energy used by the Kindred was blood.

Snap!

With an audible snap, the broken bone reattached itself, returning back to how it was. Despite having been broken mere moments ago, his hand was already good as new.

[All wounds healed. HP 10/10.

Total BP lost: 1.7 ≈ 2 BP]

The only loss Miles had incurred was these 2 Blood points and a vague pain that was already receding.

However, including the two blood spikes he had used initially, his blood points had dropped by a bit.

(Blood Bank: 42/100)

Narrowing his eyes, Miles turned towards Zhan Shen.

Noticing his gaze, the old butler began to speak, the eyes surrounded by black extremely serious, “Apologies for the injury, Master Miles, but if you wish to make full use of your regeneration, you need to learn to handle the pain. Right now you were frozen for over 10 seconds, meaning that even with my speed limited, I could’ve killed you several times. However, next time, you should be able to deal with it better, I believe.

Shall we keep going then?”

Miles simply lifted his fists in reply, and his right hand, the one that had just had its bone broken, beckoned to the old butler.

As Zhan Shen smiled at his ward's audacity, Miles’s mind was running at rapid speed.

Even with lowered agility, the power of the stream made old Zhan an extremely troublesome opponent. Worst of all, the only attacks in his arsenal were the Ironblood spikes and physical attacks. Miles sincerely doubted that either of them could damage, let alone affect the old butler, as they were. Which meant he would have to try something new.

Even before Zhan Shen could accept his invitation to strike, the beckoning hand shifted into a palm.

Ironblood Spike (½)!

In a single second, a spike of blood crystal half the size of the ones he had used so far, shot towards the old butler.

Due to the smaller size, this blood spike was much faster than the base form. Thus, Zhan Shen was forced to defend with a grimace.

Boom!

Just as the blood spike exploded harmlessly into splinters of crystal…

Ironblood Spike (½)!

Miles released the blood point he was holding back, forming another half spike and shooting it.

Boom!

Zhan Shen, who was unprepared for the second spike and struck on his chest, was pushed back by several steps.

Miles grinned. The half-blood spikes only took a single second to prepare, and that seemed to be enough to deal with the old butler's current speed. But just as he prepared to make use of this momentum and continue to attack…

Zhan Shen burst to the side with rapid speed, starting to move in a circle around him.

Boom! Boom!

Without any delay, Miles continued to launch half Ironblood spikes, hoping to strike with at least one and make the butler stop moving.

Unfortunately, almost all of them missed, striking too early or too late. The old butler was always a step ahead or behind where he shot. It seemed he had gotten used to the blood spikes' pace and could now easily dodge them based on the timing alone. Zhan Shen was circling him, like a vulture, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

But Miles wasn’t worried. All he had to do was disrupt the pace, and that was where the new blood spikes came in.

Ironblood Spike (¼)!

Like a needle slashing through the air, the small and thin blood spike dashed forwards. Not only was it fast, it only took half a second to prepare.

Even so, Zhan Shen was moving and the spike missed the target just barely. Thankfully, the exploding shards still hit Zhan Shen’s foot causing him to stumble. And that was when Miles let it loose.

A bombardment of Ironblood Spike (¼)s, mixed in with the occasional Ironblood Spike (½)s, just to maintain variety and ensure that Zhan Shen couldn’t get used to the pace again, rained down.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

More than half of the blood spikes hit the old butler, while the exploding shards of the rest still affected him in some way. As a result, he was forced to retreat by several meters.

But Miles was not pleased.

Sure his attacks were hitting, but what was the point if they didn’t do anything?

Despite being struck by tens of blood spikes, the old butler wasn’t injured in the least. Every blood spike seemed to shatter even before they actually hit him. It was only the momentum behind the spikes that pushed him back.

Not to mention the fact that Miles had already burned through half of his blood points by continuing to use bombardments of blood spikes.

(Blood Bank: 23/100)

What he was doing was only delaying the inevitable.

Dividing the blood spikes into halves and quarters made it faster and more difficult to dodge, but consequently, weaker. He had to do something different…

Wait.

Miles's eyes widened.

That just might work.

However, to make it work, he would have to be economical with the remaining blood.

Miles raised his palm and with some mental effort created two half-blood spikes, one after the other, and held them together. He had barely succeeded the last time he had tried this, but it was now much easier, perhaps due to the practice from the fight. Besides, maintaining them was the hardest part.

So he simply let one go, reducing the difficulty.

Ironblood Spike (½)!

The blood spike traveled forth with rapid speed, striking Zhan Shen right in the chest.

(Blood Bank: 21/100)

Miles raised his palm once more, the other hand strangely hidden behind his back...

Ironblood Spike (¼) x2!

With more or less the same effort as before, he shot two quarter blood spikes, accurately striking the old butler in his shoulders.

But besides forcing him to take a few steps back, the old butler was completely fine. Not even his suit had been affected.

Even worse, Miles noticed the markings on Zhan Shen's face become darker as he began to slowly walk forwards, with a relaxed grin on his face.

(Blood Bank: 19/100)

If Miles’s conjecture was correct, the old butler had just increased the power he had gained from the stream.

Consequently, it was obvious that the quarter spikes would be less effective now, but Miles didn’t have a choice. If he used the half spikes or the full spikes, he would run out of blood for what he had in mind...

Ironblood Spike (¼)!

Miles grimaced, as he pushed his control over the blood points to its very limit. Forcing himself, he launched a bombardment of four quarter spikes.

But now, with the increased power from the stream, each spike could barely hold the butler for a single second.

(Blood Bank: 11/100)

Zhan Shen smirked, continuing forwards at a relaxed pace.

The old butler was playing with him. A game of cat and mouse.

By walking forwards at a slow pace and shrugging off his attacks, he was showing off the power of the stream, how weak and useless the blood spikes were in comparison.

Just like Miles had requested, he was showing the worth of the stream.

Despite literally having asked for it, Miles was annoyed by the smug confidence of the old butler. He shot a small bombardment of two-quarter spikes with renewed vigor, even taking a few steps back, just to widen the distance between them.

(Blood Bank: 7/100)

Since Zhan Shen seemed to be intending to show off the overwhelming power of the stream and was walking so slowly, Miles was more than okay with humoring him and using up time. He needed time.

Another two quarter-spikes followed behind, exploding harmlessly against the body of the old butler.

(Blood Bank: 3/100)

But even like that, only a minute passed before Zhan Shen quickly closed the gap. The old butler's smirk grew wider as he dashed in for the final strike.

‘Dammit! I could have used more time! But the blood bank is almost over anyway. Fine, let’s just do this!’

Ironblood Spike(½)!

Miles shot a single half spike, causing it to explode in a cloud of blood shards.

(Blood Bank: 1/100)

Zhan Shen brushed it off easily, but Miles had never intended it to do much harm. He just wanted the light of the scarlet crystals to reduce the butler’s vision...

Instantly, he whipped out the hand hidden behind his back, revealing another Ironblood spike.

It was... strange to say the least.

This spike was at least twice the size of the basic blood spike, and Miles had had quite a hard time keeping it hidden behind his back.

And instead of the scarlet red of the other spikes, this was tinted with a dark black hue, making it almost seem demonic. If one focused long enough, they could almost see blackish-red sparks moving within.

During the battle, Miles had manifested two half-blood spikes at the same time, but he had only shot one. The other he had kept, and hid behind his back.

But what had caused the mysterious change in the blood spike?

If someone had been paying careful attention, they would’ve noticed a discrepancy between the blood spikes shot and the blood points used.

Ever since Miles had hidden the half-blood spike, there had always been fewer blood spikes than the blood points used up.

Well, this was where the missing points had gone.

Every time Miles activated the [Ironblood Spike] skill, 2 BP would begin to rush towards his hand. But every time he made a partial blood spike, some of those blood points had to be held back. Should he release his hold over them, they would rush towards the partial spike to make it whole again.

But what would happen if he released his hold when he had already shot that blood spike?

The blood points would still rush forwards, but since the intended blood spike was already long gone, it would nourish the one he had hidden instead.

Just like that, he had infused all of the remaining blood points into this spike. A total of 14 BP to be exact.

That might seem like a small number of blood points, compared to the total of 110 Miles could keep at a time. But technically speaking, his body only held 10 BP. A Newborn kindred only had that much.

Thus, Miles was confident this would be sufficient.

And it was time he used it.

'Let me see how the power of the stream fares against this!'

Ironblood Spike (+14)!