"Ehh, this Lesser is putting up a good fight against you, Uto." I started to project illusions all over the blood floor of myself, just looking up at him, not attacking. "Uto." We all spoke as he looked around with a smile. "You have the high ground, but that doesn't matter, cause the fact is, you are going to have to come down to me."

He nodded his head repeatedly. "Is that the truth?" A black spike shot out from the ceiling, and I sent out a blood spike from the ground, the two collided, but the blood spike broke the black one. I pulled the blood back to the ground. "How long can you do that though?" Spikes began to rain down on me, and I dodged each one, trying not to use a lot of mana, knowing that I couldn't do this forever. I canceled the illusion spell for the same reasons, I didn't have time or the mana to distract him like that.

I dodged the last one, and was hit with a sudden presence of blood, coming from a living thing, heading here. I've felt this blood somewhere before, but whose is it?

I spun and looked up at Uto and shot spears of blood up at him. He bobbed and weaved through the spell, and I fell to my knees as a black spear entered my calf. "What the?" I exclaimed, looking at where the spike grew from, it was from the wall behind me, but the spike was so small I couldn't sense it.

I looked up as Uto came flying at me, I quickly raised my arms up, using the blood around me to protect myself, and as Uto slammed his weapon into my shield of blood, the spike in my leg shot through the other end. "Ahh." I wreaked in pain, as the blood I was controlling to repel Uto budged, and he slipped through.

I watched as the smiling Uto slammed his weapon right into my chest, sending me flying into the wall, causing the end of the spike to break off, but it was still in my leg. I created a crater in the wall, that shook the cavern, and Uto flew back up before I could do anything to him.

"You are no match for me, brat, it doesn't matter the amount of blood you have, you are still just a Lesser, and will always be one." I stepped out of the human imprint I left on the wall and spit out blood. I wiped my face and looked down to wear Uto hit me.

Right by my belly button, was a black knife, impaled in me. "Haha." I gripped the handle he made it have, and ripped the blade out of me, then threw it on the ground. "I didn't see that coming." I admitted, he caught me off guard. It hurt to walk, even when I closed the wound, and sent blood to the damaged areas to heal. I bent down and removed the spike tip in my leg and started to heal that as well.

"Your healing abilities are good, of course, you can control blood, so it makes sense." Uto still doesn't think I have a chance, but this fight so far, proved something. I was stronger than Arthur, he got his ass whooped by Uto.

I felt the blood presence get even closer, maybe ten minutes out, it couldn't be Arthur, no one knows we are down here. Even the teams looking for everyone are at the opposite end of the dungeon, fighting mana beast and Alacryan soldiers. It won't matter who it is, if I can kill Uto before they get here.

"Fuck it." I started to push out mana all around me, into all of the blood, I want to win. I want to be the first person to kill a Retainer or Scythe, I want to live, I want this! The blood under me started to move, and it crawled up the walls, onto the ceiling, covering the whole cavern in redness.

"What are you doing?" There were no more shadows for Uto to use, only the ones on his belt, it didn't make him weak, it gave me a better chance to win though. I even blocked off the exits with blood, so he couldn't escape into another dungeon. "Damn you!" He shot a black spike right at my face, I couldn't manipulate the blood, because it would create shadows, so I sidestepped the spear.

"Looks like someone is a little angry." There was blood still circling me, I pushed my hand out at him, and the blood shot out like bullets towards him. His eyes went wide as the bullets spread out, and as he attempted to dodge them, I brought the ones that went past him back to me.

He didn't notice this, allowing one of the bullets to collide with him. It entered through his back armor, then came out his front chest plate. Uto spit out blood, and I watched as the wound slowly began to heal. All the blood came back to me, and I then released it again, sending more bullets at him, but having them track his own blood, so he couldn't avoid them forever.

"Who's running now?" I shouted out to him, as he flew across the battlefield, avoiding getting hit again.

He showed his teeth to me like a dog, then brought up multiple black spikes, forming around him, the blood hit the spikes, and the collision left Uto unharmed. I brought the blood back to me, and it spun around me like a halo.

"I can't believe this fight has lasted this long." Uto told me. "You, a mere boy, lasting this long, no wonder the High Sovereign wants you."

"Agrona wants whatever will give him the power to take over Epheotus, and honestly, I would too." Uto's wound was closed now, but his hood was not on his head anymore, and his armor wasn't in tack.

"Don't speak like you know him?" Uto spit at me. "He'll teach you to respect him."

I waved my arms. "I respect him, what do you mean? I think he's a dick, but you gotta respect him for trying to take on all the gods."

Uto appeared in front of me, staring into my soul, none of us attacking the other. "I said, don't speak like you know him." Another weapon formed in his hand, this time a long lance, and he drove it at me.

I formed a sword made out of blood and deflected the attack. "Make me." I shot my sword at him, he parried the attack, and I spun, liquified my blade as he went to block it, then reformed it, and brought it to his ribcage.

A spike grew from under him, shooting directly at me, right at the end of my swing, and both attacks landed, sending us flying in opposite directions. I landed on my back, looking up at the bloody ceiling of the cavern.

"Shit." I mumbled as I looked at my chest, sticking out of my stomach was a giant spike. It didn't hit my core luckily, but it hurt a lot. I went to pull it out, but Uto appeared, standing at my feet, looking down at me. There was a huge cut on his side, blood ran down his armor at a steady pace. I could see it in his eyes, he was in shambles, thinking about how a Lesser like me, put him in that state with one swing really.

This was my chance, I pushed my water mana into his wound, he didn't have a connection to it, so he couldn't trace it. I felt the mana started to combine with the blood inside of his body and started to shake in excitement. I needed a lot to get into him though, if I didn't have enough, it wouldn't work.

"You brat." He said with his anger filled voice. "I so wish I could kill you, but this will do." I saw two lances grow from his hands, and he smiled down at me. "Scream in pain, roll in pain, plead for help, I love those sounds."

I pushed more and more water mana into his blood stream, and then stopped as he lifted his hands up.

"I'll pass." I shot wind from under my feet, pushing myself away from him, then got back up to a standing position, and faced him. I placed a hand on the spike in my chest, and started to slowly remove, healing the wound as I did. My cloak was soaked in blood, and it was my boood this time. I was about to run at Uto, but all of a sudden, I got light headed.

"Ah, has the Lesser hit his limit." Uto walked toward me. "It was fun while it lasted at least." The wound on him wasn't healed completely, but to a point where he could move regularly. "I'm going to shove these lances through your body, and watch as you beg me to kill you, but I won't. I'll just drag you back with me and do it all over again."

My eyes widened, not because I was scared or anything. "What the hell man? I might have problems, but that right there, that's some weird ass shit. Who threatens someone like that? You need to relax, like come on."

I didn't manage to get enough water mana into him, but I did get enough to hurt him a decent amount. It also took a lot of mana to concentrate and manipulate blood, which I didn't really have.

I started to breathe pretty heavily, running low on mana, and energy. I needed to win, I couldn't lose to him here and now, everything I worked for, all the time I put into training, would be for nothing.

Uto vanished and appeared, even with the wound, he was fast, I ducked under the lance he swung at me, and brought my sword up. He parried my attack with the other lance and swung again at my face.

I created a shield of blood, blocking his attack, then shot the shield at his face, the blood connected with him, and sent him flying backwards again. I pulled the blood back to me, and as Uto looked up, I could see that I managed to cut his face. 

"You are just making this harder on yourself, brat, you know you don't have much longer." Uto launched himself at me, I conjured an illusion, and made myself invisible to his eyes as I rolled away.

I watched him pass through the illusion and turn directly to me. I canceled the illusion spells and got in a fighting position. He was just wearing me down now, I needed a decisive blow, that could kill him instantly, or destroy his core, if I could get more water mana into him, I could win.

He appeared in front of me, I swung my sword first, predicting what he was about to do. Three spikes grew at me, and I pushed out ice, freezing them in their place, and continued my attack. We exchanged blow after blow, he would dodge my attack, I would freeze his spikes, he would deflect my blade, I would roll away from him. We both landed a couple hits, but nothing too serious, not where blood was drawn.

It went like that for a little, until my head started to spin, and I stopped my approach on him. I almost toppled over, but I caught myself with my blade. Uto faced me, and I could see that he was tired as well, he wasn't expecting this kind of fight.

I need mana, I looked down at the ring on my finger, and started to rapidly absorb mana using my blood magic. I stopped after ten seconds, feeling a little better, knowing I couldn't do that constantly.

Uto looked at me shocked. "Did you just absorb mana?"

"Yeah." I told him, whatever was heading in this direction, was going to be here in a minute. "Let's continue." I shot myself at him, pointing my sword at his core, he brought his lance down on my collarbone. This was it! I attempted to slide my blade where I sensed his core to be at, but before I did, Uto held back his attack, and a spike grew at my blade.

I liquified it, and then reformed it, sliding the blade into his armor, right at his core, and allowed the spike coming at me to collide with my shoulder blade. I couldn't drive my blade in any farther, the spike prevented me from getting closer, because it would rip my shoulder off if I did. 

Then out of nowhere, the ceiling above us collapsed, and shook the entire cavern. Uto and I backed away from each other as the dust from the crash reached us. I could still sense his mana, but my attack did some damage to him, then again, so did his. The spike in my shoulder was pretty far in there, I couldn't tell if it broke through to the other side or not.

I had enough mana, to where I started to push more water mana into his wound, I needed to get more in there before it healed.

As the dust settled, the sight before us was something unexpected, but welcoming.

"So, you came." I smiled as I was barely able to hold myself up, what an exciting day.