Chapter 35: Fierce

‘How…?’

This was the first thought that came to Brad’s mind. He couldn’t imagine someone who learned and implemented a blood warrior frame within a week, a count-level frame at that.

This was incomprehensible to him, who practiced tirelessly for months to even grasp the fundamentals. What really surprised him, even more, was that he did it while condensing his blood core simultaneously.

“What a monster?” He mumbled.

Keith’s hand caved in Brad’s abdomen while he channeled a significant amount of blood-qi to avoid any further damage. He was using his full blood-qi throughout his body, but Keith’s punch was so powerful thanks to the blood warrior frame, that he needed to concentrate more blood-qi in that specific place to not get blown away.

Because he covered his whole body with blood-qi, it was evenly distributed. It was vulnerable to this type of concentrated blood-qi attack. He also didn’t activate his very own warrior frame, as he was sure, Keith didn’t have one. Hence, he let his guard down.

But the result wouldn’t have been much different with the warrior frame activated either. Consuming more blood-qi to activate the warrior frame would have resulted in an even thinner defense. So he still would’ve received the same amount of damage.

He let his guard down. He looked down on him, as he was a newbie.

Keith on the other hand had a satisfying smile on his face. He managed to injure him, even though it was a surprise, he achieved it with his own strength.

Now, without letting this golden opportunity go, he adjusted his hands and pulled him towards him. He was locked with him, so fighting close quarters gave him the advantage, especially after the surprise.

He also managed to break Brad’s focus. Swinging his legs and stroking his legs, he managed to trip him and made him lose balance.

Brad recognized how bad he got caught up in this little scheme that he activated his warrior frame instantly. A sharp aura covered the entire arena and he balanced himself with one leg, quickly getting back up.

Keith increased his attack speed looking at the changing aura around him. He needed to do more damage before Brad’s counter.

Swish! Boom! Crack!

The attacks moved with more ferocity, and Keith’s figure looked like it was three places at once, that’s how fast he was moving.

“Enough of your surprise! I will show you what a real warrior frame is.”

Turning his body into a peculiar position, he emitted a sharp aura that felt like an invisible wall. He blocked Keith’s attack one after another without even looking. He was calm and there was no urgency in his face.

Keith figured that Brad fully activated his warrior frame, and his external aura was lower, but the internal aura was dense and sharp.

Brad started attacking back, now that he could block the attacks easily.

!Bam !Bam

Keith struggled to keep him at bay, but he didn’t back away. He had a lower level of blood-qi, but that didn’t mean he was completely powerless. He was now closer to a viscount, so he could hold him off, for some time.

‘Shit, I need to figure out a way to catch him off guard.’ Keith thought.

As he was getting overwhelmed, he shifted his body to the left and kicked Brad with both of his legs. The impact caused him to get away from him as he flung to the other direction.

Now that he had some time to breathe, he planned his next move. When his strength was lower than the opponent, charging mindlessly was a foolish move. He knew he couldn’t overwhelm him, so he preferred guerilla warfare.

Keith looked at him with a sharp gaze, trying to find out his weakness. Not surprisingly, he couldn’t make out any openings, which he was half expecting. What really concerned him though was the incredible high defense. The attack power also bumped up, but the aura emitted from him was akin to a fortress.

‘What can I do at this point? I will lose if I engage in close-range combat. Staying away is also not going to work.’

Even though it was not a life and death match, he wanted to test his limits. He wanted to show his uncle, he was not someone to be taken lightly.

When he was looking around to find an opening, he remembered something. Warrior frames concentrate blood-qi within the body and as a result, the speed decreases, and reflexes get affected.

If that was true, Brad was slower than he was a minute ago. Even though it was unnoticeable and useless for high power differences, he still had a respectable amount of blood-qi.

Ready to test out his theory, he deactivated his warrior frame. It was a gamble, but he didn’t have a choice in the current situation. There was a great chance, it could fail. Hell, he believed it would fail.

‘Let’s do this. I will lose, either way, so better try something before getting my ass whooped.’

He channeled his blood-qi to its fullest and all of it came rushing out from inside of the frame to the outside. His body was filled with blood-qi and he felt lighter than before.

The air suddenly moved and he appeared beside Brad.

Swish! Swish!

He swung his arms, and delivered repeated kicks, changing position several times and not stopping for a moment.

‘I see you’re trying to overwhelm me with speed. I know you had no other options, but your assumption that I wouldn’t think of this problem is naive.’

Brad moved swiftly and blocked Keith’s movements with an equal speed.

“How can you maintain such speed with the warrior frame activated?” Keith was surprised, but his eyes were glowing.

He thought activating the warrior frame would slow him down, even a little, which was clearly not the case. Not only did his speed not decrease, but he was also moving faster than before.

A sudden barrage of punches threw Keith out of balance, moving him backwards a couple of feet. Then another punch hit him in the abdomen, out of nowhere.

Boom!

He was blown away to the end of the arena, but grabbed the floor and stopped his momentum. The floor cracked as his fingers dug into it. He was panting and sweating all over his face.

‘Fuck! If I didn’t channel half of my blood-qi to my front, I would’ve passed out by that punch.’

He looked at Brad with a grim face.