Beyond the Bloodline

“Nelo, surrender!!”

“Never!”

Nelo shouted out as he kicked off the ground, blitzing towards Jamie at breakneck speed. The distance of about 80m between them was crossed in a second, and he threw his energy-enhanced fist out, aiming straight for the face of the Hybrid.

And then, much to his and the surprise of everyone present, Jamie didn’t seem to take any defensive or evasive action, letting the punch hit him right in the face.

A cracking sound rang out as Nelo’s fist broke something, most likely Jamie’s jaw with that attack, while also sending him slamming into the wall behind him.

Jamie spat out blood and then tilted his head, his regeneration kicking in to heal him while Nelo was wondering for the Hybrid’s reason for a lack of evasive action.

But he didn’t stay wondering for long, kicking off the ground and moving in for another attack, throwing out a punch that the Hybrid dodged this time.

He then sent in an attack of his own, which Nelo blocked before using his outstretched arm to clothesline the Hybrid and slam him onto the ground

Jamie tried to use his legs to sweep Nelo off his feet, but he jumped up into the air to avoid it. Seeing that sweeping the Vampire off his feet failed, the Hybrid used the momentum from his kick and sprung up to his feet before taking distance from Nelo.

He then charged in at full speed, but since he was a realm lower than Nelo, his speed was only ‘fairly fast’ in Nelo’s eyes, and the teenage Vampire could easily see through his movements and dodge his attacks.

Nelo delivered a full-powered punch to Jamie’s neck, infusing his energy into it and causing the man internal injuries that forced a mouthful of blood out from his mouth.

He did not let up on his assault, following it up with an upward push kick that knocked him back.

Knowing that the Hybrid had ‘pretty good’ regenerative capabilities, Nelo did not hold anything back, activating a skill and executing a martial arts technique.

He gathered force by rapidly spinning on a central point, before delivering a three-step kick where he knocked Jamie’s head in two directions with the first kick and then spun once more and kicked the Hybrid in the opposite direction to finish him off

But much to his surprise, the Hybrid rose his right arm and blocked his attack, before grabbing his leg with the left and spinning his body to fling Nelo over his shoulder.

Jamie gave chase, throwing out a punch with a twisting motion which Nelo flipped his body to block mid-air, at the cost of landing properly.

The Hybrid delivered his own follow-up with a roundhouse kick, but Nelo blocked it with an energy barrier, giving it a knockback effect that made Jamie lose his balance.

Taking advantage of this, Nelo shot forward, delivering a punch so fast that it sent air pressure to strike Jamie.

The Hybrid rolled on the floor to dodge before rapidly spinning and delivering a low sweeping kick but Nelo blocked it with a strong explosive downward punch.

He then hit the ground and sent a powerful shockwave through the ground, causing Jamie that was trying to get up to stumble and fall back down.

Nelo followed up with a kick to the chest but Jamie caught his leg and swung his arm, hitting the back of Nelo's knee and bringing him down to the ground.

He then got up and pulled the teenage Vampire’s body faster than he could get up, flinging him in the air and slamming him down onto the ground with enough force to send a shockwave in all directions.

Jamie then flung Nelo towards the wall, running after him and jumping up, delivering a kick to Nelo’s face while turning 360 degrees.

Just when the Hybrid’s leg was about to connect with Nelo’s head, a thirty cm thick wall of water suddenly appeared in between them.

His leg rebounded off the wall of water Nelo created, the knockback sending him flying into the air and towards the ground.

He rag-dolled for a few seconds before regaining his bearings and getting up, but by then, Nelo had already blitzed into range, a skill being activated as he delivered a powerful hook punch straight to his jaw.

*BAM!!!

The force knocked the man’s head back onto the ground with so much force that it bounced back up, sending blood splattering onto the floor.

But before Nelo could even follow up, Jamie’s eyes shot open as he threw out his left hand, delivering an open-palm uppercut straight to the young Vampire’s jaw at a speed faster than he could react to.

‘??!

He’s getting faster?!’

While the strength behind his attacks had not changed, Nelo noted that the Hybrid had indeed gotten faster, and his regeneration had also sped up as the damage dealt by Nelo’s earlier hook punch had already healed up.

With that same increased speed, Jamie used his other hand to strike his elbow, the force created from both hands being redirected to the one hand that was in contact with Nelo’s chin.

And since his hand was already in contact with the young Vampire’s chin, evading the second hit was impossible.

“Gufph!”

Nelo let out an intelligible noise as he was forced to bite his tongue due to the attack, his vision also turning hazy as the force temporarily disoriented him.

Taking advantage of this, Jamie caught Nelo by his arms and then tossed the Vampire’s body onto his leg as he brought his knee up.

He then followed up by slamming the back of his fist into Nelo’s head once more, using enough force that the Vampire’s skull cracked.

A small omnidirectional shockwave spread out as his fist collided with Nelo’s head, knocking the weaker subordinate Vampires and werewolves onto the ground with its force while making all who saw and heard it wince involuntarily as if they were the ones being attacked.

Just when Jamie was about to slam both his fists into the sides of Nelo’s head, intending to use air pressure to destroy his eardrums and cause a brain concussion; his body was suddenly hit with a gust of wind that sent him flying straight towards the wall of the barrier.

The source of this sudden wind, Nelo, dropped to his knees and spat out a bit of blood, his face contorting in displeasure as he realised that he had taken more damage than he expected.

As he saw the Hybrid getting back up on his feet, he summoned his elemental powers, encasing his fist in a thick layer of ice to create a spiked ice gauntlet.

“Elements? Now that’d be a bit difficult.”

Jamie cracked his neck as he spoke, before getting into a stance with his left leg placed forward and his right leg pulled backwards a bit.

Replicating this with his hands, he locked his gaze onto the young Vampire and took a deep breath before kicking off and dashing towards him.

What followed was another hand-to-hand combat session, with Nelo using his spiked gauntlet to deliver powerful strikes pulsating with lethal intent.

His first few attacks aimed at the Hybrid’s body were nearly ineffective, as whatever material the suit he wore was made out of, it was more than powerful enough to withstand a superior grandmaster’s attacks without rase.

As such, he opted to target Jamie’s face, dealing devastating damage with each attack that caused blood to spill, but the wounds always healed at breakneck speed so Nelo had little to no time to see the effect of his attacks.

From here on, Nelo uses his elemental powers against the Hybrid, overpowering him at first, but after about two minutes, he slowly starts losing his advantage as the Hybrid became stronger and faster.

Wanette who is watching on the sidelines suddenly noticed that at some point, she stopped being able to sense Jamie’s realm, and when she voiced this out, the others noticed that they also could not sense his realm anymore.

Nelo overheard Wanete’s words and realised it was true, shocked at the fact that such a change occurred in his opponent and he did not notice it at all!!

He tried checking for Jamie’s realm, but he found that he was unable to sense anything at all.

‘How did this happen?’

The young Vampire asked himself as he infused his fist with ice and wind elements, unleashing a devastating combination of strikes that the Hybrid met with his fists, the clash of their energies and fists creating a maelstrom of power.

‘Wait, energy?!!’

Though he could miss Jamie’s realm suddenly going off his perception, there was no way he could miss the fact that the man was now using energy.

“Huh? He’s already started recovering?!”

“But Desiccation victims should not be able to recover immediately! The spell makes sure of that!”