Normally, the Blood Needle spell was considered a low Bloodline spell, but the top members of the Sorin bloodline and other clans experienced with blood-based abilities knew it could never truly be judged by its tier alone.

In the hands of an amateur blood mage, its real potential would never be reached, but in the hands of the right blood mage it became one of their most frequently used spells.

That was why many mages often wondered why blood mages still relied on the low-tier Blood Needle spell when there were supposedly stronger alternatives, practically speaking, blood spells always had the option to escalate in power as long as the proper conditions were met.

For a mage like Damien, who not only possessed a higher bloodline ceiling than most elders of his clan but also exceptional control over blood manipulation, it simply meant he had what it took to push the spell far beyond its supposed level.

Aeron ended up with about three blood needles embedded in his left shoulder, at first he didn’t care much, but the moment he was hit, Damien instructed his sister to deal with the remaining Blade clansmen alongside their teammates.

During the heated battle, Darius had managed to keep Connor occupied, preventing him from unleashing his great werewolf strength against the rest of the Blade clansmen. However, while he was busy restraining Connor, Carmilla remained unchecked.

With support from Kira Nightfang, the remaining two Blade clansmen were swiftly eliminated, they then circled back to where Connor was still locked in combat with Darius, and once the three of them joined forces, Darius was quickly pushed out of the battle ring.

Unlike the Blade clansmen, the Bloodline Academy members had no difficulty fighting either as a team or individually, they had clearly worked on patching their weaknesses since the last Northern Kingdom competition they participated in.

One of the biggest changes was Dragov himself, he no longer just swung his greatsword wildly, nor did he rely excessively on his bloodline power like before.

At this point, Dragov was executing smooth sword techniques, and not at a slow pace either, he swung the massive greatsword with one hand as if it weighed nothing, with each of his strikes carrying crushing weight and dense Qi, making it nearly impossible for Kaelus to properly display his own skills.

No matter what Kaelus attempted, Dragov’s overwhelming power broke through it.

When Dragov realized the fight would drag on at this rate, he decided to activate his Stage One Bloodline form.

The moment he transformed, he abandoned defense entirely and committed fully to offense, with every swing of his blade releasing massive crescent-shaped wind blades that tore across the battlefield.

This aggressive shift forced Kaelus onto the defensive, as he was forced to parried sword moves and deflected every incoming wind blade frantically, working to push them off one after another.

But even when his counterattacks landed, even when his enhanced Qi cut into Dragov’s Dragon scales, the injuries began healing almost instantly.

The regeneration in Dragov’s first stage shocked Kaelus, worse still, the wind blades that he had deflected didn’t dissipate, instead they remained suspended in the air, hovering as if they were being held in place by an unseen force.

Before long, more than a hundred wind blades floated behind him, following wherever the fight moved, then Dragov stepped back, drove his greatsword into the ground, and dragged his free hand through the air as if pulling invisible threads.

[> Mid Tier Spell – Wind Blade Barrage <]

That was the moment Kaelus realized he had walked straight into a carefully prepared trap, as the suspended blades suddenly began to rain down on him all at once following Dragov’s hand movement, and there was no way for him to block them all.

He was even forced to turn his back to Dragov just to survive the barrage, when it finally ended, despite deflecting as many as he could, deep, bone-cutting wounds covered his body, leaving him bloodied and shaken.

But at that same moment, Kaelus heard a sharp clap, Dragov had slammed his hands together, casting the Wind Slam spell.

While Kaelus had been busy deflecting the barrage, Dragov had already been preparing his next move, and when the wind pressure finally crashed down, it stunned the watching mages.

Only minutes earlier they had seen Wind Takeda perform a similar spell, but the range and sheer power behind Dragov’s version made it clear there were levels to this.

Kaelus tried to escape, but the spell’s radius was too wide, and the pressure instantly forced him straight to his knees.

Seeing him still struggling like that, Dragov knew sustaining the second phase of the spell wouldn’t be easy. Instead, he dashed forward and drove a heavy kick into Kaelus’s neck as he was still under the pressure of the wind slam and was unable to move, and that kick knocked him unconscious instantly.

He followed up with another kick, this one to the stomach, sending Kaelus lightly airborne and out of the battle ring.

When Dragov turned back, the fight between Damien and Aeron had already ended. Damien sat casually on the ground with a tired smile, completely unharmed, though clearly drained of mana.

He had gone all out from the start, determined to eliminate Aeron quickly, using the Blood Needles embedded in Aeron’s body, he disrupted his left hand movements and later activated a blood spike spell.

The blood needle inside Aeron’s hand formed massive spikes that burst outward, causing intense pain and nearly driving him mad, as part of his blood was also manipulated

Yet Aeron endured, even while bleeding heavily, he kept fighting with what little strength he had left. He defended, countered when possible, and refused to fall immediately.

In the end, Damien had exhausted his mana first, leaving him seated on the ground while Aeron remained standing ,battered but unyielding, but his whole team had fallen again and he couldn’t help sighing.

“You’re one tough guy, I’ll give you that,” Damien said just as Aeron finally lost consciousness after holding on that long, the Qi armor surrounding him fading away.