( Lucifer's POV )
Lucifer was thoroughly enjoying his time fighting Regus Aurelius as he got to explore a lot of previously untested powers of the seed of darkness when he faced the vampire monarch.
For one, he found out that whenever he bruised or nicked Regus, the darkness element coating his sword caused a decay effect in the nearby skin of where Regus was nicked.
As Regus was a monarch with robust vitality, the damage was minimal and only spread to about half a centimetre across the cut, but it was still an exciting discovery for the devil as it meant that when he tapped into even more of the seed of darknesses powers he would be able to increase this effect significantly.
A second ability that he noticed was that he no longer felt recoil at all when his sword met against Regus's.
Although the clash between their blades was violent and full of power, to Lucifer it felt like he was playing with rubber swords as he could not feel the recoil at all.
This new sensation allowed him to put much more force behind each strike as he no longer needed to fear that the recoil would make him incapable of moving into position for the next strike, effectively putting Regus on the backfoot as while he felt no recoil, it was clear from the throbbing veins on the vampire monarch's hands that he most certainly did.
" How delightful, this ability will prove to be most useful when facing my brother Micheal - " Lucifer murmured to himself as he smiled in his usual evil grin and continued to mount pressure on Regus.
For 1 hour 15 minutes, the vampire monarch had fought tooth and nail against the three monarchs giving them little to no openings, however, it was mostly because Lucifer wanted to test things out that the pacing of the battle was relatively slow.
Now that he was satisfied with his findings and increased the pressure, it was clear that Regus was not going to last much longer.
***********
( Meanwhile Max )
When Max finally caught sight of the retreating Bloodfall clan army, he sighed in relief as he quickly met-up with Anna and demanded a status report.
" Max? Why don't you have a mask on? " Anna asked horridly as she immediately noticed the armour on his body and identified that this was the real Max and not the clone.
" That's not important at the moment, first tell me is everyone here and safely retreating ? " Max demanded as Anna was forced to give up her concerns and told Max exactly what was going on.
After her rain arrow about 40% of Bloodfall troops had woken up and had began retreating while carrying one or two soldiers that were still sleeping on their backs.
Although Anna was able to pull out most of the troops, a few hundred were still in the danger zone.
While Anna and DarkSorrow did plan to make a second trip to save them later, both of them knew that they first needed to get the majority to safety.
Anna also continued her report and informed Max that the dragons were faring well and that Mira was okay as it seemed like Rhea had managed to kill an important tier8 enemy red dragon and had gained the upper hand in the blood feud.
Apparently the black and golden dragons turned out to be the superior fighters amongst the two clashing groups and were establishing dominance in the fight.
Max who listened to the report carefully was glad that Mira was okay and winning as he felt a little bad for leaving her side so abruptly.
" Good job, I'll go with Sebastian and see how many we can wake up and save, you lead the rest to safety " Max said as he patted Anna on the shoulder and flew towards the area where the knocked out Bloodfall soldiers were supposed to still be.
*********
( Rudra's POV )
Rudra had watched the full battle unfold between Lucifer and Regus and had gained a lot of valuable insights into the powers of the devil and the two other monarchs with him, both of whom Rudra had labelled as ' Weaklings '.
The vampire monarch had most definitely fought a valiant battle until the very end and managed to bring out a lot of Lucifer's hidden techniques for which Rudra was extremely grateful.
Everything seemed almost in place and exactly how he had envisioned it to be, and with Max close-by he knew that it was only a matter of minutes before his plan would be perfectly in place and he would be ready to make his return.
Cracking his neck and his fingers, Rudra smiled in anticipation.I think you should take a look at
It had been too long since he last fought freely, too long since he felt the weight of Excalibur in his hands.
However, the time to draw his weapon was finally near.
**********
( Sebastian's POV )
Alongside Max, Sebastian too rushed to save the few hundred Bloodfall soldiers that were still lying unconscious on the battlefield near the area where the monarchs were fighting.
Using the Vayu-Astra, he managed to life a lot of them and coupling with Max who aided in the effort, the duo managed to lift every last one of them in the air as they flew off with them and brought them back to the rest of the retreating group.
Technically, his job was supposed to end here and he was supposed to retreat with the rest of the group, but unfortunately he had seen one dumb old man standing over a crater and overlooking the battle unfold between the monarchs.
" Max, I'll quickly go grab the dumb weak old man. We can leave then- " Sebastian said, as he flew back towards the battlefield, despite his personal disgust towards the old man to try and save him.
Max, who heard that the old man was still left behind, followed Sebastian and within minutes the two were beside Rudra.
" YOU ABSOLUTELY STUPID, BRAINLESS, DUMB OLD MAN, DO YOU HAVE A DYING WISH OR SOMETHING?" Sebastian shouted as he landed beside Rudra and tried to lift him into the air and run.
Naturally, despite his best efforts, he was unable to make Rudra budge even a single centimetre as he continued to overlook the battle with a blank expression.
" OLD MAN, THIS IS NO TIME TO FLEX YOUR LEG STRENGTH, COME LET'S RUN.
WE CAN BE KILLED BY A STRAY BLAST ANY SECOND NOW- " Sebastian said in panic as he tried to pull on Rudra's arm and forcefully drag him alongside him.
It was at this moment that Rudra spoke without even bothering to look towards Max, as he said " Is your goal to become the next Vampire King? "
This question dumbfounded Sebastian who stopped pulling Rudra for a second and looked at Max in confusion.
" Yes " Max replied with conviction.
" Do you still want me to save that man? " Rudra asked as Sebastian felt his chest tightening at the question.
" Who do you think you are old man? Have you absolutely lost your mind? First save yourself before you dream about saving the monarch! " Sebastian ranted but nobody was paying any attention to him.
" Yes, if he has to die, I'll be the one to do it, not Lucifer " Max replied as Rudra turned his head slightly to glance at Max and smiled in appreciation.
" I'll need you to conceal this area then, you know how to do it and I'm trusting you that you will before Lucifer escapes.
I can count on you for it, can't I brother? " Rudra said as Max's eyes widened in disbelief.
" Brother?" Sebastian questioned as his heart almost skipped a beat.
The only one who could call Max a brother was either him, or a guy who was long dead.
Unless he wasn't....
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/// A/N - Chapter 8 of 8, that's it for the day ///