( Max's POV )
Max felt his heart race in his chest as Seraphiel's otherworldly presence enveloped the soul space.
' Mofo disabled my primal domain? How can someone so casually disable others' attacks? What kind of power is that? ' Max wondered as gritting his teeth, he stretched out his hands.
[ Blazing Onslaught ] he muttered.
Immediately, ethereal flames sprang to life around his fingertips.
This was his ace move against individuals who could dodge attacks very well.
This tier6 move came with the homing feature that kept pursuing the enemy even if they swerved or dodged and was the perfect attack under such circumstances since Max needed to only land one hit on Seraphiel to win the round.
With a flick of his wrists, he sent a barrage of divine fireballs at Seraphiel, hoping that they would set him ablaze.
For a moment, Seraphiel seemed to stand still as if he had given up on the thought of dodging and accepted his fate, but then suddenly as if defying the very laws of physics, Seraphiel moved—but not in a manner Max could easily follow.
He didn't merely sidestep or fly; he seemed to vanish into thin air only to reappear somewhere else. It was as if he was dodging in a dimension beyond Max's perception, sidestepping reality itself.
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
.
.
.
.
.
*BOOM*
All of Max's fireballs bust at the sight where Seraphiel was standing last and despite being of the homing nature they too seemed to be unable to follow Seraphiels movements.
" The fuck? " Max cursed as he saw Seraphiel standing a few hundred metres to the left of where he was initially and had his mind thrown into shambles.
[ Fireball ] X 500
Max began attacking with a barrage of fireballs, as he started to cast them like a madman.
Once again, it appeared that for a moment Seraphiel was not planning to dodge but then he stepped casually as if walking linearly but ended up disappearing once more as he dodged all of Max's attacks and appeared 300 metres vertically above the spot he was standing before.
Puzzlement turned into a frown on Max's face as despite his acute senses and quick reflexes, he couldn't pinpoint how Seraphiel was dodging his attacks.
He was clearly moving, but where to? Or more pertinently, where through?
It wasn't teleportation as teleportation left ripples through space and was instantaneous in nature.
This seemed to be something more nuanced, something Max couldn't wrap his head around and it bothered him to no end.
This pattern of Max attacking and Seraphiel defending went on for the next several minutes.
Usually, Seraphiel would just dodge as his strategy seemed to be to tire out Max in a long-drawn battle but he did send out a few attacks now and then just to mix things up.
Max was not bothered by Seraphiel's counter attacks, they were weak and he could easily see them coming and deal with them, however, what bothered him was his dodging skill.
It wasn't until he had repeated this cycle about 50 times that Max noticed an oddity about Seraphiel dodging.
Despite having the opportunity to close in on Max and convert this battle into a high paced one which could be used to his advantage, Seraphiel did not ever close the distance between himself and Max despite having every opportunity to do so!
' Soul suppression! Just like Angakok Seraphiel can't get too close to me either, this means if I can attack the entire 2D plane at once, factoring the maximum distance that Seraphiel can move at once, I should be able to hit him ' Max thought as a bright smile appeared on his face.
Pushing himself to the edge, Max unleashed a torrent of elemental attacks, changing from fire to water to wind, each manipulated in time and space to fill the area Seraphiel seemed to dodge into.
His estimate was that Seraphiel could move for a maximum of 500 metres at once, so he decided to unleash a barrage of attacks into a 550 metres range with his last known location at the centre point.
Just as he thought, Seraphiel tried to dodge his move by moving 400 metres to the left, but once he re-emerged there was a barrage of attacks awaiting him at that point too as although he blocked the attack effortlessly, the lingering fire burnt his robe and caused a miniscule -5 damage.
"Round one...is mine," Max declared, his voice tinged with both exhaustion and exhilaration.
For the first time since the battle started, Max saw a flicker of something in Seraphiel's void-like eyes. It was the briefest of moments, but Max felt as if he had just passed an unspoken test.
************
( Meanwhile Regus )
" Dead? All 100 million of them? " Regus asked, his voice grim as his hands trembled.
" Yes, Dracula effortlessly destroyed both the sun and moon of Ixtal-, his power is something else, his title of planetary destroyer is no joke " Vega Titus replied as he seemed extremely disturbed by this show of strength too.
" Without the sun and the moon what happens to Ixtal now? " Regus asked, a deep frown on his face as he did not like the answer to his own question.
The holy planet of the vampires, Ixtal, the symbol of vampire monarchy and the planet where every common vampire hopes to visit once before they die was now going to soon become a frozen hell.
48-72 hours after the sun's heat stopped reaching the planet's surface it would start turning frigid and if there were any surviving vampires left on Ixtal, that would be the end of them.
" What about my wife and children? Do you have any news? " Regus asked as it was killing him to know if his family was safe or not.
" We have made contact with the red umbrella group, they seem to be taking care of a very heavily injured Felix Aurelius.
Apparently, he has 3 bullet-like wounds in his body from the barrage that Dracula unleashed.
Your wife is fine, she was evacuated before the mess started and will reach Zandar by noon.
As for Lucius, he's missing, he could be dead or alive but we're not sure, " Vega reported as Regus breathed a half-sigh of relief.
" Send one of your me- "
" It's done, don't worry " Vega cut Regus odd before he could request him to send one of his healers to the red umbrella group to check on Felix.
These were tumultuous times but Vega still had his priorities straight.
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/// A/N - Guys round 2 of character voting event has begun!
Max has advanced from the preliminaries making him officially the top16 most popular character in .
Im hoping to push him to top8 so,
If you can go show some love to our boy Max, I'd appreciate it greatly. Currently the gap between us and the leader is huge, but I'm sure we can clutch it down ///