Chapter 141: An Ephiphany

The battle between Kyros and the Dark Fanged Tigers continued.

With the ax of Balefire, Kyros managed to kill two of the eight tigers.

The ax would create a wound and corrode the dark carapace that covered these tigers, and Kyros would drive the Bloodied sword inside to kill him.

The Blood Golems managed to kill one of the dizzy tigers who smashed their heads on the boulder Kyros summoned before succumbing to the attacks of the rest.

He had kept evading the reckless and angry charges of the group. The fast movements coupled with caution made it difficult for Kyros to attack. He had focused on using his chains to evade the aerial attacks of each tiger.

Kyros could no longer make any surprise attacks with the skills he has revealed and refused to reveal more abilities.

"Why not?" Calaminus kept asking.

"I need to maximize all my abilities! I don't have to show the Blood Calamity everything! Even if it's Taunt or Oration, I have to time it all and preserve them all! Much more my stronger attacks. I could one-hit these guys with my various strength-increasing techniques, but I'd rather save them for later."

"Well, how do you plan to kill these guys?"

"Hmmm... Let me think." Kyros sighed as he used the chains to throw him high on the threes to which the tigers began to race up higher and jumping from one tree to the next and kept on trying to maw Kyros as they zipped through and back.

Kyros could not even wield his ax as he was busy manipulating the chains to avoid the great maw attacks.

"I can't even attack them!" Kyros cursed.

"Too bad you don't have the Kyros Tingle. If you had some, you could easily escape their attacks. When will you reach the Path of Combat like your uncle to get that ability?"

"Kyros Tingle?"

"I'm changing the name to avoid copyright. That should have been obvious. In any case, you could try flying up in the air and hit those tigers on the nape to kill them. I mean, right now, you're just like Mikasa or Levi. On the other hand, if you have a red cape and you could be Spawn. I mean, you are already a fallen. You got the chain thing going on, too."

"Very nice, Calaminus. Avoid one copyright and make two others." Kyros shook his head.

"One could sue us. The others don't really mind. Relax."

"Whatever. In any case, I need to get more Blood Golems. I wonder if the sword I stuck in that other Tiger has done absorbing?"

Kyros focused on evading and hoped that the Dark Fanged Tigers would not notice that while he had slain two of the Dark Fanged Tigers, the Bloodied Sword had actually drilled itself inside the body and was greedily absorbing the blood of the first tiger. After fully draining the blood, Kyros began to evade to get closer to the first and withdrew the sword through his Inventory. Then, he began to move and stabbed the sword deep inside another in an inconspicuous manner as if he was just evading and using the second dead tiger as a means to hinder their charges.

Kyros kept evading and used the same method to stab the sword in the last tiger that the Blood Golems managed to kill.

Kyros could sense it. The Sword and the Cloak were on the verge of leveling up.

"Is it finally leveling up? It's quite surprising that our two weapons didn't level up on the last enemy."

"Because the Sword of Ten Thousand Grudges has merged with my Blood Blade, it was natural for it to require that both should level up for the sword to level up. But since none of my items leveled up on our previous battle, it seems that the sword and the cloak are linked now. Therefore, I need to level up all three items."

"Oh? Then the future weapons that have the Heart of the Fallen will make leveling up your equipment much harder!"

As the sword began to devour the blood of the dead tiger killed by the Blood Golems, Kyros received the notifications.

---

Bloodied Sword of Ten Thousand Grudges (Lvl. 3->4)

Attack: 28-> 31

Durability: 30

Recovers durability when exposed to Dark Energy and Blood

Shadow Ghoul Familiar (7->8) / Blood Golem (2)

Soul Trapper

Dark Trapper

Blood Blade

Heart of the Fallen (1)

---

Cloak of Darkness (Lvl. 3->4)

Defense: 60-> 62

Durability: 30

Recovers durability when exposed to Dark Energy.

Dark Resistance: +33->+35

Dark cloak -> Dark Shroud

Shadow Familiar (3)

Heart of the Fallen (1)

---

Golem: Form of the Tiger skill acquired.

---

Kyros was amazed at the last notification and immediately tested it out. He had just drained and stored the blood and soul of the two tigers, and seeing the notification, Kyros was curious as to what the effects were. 

The Blood Golem emerged from his sword, and it took the same form as the Dark Fang Tiger.

"Woah. It looks like this level up along with soul trapper allows you to create blood forms of the souls you store."

"Not all. I guess only those with a more potent bloodline. Let's test this Blood Tiger Golem." Kyros sent orders, and the two golems suddenly charged and leaped out. The wary tigers charged back and jumped as if it was insulted at the form that these golems had. Two tigers leaped and roared loudly as they readied its deadly maw.

SMASH!

The two pounced at each other, and while the Blood Tiger Golem's pounce was not as fast as the Dark Fang Tiger, the power and durability of the Blood Tiger Golem were quite strong. The maw of the tiger could not penetrate through the head of the Blood Tiger Golem, and it resulted in the two tigers being smacked back from the impact.

The Blood Golems were roughly the same durability as Soil Golems. But the surprising power and attack of these Blood Golems were similar to that of a Clay Golem.

"The power of the golems attack two times stronger in that pounce!" Kyros was stunned.

"Instead of having the force of a punch with the thickness and strength of a Golem arm, these tiger golems used their entire body weight in that attack. So it has more power! Though they might end up breaking their body if the target is harder, that form is still useful!"

"Right! And now, I have amount!" Kyros laughed as he jumped on one of the Tigers.

Kyros harnessed the energy of blood in his sword.

"I want more speed and less power." Kyros closed his eyes, and the Bloodied Sword began to morph the particular tiger that Kyros was riding on and made him a more slender Tiger.

Kyros suddenly began to swing the Blood Sword to shift the amount of blood that made up the Golem Tiger. The blood reformed, and instead of a Dark Fanged Tiger, the result was a rather slimmer tiger with bulkier paws. The seat also reformed, and Kyros got a comfortable seat.

The blood on the tiger's head also got thicker, as if it was wearing a helmet.

"By the Power of Grey-! Damn it! I got carried away." Kyros cursed as he refocused his powers and stopped the unnecessary urge to transform and use his powers to bring out light to make the effects he desired.

"... You couldn't help it could you?"

"Yeah..." Kyros sighed.

"Understandable." Calaminus laughed.

Kyros ordered the Tiger to charge. With the darkness and blood in his control, Kyros was able to properly mount the beast and charge off towards the Dark Fanged Tiger.

Although Kyros had great speed with his chains, he could not make fast charging movements, and his movements usually required him to be above the air.

The force of the Blood Golem was put to used and created tremendous velocity. In fact, these movements exceeded the speed that Kyros could make with his two feet.

With the chains free to use for offense and not to escape, Kyros finally began to attack as he navigated the Blood Tiger Golem to leap and move.

Kyros spun the chains with the a and smashed it on one of the tigers.

"ROAR!" The tiger was struck head-on. The sword dug on its face, and it began to drop from the height of its pounce.

"On the other hand, that chain, fire, and ax thing makes you look like the God of War, Kra-"

MEANWHILE!!! Inside the Nephilim Sealing Mountain...

The enclosed path of the tunneling caves proved to be a disadvantage for the retreating lizards.

At the fall of the front lines, the Golems did little fighting, with Stoph leading the way. The Lizardmen were without a Champion or Captains. And the Golems still had Iron Golems and Rock Golems. The lizards were also unacquainted with the new fighting strategy of the Golems.

The Iron and Rock Golems would be as strong as Lizard Captains. But due to the need to preserve their energy, these Golems would rarely fight with excessive movements. 

But now they did. 

And so, the unrestrained use of power allowed the golems to plow through the front line.

The lizard mages near the front could not channel any more magic. The Holy Cross of Branze created a holy field that made it difficult for these dark dependent cultivators to channel power.

Seeing the sure destruction of his army, the Lizard Champion could only sigh. He gazed at the Golem King and wondered what future life he had. But what was insulting was that the Golem King was ignoring him.

"Master Aron! What happened? It's faint, but you have a trace of divinity!"

Aron, however, was looking at his brother. His brother was laughing and laughing.

"Is that... an epiphany?" Aron realized what Branze was going through. On the several instances that Branze had this, the strength of their family grew leaps and bounds. It was because of this that Mezal had reached the strength of a Champion. Because of this, Aron could also use his Force energy to imitate the Paladin's attack despite being under level 30.

Branze was able to reduce the Force consumption of all Force Paladin attacks by nearly forty percent, making it something economical for Aron to use.

The epiphanies of Branze were so important to the family that even the knights that followed Branze had a protocol to follow whenever this happens.

The fighting knights of Branze heard the laughter.

"Knights! Master Branze is in a trance! Hurry!" On of the knight jolted back and ran towards Branze. He took from his backpack a strange wooden object.

Two more knights did the same.

They ran with great haste and placed in front of the insane Branze. The first knight placed a folded chair, and the two other knights combined their two pieces to form a table.

Branze sat down just in time for the table and chair to be placed. Branze began to write and write.

"What's going on?" Petra asked.

"The Rise of the Steele Family. That's what." Aron smiled.