The Blood Shield was circular, about a meter and a half in diameter, and thin as a sheet, no more than a centimeter thick. It looked so fragile. Yet this shield had blocked several bone darts without suffering the slightest damage.
I was stunned, and so was the Bone Armor Lion. This sudden turn of events in the Death Realm had completely taken me by surprise.
But where had the shield come from?
At the thought, I suddenly felt my arms grow damp, as if they were covered in warm liquid. I looked down and immediately felt dizzy.
Blood! Both my arms were drenched in it! And that wasn't all. Tiny droplets and bubbles of blood rose from my arms and drifted into the air, unbound by gravity, flowing into the shield!
So the shield was made from my blood! This... could it be some kind of special ability? Looking closer, I saw no wounds on my arms. It seemed all that blood had seeped through my skin.
On the other side, the Bone Armor Lion flew into a rage when its attack failed. With a terrifying roar, it fired twice as many bone darts as before. They came at me like a hail of buckshot!
If I'd blocked the first attack, I could surely block the second! "Reinforce Shield!" I shouted in my mind. The prickling sensation returned, and a great surge of blood spilled from my body and shot into the shield. The Blood-Red Shield writhed and changed shape, growing to more than twice its former size and thickness. Delicate patterns faintly emerged along its edges, giving it an uncanny beauty. A clatter rang out as every bone dart that struck the shield bounced away; a few even shattered outright.
It worked!
Having successfully defended twice, my confidence soared. There was no doubt about it: I now had the ability to manipulate blood! The two men from before hadn't stood a chance against the Bone Armor Lion, yet I'd perfectly blocked its attacks twice. That meant my power was definitely no joke!
A deafening rumble snapped me out of my self-congratulation. I looked up and saw the Bone Armor Lion roaring as it charged at me like a cannonball! It seemed its two failed attacks had made it give up on ranged combat. It wanted to use its physical advantage to take me on head-on!
Bring it on! Let's see how strong I am now!
Boom! The impact was so fierce it seemed to shake the very earth. The Bone Armor Lion was sent staggering back nearly ten meters, several cracks appearing in the bone armor covering its body. My Blood Shield shuddered as well, hairline fractures faintly appearing across its surface.
The Bone Armor Lion's ferocity was fully unleashed. Ignoring the damage to its own bone armor, it leaped up again and slammed hard into the Blood Shield! This time, it was knocked back nearly twenty meters. Several pieces of bone armor fell from its body, making it look even more terrifying, while large cracks spread across my Blood Shield. It could take at most two more hits before shattering completely!
What should I do? Repairing the shield would take more of my blood. To be honest, by Earth's standards, I'd already lost enough blood to kill me. I didn't feel any obvious ill effects yet, but if I kept bleeding, who knew what might happen?
In that case, I'd try attacking this time!
The Bone Armor Lion charged for the third time, with even more force than before! If it hit me directly, I'd be reduced to a pile of minced meat in an instant!
First, I had to take away its ability to move!
I tried to steady my pounding heart and pictured it wounded and collapsed on the ground. For the first time, my mind was so focused that every distraction fell away.
"Hit its knee!"
The blood moved with my will. The shield, which had been hard as iron moments ago, twisted and melted in an instant, becoming an incredibly supple Blood Whip. It lashed out, leaving a trail of afterimages, and struck the Bone Armor Lion's knee!
The bone armor covering its knee shattered under the blow. With the crack of its kneecap breaking, its massive body lost balance and toppled onto its side, unable to move for the moment.
Now! Finish it off!
I suddenly remembered the way the man had moved when he unleashed his wind blades. If he could launch wind blades, why couldn't I launch blood blades?
Imitating his movements, I raised my right hand and let the Blood Whip melt back into its original, shapeless liquid form. The blood gathered around my right hand. Then I aimed at the Bone Armor Lion and swung down hard!
The crimson blood traced a graceful arc, condensing into a massive, crescent-shaped Blood Blade. Rose-like patterns covered its surface as it carved a pale red trail through the air and struck the fallen Bone Armor Lion dead on!
The Blood Blade sliced through its bone armor like paper. Meeting no resistance, it cut through the creature's entire body, from its left shoulder to its lower back, leaving a massive gash. The enormous beast was cleaved cleanly in two! And the cut was so smooth that not even its innards spilled out!
I couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath. The Blood Blade was far sharper than I'd ever imagined! A rush of elation swept over me. After all, no matter where you were, power was the foundation of survival. Though I was alone in another world, I now had enough strength to protect myself. That strength was my greatest hope of returning home!
Now that I'd dealt with the beast, I should hurry away. The commotion I'd made was enormous, and it might draw the companions of those two cannon-fodder guys. I didn't think they were bad people, but from their earlier conversation, their group seemed to be searching the forest for suspicious people. If they caught me, a clueless outsider from another world, there was a good chance they'd treat me as a suspect. I didn't want any unnecessary trouble.
Suddenly, an intense wave of exhaustion washed over me. My limbs went limp, my vision darkened, and even my thoughts grew hazy. Could these symptoms... be anemia? Had I really lost too much blood after all?
No... If I collapsed here... I tried to hold myself upright on my weak legs, refusing to fall, but my increasingly heavy head wouldn't let me. Just as I was about to give in—
In my daze, I thought I saw a faint glimmer. A trickle of warmth flowed into my body, and my mind immediately cleared a little. Over the next few minutes, more and more warmth poured into me. My strength slowly returned, and my vision grew clearer. To my astonishment, specks of light were gathering around my body. Some were dots, others streaks, and they continuously flowed into me, restoring my strength. I blinked and let my gaze go unfocused; the lights vanished from my vision. When I concentrated again, they reappeared.
"Spiritual energy!"
I'd heard the two men mention "Spiritual Energy Shockwave" earlier. Just as in so many web novels, spiritual energy really did exist in this world!
I'd recovered sixty percent of my strength. Feeling spiritual energy flow into my body was an indescribably wonderful sensation. Spiritual energy, special abilities, monsters... I was growing more and more interested in this world. Suddenly, I wanted to inspect the lion's corpse. After all, countless protagonists had earned their first fortune from monsters—hides, bones, Magic Cores, vital essence, and the like. There was always a market for them. I was completely broke, and unless this world had abolished currency, I'd have a hard time getting by at first.
I slowly approached the body, which had been cut in half. After making sure it was dead, I reached out to touch it. The instant my hand made contact, a powerful suction burst from it. A tremendous force passed through my palm and surged into my body! My strength shot up at an incredible speed, nothing like absorbing spiritual energy from the air. If absorbing spiritual energy just now had been like sipping soup, this felt like chugging a bottle of potent tonic!
In just a few seconds, my strength had fully recovered. Every nerve, muscle, and cell in my body was brimming with vitality. I even felt like I could easily take on ten more monsters!
I pulled my hand away and looked at the corpse. The flesh beneath its bone armor had shriveled into a mummy. From the looks of it, I'd drained all the blood from its body...
Could my blood manipulation ability come with some kind of life-draining technique? Manipulating blood to make shields, whips, and blades was one thing, but absorbing vital essence... that was a little sinister. After all, in games, the ones who used skills like that were usually villains... the kind the protagonist easily defeated.
Still, setting aside those pointless prejudices, this ability was incredibly useful for recovery. With it, my chances of surviving dangerous situations had undoubtedly improved.
I didn't know when someone might arrive, so I needed to speed up my investigation. I condensed blood into a short blade and dismembered the body with ease. Thankfully, I'd drained all its Blood Energy, so no blood spilled when I cut it open. Its shriveled innards also made the whole thing far less gruesome.
My efforts paid off. I found three dark red stones in its chest cavity, each about half the size of a fist. These were probably something like Magic Cores. There were actually three of them.
Once I'd packed everything up, I started following the river toward the edge of the forest.
And so, my journey in another world officially began!