"Arrogant bastard!" Rudra muttered, his visage turning serious. "I had initially thought of cutting your arm off to warn Aryan, but you've convinced me to kill you."

In a sudden movement, his foot struck my chest, sending me flying into the boundary wall. The impact destroyed the wall, and I landed beneath its debris.

My entire concentration was fixed on staying on my feet, so I couldn't even defend against the attack despite sensing it with Divine Sense.

"Fuck! My ribs are broken!" I muttered inwardly. "I need to suppress my anger and look at this situation more realistically. One wrong move and I will die."

As he slowly advanced toward me, I seized those five precious seconds.

"Vivi, claim the reward from the previous quest and also teach me the skill I obtained from the quest and the Blood Debt of Shinku no Sabi."

"Initializing Host's request…"

"All stats +10"

"Congratulations! You have received a new Attribute-based skill: Void Step

Description: The Host can teleport to any place within his vision that contains yin energy.

Cost: 50 yin energy"

"Sending the required information about the skills directly to the Host's brain…"

Shaking the debris off my body, I rose to my feet, shrugged off my blazer, rolled up my sleeves, and took a sword stance against him.

"There's no benefit in being stubborn," Rudra clicked his tongue. "The difference between us isn't just rank. It's the difference in class. You are an inferior who can never reach my level, so why are you even struggling?"

A blade-like sharp blue energy materialized in his hand as he closed the distance between us. Without batting an eye, his hand swung in a horizontal motion, the energy blade aimed at my neck.

Divine Sense suddenly heightened all my senses, clearly indicating that this move was life-threatening. My body instinctively ducked low, dodging the attack, while I swung my blade with all the strength in my body and struck his ankle.

The attack caused a shallow injury—deep enough to draw a drop of blood from his body.

Ding…

"Crimson Wound is activated!

The target will continuously lose blood."

Ding…

"Blood Tempering is activated!

The blade is absorbing the target's blood."

"That sword managed to cut through my skin?" Rudra muttered, his blue eyes slightly widened in shock.

After leaking only a couple of drops of blood from the injury, his thickened skin stopped the bleeding.

"Alert! Skill: Crimson Wound is deactivated due to the high level of the target."

In an instant, his foot struck my body, slamming me flat against the ground. Blood gushed from my mouth, and I almost lost consciousness from the impact.

"An inferior doesn't deserve such a priceless sword."

He slowly bent down to take the sword from my hand, and as his hand reached closer, my body twisted in a flash. Shinku no Sabi moved in a vertical arc, slightly slicing the skin on his hand.

Ding…

"Crimson Wound is activated!"

"Blood Tempering is activated!"

"Alert! Crimson Wound is deactivated due to the high level of the target."

"Oy, bastard!" Rudra muttered, blue energy surrounding his body. "I'm trying to make your death painless, so don't force my hand to draw my sword."

When the blade absorbed Rudra's blood, it vibrated so violently that I thought it was coming to life. With just five drops of blood, its blade turned even sharper than Vajra—sharp enough to cut through steel like butter.

"Hah! I don't need your sympathy, bastard!" I scoffed, rising to my feet with a kick. "You want this sword? Take it from my dead body!"

My words, obviously meant to anger him, did their job perfectly.

A flinch of annoyance appeared in his eyes as he suddenly appeared right in front of my face, his hand pulsating with a sharp energy blade. His movements were so fast that I couldn't even sense them coming.

The energy blade launched a barrage of attacks from all sides. Each strike was precise, aimed directly at my vital points.

My sword retaliated defensively, relying entirely on my Divine Sense to block or dodge his attacks. My mind knew exactly what to do, but due to my low stats, my body couldn't keep up with my thought process, leaving numerous slashes on my hands, forearms, and face.

I wasn't fighting this losing battle under the delusion that I could actually win against him. I was fully aware of this body's limitations, so I waited for the slightest gap to make my move.

"I have never fought such a skilled swordsman before," Rudra declared, his visage carrying a hint of surprise. "I must kill you right now, or you will become the strongest CCC-Rank Awakener."

He suddenly shoved the energy blade forward in a stabbing motion, piercing straight through my right shoulder.

"This is the chance!" I muttered inwardly.

I grabbed the hand that was stabbed into my shoulder and swung the katana in a diagonal slash aimed at his torso.

"Blood Debt!"

Followed by a destructive sound, an enormous cloud of red blood mist erupted, engulfing the entire area.

Not wasting even a second, I jerked my shoulder off the energy blade and freed myself.

"Void Step!"

In a sudden flash, my body vanished into thin air and reappeared beside Jasmine, who lay unconscious.

"Ying energy -50"

I placed her over my uninjured shoulder and bolted out of the temple toward the car.

"It won't be useful for some time now," I murmured, gazing at the katana in my hand.

The sharp blade of Shinku no Sabi turned brown and rusty—the same state in which I had initially found it.

Blood Debt was a formidable skill that allowed the blade to release all the blood and damage it had absorbed into a single, devastating strike. The power of the attack depended on both the quantity and quality of the blood stored within the blade before unleashing the skill. The only drawback was—once Blood Debt was unleashed, the blade reverted to its previous rusty state.

"The destructive power of the skill was greater than I expected, but it's still not enough to defeat him."

I threw the katana into my inventory and continued running toward the bus.

After sprinting for several minutes, the place where the car was parked finally came into view.

"Al-almost there—"

"Do you think you can run away after what you did to me?" Rudra's voice echoed in my right ear.

I instantly jumped sideways, turned back, and found Rudra standing there. His bare upper body bore a shallow diagonal scar across his torso, and his face was clearly filled with rage.

He grabbed the hilt of the sword at his waist. Barely half an inch of the blade was unsheathed when a sharp flow of energy surged forward, slicing the skin of my face in multiple places.

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