Chapter 219: Immortal vs Royals

Chapter 219: Immortal vs Royals

Ramses and Zara stood waiting on the large plaza before the BloodStar Castle. They wore white flowing robes with red accents characteristic of their heritage and fighting style. The robes blew softly in the gentle breeze as they stood next to one another patiently waiting until finally they heard the thud of heavy footsteps.

They both looked across the plaza to see a war-torn Nero approaching. His skin was charred from shelling, he had open wounds dripping blood, and he wore a motivated yet menacing expression as he approached.

“Nero! The mighty Gladiator Champion turned BloodStar Immortal. You are a living legend amongst us.” Ramses called out to him to start a conversation; however, Nero continued his pace towards them both without responding.

Zara smiled and called out to him next, “You serve the wrong purpose, Nero. You are a BloodStar Immortal. A servant of the empire. Not of a fallen and disgraced heir.”

Zara’s words elicited a grimace from Nero as if the words pained him, and he grunted back, “And what would you know of a BloodStar Immortal?”

Nero stopped twenty feet across from Ramses and Zara, and the two parties stared one another down. One party in clean, fresh, and refined robes. The other beaten down and torn by battle.

“We know you, Nero.” Zara spoke gently, “We know you are the last of your clan. The last of a once very powerful clan that protected our empire at all costs. Surely you know, don’t you? It was her. It was Xenia.”

Nero smirked back at Zara, “Of course I know. I know the truth. It wasn’t Xenia.” He then resumed his serious expression, “I am at peace with my past. I have resolve. And right now, I am resolved to give my life fighting you both. Can you say the same?”

Ramses grit his teeth, “Don’t waste your talent serving her. Stand with us, Nero.”

Nero assumed a battle stance and powered up the ki around his body to lethal levels as he stared the king and queen down. The ground beneath their feet began to tremble, and the air swirled with violence as Nero’s power continued to increase.

“So you really won’t join us then?” Ramses shook his head in disappointment.

Zara shook her head as well, “So be it.”

“Your war path ends here, Nero!” Ramses and Zara then raised their ki tremendously with utmost grace and calm.

Nero’s violent ki swirled around him as he yelled back, “My war path begins here!”

Nero then lunged at Ramses; however, he was met with a volley of smaller of ki blasts from Zara. The volley hardly injured him given the weak power of each individual blast; however, they served their purpose to block his vision allowing Ramses to evade.

Ramses appeared twenty feet behind Nero and formed a dragon with his ki. The dragon extended upwards from his body roaring into the sky before crashing back down on Nero holding him within the confines of its jaws.

Nero struggled against the ki-formed dragon slowly inching its jaws open; however, as he struggled Zara jumped forward slicing at his chest with a curvilinear crescent energy-blade of ki. The attack left Nero with a large slash across the front of his chest, and the tinge of pain allowed the ki dragon to clench down once again upon his body.N0v3lRealm was the platform where this chapter was initially revealed on N0v3l.B1n.

Zara readied for another run at Nero using the same tactic; however, this time, before she could release her attack, Nero shot a powerful beam from his mouth. Zara dodged it by a hair as her momentum led her to a hard fall as she tumbled along the ground. Nero then swung the beam towards Ramses forcing him to cut off his attack, freeing Nero.

Nero’s battle spirit had come alive, and he raced after Ramses. Zara once again fired a volley of small blasts at Nero; however, Nero hardly felt them as his singular focus to catch Ramses fueled him.

Ramses didn’t shy away as he formed a blade of ki encompassing his arm extending from his elbow down to his hand, “Come Nero, block this!”

Zara and Ramses both tried to dodge; however, their utter disbelief caused a moment of hesitation. Zara wasn’t fast enough as Nero grabbed her out of the air by her two legs.

He moved both hands to her right upper thigh and clamped down on both sides shattering her femur in an instant. He then dropped her from his grasp and punted her flailing body with a powerful kick to her abdomen crushing her internal organs.

Ramses rushed over to Zara helping her up to stand on one foot knowing that any immobility whatsoever meant certain death in this battle.

Nero’s power had fallen below 50% from defending attack after attack while also expending ki with his own attacks which were inevitably blocked. Additionally, he had willingly walked through the shield barrier to catch his opponents off guard while also proving their tricks were no match for his raw might.

However, even he knew his dwindling power meant he needed to end things sooner rather than later. He decided to put a large portion of his remaining power into a singular attack before he was whittled down entirely.

He powered up gathering as much energy as he could. The building attack’s strength was not lost on Ramses and Zara as Nero’s power reached an action potential threshold with his ki skyrocketing exponentially around him until even Nero could no longer contain it or control it.

The energy exploded outwards in all direction rampantly and violently consuming all in its path. Ramses and Zara hugged one another tightly and swirled their combined ki into a defensive sphere around the two of them.

As Nero’s explosion pounded against their combined protective sphere, it began to push and break against their sphere until his explosive attack finally began to splinter and crack the defensive sphere of dual ki around Ramses and Zara.

Ramses and Zara looked on from within at the surface of their defensive shell as it began to crack. Knowing it wouldn’t last much longer, they each raised a layer of ki around their bodies.

Nero’s attack then finally broke through annihilating the remainder of the sphere as it then crashed against Ramses and Zara inside hurling them violently to the ground. However, the brunt of the force had been absorbed by the defensive sphere sparing Ramses and Zara from the full might of the attack.

As Nero’s energy fell to critically low levels, he briefly fell to one knee and his attack dissipated. He breathed heavily waiting for the smoke to clear, and as it did, he saw both Ramses and Zara strewn along the ground with multiple injuries.

Nonetheless, both were still able-bodied and stood to their feet albeit shakily as Zara balanced on one leg leaning against Ramses. Ramses eyed Nero with a look of anger knowing he had nearly finished them both off with his last attack, “We gave you your chance! Now die!”

Nero rose to his feet and prepared to fight once more unphased by his significantly depleted ki reserves. The persistence of Ramses and Zara annoyed him yet also created a respect for them both which he hadn’t previously had. He scoffed to himself as he thought, “I suppose all BloodStars are naturally gifted. Even the lesser ones.”

Zara and Ramses both yelled, “Dancing Dragons!”

The ki-formed bodies of two dragons arose from both Zara and Ramses as the dragons began to encircle Nero who suddenly realized Ramses and Zara weren’t quite as weakened as he expected them to be.

He looked down at the Blood Ring on his left index finger knowing he could call on a bottomless pit of Xenia’s ki at any moment to finish this fight, but he thought to himself, “NO! I will defeat them myself! With my own power!”

As the red dragons with bodies formed of ki swirled aggressively around him, Nero felt his battle spirit surging to new heights.

He felt a rush of power flowing from within as he dug deeper and deeper. The resurgence of strength went unnoticed by both Ramses and Zara as they readied their combined attack.

Nero looked to the threatening dragons and furrowed his brow as he yelled, “Come! Rush to your deaths!”

Ramses and Zara shot side glances towards one another and nodded, “And so we write the death of the empire’s greatest gladiator warrior in modern history. Farewell, Nero!”