Published at 6th of January 2026 8:51 am

Chapter 984: The Hunt 2.

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

Immediately Lucien appeared, he swung his greatsword without holding back, his intent clear as day, unfortunately Connor just so happens to be at the front, and was the first to meet with the sword.

He tried to transform the moment he saw the Solarium Sanctum captain rushing at him, but his reaction was too late, as the greatsword which was dragging a blinding wake of light behind it smashed into his neck and sent him flying, not giving him even a heartbeat to defend himself.

[> Mid Tier Spell - Light Beam <]

As if that wasn’t enough, Lucien followed through, with his right hand still controlling the blade’s momentum, he thrust his left palm toward Damien, who was the next person in his line of sight, as light gathered instantly in his palm, compressing into a beam dense enough to make the air tremble.

On the other side, Damien had already popped open his gin flask, as he flicked his wrist as if tossing the contents into the air, and blood poured out from inside instead, whipping upward like it had a will of its own.

[> Mid Bloodline Skill - Blood Mirror <]

Damien started to flick his right index finger as he activated his bloodline skill , causing the blood to turn into a blood-red mirror which had just snapped into existence in front of him just as the beam arrived.

The light struck the surface of the blood mirror and was rebounded, firing back toward Lucien, who raised his sword to deflect the beam too though the mirror immediately cracked and shattered from the impact of reversing such an attack.

While that exchange happened, the rest of the Bloodline Academy mages scattered from their initial position, with only Dragov being the only person still standing where he’d been when all this started, but now he’d lifted his head

He no longer looked bored, no longer uninterested, as he moved forward, leaving only a blur behind, and appeared between Damien and Lucien in an instant.

Seeing Dragov step in, Damien slid back and shifted his focus to a new target. Meanwhile, Dragov swung his massive greatsword, with his right arm drawn far behind him bringing it his weapon down with a brutal force.

Lucien on the other hand met it head-on, by raising his own greatsword which was smaller in frame, but no less solid to block the attack.

Clang!

The impact rang out like a bell, twisting the air around them into chaos. For two seconds they held that position, locked blade-to-blade, before both of them used the recoil and momentum of their weapons to shove off and create distance.

This was followed by another loud clash, but this time even the crowd could see it, that Lucien was starting to lose out in raw strength, and that was despite the fact that Dragov was the one swinging the heavier-looking greatsword.

—

While the two captains remained locked in combat, the rest of the teams finally had the chance to go for each other’s throats, and to the crowd it looked obvious that whoever gained the upper hand here would tilt the entire match in their favour.

Arrows of light streaked through the air toward Damien, Carmilla, and Kira as Orion supported his teammates from the rear, firing past Caelum and Seraphine as they advanced.

As the arrows closed in, Carmilla suddenly seemed to have an increase in speed as she surged ahead of the other two and took point, at this point her eyes had turned crimson and her skin pale which indicates that she might have begun drawing from her bloodline powers.

“Damien!” she called.

And in response Damien shook his flask again, spilling another pool of blood into the air, this time he didn’t cast a spell, he simply shaped it with his fingers again, as the blood stretched, sharpened, and condensed into a bow that looked almost identical to the one Orion had in his hand, only darker and more sinister.

With a flick of his wrist, he sent it flying through the air en-route towards Carmilla’s hands.

“Three shots, that’s all you get, so you better don’t miss,” he said calmly as he and Kira passed by Carmilla who had stopped to take aim.

Carmilla’s lips curled.

“Three shots is all I need in the first place.” She responded while drawing on the string, as an arrow formed instantly, but she also noticed that the bow seems to thin down instantly the arrow was formed on the bow.

Ting!

She released it—then drew again, and again as the bow continued to reduce in size, by the third pull, the blood bow had already begun to crumble, disintegrating into red mist the moment the final arrow left her fingers.

The three blood arrows tore through the air and met Orion’s solar arrows head-on, the collision burst into sparks of light and red haze, and both volleys cancelled each other out.

By then, Damien and Kira had already reached Caelum and Seraphine, but it didn’t go as planned, as Damien stepped in first, forcing himself between them to hold the line, while Kira slipped past him as a cover and dashed for the backline.

Seeing Kira slip past, Seraphine tried to turn and stop her, but a blood spike suddenly shot toward her. She didn’t even need to turn and see the attack directed at her; because at that moment her instincts screamed danger, and she knew something lethal was coming at her.

Yet the spike never reached her.

All because Caelum stepped in front of her at the last second and raised his towering shield, taking the hit head-on.

He had lifted the shield like it was nothing casual, routine but the impact of the spike told him a different story, as he tightened his grip instantly, as sweat started to break out on his brow and his boots carved twin lines into the ground.

He was forced into a brutal slide backward, and Seraphine spun fully to face the attacker.

“You’re trying to hold both of us here?That puts you at a disadvantage.” Seraphine said, finally reading Damien’s play.

But Damien’s smile didn’t shift.

“And so what? I pride myself on being able to finish both of you before your vice-captain can even react.”

Damien replied as he raised his right hand, and a tiny blood needle hovered above his palm, compressed so tightly it looked almost weightless, yet dangerous enough to make the air feel sharp.

Caelum snapped into motion and charged, but before he could reach Damien, a blur slammed into him and sent him flying again after skidding a few seconds he twisted midair, landed hard, by driving the bottom of his shield into the ground to stop himself from skidding any farther.

But when he looked back toward Seraphine, his stomach dropped.

Too late.

Connor was already standing where he once stood, fully transformed, his werewolf frame towering over Seraphine as he wrapped his massive left hand around Seraphine’s throat.

She fought back, holy flames bursting around her as she tried to burn him off, but Damien didn’t even flinch.

As he flicked his fingers and Blood cuffs snapped into place around Seraphine’s wrists, then her ankles, locking her in midair like she’d been nailed to an invisible cross, the bindings anchored to the air itself, pinning her limbs and killing her momentum, choking her spellcasting before it could form.

And Connor tightened his grip.

Seraphine’s struggle grew frantic, her flames sputtering as her breath thinned, until it looked like she was on the verge of blacking out.

With her eyes squeezing shut, Connor swung his arm and flung her off the stage, only then did he turn toward Damien, his yellow, bestial eyes gleaming with a dangerous edge.

“What took you so long? I was waiting,” Damien said.

“My injury took a while to heal,” Connor replied in a rough voice, recalling the moment Lucien’s blade had slammed into him.

“That sword has some kind of effect—it messed with my regeneration. If I faced him in a real battle... I might actually die.”

“Well, that one is all yours,” Damien said quickly, pointing toward Caelum, who was practically shaking with rage after Seraphine’s elimination.

Everything had happened too fast. Caelum had been shoulder-checked by the werewolf, and before he could even recover, before he could even reach Seraphine—she was already out.

The trap had been planned too cleanly, Connor, the one they all thought Lucien had taken out, had returned at the perfect moment to hunt them.

Caelum knew he had to think more carefully now, but the fury boiling in his chest refused to calm down.

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