Blood Assimilation

282 Defeated, Interrogation

The unknown and mysterious young woman frowned in annoyance when she discovered that her body was restrained by some powerful force that restricted joint movement. Regardless, she forcefully moved her body despite the disturbingly crackling noises of bones grinding against each other.

Before the attack launched by Randy could manage to hit her chest, a misty giant maw of darkness manifested and easily repelled the attack. Not only did it manage to repel the dark ray of light, which was the size of a soccer ball, carrying a terrifying force, but the misty giant maw even devoured the dark ray completely.

The terrifying part was that it seemed as though the giant maw of darkness was ready to launch an attack, as immediately after it absorbed the dark ray shot by Randy, it began expanding in size. Sure enough, a few seconds later, the giant maw shot another dark ray of light out of its mouth. Once again, the attack power increased many folds, carrying a terrifying force as it was propelled toward its source, which was Randy.

Randy had just landed from the air and from his quick analysis of the power coming at him and his previous experience attempting to absorb the dark ray of light, he surmised that he couldn’t rely on his [Palm of Double Return] to absorb it, much less double reflect. As such, he threw that thought out of his mind.

Even if he somehow managed to absorb the incoming dark ray, he wouldn’t be able to absorb it all, and the residue power impact would send him flying again. He would be vulnerable to deadly attacks once airborne. Such a passive stance, he didn’t want to fall back into it while he could still help it.

Having no time to think or come up with any means to save himself, he quickly calmed down. At this point, he had no choice but to bet everything on his Shadow Beast Leather Armor to escape.

The Shadow Beast Leather Armor was a Legendary-Rank equipment he received after clearing the Dungeon of Beasts. He relied on it before when he was facing off against those two demons. This time, he wanted to fully rely on it to salvage his situation. Life or death would be decided the moment that attack reached him in a second.

A second later, before the terrifying dark ray of light, which was as wide as 10 soccer balls stacked together, could reach him, Randy decisively activated the Weapon Property of his Shadow Beast Armor.

Shadow Swap!

.....
His entire body exuded a deep mass of shadow energy for a split second and then disappeared. His appearance and position didn’t change. However, he had already surreptitiously slipped away from the battlefield and hidden himself in the void and the attack hit his substitute, a clone made out of shadow energy.

Randy felt safe when he hid in the void and his shadow clone replaced him.


He heaved a sigh of relief and was about to relax his guard for a moment before his expression changed dramatically due to the unexpected turn of events.

Boom!

...

Moments ago.

At the time of his replacement, his shadow clone’s aura exploded with a terrifying aura of darkness. This aura shrouded his body in a cocoon with only his eyes glowing in gray color within. To be more specific, the aura of darkness emitted by him was from his Shadow Beast Leather Armor’s properties— the active [Shadow Shroud] alongside the passive [Shadow Null].

With the assistance of the passive defense of Shadow Null property, Randy was able to negate the elemental property of the unknown woman’s attack. As such, he was able to passively alleviate some of the damage to him. Despite reducing the damage to himself, he was still propelled by the remaining forces in her attack.

However, the [Shadow Shroud] property had to be activated by him for it to take effect. Furthermore, it was much stronger than [Shadow Null] in terms of defensive capabilities.

With that being the case, Randy didn’t hesitate to command his shadow clone generated by the evasive Shadow Swap property to use the Shadow Shroud property of his cloned armor.

The reliable effect of Shadow Swap was the fact that it could even emulate his clothes and armor without exception, including their effects. Unfortunately, the downside was that the effects of any special cloth or armor could only be used once before they dissipate along with his shadow substitute.

Despite his timely efforts, something completely unexpected occurred the moment after he decisively absconded into the void to avoid the attack of the mysterious young woman.

Right after he swapped places and surreptitiously escaped the battlefield to avoid the impending crisis of the mysterious young woman’s attack, almost as though he was seen through, the trajectory of the attack abruptly shifted from its course. The terrifying and shocking part was that the attack was now aimed at him, who had his presence concealed as he hid in the void.

Before he could react, the force behind the giant dark ray increased tremendously as if timed, phased through the camouflage, and slammed at him squarely on his chest.

BAM!

Randy immediately felt a dull impact on his chest and involuntarily coughed up a mouthful of blood. Afterward, he grimaced in pain, then grimly stared at the woman with a deadly pale complexion, his eyes filled with unprecedented fear.

Fortunately, he still had enough mana pool thanks to training with the [Nameless Meditation Technique] he learned from the black tome and was able to nullify most of the attack damage by pouring all of it into his armor’s two defensive properties— [Shadow Null] and [Shadow Shroud]. However, the armor wasn’t unscathed as it took damage from the force of the attack.

But thanks to the self-repairing property [Shadow Restoration], it was slowly repairing itself by absorbing the surrounding energy as well as his own. He could speed up the process by injecting more of his mana into it, but he couldn’t afford to be careless in front of that terrifying young woman.

On the other hand, as she observed Randy’s nearly unscathed body and the self-repairing black leather armor he was wearing, the mysterious young woman’s shock written on her otherwise indifferent face couldn’t be disguised completely at this point. As she further studied the black leather armor on him, she was inwardly startled by its powerful effects.

‘That armor…? It can’t be…’

She initially thought she was seeing things when she saw the strange armor on Randy. However, upon further observation, a glint of emotion flashed through her eyes, making her gaze unsteady for a second. She was stunned at the sight of the self-repairing black leather armor, which was unequivocally a legendary-rank armor.

That armor was a highly sought-after piece of equipment that many experts around the world wished they could own. Even someone of her caliber was tempted to steal it for herself.

‘Just who is this guy? For such a weakling to own legendary-rank equipment…’

Moments later, she suppressed her wild and turbulent emotion of shock, and instead questioned: “That ability you used a few seconds ago… If I am not mistaken, was that Bloody Light of Destruction?”