Born in Blood-Chapter 567: Snow

"Put the wristband on and apply some ’Ora’ to it."

Liam paused for a second.

"I can’t."

Bill looked confused. "You can’t?"

"I can’t use ’Ora’."

"You can’t?"

"Yes."

Liam could use ’Ora’. freewёbnoνel.com

Except, only when it was through the core.

But with the body unable to house ’Ora’, he could never extract it through normal means. Other than his element, of course, but that was not ’Ora’.

Bill was utterly taken aback for a second, confused as to what he was hearing. This was the first time in his long life seeing someone unable to use ’Ora’.

"Uh... okay. Alright. Good thing there’s a backup method of activation. Just tap it with your index finger twice."

Still a little weirded out, Liam did just that.

FWIP!

The wristband suddenly expanded to cover Liam’s arm, stretching over his entire figure and covering it with an elastic, almost see-through skinsuit, the surface of which was extremely slimy.

"It’s called a Slick Suit. Any blunt force attack that lands on its surface will slip right off."

"I doubt I’ll come across an ogre, but thanks for the thought."

"Can never be too careful!" Bill exclaimed, then moved onto the next item.

The leather glove.

It looked like a leather glove at first glance, but there were thousands of microscopic bumps lining the thin fabric.

"Wait, try using that on this test dummy here." Bill waved his hand, and a test dummy appeared with invisible walls of force surrounding them.

The ruins were fragile. Couldn’t have anything knocked over or damaged.

Liam cocked his fist pack, then launched it forward.

WHOOM!

A powerful blast tore through the dummy in seconds. Even Bill was shocked, let alone the others.

Liam gave the glove an impressed glance. Now that he noticed, the little bumps on its surface had retreated into the fabric. It was on cooldown.

"I... did not know it was that powerful," Bill remarked. "Or is that just you?"

"Could be both," Liam said, before changing the topic. "What’s this thing called?"

"Ah. A Knock Back Glove. KBG for short. You can’t really tell by the dummy, but it can even discombobulate some Rank 5 creatures."

Liam was impressed. No wonder his fist did so much damage. It was a reusable one-time use item... if that made sense.

Liam stored it, then moved onto the monocle, putting it on.

"This one’s more of a utility item," Bill told him. "It acts as a makeshift translator. Simply examine any piece of text you may find, and it’ll overlay whatever translation we might have. Though, it’ll only semi-translate things. After all, we’ve only been examining ruins."

"However, the more you scan, the better the translations will become. Theoretically, if you come across enough text, the translation will eventually be perfected."

Bill gave Giddy a thankful nod. It was most likely him that invented the item. Truth be told, it really was wondrous.

Liam nodded and stored the monocle. "I get to keep these, right?" he asked.

"You do," Bill confirmed with a slight smile. "A gesture of goodwill, but I wouldn’t complain if you paid it back, if you know what I mean." He winked.

Liam laughed, knowing what he was getting at. Most likely Bill wanted the full translation of the ancient language, if he ever were to grasp it.

If maintaining relations with Bill was for the best, why not? If it wasn’t, though, he wouldn’t bother.

Liam moved to the fourth item. The bouncy ball.

"Just throw that on the ground," Bill instructed, "with some force."

Liam did so. The ball struck the ground below them as though it was a glob of jelly, before bouncing back and spreading abnormally fast.

As it spread, it phased through Liam and Bill, turning into a sapphire, transparent sphere more than 15 meters wide.

Then, it fell back to the floor. Liam grabbed it, just to realize the inside was a liquid mixture all along. In reality, the outside was a shell... and the liquid inside was slowly refilling.

Just like the Knock Back Glove, this was a one-time use reusable item.

"It’s called a Bubble Bomb," Bill explained, their voices not spreading past the sphere. "It lasts about an hour or so, and once you’re inside, it’ll block any sort of spell or attack thrown at it."

From the outside, Sharpie laid a palm on the surface of the bubble. A ripple spread from the point of contact, but she was unable to enter through.

"How long can it last against a strong barrage?" Liam asked.

"Perhaps half an hour or maybe less, depending on the strength," Bill answered. "You can freely leave, by the way, and it’ll still last for some time, albeit not long."

’It looks a little impractical. With just fifteen meters, there’s not much movement to work with... but it can buy me some time.’

Storing it, Liam moved to the marbles, more than two dozen of them. They varied in pattern, color and size, but they all sparkled like diamonds.

Liam was about to throw it, but Bill instantly stopped him.

"Wait! Just before you throw it, let’s get out of the bubble. You don’t want any of it on you."

A little estranged by the comment, Liam and Bill casually left the Bubble. Just before putting his last foot out, Liam flicked the marble towards the inner wall.

Then, he stepped out.

KRSHHH!

The marble exploded into a glittery mess, like thousands of diamonds combusting all at once. In a moment, the entire Bubble was filled with the shiny substance, and nothing could be seen inside.

This was a smokescreen... on crack. He could see the inside of the Bubble rippling chaotically, as though it was getting drilled through. At the same time, Liam saw it stick to the surface of whatever it clinged on.

’Probably feels like broken glass ripping through your insides.’

"Do it now, please," Bill said out loud. A second later, there was a loud whirring noise emitted from within the Bubble.

Seconds ticked by, and before long, all the diamond glitter had been vacuumed by Rebel, entering into his robe’s sleeve.

"What if I get any of it on me?" Liam said.

"Don’t worry," Bill responded. "Its only weakness is your darkness element. If you do, you can easily melt it off."

Liam nodded.

...Lastly, there was the suspicious looking pocket of white powder.

Liam had a feeling it wasn’t snow.