Blood Online: Evolving Endlessly-Chapter 201: Two Down

"ATTACK!" Nyla’s voice carried command born from watching her brother consume someone in front of her. "All ranged fighters—suppress him! Melee—coordinate strikes! Don’t let him focus on anyone!"

The arena erupted.

Aria moved first, wind gathering around her in visible currents as she launched herself forward. Her long blade extended with compressed air that made the weapon’s reach triple, and she struck from an angle designed to force the Monarch to defend or dodge.

He did neither.

His blood-wing intercepted the strike, individual crystalline feathers moving independently to form a shield that caught Aria’s enhanced blade and held it. The impact produced a sound like shattering glass, and Aria felt the shock travel up her arms with force that should have dislocated her shoulders.

Before she could disengage, tendrils of blood erupted from the vortex—dozens of them, moving with serpentine precision, wrapping around her legs and pulling.

Nibo’s axe came down between them, the massive blade cutting through tendrils like they were cobwebs, buying Aria the fraction of a second she needed to activate her wind-step and escape.

The Monarch’s crimson eyes tracked her retreat with interest that suggested he was filing away information for later use.

Then Layla’s undead charged in.

She’d emptied her entire spatial sack—twenty corpses animated by necromantic energy, each one moving with coordination that living fighters couldn’t achieve because they didn’t fear death. Green fog spread across the arena as they attacked from all angles simultaneously, weapons that had killed them now wielded against a new target.

The Monarch’s smile widened.

His hands moved in patterns too fast to track, and where they passed, blood materialized. Not from wounds—from nothing, created through will alone, responding to power that exceeded normal manipulation. The blood formed into blades, into spears, into geometric shapes that had no name but carried edges regardless.

The undead were cut apart in seconds. Reanimated corpses reduced to scattered pieces that Layla’s necromancy couldn’t reassemble fast enough.

But they’d served their purpose—created enough chaos that other fighters could position for real attacks.

Ryan came from above, having used the distraction to circle wide and gain height. His blade descended in a strike enhanced by every technique he possessed, aimed at the base of the Monarch’s skull where defense would be weakest.

The Monarch didn’t turn around.

A blood tendril shot upward from the vortex, caught Ryan’s descending blade, and yanked him out of the air with force that should have torn his arm from its socket. He hit the ground hard enough to crack stone, and before he could recover, the Monarch was there.

"Interesting technique," the Monarch observed, his hand closing around Ryan’s throat. "Perfect timing. Flawless execution. But you forgot something."

Ryan struggled, his free hand going for a knife at his belt.

"I can see your blood moving," the Monarch continued, those crimson eyes tracking patterns invisible to normal sight. "Watch your heartbeat. Know when you’ll strike before you do because your bnnounces your intent." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

His hand tightened, and Ryan’s struggles became more desperate.

Nyla’s ice hit the Monarch from the side—absolute zero temperature compressed into a lance that should have frozen anything it touched solid. It struck the Monarch’s ribs and he actually flinched, actually released Ryan and stepped back, frost spreading across his white skin.

For half a second, the fighters dared to hope.

Then the Monarch looked down at the frost, and the blood vortex pulsed. Heat radiated from him—not normal warmth but something that exceeded fire, that came from energy being converted at the cellular level. The ice sublimated directly to vapor without passing through liquid, and the Monarch’s skin was pristine again.

"Sister," he said, and for just a moment his voice carried tones that were almost Akhil’s. "Your cold is impressive. But I’ve absorbed divine essence now. Temperature is just another variable I control."

He moved toward her with terrible purpose.

Nibo intercepted, his massive frame blocking the path, axe raised in both hands. "You want her, you go through me first."

The Monarch looked up at the orc who’d become Akhil’s friend, who’d fought beside him through impossible scenarios, who’d trusted his tactical genius and followed his plans because they kept everyone alive.

"With pleasure."

They clashed in the center of the arena, and the impact made the barrier flare with absorbed energy. Nibo’s axe met the Monarch’s blood-formed weapons in exchanges that produced shockwaves, both fighters using strength that exceeded human limitation.

But Nibo was tiring. The divine gift kept his energy replenished, kept minor wounds healing, but exhaustion was cumulative and he’d already been pushed to his limits fighting the titan. His strikes were fractionally slower, his defenses fractionally less complete.

The Monarch was getting stronger with every passing second.

A blood tendril wrapped around Nibo’s ankle while he was committed to an overhead strike. He felt the pull, tried to compensate—

Too slow.

The Monarch’s fist drove into his stomach with force that lifted the massive orc completely off his feet. While Nibo was airborne, unable to defend, the blood vortex surged forward and wrapped around him completely.

"NO!" Nyla’s scream cut across the arena, ice exploding outward from her position in waves.

The vortex began pulling Nibo apart, dissolving him from the extremities inward, consuming him the same way it had consumed Greg.

Aria hit the Monarch from behind with wind compressed into a cutting blade. Layla’s tiger—the one thing from her arsenal that wasn’t undead—leaped at his throat. Seth threw knives enhanced with precognitive timing to arrive exactly when the Monarch would be most vulnerable. Ryan, despite his injured throat, channeled everything into a strike at the Monarch’s exposed back.

The coordinated assault would have killed most opponents.

The Monarch’s blood-wings spread, and every attack was caught, deflected, or absorbed. The coordinated assault became scattered desperation as each fighter had to abort their strike to avoid being caught by counterattacking tendrils.

And through it all, the vortex continued consuming Nibo.

"I’m... sorry... kid," Nibo managed, his voice already fading. "Couldn’t... protect..."

{Fighter Eliminated: Nibo}

{Monarch Awakening: 69% → 71%}

{Warning: Barrier integrity at 88%}

The massive orc was gone, reduced to crimson mist that joined the swirling vortex, and the Monarch stood taller, stronger, his wings spread wider.

"Two down," he said, tracking the remaining fighters with eyes that burned brighter. "Eighteen to go. Then the barrier fails. Then I ascend. Then I consume the divine realm itself."