"She grew wings!"
"What did the girl turn into!"
Thousands of people watching the battle outside the Blood Dome were asking questions to express their shock. It wasn't just the outsiders in this state; those remaining in the clan stands were doing the exact same thing.
"Third Elder!"
The skinny man didn't take his glassy eyes off the red-haired girl; he answered without turning his head to the voices coming from behind him.
"I've never seen it before!"
What did this mean? Wasn't it the same as saying a disciple, still in her first year, had created her own special technique?
"You guys get ready to fight too. The Sheikh is out of commission!"
While Atractivo snored away, the Second Elder took another step forward, staring down the six people gathered opposite him. The heavy hitters stayed put, but red crescents shrouded in grays were tearing through the air, trying to reach the eagle circling above them.
The mouth piece of Nafız's armor had morphed into a beak, and four-taloned claws had sprouted where her feet were. In her free hands were Mora's training daggers; it looked like she was about to end her flight, which she had been performing by flying in circles for a while.
Tucking her wings, she went into a dive and dropped onto the corner of the formation like a red thunderbolt. When screams of agony rose, they were rising to Nafız along with them.
Catching two Black Lily Disciples with the talons on her feet, she ripped them in half in a single motion while they struggled to free themselves from the claws sinking into their torsos. Shedding the weight, she reached the sky again, constantly changing direction to dodge the incoming attacks.
"Reinforce the gap!"
The Clan Leader barked his order; one person from each of the other five corners ran and reformed the formation. The crescent-shaped sickles sped up even more, but Nafız seemed to be keeping pace with this. Tracing a wide circle as she watched her enemies, she was banking her body left and right to dodge the incoming attacks.
Then she went into a dive again; another corner of the lily-shaped formation was blown to bits. When Nafız managed to pull away doing a hit-and-run for the second time, the old man lost his temper. Realizing there would be no formation left after three more dives at this rate, the Clan Leader sprayed his own blood onto his sickles.
At that moment, the sickles swelled to three times their original size, stirring up excitement among the disciples watching him.
"Reinforce the Clan Leader, pour your energy in even if it costs you your lives!"
That the disciples in the corners had given up on their lives was reflected in the amount and color of the energy they transferred. While they previously transferred a limited amount of life essence, the gray color was now barely visible. The massive crescents advanced into the sky; Nafız was facing an attack that blocked her vision.
"Blood Techniques - Death Dive"
Tucking her wings, Nafız went into a descent against the attacks; what she was doing was truly a death dive. She was blindingly fast as she dodged through the successive attacks; despite the Clan Leader's extra effort, she had covered half the distance.
"Spirit Cage!"
The old man attacked for five more breaths and then shattered the talisman appearing in front of him with his sickles. A gray cube-shaped shield materialized around him. Severing the connection between him and the points of the formation, the shield could only protect him.
His sickles dropped from his hands; he wiped his sweat-drenched forehead with the sleeve of his robe. No matter what he did, he couldn't land a hit on Nafız inside the Wild Creature Armor, and his last resort was to turtle up with the Spirit Cage.
"You've slowed down quite a bit since the last time I saw you, geezer!"
The Black Lily Clan Leader jumped out of his skin at the voice ringing right next to his ear. He tried to go for his weapons, but the claws sunk into his arms stopped him dead in his tracks.
"If they asked, you'd even say you don't love your son at all! Or is this what knocked you off your game? Or have you always been a second-rate hack?"
While the sweat dripping from the old man's forehead trickled down his face one after another, he kept his mouth shut.
"Thanks to your spirit cage, no one can see or hear us. Since we caught such a rare opportunity, why don't we have a little chat. Oh right, a chat happens when two people talk, doesn't it? Ours will be more like me spelling out my thoughts!"
The disciples at the edges of the lily array collapsed to the ground. Their Leader, whom they supported by giving their last life forces, had abandoned them and holed himself up inside the Spirit Cage.
"First, I want to tell you how I caught you. Everyone was expecting you to launch a massive attack with the last life force you drained from your disciples, but you popped the Spirit Cage. I knew you would do this as well as I know my own name. How?"
Even though Nafız ended almost every one of her speeches with a question, not a peep came from the old man.
"Because this is your nature; as a member of the Black Lily Clan, you have no other choice. At first, I thought hard about why you guys. Why was the Royal Family backing you. You weren't strong, you weren't loyal, you certainly weren't noble, so why?"
"Then I realized something; you were treacherous, you were sneaky, and most importantly, you were expendable. It wasn't profitable at all to tear down the Holy Blood Sect and support a strong faction in its place, especially while slippery snakes like you were crawling around.
While there were people like you who would sell out their own mothers for power and profit, it was pointless to deal with the others. That's why, no matter how badly you screwed up, you were backed. Who would topple the king and put the queen in his place when there's a pawn available?"
While sharing the answer she found to the 'why Black Lily' question, Nafız shoved her claws a little deeper every second. Finally, the talons entering from the back came out of the chest, dragging the shattered ribs along with them.
Since his lower abdomen was ripped open, blood leaking from the mouth of the old man, whose intestines spilled to the ground, covered his neck.
"Maybe you should have died along with your son, but don't worry, I won't change the end you experienced that day!"
Having said her piece, Nafız bit the Black Lily Clan Leader's neck with her energy morphed into an eagle beak. The old man couldn't even let out a scream; he slumped to the ground like an empty sack.
A few breaths later, the Spirit Cage dissipated on its own, and the freed spirits drifted away wailing in place of the dead Clan Leader. All eyes were on the gray cube; the heartbeats of thousands of people dying to know what happened inside could be easily heard.
"One down, five to go!"
Nafız had morphed back into her Nora disguise. Swinging the severed head she grabbed by the hair like a basket, she called out to the other Clan Leaders watching her from their stands.
"She killed him, she actually killed him!"
The spectators outside the dome started screaming with excitement and hugging each other. Someone on their side had pulled off the impossible, according to them, and killed a Clan Leader single-handedly.
"What kind of technique was that, she was like a god descending from the heavens!"
"She was like the Blood God!"
It would perhaps never be known who said this phrase, but the chanting of the same phrase by thousands of people would not be forgotten for generations. As the severed head flew towards the Clan Stands, the chants of Blood God accompanied it.
"Retard!"
The snake-shaped energy coiled around the Third Elder shot forward like an arrow and blasted the severed head in the air to pieces. The skinny man's eyes were locked on Nafız.
"Kill. Kill everyone who is an enemy!"
The five people taking off from over the Third Elder drew their weapons; they were landing on the ground ready to attack any moment when the Second Elder met them.
"Get the hell out of my sight!"
Swinging his right fist forcefully forward, the majestic man unleashed a blood energy massive enough to engulf the five Clan leaders. As the giant red fist barreled towards them, the five launched their attacks, but the most striking detail was the snake slithering over the fist.
"In your dreams!"
The Second yelled the moment he saw the snake. Opening his mouth as wide as it would go, the roar he let out sent the snake made of blood energy flying backward.
"The Second and his famous power. I've been waiting for this day to come for a long time; let's see if you're really as good as they say?"
The Third Elder, hissing as he stepped on the handrail, rode the back of the giant blood snake appearing in front of him and glided down. While the tail of the coiled viper swayed, its head was simultaneously bobbing left and right.