Born in Blood

The swords themselves were made out of a lusterless brown metal, but Liam could tell they weren't dull.

Their fur was an obsidian black hue, and their eyes were brown.

Liam had never seen such animals.

But they were probably an old species not found in Ilali. 

After all, Eternal Sword had to be from a very outdated age. During that time, not all magical beast species survive the test of time.

"Cut down your foes with one slash each."

The voice had spoken its demand. 

One slash each.

Meaning Liam didn't need to kill them all at once.

The triple-sword wielding baboons rushed at Liam without a scream. 

Liam readied his Black Blade. 

The task was incredibly easy.

At one point in time, a peak Rank 3 would have been incredibly difficult for Liam to deal with.

There was no such issue anymore.

Liam blurred forward with a smile on his face, his Black Blade held close to his side. 

CLING!

…

Liam didn't expect that.

The first baboon casually blocked his strike using all of its three swords!

The swords held strong against the Black Blade.

This was after Liam strengthened his swing with Transfiguration!

Liam furrowed his brows and took a wide step back. The baboons rushed after him, but they weren't as fast. 

These baboons…

They were damn good at wielding swords for some reason!

'Is it because of the inheritance grounds? Has Eternal Sword made it so the quality of our blades are the same?' 

That was the most likely reason. There was no way that the Black Blade was equal to some rusty old weapon an ape wielded.

But now it was. And it made things difficult. 

The damn baboons were fond of working together, too.

All of them stood shoulder to shoulder and wouldn't wander off, adding another layer of annoying difficulty to the quest. 

Sharp clinging noises rang out one after the other as Liam defended against the barrage of attacks the baboons sent him.

If he wanted to win, he had to do it right and take no half measures.

As he continued to defend, the skin on Liam's back started to writhe and squirm, sprouting with two tentacles. 

Liam's wrappings didn't get in the way of them. They'd been fit to be as free flowing as his flesh.

The baboons didn't react when they saw the tentacles. They were stoically focused as though they were war-hardened soldiers following a command.

Liam took out both his Dusk Blades from his ring, which the tentacles gladly grabbed onto.

Now, Liam also had three swords!

As the closest baboon lashed out at him with a double swing, Liam's Dusk Blades swung from behind him and smacked away the two swords.

Right after, Liam swung with the Black Blade at the baboon's neck. 

The ape tried to deflect his odachi with the blade between his jaws, but Liam was fast.

SHING!

A streak of blood flew across the baboon's neck, killing it instantly. 

Liam smiled.

There was nothing that stopped Liam from simply using his octopus tendrils and ensuring an easy kill.

Another four baboons rushed at him. 

12 different swords intent on severing him into pieces.

Another series of black octopus tendrils burst out from Liam's body. 

They were soft and jelly-like, having no attack or defensive capabilities at all.

But the tentacles tightly ensnared each of the four baboons.

As it did so, the baboons retaliated. 

They thrashed their blades around wildly, causing deep gashes to form on Liam's tentacles.

Liam smiled as he saw the result.

Three and a half seconds passed, and the gashes reformed.

This was the Triumvirate Body. 

Liam swung four times, each swift stroke severing a neck.

SHING!

More baboons arrived.

However, once Liam knew how easy it was to kill them, they were easy to deal with.

Soon, two dozen baboons were killed with one slash each.

Liam heaved a breath at the end of it.

Silence.

There was no reaction from the voice.

'Was that it?' Liam thought.

But no.

Something started to emerge from the ground.

More baboons at the same Rank and wielding the same three swords.

Liam frowned.

Something was different about these apes.

They were smiling broadly, their teeth sharp and their gums long.

Liam blurred forward and tried to kill them the same way he just did. 

Four tentacles sprouted out and shot at a baboon. But strangely, the other monkeys didn't help him.

The baboon smiled ominously.

Despite how fast Liam's tentacles were, the baboon's three swords flickered. 

He launched into the air and twisted rapidly as Liam's tentacles converged at him.

SHING! SHING! SHING!

At once, all of Liam's tendrils were severed off!

Liam grimaced.

The baboon landed on the ground with a light step, then looked up at Liam with a smile.

Liam's blood conjoined with his body to reform the severed off tentacles.

The first wound Liam had received since his Triumvirate procedure. 

Liam realized how more of his blood was required to heal his wounds. 

More than triple the amount.

It made sense, though. The Triumvirate Body had more functions, thus, required more 'fuel' to regenerate.

Once for his human side, twice for his Ashura side, and third for his Shifter side.

That said, Liam brought his thoughts to the main issue at hand.

'Did they just learn how to counter me?' Liam thought. 

All the baboons were smiling at him. So human-like. So… annoying.

He didn't like it one bit.

'What do I have to do to win?' Liam thought. 

When he maintained his distance, the baboons didn't attack.

Only when he got close did they collectively try and cut him down.

They were still only two dozen, but were far better than their previous variants.

Liam fought with them once more and killed the two dozen with a bit more effort.

They reformed all the same.

Liam tried fighting them with the same level of effort, and they countered his fighting style perfectly.

'All of them are the same, so there's no one in charge of this,' Liam thought.

Liam thought about the situation for a while. This was a test. A riddle.

'They're going to adapt to me every time.'

Liam retracted the tendrils from his body.

He gripped the odachi between his jaws.

He wielded the Dusk Blades in both hands.

'I have to adapt to them.'