Bloodline Evolution: I Can Choose Opposing Paths

Chapter 178: The Taste of Blood

Water rippled outward from Aren’s landing point.

Across from him, Alysa stood with one hand resting loosely against the curve of her bow, the other brushing a damp strand of hair from her cheek.

The abandoned facility groaned softly above them. Rusted gears sat frozen in place, pipes dripped steadily from above, and shallow sheets of murky water reflected whatever amount of sunlight that managed to pass through the grates above.

She’s a Line higher than me, though she doesn’t look like much of an endurance type. I need to tire her out somehow...

Aren took the first move, lightning sparked beneath his feet as he closed the distance in a burst. He decided to mix up his levels, one sword cutting high while the other was aimed at her feet.

She used the bow like a staff more than a ranged weapon, using the sturdy wood of the bow to block both of his attacks. Alysa pushed the force upward, causing Aren to stumble. In that split second, she turned and threw a back kick aimed toward his chest.

Aren dropped his elbow in time to catch the blow, but the force stills hoved him sideways through the shallow water.

Fast...!

He re-entered without pause, stepping back in with a thrust aimed at her shoulder before converting it midway into a slash toward the thigh.

Alysa’s eyes widened at the feint, but her muscle memory pulled her body back just enough for the first attack to miss. Then she kicked off a nearby pipe railing, letting the second strike cut only the air beneath her.

Just as she landed on the ground, Aren advanced again, refusing to give her room to draw. Aren decided to throw out a flurry of slashes, each just trying to tag Alysa with the lightning ether. But with every attack he threw out, she just barely dodged or redirected them.

The moment he tried to change tempo, the bow’s tip snapped forward and struck his wrist. Not enough to injure, but enough to disrupt his next swing. Her knee followed immediately toward his abdomen.

Aren twisted, barely being able to bring one of his swords up to block. But even as he did, the force was enough to knock him several meters back.

A reset.

"You’re really a professional, aren’t you?" Alyssa remarked. "Your ether control is flawless, maybe even better than mine."

"But the way you fight...it’s like your mind is trying to command your body to do something it very clearly can’t do.

"Tch..." Aren clicked his tongue, clearly annoyed. "What do you know about me?"

"Oh, I’ll find you out soon, dearie..."

Aren grimaced, putting a hand on his abdomen. The knee he’d taken early had clearly left a bruise on his chest, even if his swords had taken the brunt of it.

Plus, fighting while having Aqua Veil constantly draped over was draining his ether a lot faster than Aren would’ve liked.

I have to end this quickly somehow...

But before he could form up any plans, an ice arrow was already flying towards him. Aren moved the moment he saw it, body slipping to the side as it tore past where his chest had been and buried itself into a steel support behind him.

He clicked his tongue and rushed her again before a second shot could come. This time, he tried the same thing he’d done on the bodyguard—a point-blank Dragon’s Claw, where someone wouldn’t expect it to be.

As soon as their weapons collided, Aren plunged his right sword into the ground. Water condensed onto his fingers, pressurizing itself once more before he let it loose at shotgun range.

"I’m not falling for the same trick twice!" Alysa responded, jumping high into the air, completely ignoring Aren’s scheme.

From the vantage point above, she shut one eye, aiming her bow as she yelled out:

"Gale Draw!"

The bowstring she was holding onto suddenly glowed with ether, the wind swirling around it, enchanting the bow. Immediately after, arrows of frost formed from the water vapors in the air...before she let loose all at once.

Alysa fired relentlessly. Any new arrow that formed, she would fire just half a second after. The barrage of arrows rained down on Aren like winter itself, filling up the space they were fighting with absolute cold.

I can’t take that attack head-on. I need to dodge them. But how?!

Arrow after arrow tore through the chamber, burying themselves into steel beams, shattered platforms, and the flooded ground below. Wherever they struck, frost spread rapidly, turning the shallow water brittle and slippery in an instant.

Aren dodged one arrow before breaking into a sprint, slipping between the first few shots as shards of ice burst around him.

But the volley continued. The moment one arrow left the string, another had already formed.

If I keep dodging like this, I’m dead.

His foot splashed into a deeper puddle as he pivoted again, another arrow grazing past his shoulder.

Aren managed to spare a second to look at where it landed. The arrow had hit a leaking pipe, the water spilling out had instantly turned into a frozen stream.

But that was when the idea clicked.

Water! The answer had been beneath me this whole time...!

[Elementalization]

Aren’s body disappeared entirely, turning into a puddle of water before blending in seamlessly with the flooded room.

The remaining arrows hammered into the puddle where Aren had stood, freezing it over instantly.

Alysa dropped back down onto the ground, eyes narrowing as she couldn’t spot Aren anywhere.

"Tch...where the hell did he go?"

"Looking for me?"

Aren rose from a separate pool of water near one of the inactive conveyors, swords drawn up high, ready to deliver an overhead strike.

Alysa barely turned to block it, but the force was simply too much. His blades went straight through her bow, cutting it in half before the trajectory of the blades reached her chest.

She barely managed to lean backwards, receiving a shallow cut along the way.

Both of them paused, trying to regain their breath as they stared at each other, trying to see who was going to make the next move. But clearly, it was only Aren doing that...

Because the cut was enough to cause a change within Alysa.

Her eyes widened as her pupils shrank so much that he could barely even see them anymore. She stared down at her chest, at the shallow gash that Aren had left, and something on her face twisted.

"Blood...blood! It’s my own blood?!"

"Ha! HAHAHAH! I’m actually bleeding?!"

Blood dripped slowly from the shallow cut across her chest, tracing a thin line down the pale fabric before dyeing the water beneath her a crimson red.

Alysa stared at it as if the fight had ceased to exist.

Then, almost delicately, she reached two fingers toward the wound and gathered a smear of red across her fingertips.

She brought those fingers to her lips. Alysa’s tongue brushed across the blood slowly, as if savoring the rarest of delicacies. Her eyes rolled back into her lid before a shiver ran through her shoulders.

What the hell? She’s a freak?! Is she mentally delusional?

"Ahh...so warm," she murmured. "And metallic...of course. But fresher than I expected."

Alysa stared at Aren before continuing softly. "It’s funny. You spend years cutting open monsters, beasts, Mystics...watching their insides spill out."

She licked the last trace from her finger. "...but you forget your own tastes different."

Aren’s grip tightened around his swords.

She’s completely deranged.

The earlier playfulness and teasing tone she had before—it all made sense now in the worst possible way.

This was someone whose already crossed the line, somewhere no sane person would ever follow.

I can’t let her get to the others now. Especially Miu...

Alysa exhaled lightly, then bent down and picked up the two broken halves of her bow from the flooded floor.

The severed pieces should have been useless. But instead, the fractured limbs trembled in her hands before shards of ice and spiraling wind gathered around the break.

Frost crawled along the bark of the wood, stitching the halves together while the wind itself seemed to extend the bow, causing it to become a lot larger than it should’ve been.

The pressure in the room changed instantly, causing the water to ripple around Aren’s boots. The shallow puddles he had used so freely just moments ago began to crystallize.

Alysa straightened slowly, uttering a single phrase:

"Full Morph."

The reconstructed bow was no longer elegant and sleek. Jagged crystalline limbs curved outward like the horns of a beast, its string formed from a humming strand of compressed wind.

Her hair lifted in the rising current, eyes turning a bloodshot red as the madness in them had only deepened.

But Aren wasn’t missing that detail, not at all.

She’s...also a Ghoul?! How’s that possible?!

"Ahhh, now then~" she said, voice bright with excitement and gusto.

"Let’s see what else spills out of you!"