Vampire Cultivation System in a Hidden World of Monsters

It was time to kick things up a notch. I activated the Blood Draw mechanic on my sword by pushing the bottom of the hilt forward. A needle stabbed the bottom of my palm, drawing blood.

Using blood manipulation, I pulled the blood out of the small wound and layered my sword with it. The vibration of my sword changed to something I interpreted as satisfaction.

I made the blood run up along the blade at high speeds until it reached the tip of the blade. Then it ran down the back of the blade to the bottom where it transferred back to the front of the blade and ran up it again. This created a sort of blood saw effect.

The idea was that it allowed my blade to cut faster and deeper than before. I attacked the kitsune and it put up its sword to block. Sparks drew from the kitsune's blade as mine cut into it.

After a few seconds, my blade had cut all the way through his, severing it in half. The kitsune's eye widened in surprise. Then it split into four and ran away.

When I say that, I mean three new identical versions of the kitsune came out of the original one. They had to be illusions but I didn't know which one was the real one.

The kitsune all drew out a dagger. I could see they had two daggers, one still sheathed, but I assumed they didn't want to risk both of them getting cut by my sword at the same time.

"Time for the next coin toss! This one will determine if we add laser traps!" The announcer said, as he tossed the coin back into the air.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The kitsune aimed their hands at the announcer again.

"It's heads! We add the traps!" The announcer said.

A wall of three lasers shot across the room, separating it in half. The lasers were placed vertically parallel to each other. There was enough space to duck or dodge between the lasers if you paid attention and did it carefully, but it was an added distraction that would make this fight that much harder.

It was to the kitsune's advantage though since it was down a sword. It added another way for it to hurt me. When the room was separated by the lasers, two of the kitsune illusions ended up on the other side of the room.

They each ducked under a laser and stepped over one to get to the side of the room I was on. Now all four kitsune were on the same side with me. Great. They all rushed me at once.

I slashed through the two in front of me while the other two came around the sides. The two in front disappeared and both of the kitsune on the sides of me stabbed at my midsection.

I felt nothing when the one on the left stabbed me, but I certainly felt it when the one on the right did. So they were illusions. They weren't clones. The one that stabbed me twisted the knife as I kicked it away from me.

I held my side as it healed and directed Vi to the wound so it healed faster. After just a moment it was healed, but if the kitsune had been able to follow up with more stabs or slashes, the wounds would've added up quick and I'd be on the ground in a matter of seconds.

When I kicked the kitsune away from me, it flew through the air through the lasers. Knifes shot out of the wall and hit the wall on the other side. So the lasers weren't harmful. They just activated a trap.

The kitsune had been traveling through the air fast enough that the knives didn't hit it. It landed on the other side of the room and skidded to a stop on its feet.

It divided into four again. I tried to keep track of the real one, but when they split, they moved to the left and the right out of each other, so there was no way to tell which one was the original.

Before the kitsune got back onto my side of the room, I got an idea. I went up to the laser wall and put my hand in front of one of the lasers. A knife shot out and stabbed through my hand.

Only one knife shot out. So the laser traps were independent. The whole wall of knives didn't activate when you tripped one laser. I put my hand in front of the laser again and it fired another knife through my hand.

I kept my hand in front of the laser until I had a dozen knives in my hand. The kitsune was just watching me with a confused look on its face the whole time. I pulled the knives out and stuffed some in my pockets and held the rest in my other hand, until my original hand healed.

Once my hand was healed, I had six throwing knives in my hands. I backed up and threw four knives out really fast. I threw one knife at each kitsune. Two of them dodged and two of them failed at dodging.

One of the ones that got hit with a knife disappeared but the other one got a knife to the side. With that, it realized my plan. I would use throwing knives to whittle down the illusions so I could determine the real one.

I kept throwing knives at it, getting more by putting my hand in front of a laser, and throwing more of them. It kept dodging and multiplying every time I hit an illusion.

As it dodged, it started moving in a dance like pattern, swishing its tails through the air. Flames started shooting out of its tails. The flames weren't directed at me. They hovered in the air for several seconds before dissipating.

It was directing the flames in front of itself. I could only assume it was trying to obscure my vision with the flames, since that's exactly what it was doing. Pretty soon there were so many flames, that I could barely see the four kitsune behind them.

It kept dancing and dodging and producing flames with its tails, but it started moving closer to me. They kept creeping closer and closer to the laser wall until they all dodged through it in between the lasers on the far side of the room away from me.

Now the kitsune were on my side of the room. They continued to dance and dodge and produce flames as they got closer to me. I kept missing because I could barely see through the flames.

Eventually, I abandoned the throwing knives and switched back to my katana. I readied myself to strike or block as the flames and the kitsune crept closer and closer to me.