The clash between Kai and Krane quieted for a moment.

They stood amidst a jagged corridor of looming steel containers, the salty wind howling in from the black water's edge. A quiet, desolate stretch of docks. The perfect graveyard.

Blood painted the concrete in splashes and streaks. Some of it was Kai's, reclaimed and swirling around him like waiting blades. The rest had spilt from Krane, though the man didn't seem to notice, much less care.

They were locked in a standoff.

Kai flexed his fingers, his arms scarred with recent trauma. His muscles twitched under torn sleeves. Blood slithered across his skin, drawn from wounds both old and new, as well as the crimson remnants left from every blow he'd landed on Krane.

Just seeing it stirred something inside him. A hunger. A whisper.

'More. Spill more. Use it. Shape it. Kill!'

Krane was the first to break the silence, brushing dust from his lab coat. Any wounds he had sustained had disappeared, and he had a calm expression.

"You asked… where my scalpel was," he said, voice light, conversational. "Well, I'm nothing if not accommodating."

From the pristine inside pocket of his coat, he pulled out a small, stainless-steel blade. Ordinary. Surgical. Harmless… in any other hands.

"And a few spares," he added with a smirk, slipping two more between his fingers with practised ease.

Kai blinked. 'That's it?'

The infamous Scalpel - his moniker, his legend - and it was just… that? A little hospital blade?

He almost laughed. Almost.

But then Krane moved.

One blink and he was on Kai, carving the air with a casual flick of his wrist. Kai responded instantly, blood surging around him then curving into jagged, crimson blades that shot forward like arrows.

Krane's scalpel met the first blood-blade with a metallic ping and sliced through it like it was smoke.

Kai's eyes widened. 'No way-!'

It was like he was a different man while wielding the small doctor's blade.

His speed was on a completely different level, and his aura had become sharp, threatening to cut anything in his path.

Another strike came. Kai parried with twin daggers, circling Krane and striking from both sides. The dock became a blur of motion, crimson flashes against silver gleams. Krane danced through the storm with frightening calm, flicking his scalpel like a conductor's baton. Each strike was clean. Clinical.

And then it happened...

Kai had been holding back and enjoying the exchange of blood daggers and scalpels when he suddenly lost track of his opponent.

A flash.

Kai didn't even see the motion. He just felt a sudden cold sensation.

He looked down.

His right arm had been severed cleanly at the shoulder.

He stared at the blood-spurting stump. For a moment, his brain refused to register the loss. It was like the limb was still there. He could feel his fingers. Feel the phantom weight. But he could see the arm lying several feet away, twitching, surrounded by a pool of red.

'This must have been how Isaac felt…'

Krane stood a few metres away, the scalpel glinting red now. "I wonder if you can regrow an arm," he mused, eyes gleaming behind cracked glasses. "You regenerate quickly, but a whole limb? That's something I've been dying to witness."

Kai's face remained calm. Cold. Controlled.

He didn't speak. He focused.

Blood erupted from the stump, not wildly, but in a controlled spiral. Threads of crimson stretched across the ground toward the severed arm. It twitched, then rose, as though lifted by invisible strings.

The tendrils tethered to it wrapped around veins, bone, and muscle. They pulled and stretched. Then, with a wet squelch, the arm snapped back into place.

Kai flexed his fingers. "Seems fine."

Krane's brow twitched. "Astounding. Do you think you could survive decapitation? Would your head grow a new body? Or your body, a new head? Maybe even a worm-like mitosis. Fascinating-"

He lunged mid-sentence.

Kai ducked under the scalpel swipe, the air splitting above his hair.

'That scalpel… It's not a weapon, it's an extension of his being. His precision. His control. Every strike counts. He's crazy, but fast.'

Krane stood still for a moment, blood still dripping from the edge of his scalpel, his chest rising and falling in shallow, quickened breaths.

He turned the blade in his hand, admiring it under the moonlight.

"This little thing…" he murmured, voice laced with reverence. "They used to laugh, you know, when I was just making a name for myself. 'Why bring a scalpel to a mutant fight?' they said. 'Get a real weapon.'" He scoffed under his breath.

"But they didn't understand… not really. This-" he raised the glinting, blood-soaked blade to eye level "-this isn't just steel. This is precision. Perfection. The embodiment of control."

Krane's pupils dilated as he stared into the slick red along its edge, gleaming like a ruby caught in moonlight.

"When I used to operate… when I used to cut people open on cold, sterile tables, I felt it. The thrill. The absolute authority of it. You make the incision, you trace the flesh, and inside... you find the machine. The cogs. The truth. Organs. Bones. Nerves. Beautiful. Fragile. I could open someone up like a puzzle box, and, if I was in the mood, put them back together. Better. Worse. Different."

He chuckled softly, almost lovingly.

"And this little blade… fits perfectly in my hand. As though it was made for me. As though my fingers were meant to hold it. And when I carve—when I truly carve—"

He dragged his tongue slowly along the bloodied edge.

His eyes snapped wide open.

The taste hit him like lightning.

"…Oh…"

He shuddered, head rolling back slightly, lips parting in awe.

"Bloodweaver…"

He looked at the young man with rapture in his eyes. His voice dropped to a whisper. "Your blood… it's alive. It sings. It clings to the blade like it knows it belongs there. No other has tasted like this… none. Not even the mutants I've dissected. Not even monsters and beasts."

He licked his lips. "This is… divine."

His eyes met Kai's, wild and bloodshot with obsession.

"I taste the essence of every opponent and keep a part of them. It's a ritual. A reward. A way to understand them. But yours? Yours is transcendent. Something beyond. The flavour of evolution. Of chaos incarnate."

He laughed. Loud. Raw. Exhilarated.

"And now… I don't care about the Messiah. Not the deals. Not the wealth. Not the chance to breed unrest in the city. Not even the chaos, as ironic as that is."

He took a slow step forward, dragging his scalpel behind him like a holy relic.

"All of that pales before an opponent like you."

The wind howled around them, salty and cold. Blood rippled on the ground like waves.

"You, Bloodweaver… are perfect. I've searched for a long time for someone like you. Someone I don't want to kill. Not yet. Not until I've felt every layer of what makes you tick. Until I've carved through your mystery… again and again."

His smile spread wide, sharp and deranged. "So don't die too quickly. Don't fall apart before I've had my fun."

And then, with bloodlust dancing in his voice, "Because I will carve you open until I find the source of that taste."

Meanwhile, Kai's irritation simmered into rage. He constantly held back, relying on his regeneration and tanking damage to deal it back. But Krane wasn't someone you could play games with. He was too sharp. Too surgical.

Kai's expression darkened, his bloodlust stirring in response to that of his opponent. His blood began to move differently now. Aggressive. Focused.

"Alright," he muttered. "You want more of my blood?"

He raised both arms, and the blood around him obeyed.

It surged up into the air and began to shift, solidifying into weapons. A dozen curved daggers. A jagged glaive. Twin whips of serrated fluid. Crimson claws over his fingers.

Krane's eyes sparkled like a child in a toy shop.

"Yes… Show me. Let it out."

Kai moved.

The dock exploded into chaos. Blood constructs launched at blinding speed. Kai shifted forms mid-strike, blade to whip, whip to spear, spear to blast. Each attack bled intent. Each one sought flesh.

Krane spun through the storm, scalpel flashing, but he was no longer untouched.

A blade skimmed his cheek. A whip shredded his coat. A spike gouged into his side.

He stumbled. Just a bit. But enough.

Kai appeared behind him in that instant, blood bursting beneath his feet to accelerate his dash. A massive halberd formed mid-swing.

He brought it down.

Krane twisted, but the edge cut deep into his shoulder before he could fully evade. Blood sprayed.

Krane staggered back, panting now, his coat torn, one arm limp at his side.

"You… really are magnificent," he whispered, grinning through bloodied teeth.

As for Kai, he now had more blood to wield and use to decimate his insane opponent. However, things were never that easy...

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