Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System-Chapter 723: Challenges, Badr’s version (part 3)

For a split of a second Badr seemed interested in the "defensive" martial art that protected those two from the rain of attacks he sent their way, until he realized that this wasn’t their power but something they borrowed from someone else, not to mention that it wasn’t a defensive martial art at all.

Badr wasn’t the only one surprised to see the barrier blocking all those attacks though, the spear wielding nethereal turned to see his companion with clear anger on his face.

"Lyle, why the hell did you start your ritual spell, they were our own attacks, we could have simply blocked them!", exclaimed the spear wielding nethereal to which the hammer wielding one retorted.

"Shut up you fool, did you forget that he can add his own power to the attacks he turns against us, otherwise your spears wouldn’t have reached my real body, he simply didn’t do it on the attacks that you could easily perceive, if they had landed, I would have been fine but you would have at least lost an arm in the best-case scenario!".

Unlike gate of protection which focuses in defending and only bounces back a portion of the enemy’s attack at them since some of it is lost as it clashes against the technique, gate of binding not only allows Badr to return the whole enemy’s attack right back their way, but he can also add his own power to them.

On the surface, earlier it looked as if Badr had just accelerated the rain of projectiles to cut their way of retreat in order to force them to meet them head on, but he had actually selected some projectiles and increased the power they contained with his own energy, he did so expecting that the enemy would commit the mistake of thinking they were all the same and be caught with their guards down.

And it worked against the spear wielding nethereal since he wanted to defend by releasing a second wave of battle aura projectiles, which would have led to him being hit by the reinforced attacks Badr had returned, but the hammer wielding nethereal managed to catch a glimpse of the previous so he directly activated his ritual and here we are.

As to why the spear wielding nethereal appeared to have a voice in all this, when the one activating the ritual was the hammer wielding one, the reason is simple, unlike others, the ritual spells of these two affected the other as well.

"If you get it, stop complaining and cooperate with the ritual already", added the hammer wielding nethereal to which the spear wielding one gritted his teeth but ultimately complied as he saw Badr trying to use gate of binding on the barrier in order to break through it only to fail.

’Heh, fool, altar spells can’t be interrupted by external interference’, thought Dan as he joined his companion in calling out the spell.

"War United Front Altar!", said both nethereals in unison, as a result a black bone altar twice the size than the ones we have seen previously, emerged behind of them.

Probably because as they previously stated, they actually put some conditions to follow Marcus, at the front of the altar instead of the black spike-toothed skull, there was instead a flag divided diagonally, showing a dark grey spear raising upwards while piercing a cloud, while the other half showed a dark brown hammer descending from above breaking a mountain.

Which made Badr frown for a second, not at the sight of the altar, since he was told by Daimon to expect some interesting spells or martial arts from Marcus’s subordinates, ahead of time.

But because he couldn’t recognize those "coats of arms" represented in the flag that stood in front of the altar, just like the Northern Sea, the Nethereal Kingdom has nobles and while not all of the power is centered in them, those two nethereals are from the purist faction, therefore they put a lot of weight to the symbols that represents the nobility of their family, like their coat of arms.

So, they wouldn’t make up something just for appearances, but will use the one recognized by the kingdom.

’Mmm, I was in the war slave camp for a long time and after coming out I was trapped in the Beliel’s main state until we left for the mission, so my information might be outdated, there are many coats of arms with spear and hammer symbols in them’, ultimately concluded the tall scarred nethereal.

Badr had more accurate and recent knowledge about major families, because as a "top grade" slave, the ones that could even participate in the auction to buy him had to come from them, and even then, he lacked intel on other factions besides the Violence and Greed ones which were the ones that mainly participated in auctions for battle-oriented slaves.

Anyway, back to the ritual, now that the altar had appeared, those two actually jumped on top of it, you might wonder how did they fit when they have thirty-meter sized battle avatars surrounding them and the answer is actually quite simple, the moment they did, the divided flag in front of the altar shone and their battle avatars were absorbed by it.

Now, normally when a knight has his battle avatar completely destroyed, similar to a mage whose domain is obliterated, they would suffer from backslash, but since that wasn’t happening, Badr concluded that their connection with their battle avatars wasn’t cut off.

"Knight Symbol Sacrifice!", with those words, the divided flag shone and those two slowly had their bodies covered in dark grey and dark brown battle aura, which ultimately led to a full body armor to appear on them, if Daimon was here he would recognize this result to be similar to the "ancient battle armor" used by the Lords.

Apparently these two found a way to use a technique similar to that through Marcus’s altar spells, basically they had exchanged their battle avatars for these armors, which by the way had the same coats of arms as the flag, engraved in their chests, respectively.

"Obtaining a reward for sacrificing something yours, in order to raise the name of your clan... nonsense", said Badr as he saw the fully armored nethereals jump out of the altar which disappeared the next second to then grab their weapons which were surprisingly also covered in a layer of battle aura as soon as they entered in contact with the nethereals.

"Crack!", the barrier dissipated a moment later and the fight continued as those two flashed from their previous positions appearing at both of Badr’s sides.

"Gate of Protection", feeling the difference between the enemies in their current and former states, Badr directly created a gate of protection at both sides only to see how their weapons... broke through them in a single go.

"Boooom!", of course the effect of bouncing back a part of their attacks still applied, which is why the enemies were hit by strong impacts that created a loud explosive sound, however unlike before, those two actually took the backslash head on and continued their charge at Badr.

"That little trick of yours won’t work anymore you bastard!", shouted the spear wielding nethereal as he followed with a punch after thrusting his spear earlier, in this state their simple attacks carried the same power as a martial art, but more importantly they are using "armor" so the highest increase they received is actually in defense aspects, so they can ignore the backslash of their own attacks.

"Clang!", also they were now faster and their reflexes had improved, so they could properly coordinate their attacks unlike before, which is why their fists reached Badr’s at the same time.

Their punches clashing at the same time produced sparks and the sounds of metal colliding but the collision didn’t last too long before Badr was sent backwards a couple of dozens of meters due to the shockwave, but that wasn’t the important part here, but the fact that the tall scarred nethereal’s knuckles were... bleeding.

’Their punches carry the same impact as actual magic weapons, so while the spear and the hammer didn’t get a boost, their whole bodies are like weapons now’, thought Badr as he closed and opened his hands a couple of times, his natural recovery as Lyn mentioned before, is really good so after the initial bleeding caused by the impact, the wounds closed on the spot.

Naturally the enemies weren’t going to give Badr time to analyze their new strength, so they were gone from plain sight as soon as the previous clash ended and reappeared above Badr.

"Gate of Binding", the tall scarred nethereal beckoned and aimed the gate of binding at the hammer wielding nethereal to then force his hammer the way of the spear wielding nethereal.

"Ha!", however unlike before when Badr could easily redirect Lyle’s attack towards his companion, while the sealing did succeed, the time it lasted was drastically reduced and also, he couldn’t manipulate the hammer wielding nethereal smoothly the way he wanted, so the spear wielding one managed to dodge the attack of his companion.

"Blood Steel Piercing Thrust!", angry at the fact that Badr tried to make his companion blast his head with the hammer, the spear wielding nethereal added a martial art at the last second.

"Booooom!", an energy explosion followed by a thunder-like sound engulfed the vicinity, a figure could be seen coming out of the dust veil caused by the impact, moving backwards at high-speed leaving behind a trail of destruction.

That was Badr who had crossed his arms in front of him earlier, he casted dual layers of gate of protection and placed his arms in front of his body to defend against the enemy’s attack.

The martial art destroyed both gates on the spot and while the bounced back impact reduced the strength behind the spear, the thing did reach Badr leaving a puncture wound on his arms while also forcing him to retreat.

"It’s been a while since I felt this good in a fight", said the spear wielding nethereal as he waved his spear to disperse the dust veil and also get rid of the blood stains on the blade of his weapon.

"We have been trapped in this damn place for too long, perhaps after we return and show our families these powers, the faction leaders will reward us with a spot to participate in a "Bloodbath Ceremony" and then we’ll climb up in the ranks", said the hammer wielding nethereal, for once he agreed with his companion.

"What did you say...", those two’s conversation was interrupted by Badr whose arms had stopped bleeding as he was returning to the battlefield.

The words "Bloodbath Ceremony" were something he would never forget for the rest of his life, because he heard them so many times the day his mother’s family, in other words the only ones he considered his family, were slaughtered.

Later he came to know something, an old tradition that nowadays is only practiced by the purists of the Violence faction, in which besides the main unit sent to a fight, a second one composed of instructors and young members of the Violence faction kill the remaining enemies as a form of training.

Since they have violence related nether, obviously they grow stronger by practicing violence against others, the problem here is that the target for those that go as "trainees" are either weak or non-combatant members of the enemy side.

Which in Badr’s case, were the sick, elderly and... children, a group in which Badr would have been, had the ones in charge of it wouldn’t have purposedly lead the enemies their way so that he could reunite with his parents where the real fight was ongoing, which directly led to his survival.

He was ultimately spared because of the great display of battle prowess that his father and mother showed, which increased his "value" as he was their offspring after all.

"Considering how you have betrayed our race I bet you didn’t get to participate in one despite your age, on the other hand it’s been a really long time since the last time a bloodbath ceremony took part, listen you half-blood filth, our fathers had the privilege of participating in the last one that took place in order to restore the honor of the Violence faction by destroying the Saternia planet", said the hammer wielding nethereal.

"I see... so that’s why you looked familiar, though I didn’t recognize those coat of arms", mumbled the tall scarred nethereal in a voice low enough so that the enemies couldn’t hear him.

"Huh, what did you say you...", before the spear wielding nethereal could finish his sentence giant red energy fist descended upon him.

"Boooom!", the ground in the vicinity exploded as the giant energy fist dived deep into ground alongside the spear wielding nethereal, making the hammer wielding netherear’s eyes contract like needles.

"Dan... ack!", however he couldn’t move to help his companion, his body froze on the spot as Badr who had appeared in front of him raised him by his neck.

"That’s why I couldn’t recognize those coats of arms, you bastards come from the Classya and Nolaas families whose coat of arms pictured a spear piercing through a mountain but after participating in that cowardly so-called tradition of yours, you became strong enough to split up and form two different families...", said Badr who originally was looking downwards to then rise his head showing his eyes which’s irises had turned red blood colored.

"T-This, this is "Overwhelm", you, why do you have the ability of the Zallios family!", screamed the hammer wielding nethereal before he felt as if an invisible vice had tightened around his neck.

While the hammer wielding nethereal’s face was turning red and his eyes were opening as plates, blood red colored nether started pouring out from Badr’s body, interestingly enough the points of origin matched with some of the scars on his skin.

In case you wonder why the hammer wielding nethereal hasn’t guessed Badr’s identity though he recognized the technique he was using and the family from which it originated, that’s simple, only the highest ranking among the nethereal army that participated in the expedition, in other words the Lords and those close to them in rank like Agrak, knew Badr’s backstory, in part because it was considered a disgrace by the purists and in part because the Zallios family put that condition as a "reparation" in exchange for not interfering when Badr’s father was sentenced to death, the story behind Badr’s birth was covered up and he was passed as normal survivor of his mother’s race.

Also, while he wore no armor, his face was always covered by a helmet, other nethereals only recognized the battle slave of the young master from the Beliel family due to his distinctive six arm trait and on top of that he couldn’t use nether, not only because he didn’t want to, but even if that wouldn’t have been the case, he had his nether sealed away alongside the slave mark he got, a mark which was weakened thanks to Ophelia and ultimately eliminated by Daimon.

"How dare you consider yourselves as nobles when you take pride in killing innocent non-combatants, coward pieces of trash like you don’t deserve to wield a coat of arms", said Badr as he slowly but surely moved his right hand which was in a grasping position until it pierced through the enemy’s armor, digging into his chest right where the coat of arms was positioned.

"Aghhhh...", the hammer wielding nethereal tried to scream but the red blood colored nether which poured out of Badr’s body forced him to close his mouth.

"Shut up, the children and elders of the Six-Armed Sentry race didn’t let out a peep even when the hammers and spears of your families were landing on their bodies", said Badr as his arm completely passed through the hammer wielding nethereal’s chest to then come out from his back.

"Lyle!!!", the spear wielding nethereal whose armor was full of cracks came out from the crater created by the giant red nether fist from earlier just in time to see his companion’s eyes roll back as Badr’s arm pierced through his body.

"Blood Steel Devil Piercing Thrust!", the spear in the enemy’s hand exploded in dark grey nether to then turn into a stream that landed on Badr the next second.

"Clang!", imagine Dan’s surprise when he saw Badr stopping his attack with his palm as he threw the now powerless hammer wielding nethereal to the ground.

"Booooom!", the martial art exploded the next second engulfing the vicinity, for a second before Badr swept away the energy cloud with his right hand.

"Clang!", Badr who charged towards the spear wielding nethereal was stopped by an invisible barrier which cut his way making him frown, in front of him laid the spear wielding nethereal whose face was covered in sweat, he had used his own altar spell as fast as he could.

Badr’s hand was actually a few centimeters away from him, had he been a fraction of a second slower, he would have a hole in his chest like the hammer wielding nethereal.

What’s more, he could see red nether pressing down on the whole invisible barrier making it slowly descend into the ground.

"I wanted to believe that Lyle was wrong but this is without any doubt "Overwhelm", how is it possible, even within the elite of the Zallios family not everyone can use it, it’s one of the abilities that put them in charge of internal security in the whole kingdom", said the spear wielding nethereal.

Basically, it’s an ability that allows them to render their target immobile and defenseless, an incredibly good ability for the Zallios family which functions as the "police" in the nethereal kingdom.

"My father could immobilize multiple opponents with higher realms as easy as breathing, so it’s too early to be surprised", casually said Badr as he closed his fist to then punch at the invisible barrier.

"Zallios family or not, you won’t be able to...".

"Crack!", the spear wielding nethereal words stopped in cold as he saw a crack appearing on the frontal face of the barrier.

"Lyle, I know you can still hear me, cooperate now!", screamed the spear wielding nethereal, Badr actually didn’t kill the hammer wielding nethereal, why, because he... wanted the enemy to suffer.

"Hurry up, if I break through this barrier before you guys use that altar spell, I’ll kill you right away", said the tall scarred nethereal as he punched the barrier again making more cracks appear.

"Battlefield Devil Altar!", as if his ass was on fire, the spear wielding nethereal called out the name of the spell which restored the barrier that was about to be destroyed by Badr, he carried his still unconscious companion to the altar as he said.

"Warrior’s Code Sacrifice!", the armors covering those two turned into energy particles which then expanded and combined forking a grey-brown giant figure of eighty meters of size.

Unfortunately, the spear wielding nethereal didn’t have time to breath, because Badr whose eyes got bloodshot as he heard him say "warrior’s code", blasted a hole into the still active barrier with his right fist.