SHATTERED REALM: FORGOTTEN ECHOES-Chapter 170: How Dare You Taint Me??

Lavla's face had gone paler, bloody sweat beading along her forehead as she struggled to maintain her constructs.

Blood surged up from the arena floor, forming giant crimson fists and blades, but Iris remained untouched.

Steam hissed violently as vaporized blood sprayed across the arena. Iris's nose was covered again, and she twisted away with a disgusted glare.

"Pathetic," she spat. "Filthy."

The arena floor was now a battlefield of blood, fire, and vapor, slick and chaotic. Iris hovered above on a sword, her wings beating furiously to keep her in a safe zone away from any stray drops and odour.

She commanded her swords without batting an eye.

She'd reduced them to three: One sword sliced through a massive blood tentacle; another deflected a barrage of whips; a third spun in a protective arc around her, vaporizing the smallest threats before they could reach her.

Lavla was being pushed to use up all she could, her pride preventing her from throwing in the towel.

She was trying desperately to maintain her constructs. Her face was now white, her arms trembling, her breathing harsh.

"I… I can't… keep up like this," she muttered, forcing herself forward. Her hands weaved a complex dance, forcing her blood constructs to defend more frantically, but each attack was met with blinding precision.

Just when it all seemed hopeless, Lavla secretly threw a ball of condensed livers into her mouth and bit into it."

This was a simple item carried by students of her place, and only in desperate times were they allowed to use them.

Her aura surged.

Blood burst from her pores, swirling into a massive humanoid giant that shielded her completely.

The announcer exclaimed sharply. "A blood-giant manifestation… from a student? Such precision is exceedingly rare!"

The crowd erupted.

"That's a Sanctum secret technique!"

"If Iris takes that head-on!"

The giant clapped, sending a crashing wave of blood forward.

Iris blocked—but droplets still struck her.

"ENOUGH!" She screamed

Her wings flared to full size, flames licking the edges.

Iris surged forward, straight into the humanoid blood construct. She twisted midair, slicing through it from the inside out, fire and steam hissing, blood vapor clouding the arena. Her hair flared with vermillion fire, the edges singed by her own aura.

Lavla barely dodged, quickly repairing the damage done to her giant.

She coughed as blood-laced steam stung her lungs.

Iris's eyes were wild now, but still calculating.

"Stop hiding," she snarled, eyes blazing. "Come out and face me." The arena seemed to burn red with her aura.

Her wings flared to full size, flames licking the edges violently.

Iris surged forward to punish her opponent.

She plunged straight into the humanoid blood construct. The interior was thick and suffocating.

It felt like fighting inside a beating heart.

Lavla tried to restrict Iris, but her body twisted, slicing arcs of flame through the giant's chest cavity. Steam and vapor burst violently around her as her aura scorched every surface it touched.

Blood exploded in hisses and pops, choking the air.

Lavla felt the damage immediately and clenched her teeth, weaving her fingers as fast as she could. The construct's wounds stitched back together, arteries of blood re-knitting the giant's muscles.

Iris attacked again, this time ripping through the construct's shoulder and carving fiery holes as wide as her torso. Lavla's breath hitched, coughing as blood-laced steam stung her lungs.

Then Iris came for the legs.

She dove low, her wings trailing vermillion arcs, slicing through the limb in a single, scorching line.

Half-melted chunks of hardened blood thudded to the ground like butchered meat.

Lavla acted quickly, flooding the giant's body with more blood to keep it standing. Her face had begun to turn white; her movements jerked, struggling to keep pace.

Iris hovered before the half-crippled construct, covering her nose with the back of her hand.

"Still hiding?" Her voice dripped venom."You're pathetic."

Lavla didn't answer. Her eyes sharpened, and she funneled more of her remaining blood upward, forming a massive arm reinforced with sharpened crimson bone.

The giant swung.

Iris darted aside, the attack crashing against the arena floor with a ground-shaking crunch.

Cracks raced across the stone.

Iris's lips curled.

"Wrong move." Swords obeyed instantly.

Three blades streaked outward, carving into the giant's remaining arm. Blood splattered across Iris's cheek.

Lavla felt the murderous aura around Iris increase.

Iris was getting more dangerous by the second.

A sword pierced the giant's thigh.

Another severed its wrist.

The third stabbed directly into its side, carving a burning gash that melted through layers of blood-flesh.

Every strike carried the precision of a surgeon and the hatred of a relentless storm.

Lavla tried to retreat deeper into the giant's core, but Iris wasn't giving her a chance.

"COME. OUT."

Her charged wings beat once, and the explosion of heat blasted the giant apart from the chest outward.

Lavla barely survived, hastily pulling the blood back around her like armor, but Iris had completely destroyed one half of the construct.

The remaining half leaned, crippled, barely keeping Lavla hidden behind its mangled form.

Blood rose again, forming blades that clot and hardened till they turned obsidian.

"Crimson Shards…?" someone in the crowd whispered.

Lavla launched them, hundreds of tiny spinning projectiles aimed at Iris from all angles.

Iris didn't dodge.

Her wings formed a protective flaming vortex, and every shard melted before they could touch her.

The three swords rose behind her, glowing so intensely that the arena dimmed around them.

They rotated slowly at first…

Then faster.

Until the three blades blurred into a single spiraling form, a giant vermillion drill of fire.

The air howled and whistled.

Lavla felt the pressure crush her lungs.

Iris pointed downward.

"Break."

The spiral dropped like a comet.

It tore through the giant from crown to waist, scorching, slicing, and carving open the blood-flesh.

The giant split in two, the midsection melting and burning as it fell apart like collapsing pillars.

Lavla was exposed, flung backward, blood splashing wildly around her.

She hit the ground hard.

Her ribs cracked.

Lavla gasped and slammed her palm against her chest.

Blood surged inward, patching tissue, knitting bone, and sealing ruptured vessels with brutal efficiency.

Her breathing steadied, but her skin blanched further.

Using blood to heal was costlier than fighting.

"Don't…" she rasped, raising a trembling hand. "Come any closer…"

Iris touched back down in front of her, flames simmering wildly around her like a storm barely contained.

Her cheek was stained with dried crimson.

Her voice was a whisper drenched in fury.

"You stained me again."

Lavla tried to rise.

"I didn't mean—"

"I don't care."

Iris stepped closer, flames flaring.

Lavla's instincts screamed.

She gathered the last of her blood into a swirling defensive wall, desperately trying to flee, to escape the inferno descending upon her.

But Iris was already there.

Out for blood.

Literally.

Lavla's breath trembled as she forced herself upright, blood sliding down her arm in thin streams.

She clenched her fist, and the droplets rose.

"Don't think… I'm done yet," she whispered hoarsely.

The droplets hardened into dozens of crimson needles, rippling with her pulse. They snapped into formation around her like an orbiting ring of razors.

Iris stopped, but it wasn't out of fear or worry. She was judging how best to rip apart her prey.

"At least make this worth burning you for," she said.