CALAMITY CORE : FREE THE WORLD

CH.66 'FOR FAITH'

Andrei gripped his blade, staggering as he took a step forward towards his foe, Asura. At his side, Vivian was relatively unharmed, save for her self-inflicted burns. Those very same burns saved her however, as she hadn't been bleeding for Asura to empower himself with. Sparkling with golden-black electricity as it coursed across her whole body, she looked to Andrei as he spoke to her. The core on Asura's hand? Which one was that again? Her nose twitched, and she shook her head, nearly clawing at her face again as Geryon continued to pummel her mentality. "Together then. I'll restrain him... you split the core with that huge ass sword, Drei."

When her friend nodded at her words, she looked back Asura's way. He wouldn't get the jump on either of them again, and in Andrei's condition, he would need time to keep up with either of them. Rolling her shoulders and adjusting her cropped leather jacket, Vivian flattened her ears, blotting out the noise of Geryon in her head, and conducting her electricity off her whole body, the charge building as she broke into a feral sprint.

Asura's eyes widened as Vivian came at him unarmed, slashing upwards from a low position, practically galloping at him on all-fours. He brought a blade down to catch the girl, only for it to meet the dirt, splattering into a pool of cold blood. Electricity shot from Vivian's claws, flying out as she stopped short and leapt back scorching his face in a pattern of three upwards lines. Retorting, Asura charged forwards, conjuring another blood blade in his previously disarmed hand while swinging the second bloody saber forward and unleashing a stream of blood which nearly caught the girl as she pushed up and off the ground on her hands.

"Krk-!" Asura was about to speak to the girl before her bare, fur-coated knee slammed against his stolen nose, breaking the cartilage in it and sending blood flying before she spun onto her feet, only for her crackling claws to be caught by twin blades. "... I think I understand the idea behind this power now. How ingenious!"

Pulling his blades free and slitting Vivian's palms, he was prepared to cut her down before Andrei's ki and mana-infused blade caught both of his own. Grunting as he held his own for the moment, Andrei felt a smile creep across his lips and Asura's eyes began to widen. "You-..." He coughed as he felt his organs stitching themselves back together. "You haven't been taking us seriously. That was your first mistake."

Asura too began to smile as he saw the chaos behind Andrei's own aura. The black and reds which enveloped him, his ki, it was representative of something deeper, the malevolent colors twisting and turning against one another clashing as their blades met. He didn't want to use his chimeric gifts, did he? "You don't understand, I've seen your strength firsthand, remember?" Asura cackled as he remembered having puppeteered both Bayashi and Vivian's bodies. "Do you know why I've underestimated your pitiful resolve?"

The blood soaking the ground bristled up, and Asura kicked Andrei into a series of bloody spines, which pierced both his own and Vivian's feet, sending ripples of pain through their bodies as the blood manipulating Chimera went for their most vital points of mobility. Now holding them both there, he brandished his blades, glaring at Andrei. "You'll never have the resolve to use your chimeric power. That's your human limits."

Vivian growled, breaking free of the spiky shackles in her feet, the crystalline blood fragmenting as she pulled herself out of the trap. Throwing a fist, she felt the numbness in her hands that came with prolonged use of her power, and she thought on those words. Her human limits... but she was nothing but a Chimera, wasn't she? "What the hell are you talking about? You sound like a damn idiot!" The girl screamed, all the while Asura deftly stepped back, slicing Vivian's wrist clean open and stealing the blood which spurted from her veins.

"Every living being has a purpose, and a source of power... even if they're made to be game for those above them." Asura poked at her. "A sort of 'descendant factor' allows some Chimera, and even some people, to use 'magic,' that's what you call it."