Chapter 261: A Spar (II)

Giliath demands your power stones, let's try to get over 500 this week!

*****

"Shattering Fist!", Sherryl's voice suddenly struck out behind me. Thankfully in that instant, I blocked with World Eater, twisting it diagonally over my body. Sherryl's fist struck out at a very fast pace. If one wasn't trained in martial arts it would likely be blurry to them, or that they couldn't even track Sherryl's fist at all. Thanks to Sherryl's fist directly impacting World ater, a loud band struck the entire hall, and I felt a heavy impact strike against my entire body.

"Ugh...", I uttered, feeling a large impact strike against me. At the same time, with Sherryl now in front of me, the large force she delivered with that one blow started to make my entire body skid across the entire platform. I kept getting pushed until I reached the other end.

Princess Alfin, Prince Cedric and Kurt all had shocked faces seeing such a small girl instantly move from one end of the platform to another, and on top of that, delivering a heavy blow to me. The heaviness was definitely heavy, but it still wasn't as comparable as to the one strike Ace gave me.

Still, I stood the azure pole vertically with my left hand, trying to regain my posture. As I did, something foreign entered my mouth, letting me taste iron. Blood started to trickle down one side of my lips.

I saw Sherryl bend her knees again. Pssshhhh...

Visible steam escaped from her mouth. After that steam escaped, Sherryl looked back up at me, and gave me a smile.

"I told you I'm no longer the little girl you knew. I've grown strong, Big Brother.", Sherryl responded.

"So I see. You said you wanted to see that power, didn't you? Your resolve is clear.", I said, causing Sherryl to stare at me. She saw me close my eyes, but in reality I was diving into my mind for the Gamer System. At the same time, I started to circulate my mana around my body, letting my aura soar out. It didn't take long for a beautiful crystal azure to appear all around me. Roselia nodded her head seeing the intensity of the mana I was currently releasing and inwardly smiled to herself.

"This aura...", Kurt uttered. "I don't think this is battle qi...", Kurt was quick to assume seeing the rapid flowing aura going around my body.

"Quick to catch on.", Aurelia mused. "What you see isn't battle qi. Battle qi is much more fierce. Right now, it's like I'm staring into an ocean. It's unknown to most, but what Naoto is releasing right now is mana. And at such a thick density. This pleases me to see he hasn't slacked off.", Aurelia smiled to herself while saying that, causing Prince Cedric to stare at the violet haired boy.

"Magic...", Prince Cedric uttered to himself.

And well, Princess Alfin all the while had sparkles in her eyes the moment she saw this aura appear over her newfound fiance.

As for me though, my thoughts were elsewhere. I had but a single action to take, so I interacted with my Gamer System.

[Ding! Player Naoto has selected the True Dhampir Job Class. Noble has been unequipped.]

[Ding! Player Naoto has activated Vermillion Eyes]

Seeing these two notifications come forth, the calm crystal azure aura I was letting out of my body began to go through a change. Thanks to True Dhampir leveling up, this was a new effect, on top of it granting me new skills to use like Wings and Regeneration. It now made my once-calm aura into a bloody red. It also caused a hidden pressure to get exerted from my body, combining it with my mana. It made me appear quite fierce, considering the protruding fangs I now had sticking out of my mouth a bit. I looked much more like Roselia now in that regard.

On top of everything now, it even gave me a couple strands of red hair to add to my violet hair. As for my eyes, they were normally golden with black pupils. Yet when I activated Vermillion Eyes, it replaced that black with a vermillion hue.

I was hesitant to activate Vermillion Eyes during my stay here at Heimdallr, just based off the fact that it was a rather large city, containing over five-hundred thousand people. My eyes covered quite the range being placed into the minimap in my mind. I was hesitant whether or not the Gamer System could process all of that information at once, relaying the positions of thousands of people onto that minimap. Thankfully it could, and I didn't feel any whiplash from it. But I let it zoom in on the Vander Dojo, and now it only showed several people. Some were green while the rest were yellow, which remained neutral.

"So this is the power you used on that island...", Sherryl uttered to herself. Hearing that caused me to smile.

"Well this is what you asked for, wasn't it? Yet I'm not done.", I suddenly responded. Since I let Sherryl reveal her new technique, she stood still, letting me continue mine. Well, it wasn't really a technique or anything. All I did was swipe my thumb against one of my fangs. Sherryl raised her eyes seeing a small cut form thanks to that.

But that cut was all that I needed.

"Blood Spheres.", I said. I bet Sherryl hadn't seen these since the time we spent in those caves. The blood from the cut started to wiggle and twist, stretching outward, quickly swirling around. Before long three spheres started to float around me, all bloody red.

"I didn't know you could use magic to manipulate your own blood.", Aurelia mused to herself again.

"Heh, keep this to yourself alright, Aurelia? Not everyone has the affinity for it. But for me, I'm a bit of a special case.", I simply answered, remaining vague. "And I'll say the same to you, Lord Vander.", I politely said Matteus Vander.

"Well that's a given. I didn't expect the person to sit next on Liberl's throne would contain such a power. Nor from you, little miss. What you are doing is dangerous. A normal person's body wouldn't even begin to handle the changes your body is trying to achieve.", Mattues responded in a more serious manner, looking toward the lilac-haired girl.

"I'd...rather not talk about it. Let's just say I have the body capable of withstanding the danger you mentioned, Lord Vander. Please don't press it any further.", Sherryl said, letting more steam escape from her mouth.

"Very well. Please continue.", Matteus nodded his head.

Hearing that caused me to smile. While those two talked, I took this time to observe Sherryl's stats and sure enough she definitely surprised me again in that department.

[Sherryl Sky - Level 100/250] - (Doping)

HP: 500,000

STR: 3000 (+1500) DEF: 3000 (+1500)

ATS: 2000 (+1000) ADF: 3000 (+1500)

AGI: 200 (+100)

Special Skill: Doping

[Doping]

Grants the following effects: Increased stats 100%. Reduce incoming damage by 50%.

Duration: Ten minutes.

[Crafts]

Shattering Fist

Earthen Wall

Thunderclap Cleave

Genbu's Toll

Aura Blast

[Ding! Sherryl Sky has discovered what she had been enhanced with after being injected with the Gnosis drug prior to transferring out of the Sun Fort with Player Naoto. Sherryl has the ability to manipulate her blood. Or to be more specific, Sherryl can manipulate her white and red blood cells. This allows her to enter a Doping state, letting her use this Special Skill. As long as Sherryl finds a way to support her body with her white blood cells, her Doping state may get lengthened as a result.]

Sure enough, Sherryl did have some way to manipulate her blood after all, much similar to mine. Yet mine is achieved through Blood Magic. Sherryl behaves more in a way to Luffy from One Piece. Luffy's body is able to keep the stress under check from using Gear Second, but at the cost of consuming much larger portions of food than a normal person. In Sherryl's instance, as long as she can keep manipulating her blood cells in a way to support her Doping state, it will not cause any stress on her body, aside from severe exhaustion it seems, considering she can only use this state for a maximum of ten minutes. Perhaps she'll find a way to continue to extend that duration, courtesy of the Gamer System's description.

Still, I gotta hand it to her. Not only did Sherryl find out what the Gnosis drug did to her, she even created some crafts of her own, apart from learning one or two from Zin. I'm sure learning Aura Blast was no easy feat either. That is essentially converting one's battle qi into an outward projectile.

Essentially the Kamehameha from DBZ, or the Hadouken from Street Fighter.

If she tried to activate that while in her Doping state...I could only shudder to think of the possibilities. She could become a walking machine gun for all I know.

But that brought happiness to me seeing Sherryl get this far, so I had to meet her expectations.

With my three blood spheres swirling around my body, I raised my finger, deciding to chant another spell. This time, I decided to make use of the elements that I know.

"I haven't really done this before, but I don't see a reason why it wouldn't work. Come forth.", I uttered, letting a large blaze appear over my finger. The entire room began to warm up as a result of this large flame appearing. I did a motion of my hand, and the large flame started to engulf the three Blood Spheres.

You guessed that right, I just tried to combine two elements into one spell, so to say. And the result was, it worked. I could now see my three Blood Spheres engulfed in flames.

"Go.", I signaled with a motion of my hand. The three Blood Spheres swirled around before striking out with a swift speed, streaking fire across the platform. Their target? The lilac-haired girl crouching before me. Seeing these incoming bloody fireballs, Sherryl's lips cracked into a smile, ready to take them on.

All the while, I still had World Eater in my grasp, thinking of what to do for my next move. Considering the possibilities, I was thinking of casting another spell to 'enchant' World Eater', making it become a magic weapon, at least for a limited time...