Mixed Blood

56: Battle Royal: Part 1

Vernon managed to catch up to one of the Moissanite princes who took off in random directions as soon as the clash began. He could not be mistaken though; the face was a very familiar one.

"Well, if I remember correctly, you are Sangkyu, one of the Moissanite princes and the one Seungcheol-hyung faced before," Vernon said.

"Out of all the possible princes, I get the youngest?" Sangkyu was displeased.

"Since, my brother has no intentions of having a rematch against you, I will be responsible for your demise," Vernon stated; his eyes glowed in Radiant Orchid violet as his power was on standby.

"We shall see about that," Sangkyu smirked.

Without hesitation, Sangkyu shot some purple liquid to Vernon. Realizing it was most likely poison, Vernon dodged using his speed and countered with his electricity. Sangkyu evaded the attack as well. This time, Sangkyu fired some liquid upward, making a poison rain to fall on Vernon's area. Calmly, Vernon shaped his electricity like a tightly-woven spider web and placed it above himself. The web became a makeshift umbrella for Vernon, immediately vaporizing any liquid poison that came into contact. Shifting from defense to offense, Vernon threw the web to Sangkyu in the hopes of immobilizing him but Sangkyu released a huge stream of poison that neutralized the web into nothing. The battle was even so far.

Vernon was supposed to not have any trouble fighting if it were not for the trees that provide great cover for the enemy and the pesky Moissanite underlings that attack from the sidelines every now and then. However, he was handling it quite well. Seeing that Moissanite underlings were attacking him from four directions and Sangkyu planning to use the opportunity to attack him while distracted, Vernon directed his electricity onto the ground. This caused the ground around him to break up and his electricity became an omnidirectional attack. The underlings were vaporized easily while the unforeseen attack dealt damage to Sangkyu.

"Curse you!" Sangkyu was clutching his left arm.

Vernon was about to deliver the finishing blow when an underling with the power of Invisibility landed some series of fast physical attacks on him. Having trouble with the invisible enemy, Vernon unleashed his electricity like a hula-hoop extending outward. The electric hoop was able to vaporize the unseen vampire who was sneaking from behind Vernon once again.

But the whole ordeal left Vernon facing his back towards Sangkyu. Like what he did to Seungcheol before, he attacked Vernon while he was still distracted. His poison landed a solid hit on Vernon's back, causing a deep burn to develop. The impact threw Vernon a few meters from where he was standing.

Sangkyu chuckled, "You and your brother are the same. Easily distracted with unnecessary things."

"Why don't you fight fair and square?" Vernon brokenly panted due to his injuries.

"Why should I?" Sangkyu smirked. "Anyway, your brother may have survived last time, but this time, I will make sure you won't."

While Sangkyu was doing his monologue, Vernon desperately concentrated. A strong lightning bolt struck in front of Sangkyu, dealing more damage to the Moissanite and throwing him back a few meters as well due to the shockwave.

"How dare you!" Sangkyu quickly rose up despite his injuries.

At this point, Vernon was just kneeling one knee, although barely. Sangkyu was in his direct line of sight with trees on his peripheral vision.

"I guess it's time to end this. Allow me to ease your suffering. Out of respect due to the damage you managed to deal me, I will be finishing you with one of the strongest mix of poisons I have ever concocted. It mostly has the toxic elements Arsenic and Mercury in liquid form and some other poisons thrown in the mix," Sangkyu's hands began generating huge amounts of deep purple liquid. "Goodbye, young prince."

Sangkyu threw the liquid from his hands in a continuous stream. At this point, Vernon lost all hope. Memories of Seungkwan began flashing in front of his eyes until one memory gave him hope. It was a memory of him and Seungkwan being scolded for playing with his powers during a chemistry activity for their Science class.

Vernon quickly fell to his side, avoiding the attack by an inch, and fired electricity onto the stream of poison. The electricity quickly made its way from the stream of liquid poison back to Sangkyu. Vernon electrocuted Sangkyu without directly attacking him. Sangkyu fell limply onto the ground.

"How?... How did it happen?" Sangkyu weakly mumbled.

Vernon staggered toward Sangkyu, "Easy. Your poison was mixed with liquid Mercury. Liquid Mercury is a good conductor of electricity so... yeah, my electricity was able to make its way to you. I used a little bit of Science with my powers."

"You will pay for this," Sangkyu claimed.

Vernon fired lightning bolts from his hand, turning Sangkyu into ash, "I don't think so."

While Vernon and Sangkyu's fight was happening, Seokmin was also able to spot one of the Moissanite prince and came face to face with it.

"It seems you have caught me," the Moissanite royalty said. "Oh, how rude of me. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Jungsu, a Moissanite Prince."

"Nice to meet you, too. However, I don't like to give out my name to someone who is about to die," Seokmin responded.

"It's okay, Prince Seokmin since I am not the one dying tonight!" Jungsu claimed before his released fire from his mouth.

"Fire Breathing, huh?" Seokmin stated. "Good thing I like to fight fire with fire."

Seokmin threw flames out of his palms; his eyes glowed Mimosa yellow in the process. Both fires met in the middle and caused a huge explosion. The opposing parties were spewing fire here and there for several minutes while making full use of the large forest.

"You're a good fighter, prince," Jungsu commented.

"Of course. I learn from the best," Seokmin proudly declared.

"Unfortunately for you, I am the best of the best," Jungsu boasted.

"We'll see about that," Seokmin replied.

Just as they were about to resume their encounter, a group of underling Barbarians decided to join the crossfire. Quick on his feet, Seokmin surrounded himself with a fire dome and made the dome expand outward, burning any vampire in its path. Jungsu was able to hide behind a huge rock.

"Let's settle things once and for all!" Jungsu declared. He began to inhale in preparation of his next attack.

Jungsu's actions made Seokmin recall a technique used by Chan against Namjoon and Chanyeol during one of their joint trainings. Applying what he saw with a bit of improvisation, as soon as Jungsu breathed fire, Seokmin merely raised his hands for the attack. Jungsu's eyes widened at the turn of events.

"It seems you have underestimated my power," Seokmin snickered. "My power may be currently called Pyrogenism according to technical terms, but Pyrogenism is the advancement of Pyrokinesis. And remember what Pyrokinesis is? It's the ability to generate flames and manipulate any existing fire – fire which is what you are spewing out of your mouth right now."

With Seokmin's explanation, Jungsu tried to stop himself from generating more fire but it was too late. Seokmin controlled the Moissanite's fire to a standstill and pushed it back inside his mouth and into Jungsu's internal organs. Jungsu exploded as he was burned from the inside. Seokmin won without sustaining major injuries.

"I told you I learned from the best," Seokmin placed his hands on his chest.