Born in Blood

Liam's eyes widened a little.

What Reiner did was genuinely phenomenal.

He did a kamikaze move!

From what Liam understood, the blue vapor that left Eyes of Knowledge's fingers didn't hold a sinister purpose. It was essentially a timer that would nullify all the velocity and kinetic energy within the ball, which would activate after a set amount of time. That was all!

Yet, despite that, Eyes of Knowledge turned that seemingly useless function into a way to disqualify both the Sage, and himself.

If the Sage passed over the ball to the Queen, or the General, or Rin, he would not have gotten disqualified.

But he did.

But so did Eyes of Knowledge!

…But Reiner knew he would get disqualified, too!

At least, that's how Liam interpreted the broad grin on Reiner's face.

'A 200,000 IQ move,' Liam thought. 'Never thought I'd see the day someone did one of these.' 'Was this the only outcome he saw himself winning against the Sage in?' Quite frankly, he was a little surprised how deep their grudges ran.

Then Liam remembered the Royce family.

Right. Some grudges would never fade, no matter how long time had worn them down. "Why did I get disqualified alongside him?" the Sage asked the Mayor with a calm but annoyed tone. "If it's balanced on the net when I shoot it back, it should be him that's disqualified, not me."

The Mayor looked at the Sage with a wry expression.

"I'm terribly sorry, Sage," the Mayor said apologetically. "The game rules dictate that both you and Eyes of Knowledge are privy to a disqualification."

"At least explain?" the Sage said with a slight crease in his white brows. "I can't believe this." The Mayor nodded, then spoke in an explanatory tone.

"Eyes of Knowledge was responsible for the ball stopping over the net with his ability. That earned him a disqualification."

"However, you were responsible for putting it there, in the exact way that Eyes of Knowledge had planned. Had your shot deviated even a little bit, it would have been just Eyes of Knowledge disqualified."

"In short, you were both responsible for putting the ball over the net." The Mayor stopped there.

"All of this is backed up by the data stored within the Formations," the Mayor said. "Is that satisfactory, Sage?" Silence.

"It is," the Sage responded curtly, then heaved a sigh and turned to leave. "Farewell."

Eyes of Knowledge giggled.

"You suck, loser." The corner of the Sage's lip twitched, but he didn't respond.

A second later, the Sage left through the tunnel.

Eyes of Knowledge looked at his group, then the other, and smiled.

"Whoever wins the Star Dust can come to me. I'll help you with whatever weird things you want to do, in exchange for a moment alone with it."

A second later, he turned around and left, raising a hand as a friendly gesture to say goodbye.

Well, that was that.

'Would have liked to play truth or dare at least once more,' Liam thought with a little pity. 'Oh well. I juiced out some valuable knowledge from him.'

In fact, he'd juiced out some sweet, valuable knowledge out of everyone present. Even if he didn't win this game, he was a winner.

And that's all that mattered!

A moment later, the ball was back in the hands of the Queen.

It was a three versus three now.

Spirit of Nature, Alucard, Liam.

Queen Thyress, the General, Rin.

The air was tense, and no one uttered a word. Several seconds passed in deafening silence before the ball was thrown towards the Rag-tag Royalists. Queen Thyress was the first to grab ahold of it, then casually pass it over to Rin. The General was silent.

Liam clenched his muscles. All of his insides were twisting into a specific form he had in mind. To the outside eye, it was barely visible, but Liam couldn't afford to hide everything if he wanted to win.

Besides, as he was now, all his powers were going to be far superior in the upcoming years. He was barely dipping his toes in the Zenith pond, while these people were already oceans.

Plus, Eyes of Knowledge was gone, so he didn't need to stress about his powers being studied by the eccentric manchild. Gradually, Liam slowly converted his blood into both bone and muscle. Doing so didn't actually make him bigger. It just purified his skeleton and skin tissue to a purer degree. After all, his blood wasn't useful for just changing and shaping into whatever he wanted. It could also empower.

'It's strange,' Liam realized. 'Once I convert my blood, I can't revert it back to whatever I want.'

The little hand tentacle thingies that grew over Liam's palm were still there. He couldn't retract them… meaning he could only go forward with change, not back. That was definitely the Mayor's doing. Rapidfire transformations could prove too overpowered or unfair in a game of volleyball. But at least empowering himself was still possible. Otherwise, he was actually lacking unique abilities to use in Touch Ball.

Of course… Void, Chaos and Corruption were vastly different, since they were meant for killing and erasing things.

In the span of a few seconds, Liam had used 85% of his ichor.

The power that washed over him was both exhilarating and addicting.

…But Liam forced down his unstable urges!

Liam shoved them away, even though he was happier than he ever had been in his life. No need to put the cart before the horse. 'This is temporary,' Liam thought with hard eyes. 'You're not at this level yet.' 'One day you'll be.'

'But until then, don't get used to it.'

Subconsciously, a few emotions leaked through Liam. They came out without his permission, since his focus was sheerly on suppressing his enjoyment.

Thus, what came out?

Bloodlust.

Cruelty.

Menace.

It was then that Alucard and Spirit of Nature felt an overwhelming presence behind them.

Since they were three, their positions were triangular, with Liam at the back.

And yet, Noami felt a little unsafe. As they snuck a glance towards his direction… they saw a predator waiting to pounce. The sharp, dead eyes and steady posture, the primal aura and expressionless face.

The bloodlust oozing from him was palpable.

But of course, those present weren't particularly scared.

Alucard smiled.

Spirit of Nature slightly furrowed her brows. The General and Queen Thyress didn't react…

But Rin…

Rin's hands trembled.