Caesar threw both of his swords down towards Joe as he flew towards him, Joe dodged the first one, but his shoulder was impaled by the second.
Caesar landed back on the ground, and fissures appeared where he descended, he quickly picked up the sword that he had missed with and rushed at Joe once again.
Joe roared out in pain and anger as he pulled out the sword in his shoulder, he looked towards Renee and hurled it as hard as he could towards her.
Caesar grew enraged as he immediately threw his other sword in the perfect trajectory to intercepts Joe's.
Both swords ricocheted off each other just merely meters in front of Renee. She looked on in horror at the sheer speed that the projectile was flying at.
"You have truly angered me this time, JOE" Caesar roared Joe's name and rushed at him.
"AHHHHH" As if to answer Caesar, Joe roared back and met Caesar's punch, which caused a massive collision in the middle of the mountain.
The shockwaves caused the surroundings to shake, and even Edward outside the mountain could feel the intense vibrations.
Their punches were equal for a few seconds before Caesar's arm soon started to crack, and he was blasted back in the direction towards Renee.
He flipped in the air once more and grabbed one of the swords he landed by, he gritted his teeth and sucked up the pain.
"SNAP OUT OF IT, YOU FOOL!" Caesar bellowed toward Joe.
Joe didn't respond and once again charged at him, Caesar furrowed his brows, and he gripped his sword heavily.
Caesar's right arm dangled freely as he ran towards Joe, he stabbed with his sword repeatedly as he dodged Joe's wide punches.
One punch could potentially end his life, Caesar's eyes stung in pain, but he didn't care. He kept moving faster and faster, the red dots on Joe's body aligned, and he pushed through his limits.
[Vampire physique evolution progress: 17%]
[18%]
[19%]
Caesar entered into his own little world, he didn't pay attention to anything besides the current fight, and he couldn't even hear Renee's shouts.
He concentrated intensely, he evaded and stabbed with his sword in perfect synch… Joe's body was raking up wound after wound.
Caesar became faster and faster. However, his muscles were nearing their limits, and the feeling of muscle failure was beginning to spread throughout his entire body.
Suddenly, Caesar's strength leaped one last time. [Vampire physique evolution progress: 20%]
Caesar didn't have time to notice the change within his body and stabbed out with his sword one final time. Joe counterattacked with his fist, but it wasn't enough.
Caesar's sword pierced through Joe's hand and moved towards his upper body, right as his sword nearly penetrated through Joe's chest.
The sword cracked into pieces and fell to the ground, Joe, who was barely conscious wound up his fist and punched towards Caesar's face.
Caesar could see Joe's fist magnify as it got closer and closer to his face; he bit his tongue and tilted his head to the left.
Joe's punch barely passed by Caesar's face, and the noise generated from it almost blew out his eardrum. Caesar used this chance to step forward and punch Joe's abdomen as hard as he could muster.
Joe's body went flying and crashed into the wall. An enormous crater was formed where his body landed. Joe's body soon collapsed and had no signs of movement.
Caesar looked at this scene with relief and also fell back first to the ground. He could vaguely hear Renee running towards him while crying.
"So that's how strong an A rank beast is," Caesar grumbled to himself and coughed up a bit of blood.
At this time, Caesar had no idea he had awakened the 'demon' inside of his blood, or maybe, it wasn't a demon at all? Nor did he know what waves it would cause at a later date.
***
In a dark tower, four people that were by no means human were sitting at a round table… they all had extremely different features, but they had two things in common. Their faces were hidden, and they were all shaking with excitement.
"D-did you guys feel that?" one of them asked in a strange voice.
"Y-yes, we all felt it… I can't believe this is true, isn't this is what our ancestors told us to wait for" Another said, he almost sounded like a reptile.
"A k-king has awoken? I thought the last demon went extinct ages ago in the ancient war!" a slightly feminine voice spoke in an astonished tone.
"Don't call them 'demons' that was what the disgusting church dubbed them, they are more like angels that were betrayed by their own followers… all of them were extinct until now, they... no, his race should be referred to as a fallen angel" a deep and raspy voice resounded throughout the tower, he was clearly the leader of these four.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Caesar felt as though his head was resting on something very soft; he suddenly remembered his bout with Joe and tried to force his eyes open.
Caesar groaned in pain and barely lifted his torso a few inches, he opened his eyes, and Renee's worried face came into his line of sight.
"Don't get up. You still need to rest." She said softly and placed Caesar's head back on her lap.
Caesar didn't resist and let her do as she pleased; they laid there in pleasant silence for a few minutes.
"What happened to Joe?" Caesar broke the silence and asked quietly.
"He's still unconscious. You have both been out cold for the past hour or so," Renee replied.
"I see, I'm glad he's still alive…" Caesar said with a deep sigh.
Renee gently brushed Caesar's long white hair and looked at him slightly anxiously.
"You could have died in that battle… I-I know you wanted to save Joe, b-but I don't know what I would do if I lost you. Please don't risk your life so easily like that again," Renee choked on her words as droplets of tears fell on Caesar's face.
"It may sound selfish, but I don't want to lose you… I-I want to get married and have kids in the future, I want to see Elizabeth grow up and I want to see my grandfather's happy smile when he sees his grandchildren. This fight made me realize that none of that may happen, and I'm scared," Renee continued spewing out words and streams of tears kept flowing from her eyes.
Caesar's heart slightly warmed, in his past life, many people feared, hated, lusted, envied, and wanted to use him; however, none had truly loved him. They wanted to use him for their self-interest or because he had money and good looks. But for the first time, someone wanted to be with him, not the CEO, billionaire, or crown prince.
Caesar slowly raised his left hand and wiped the tears of Renee's beautiful face. He slightly raised his upper body and hugged her tightly.
"I have walked alone for nearly all my life, never had anyone truly cared about my well-being… I apologize for not taking your feelings into consideration," Caesar apologized while hugging Renee tightly.
"You did the right thing. Not many people would sacrifice their life to save a friend… It should be me that apologizes," Renee replied in an apologetic tone.
Caesar shook his head and pecked Renee on the lips, he slowly stood up and stretched his limbs… he had an excruciating headache, but he just dealt with it.
Renee stood up soon after Caesar and rubbed her eyes, she smiled sweetly, and that sad expression she had earlier was nowhere to be seen.
This scene would have been quite romantic if it were not for the thousands of bodies surrounding them. Caesar reached into his pocket and pulled out the eyepatch he had looted from the bandit's body. He placed the eyepatch over his right eye, and his headache immediately stopped hurting as much.
"Where did you get that?" Renee asked curiously and moved her face closer to his.
"You remember those bandits that attacked us yesterday? Well, they gifted me this eyepatch after I defeated them" Caesar laughed gently and replied teasingly.
Renee rolled her eyes and chuckled, "you look like a villain with that on, you know?" Renee teased back.
Caesar put his hands through his hair and straightened it, his right arm was still sore but no longer broken. A vampire's regeneration was indeed extraordinary.
"Are you trying to seduce me again?" Renee asked with a wide smile.
"Oh, you know me so well, darling," Caesar said casually and scanned his surroundings, seeing Caesar's serious expression, Renee also stopped joking around and looked around warily.
Caesar walked atop the many dwarven bodies and examined their wounds, "their armors, weapons, and other things seem to have been looted from their corpse," Caesar said.
Renee bent down and sifted through the remains, "many of these bodies seem to have… burn marks?" she spoke in a baffled tone.
"Burn mark…? Magicians, or maybe a different race entirely?" Caesar started brainstorming out ideas.
Renee just shook her head in confusion, "There aren't many races that can unleash flames of this proportion… The only possible explanation would be a mighty magician or a dragon. However, a dragon would not be able to fit in this mountain" Renee imitated Caesar and stroked her chin with a contemplating look.
Caesar stood up from his crouched position and walked over to Joe, "Once we return to Rahvin kingdom, I will use my connections and find out which kingdom or faction gained dwarven armor and weapons recently… That was their purpose," Caesar replied.
Renee nodded her head solemnly and shifted her attention to Joe, "are you sure it's okay to wake him up here? He may go berserk again," She said, slightly worried.
Caesar soon approached Joe's unconscious body and flashed a smile at Renee, "don't worry, I will just break his legs and arms before waking him up," Caesar said extremely coldly and glanced at Joe's 'sleeping' figure.
Joe opened one of his eyes and looked at Caesar fearfully, he hopped on his two feet and kowtowed on the ground.
"I APOLOGIZE!!!" He roared loudly.
Silence erupted in the entire hall, and Joe peeked at both Caesar and Renee's faces to make sure they weren't angry.
Both Caesar and Renee were hardly angry; in fact, they were quite happy that Joe seemed to be back to normal.
Relief spread through Joe's body when he realized that Caesar and Renee were not angry at him.
"I am really, really, sorry, I can normally control my anger, but yesterday was too much of a shock for me," Joe said apologetically, sorrow was still evident in his voice.
"It's understandable. Anyone would get angry if they saw their kin massacred…" Caesar tried to comfort Joe as best he could. He was not an expert at soothing other people.
"Thank you for understanding, Caesar… I have never had someone capable of stopping me before, and even if my rampage were stopped, the others would look at me as if I was a monster" Joe choked on his tears and thanked Caesar heartfully.
Caesar smiled wryly and scratched his head, "I have also never had a real friend before, it feels good not traveling alone and having someone to laugh and banter with" he replied and shook Joe's hand.
Joe laughed happily and hugged Caesar tightly, Joe subtly peeked at Renee and made sure she wouldn't be able to read his lips.
"Since we are considered friends now, I'm going to warn you as a friend… You need to be careful of who you show your abilities too… I didn't really notice it before, but you are a vampire, right…? With high noble blood at the very least," Joe whispered into Caesar's ear.
Caesar just slightly smiled back, "Don't worry, Renee already knows what I am."
Joe shook his head, "I'm not talking about Renee, I am referring to her family and her clansmen" Joe sighed loudly and decided to stop talking about such troublesome matters, he walked towards the far end of the dwarven halls.
Caesar tilted his head in confusion as his eyes followed Joe's movements. Joe moved to the wall and crouched down. He started moving his hands around as if he was searching for something.
Suddenly the wall split open, and a doorway appeared in front of them, Joe turned towards Caesar and Renee with a wide smile.
"Whoever invaded this place didn't know about the secret treasury… hehe," he laughed wildly and rushed inside.
Caesar's interest was piqued, so he followed after him, Renee also wanted to know what would be inside the dwarven 'secret' treasury, so she followed behind Caesar with high expectations.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Caesar bent down and entered through the small passageway; the doors in the dwarven kingdom were relative to the dwarven height.
Right as Caesar walked inside, he was nearly dazzled by the number of shiny armors and weapons… Caesar observed the room carefully.
The room was quite large, racks of weapons and armors were trailing the walls and in the middle of the room was a pile of random accessories such as necklaces, vases, coin, and other necessities.
Renee walked in not much later than Caesar. She had an expression full of astonishment as she gazed at the many treasures inside.
Joe was slightly disappointed at Caesar's relatively calm reaction, but he smiled proudly once he saw Renee's shocked face.
"This isn't even the main treasury of this mountain. This was merely a storage room for the treasures that didn't fit in the other one… the main treasury was wiped clean, though," Joe boasted with an expression that said: 'Praise me.'
Caesar smiled wryly and walked through the treasury room, he glanced at Joe suspiciously… "the dwarves must have put an exceptional amount of importance on your head for them to show you where their treasury rooms were" Caesar spoke with absolute certainty.
Caesar paused for a second while closely examining an elegant looking vase.
"However, you stayed in that small prison in Rahvin kingdom for years… don't tell me the dwarves never tried looking for you, or perhaps, you were deliberately hiding?" Caesar asked in a strange tone.
Joe's lips twitched, and he scratched the back of his head, "y-yeah… they kicked me out of this kingdom because they thought my lineage was too dangerous," Joe said sadly.
Caesar squinted his eyes and gently placed the vase back on the rack. He turned towards Joe and looked at him with an amused look.
"What if the dwarves here knew they were going to be invaded and be massacred soon, so they banished you as their last hope" Caesar explained calmly and shocked Joe.
"Y-you mean, they did it to save me?" Joe asked, surprised, and his eyes went wide.
"It's a strong possibility. However, it may just be me overthinking things," Caesar spoke as he continued to meticulously examine the treasures inside the room.
Joe entered deep contemplation, and Caesar walked over to the weapons rack, the armors looked very well made. However, they were clearly meant for dwarves and not humans.
There also many different types of weapons present, maces, axes, swords, spears, shields, hammers, flails, staves, anything you could possibly imagine.
Caesar wanted new weapons, he enjoyed his last pair of swords, but unfortunately, they were practically destroyed in his previous bout with the enraged Joe.
He wanted to take most of these weapons to try out, alas, his storage ring was by no means omnipotent, the space it contained was nearly already filled with food, clothes, and money.
"Sigh, such a hard choice… my common sense is telling me to use a sword because I have already trained in them. However, my instincts are telling me otherwise," Caesar sighed heavily and continued to study each weapon closely.
While Caesar was busy choosing a weapon, Renee was already in the middle of the treasury room looking through the many accessories… she could vaguely feel a strand of mana similar to her own, deep within the pile of riches.
She eagerly dug through the pile, and at the very bottom, she spotted a beautiful necklace that sported a silver chain and a shining sapphire in the middle. Renee felt a strange connection towards the necklace and decided to put it on.
Contrary to her expectations, she didn't feel anything unique or different when she put it on… But if one had looked carefully, the
y would've been able to see her three tails grow a tiny amount.
Renee was slightly disappointed, so she started to look at some of the other treasures. She was born in a male-dominant and warmongering clan. Thus, she was never able to obtain any pretty jewelry. Because of this, she was especially excited about all of the shiny things currently in front of her.
On the other hand, Caesar was currently observing a pair of swords. They were slightly longer than his last ones… they had a long blade and sharp edge; it was perfect for slashing and stabbing. The cross guard was silver, it curled and connected to the bottom of the raven black hilt. It looked quite similar to the German spadroons in his past life.
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