Child of Destiny

...…

Grimrace continued to stand leisurely at the center of the battle arena and didn't bother to take advantage of the opening that he created.

It was as if he was waiting for the opposing side to reveal their real battle capabilities. Even if he knew that these three vampire marquesses were taking him seriously, he still couldn't see them looking at him on equal footing.

He felt that they would not be willing to show their true colors unless he continued to embarrass them.

Thinking about it, Grimrace slightly tilted his head to the side before making a decision. He turned at Marquess Roman, who just broke through the barrage of shadow daggers, before finally moving forward. "Let's start with this mosquito number one."

Right after those words left his mouth, his body suddenly flickered before slowly fading away.

Swoosh!

When Marquess Roman saw that, a sudden chill ran through his spine, telling him the danger that was about to come.

Without any hint of hesitation, he quickly turned around and swung his saber behind him, not caring if there was an enemy in that place or not.

Clang! ƒ𝐫𝒆𝐞w𝗲𝚋𝗻૦𝘷e𝙡.c𝑜𝙢

Fortunately, there was indeed someone in there. But his decisive attack was still blocked by an invisible wall before it could even hit his opponent.

"Nice reaction. Unfortunately, it is still not quick enough," said Grimrace before swinging his other hand where a shadow dagger was just materialized.

Swoosh!

Marquess Roman had an ugly expression on his face when he saw those actions from his opponent before hopping backward, trying to get away from Grimrace as fast as possible.

And due to his decisive actions, he managed to barely dodge the dagger that was trying to swipe through his waist. But immediately after that, the expression on his face immediately became even ugly.

It was because he noticed that there was a huge shadow waiting on the spot where he was about to land. And before he could even do anything about it, shadow vines suddenly flew out from the ground and wrapped around his body, locking him in place and preventing him from doing anything.

It was at that moment that he saw Grimrace holding a sword made of shadow before cleaving down at him.

Swoosh!

But before the shadow sword fell on him, other marquesses were already upon them and saved him from such a predicament.

Clang!

Marquess Valdez stretched his arm and extended the rapier that he was holding, blocking the descending shadow sword and preventing it from moving forward. He put a lot of strength into his arms to make sure that he would not be overpowered by their opponent.

In the meantime, Marquess Clayman appeared behind Grimrace and swung his claws on the exposed back of their opponent. His claws released a blinding sanguine glow, indicating the large amount of blood elemental powers infused with them.

Puff!

His attack was definitely a strong one, unfortunately, it didn't land on his target as Grimrace suddenly transformed into black smoke right before he was hit.

"So~! Predictable~!" said a voice coming from a distance away from the three.

And when they turned their heads toward that location, they saw Grimrace slowly lowering his hand while looking at them mockingly.

"Kneel!" muttered the elemental spirit which was quickly followed by a powerful explosion of pressure.

Boom!

At the center of all of it, the three vampire marquesses found themselves trapped by a heavy pressure coming from the sky. It was as if a weighty hand was pressing on their bodies and seemed to be forcing them to lower their heads and kneel.

Crack! Crack!

Cracks started to appear on the ground where they were standing. But instead of spiderweb cracks that could usually be seen in this kind of situation, a huge handprint was formed with the three vampire marquess at the center of the palm.

Grimrace was clearly using his psychic powers to press on the opposing side, seemingly trying to crush them with it.

Realizing that their opponent was trying to humiliate them right in front of their king and the rest of their kin, the three marquesses immediately became enraged.

Losing in this battle might be humiliating, but it was still better than letting their king see them being forced by their opponent to kneel.

Using the immense rage boiling within them, the three vampire marquesses immediately released all of their powers and let them explode.

Boom!

Due to the sudden outburst of their powers, the pressure that was pressing at them immediately disappeared, completely freeing themselves.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

After that, they quickly separated and started charging at their opponent from three different directions. They were not letting Grimrace do everything he wanted this time.

Seeing the aggressive charges coming from three different directions, Grimrace immediately grinned widely, instead of getting anxious. He even revealed an excited smile he saw the thick sanguine auras that were surrounding the bodies of his opponents.

Instead of making any preparations while waiting for them to arrive, Grimrace fearless chose to face them head-on. He extended his arms wide before clenching his hands and moving them close to each other, doing pulling motions.

Immediately after that, the three marquesses suddenly became confused as they felt that their bodies suddenly became light, increasing their charging speed greatly.

Raising their heads and looking at their opponent, they saw the crazy Elemental was giving them a hideous grin.

They immediately sensed that there was something off with that time, but they still chose to continue and flew straight to him while brandishing their weapons, simultaneously throwing a powerful attack.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Whoosh!

But right before they reached their targets, they suddenly saw the shadow underneath Grimrace's feet suddenly expand and covered a huge area before shooting thick and sharp spikes forward, greeting them.

Due to their speed and powerful momentum, it was already impossible to stop themselves from moving forward. All they could do was continue heading over and faced those barrage of shadow spikes head-on.

Moreover, they were confident that their attacks were more than enough to overpower those shadow spikes and crush them in the process.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Simultaneous explosions immediately followed right after the collision. And just like how the three predicted it, they were able to completely brute force their way through the blockade of shadow spikes blocking their paths and continued charging toward Grimrace.

From the looked of it, they would be able to reach him after a couple of seconds. But right before they reached him, something unexpected suddenly happened.

Grimrace, who seemed to be hugging the air due to his previous actions, suddenly stood up straight and spread his hands and arms wide while looking at the ceiling of the throne room.

Looking closely at the expression on his face, he seemed to be wearing a relieved look. It was as if he was a skilled conductor who was very satisfied with the performance of the entire orchestra.

It was already too late when the three vampire marquesses noticed that there was something wrong.

Right after they crushed the shadow spikes through their charge, the small and sharp pieces that came from the collision scattered around and filled the air surrounding before hovering for a brief moment.

And when Grimrace did his final gesture, those sharp and gravel-liked pieces suddenly turned at the three vampire marquesses and started assaulting them from every direction.

They managed to react at the sudden chance, but they were still a step too late since there were already a lot of pieces that managed to pierce through their armor and stabbed into their bodies before they were able to establish their defenses.

...

Watching from the side of the battle area, Shin still couldn't believe that Grimrace suddenly became this strong after his previous awakening.

Grimrace's battle techniques were now completely different from what he could remember. During their first encounter, this troublesome elemental spirit was fighting like an assassin. His methods and tricks at that time were also very hard to deal with, giving Shin, Hanzo, and Vladimir a lot of trouble.

Even though the main reason for their disadvantage was due to the gap in stats and their poor coordination, it still proved that Grimrace was a tough guy to defeat.

Due to that, Shin continued to let Grimrace fight that way in his preceding battles and let the elemental spirit act as an assassin.

Contrary to it, the current display that Grimrace was showing him was somewhat different. His fighting style was still full of tricks and schemes, but instead of being filled with pure assassination techniques, it was now a hybrid of two styles, a caster, and an assassin.

Grimrace was fighting like a crafty psychic and a scheming assassin.

Such a style in battle piqued Shin's interest and gave him inspiration, especially the way how Grimrace use telekinesis and fussed it with an unusual style of battle. "So, this is one of the ways how to use psychic powers, huh? Interesting~!"

Inside his head, he started putting himself in Grimrace's shoes and visualized how to fight with such a method. And when he did it, a door seemed to open itself and showed him a new world, giving him a further understanding of Mentalism Techniques.

...…