Martial Arts Worlds

At that moment, the red shield in the Menace's hand started to get sucked inside his right arm.

The arm, which used to be a long arm of a human, turned into a red, skintight sleeve that wrapped around the Menace's arm.

It looked as if it was a part of his body, rather than a separate piece of armor.

"It's the second phase already!"

Kiernan said, and quickly backed away from the Red Shield Menace, knowing that he was going to be vastly more dangerous now.

With a sneaky smile, Aoi turned invisible while leaving behind a clone of hers, which looked identical to her but without the smile of hers.

She couldn't control the clone of hers that well, so it wasn't even moving and kept standing like a mannequin.

"Feel the wrath of the Menace!"

The Red Shield Menace stood up, clenched his right hand into a fist, and pointed it towards Kiernan.

At that moment, the shield arm of his started sucking the blood out of his arm, and it turned thinner as more blood was drained from his body.

"Red Shower!"

Through the fist of his, a spray of crimson blood shot out, and as if it werea shower of red rain, it dyed the surroundings in a beautiful, yet horrifying, sight.

It pretty much seemed as if his fist was a hose.

Kiernan dug his fingers into the ground and lifted a piece of the ground up—it shielded him from the crimson blood.

When the blood touched the piece of the ground, it started sizzling as if the blood were burning.

"Hahahahaha!"

The Red Shield Menace just laughed, and then, he noticed that the partner of the gray-haired young man wasn't moving.

He thought it was because of fear of his amazing abilities!

At that moment, the Red Shield Menace turned his blood-spraying fist towards Aoi's clone, and the blood sprayed all over her.

However, the blood went straight through her, and she turned into nothingness.

"Huh?!?!"

The Red Shield Menace exclaimed, and at that moment, a hand touched the back of his head, and he heard the voice of a female.

"Yokai Style, The Heavy Gravity of the Marcalenouse's Universe!"

Aoi shouted, and at that moment, the Red Shield Menace slammed back to the ground as if something heavy had been put on top of his head just now.

"Urgh…"

The Red Shield Menace tried to stand back up, but as long as Aoi's hand kept touching the back of his head, it felt as though an invisible force was pushing him back down.

At that moment, Kiernan fired tons of air bullets, all aimed directly at the Red Shield Menace's forehead, and they indeed landed with deadly precision.

The forehead of his started to dent, and blood began pouring out of his skull, but at that moment, the red shield started sucking blood from the rest of his body.

It made the Red Shield Menace turn into a thin man who looked like a withered old man, and then, the red shield arm of his started glowing in crimson light.

"What's that…"

Aoi whispered in surprise.

Swoosh!

Kiernan suddenly came, put her into his embrace, and shielded her with his body.

"Kiernan!"

She screamed.

At that moment, the crimson light spread wide, and when that happened, the Red Shield Menace exploded, and his poisonous blood sprayed all across Kiernan's back.

Kiernan's back started sizzling as if it was burning, and he gritted his teeth in pain as it felt like the blood was trying to burn through his skin.

With a flick of his wrist, he brought out a bottle of antidote from his inventory, popped the cap off, and poured the liquid into his mouth.

At that moment, he also ripped apart his shirt and jacket, then threw them both off as they were covered in the blood.

"Y-Your back…"

Aoi looked at his back, which looked like it had been burned with acid, and the skin was peeling off in chunks.

"Urgh…"

Kiernan looked over his shoulder at the ugly-looking back of his, and he then said.

"I drank the antidote to make sure that the poison wouldn't paralyze me and kill me slowly, but it doesn't do anything about the physical damage the blood caused."

Kiernan took some water from his inventory and poured it across his back. It hurt incredibly, but it was enough to wash off the rest of the blood.

Shocked with tears falling from her eyes, Aoi was so worried about his safety that she didn't even notice him pulling out items from the empty air.

"I'll deal… with that at a later date."

Kiernan said, pulled a new shirt from the inventory, and put it on to cover the hideous wound on his back.

It was painful to even do such a simple task.

"It's my fault… I am stupid! Stupid! Stupid!"

Aoi grabbed her head and paced back and forth with self-hate swelling in her heart, but then Kiernan grabbed her shoulder and pulled her into a comforting embrace.

"It's not a big problem. I'll get it treated, and that's the end of it."

Kiernan said.

"B-but… You're in pain right now!"

She looked tearfully into his face and saw that he was just pretending to be alright, but she wasn't stupid and knew that he was definitely not fine.

"Haha, I survived through worse."

Kiernan chuckled and then nudged his chin towards where the Red Shield Menace exploded. There was a reddish gem lying on the ground.

"Take the gem… It looks expensive, so I think we can sell it for a good price."

"Mmh…"

Aoi looked at him worryingly but listened and went to pick up the gem, which was both bigger and shinier than any other gems they've found so far.

With a look of pain in his face, Kiernan stumbled forward and then saw the holographic texts in front of him.

[You killed the Red Shield Menace!]

[1000 XP Acquired!]

'Killing the boss gives more experience points than defeating a human Martial Grandmaster, it looks like it.

'Hey, system, is there a reason why you're giving more experience points for killing them?'

Kiernan asked, but, surprisingly, he didn't receive a word in the response, as the system was keeping the silent treatment.

'Fine…'

He thought, and then at that moment, he looked at one of the back walls of the dungeon, where he found some written text.

The text was engraved on the wall, and it wasn't written in the Common Language of the Martial World.

It was a language that wasn't of this world.

'What the fuck… What the fuck?!'

Kiernan's eyes shook as he recognized the language.

'German…'