Asura in Arknights

He had barely caught his breath when the pool of blood beneath Li Ang's feet trembled slightly, instantly congealing into several sharp spikes that pierced towards his ankle.

Li Ang took a small step back and unleashed a ground-shattering sword strike, shattering the spikes back into a cloud of blood mist.

In fact, these all-pervasive fogs are more threatening than these condensed spikes.

The blood mist that permeated the entire space had a corrosive effect. The closer it was to Byron's body, the stronger the corrosive effect became. Li Ang also saw Byron punch a punch, and although he didn't use much force, the corrosive power of the blood mist alone was enough to leave a large pit in the solid carbon brick.

He used Originium Particles to form a protective layer around himself, which finally relieved the omnipresent stinging pain from Leon. Without armor, he really didn't want to get close to Byron.

Right now, Li Ang is just stalling for time. Although he doesn't know why Byron can suddenly use Originium Arts, as long as magic is used, it will definitely follow the basic theorem of energy conservation.

Byron doesn't have a staff right now. He's just using Originium Arts by taking advantage of his status as an Infected. Without a staff as an additional functional unit, Byron's own reserves won't last long. Unlike Leon, he can't absorb free-floating Originium particles in the air at a very low cost.

When Byron's own reserves are exhausted, it will be considered a victory for Leon.

However, due to the interference of the blood mist in the air, Li Ang overlooked a trivial detail—the blood spilled by the researchers previously killed by Byron was being drawn along the cracks in the floor towards Byron's location by some force.

While maintaining his distance from Byron, Li Ang dodged the various blood-based artifacts thrown at him from a distance, thus delaying the situation for another six or seven minutes. He then sensed the presence of the rescue team outside, who were trying to open the alloy door that had lost its power source.

But Byron was still full of energy. Taking advantage of the thick layer of blood covering his body, he rampaged through the entire floor, showing no signs of weakness.

Now Li Ang no longer needs to worry about him accidentally leaving any clues. After subduing Byron, it will be a question whether there will be a single intact floor tile left on the entire floor.

"This can't go on forever."

Having dodged Byron's blood creation once again, Li Ang couldn't help but frown.

No matter how carefully Li Ang was isolated, he would still inadvertently inhale the pervasive blood mist.

Under the influence of the blood mist, Li Ang now feels a burning pain in his lungs when he breathes. Although it is not serious, this pain itself is a rather ominous sign.

If this is delayed any longer, it could very likely damage Li Ang's lungs.

"It seems... the only thing we can do is beat him half to death."

P.S. This volume is nearing its end, and I'm experiencing a bit of writer's block.

PS2. The holiday is finally over, and I can finally relax a little more ORZ... The holiday was actually busier than usual.

Chapter Sixty-Eight: Waves of Killing Intent

Spirit, and soul.

Many things that have happened recently have told Li Ang that these two ethereal concepts actually exist in this world.

Even Li Ang himself possesses a spell related to the spirit and soul, which allows him to sense the emotions of others. This means that Li Ang has somehow captured the spiritual fluctuations emanating from others.

The recent 'clash' with Liz made Li Ang realize the flaws of this spell.

Although it's possible that only one in ten thousand people might master this kind of magic, encountering one would be a very bad thing.

Until a solution to this flaw is found, Li Ang will not probe other people's emotions unless absolutely necessary.

However, in the process of searching for a solution, Li Ang made an unexpected discovery.

The fact that Li Ang can sense the mental fluctuations of others means that a connection has been established between them. Through this connection, Li Ang can even transmit his own emotions into the minds of others.

If the emotional fluctuations are strong enough, this can also become a method of attack that kills without shedding blood.

In a sense, this also solves Li Ang's problem. Mental attacks are often reciprocal. As long as Li Ang is stubborn enough, he can turn the tables and kill the opponent when attacked.

Normal attacks aren't very effective against Byron right now, so Li Ang plans to try this attack on him. It would be best if he survived, but if he dies suddenly... well, that's just bad luck.

Gradually, the atmosphere around Li Ang changed. A ring of tangible ripples spread outwards from his body, gradually covering an area of ​​nearly three meters around him.

Byron, who was relentlessly pursuing him, accidentally touched the ripple. His body trembled violently as if he had been electrocuted, and the blood-red mist that had enveloped him dissipated as much as melting snow.

Byron was almost perfect in terms of physical defense, but mentally he was as fragile as a sheet of paper.

Most people lack resistance in the realm of the spirit and soul, and Byron was even more vulnerable in this regard. This contact, lasting less than a second, inflicted unimaginable and severe damage on Byron.

Even with only a sliver of instinct remaining, Byron could sense how dangerous Leon was to him. The situation had completely reversed; now Byron was the one running away, while Leon was leisurely trailing behind him, relentlessly attacking him through the very edge of his 'killing intent fluctuations'.

In this way, Li Ang instilled the purest 'killing intent' into his opponent.

For him, killing intent was the easiest negative emotion to evoke. All he needed to do was have the pure thought of destroying the other party. As for other negative emotions such as jealousy, hatred, anger, and sadness, firstly, Li Ang rarely experienced such emotions, and secondly, if the intensity of such emotions was not strong enough, they might even have the opposite effect.

As for positive emotions... well, can we really expect to make the enemy laugh to death?

“Checkmate, you have nowhere to run, Mr. Byron.”

Before long, Leon had cornered Byron.

Along the way, he smashed countless walls until they finally reached the edge of the building. Beyond this wall lay a bottomless abyss. No matter how tough Byron's body was, jumping from this height would be certain death.

Realizing he had nowhere left to retreat, Byron finally stopped running and turned to pounce on Leon.

However, the closer he got to Li Ang, the stronger the killing intent surged. When Byron rushed to Li Ang's side, the overwhelming mental shock even rendered him unable to maintain his own magic.

Without the corrosive blood mist that served as the last line of defense, Byron posed no further threat to Leon.

"Behave yourself!"

Leon flashed to Byron's side and delivered a side kick, breaking his shinbone. As Byron lost his balance and fell to the ground, Leon stomped on Byron's back.

The immense force caused the entire floor to tremble slightly, and Byron's back was noticeably dented, but his injuries were rapidly healing under that extraordinary self-healing power.

No matter how desperately Byron struggled, he could not break free from Li Ang, who had an absolute advantage in strength. Under the close-range erosion of the killing intent, the abnormal aura on his body gradually faded. When the aura completely disappeared, Byron also stopped struggling.

"Finally done..." Looking at Byron lying motionless on the ground, Li Ang couldn't help but wipe the sweat from his forehead.

Byron's commotion this time was beyond imagination. Not to mention the traces left by Li Ang, apart from the room where the supervisor and the others were hiding, there probably wasn't a single intact item left in this floor of the laboratory.

Fortunately, the data Marna requested was fine. Li Ang had kept the hard drive carefully close to his body, preventing it from being corroded by the blood mist.

As Byron fell unconscious, the blood mist that had permeated the entire laboratory gradually dissipated. At that moment, a loud bang came from afar, and the rescuers outside finally brought in Originium explosives, blasting open the alloy door that had left them helpless.

When these people entered the laboratory, they were stunned by the scene before them, which looked like a mess left after a typhoon.

Blood was splattered everywhere—on the floor, ceiling, and walls. The furniture in the room was all broken into pieces, scattered all over the place. Even the walls were not spared; there wasn't a single intact wall to be seen.

If they didn't know their current location, they would have thought they had accidentally stumbled into a battlefield.

In the ruins, they found Leon and Byron, whom he had trampled underfoot.

The leader recognized Li Ang and rushed over, asking, "Sir Li Ang... what exactly happened here? Where are the others? And where is the supervisor?"

"You're too late! Why did you only arrive after everything was finished?"

"I'm so sorry! It took a little time to open that door, so..."

“Forget it, it’s all over anyway.” Li Ang interrupted him, pointing to Byron at his feet. “To put it simply, the supervisor’s experiment went wrong, and this guy went berserk. All the destruction here was caused by him. It took me a while to subdue him, so it ended up like this.”

“The people who performed the surgery on him at the beginning are all dead,” Li Ang said, pointing to the only room on this floor that was still intact. “Your supervisor is fine too, and the rest of the survivors are hiding in there.”

Chapter Sixty-Nine: Crushing Defeat

Byron has been dealt with by Li Ang, so these fully armed rescuers are no longer needed.

They split into two groups: one group went to rescue the researchers who were trembling with fear, while the other group stayed behind to help Leon control the rampaging Byron.

"Tie this guy up tighter, who knows what kind of trouble he'll cause when he wakes up."

Because they arrived in a hurry, these people didn't bring any sophisticated prison equipment. They could only take out a few bundles of rope and tie Byron up tightly.

"Oh, and one more thing, there was a slight mishap with the supervisor's experiment. For some reason, he suddenly gained the ability to use Originium Arts. Remember to be careful."

"Thank you so much!"

What awaited Byron next was even stricter imprisonment.

Even if he is an infected person and can use Originium Arts without relying on a staff, there are ways to deprive him of the ability to use magic. This can be done through specially made prison equipment or drugs.

Just as they placed Byron on a stretcher and prepared to carry him away, Byron's body suddenly convulsed, and his breathing gradually became heavy.

Li Ang gestured for them to stop.

As Li Ang was contemplating whether to finish off Byron on the head and knock him unconscious again, he suddenly heard Byron's hoarse voice, "Cough cough... Even so, there's still no way to beat you?"

"Do you know what you just did?" Li Ang raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised.

Li Ang thought that Byron had completely lost his mind, but the actual situation seemed to be different. He actually knew what he had just done, which made things quite intriguing.

Faced with Li Ang's question, Byron remained silent for a while before slowly answering, "I can only vaguely sense what I am doing, but I cannot control my actions."

"Hmph, let's just assume you're telling the truth," Li Ang shrugged noncommittally. "Hopefully, the supervisor will accept your explanation later."

No matter how much he explained to Li Ang, it would be useless; in the end, the supervisor would still be the one to make the final decision.

However, the trouble they caused this time was quite serious, directly destroying the top laboratory of Pol Pharmaceuticals. To put it bluntly, even the supervisor was in trouble, and Byron, the scapegoat, suffered an even worse fate.

“Take him away,” Li Ang said, waving his hand.

"Wait! I have another question!"

Byron suddenly began to struggle, his muscles straining all over his body, and the ropes binding him seemed to be about to break. Seeing this, the rescuers quickly put Byron down.

"How...did you manage to do it in the end?"

After falling into that strange space, Byron learned from the voice that it was the final resting place for all Sarkaz after death. Although Byron did not die, he also arrived at that place by a series of coincidences.

It was then that Byron realized that he actually possessed a trace of vampire blood. Although he was not as fond of blood as a true vampire, he also had a strange obsession with it.

With the help of that voice, Byron activated that faint trace of vampire bloodline and successfully used Originium Arts, which only vampires could master. However, the drawback was also obvious. At that moment, his body was completely dominated by vampire instincts, bathing in blood and killing any living beings nearby.

Even if it were Byron himself, he might not have been able to do better than instinct. In other words, those ten minutes or so were the pinnacle that Byron could reach in his entire life.

Even so, Byron still lost to Leon in an incomprehensible way.

It wasn't an all-pervasive wind blade, nor an explosion that could appear at any moment; simply by being near Li Ang's body, Byron could feel a bone-chilling cold. Under the corrosive influence of that cold, all the muscles in his body tended to disobey his commands.

It's more like having countless fine needles constantly piercing your brain, making even normal thinking difficult, let alone using complex Originium Arts.

Throughout the entire process, Byron couldn't understand what kind of magic Leon had used.

"Do you think I would tell you?" Li Ang replied with a half-smile.

"Take him away. And you better behave yourself, or I won't hesitate to knock you out again."

This time Byron did not resist further and obediently lay on the stretcher, allowing the rescuers to carry him out.

As the elevator doors, now powered on again, slowly closed, Byron's sigh reached Li Ang's ears.

"You really are a monster..."

"Thank you for the compliment."

It's unclear whether Byron heard Li Ang's reply, but after this incident, it's estimated that Byron would find it difficult to harbor any thoughts of hostility towards Li Ang. How many people can withstand such repeated defeats?

In short, Li Ang achieved his goal.

The power of the killing intent was proven on Byron. Li Ang could feel his mental exhaustion. If Li Ang had been a few seconds slower, Byron would probably have been bedridden for the rest of his life. He didn't know if the injury could heal on its own.

Prior to this, Li Ang had only tested the effects of the killing intent fluctuation on mosquitoes.

Putting everything else aside, this ability is a powerful insect-killing tool for outdoor travel. Just by standing there, in no time, a thick layer of dead mosquitoes will be piled up at Li Ang's feet.

However, after confirming the effects of the killing intent fluctuation, new problems arose.

Can this ability still be called Originium Arts?

Leon had also spent some time at Leonil University and even created a few minor spells that suited him. His expertise in this area was undeniable, but... in his opinion, it didn't even qualify as Originium Arts.

In its most basic sense, Originium Arts refers to a technique that uses Originium and consumes Originium energy to alter the original properties of matter. However, this concept is completely inapplicable to Killing Intent Wave.

Even if we consider 'emotion' as a special kind of electrical signal, Li Ang didn't use any casting medium or consume any Originium energy when using Killing Intent Wave. Li Ang even felt that as long as he could maintain his killing intent, Killing Intent Wave could last forever.

If this isn't Originium Arts, then what is it?

While Li Ang was pondering, another group of rescuers also rescued the surviving researchers. When they saw the horrific scene outside, they were so frightened that they didn't dare to breathe.

The supervisor, who was mingling among these people, looked around and, not finding Byron, scurried over to Li Ang, showering him with concern and inquiries.

"Li Ang, are you alright? Should we go to the infirmary for treatment?"

“They’re just minor injuries, no need to go to so much trouble,” Li Ang refused outright.

"Instead of this, you should think about how to clean up this mess. Look at all this destruction, it's all Byron's doing. I don't know what you did to him, but he suddenly has control over his blood. It took me a lot of effort to subdue him."

"Controlling blood?" The supervisor was stunned for a moment, then his eyes lit up, showing no sign of remorse whatsoever. "This is... the Blood Demon's magic?! He's exhibiting atavism?"

"No! I need to go check on him right away!"

But before he could take two steps, he was pulled back by the rescuers behind him. "Sir! You can't leave now! You need to explain the situation here to us in detail!"

"Whatever you want, I'm going back to rest now."

While the supervisor and rescuers were arguing, Li Ang said this, touched the hard drive hidden in his pocket, and quickly left the laboratory on this floor.