Dracula was trying to be as calm as possible, however, in reality the Surya-Astra was rattling him from the inside out.
With the two of them fighting in space, where there was no atmosphere, Dracula was already at an advantage as the darkness of space did not refract light like a planets atmosphere did, however, despite this advantage when Regus used the power of the Surya-Astra against him from close-range, Dracula felt strength leaving his body as he felt as weak as a feather.
The modern vampires did not understand how serious the debuff from sunlight really was for the primordial vampires.
It wasn't a simple case of ' Sunlight weakened them ' or a skin disease that sizzled upon coming in contact with the sun.
The primordial vampires literally felt like someone had thrown their entire bodies into massive pools of toxic chemicals when they were exposed to sunlight and this debuff was particularly strong for their progenitor, Dracula.
Although he would never admit it outloud, if there was one trait that Dracula envied in the modern vampires, it was their ability to walk under the sun without being affected by the debuff that he faced as he secretly wished for the same ability for himself.
' What an annoying weapon to rely on, I really can't close in on him even though I want to- ' thought Dracula as he kept maintaining his distance from Regus and kept attacking from range, hoping to create a significant opening that he could exploit later.
On the other hand, Regus kept upping the ante against Dracula, giving him no time to plot against him as he channelled the power of the Surya-Astra through his sword, or used it directly to create miniature suns.
In essence, the Surya-Astra worked exactly like the Agni-Astra did for Max. As by relying on it's power Regus did not expend any mana or divine essence of his own but was able to match Dracula step-for-step.
This was particularly important for Regus as he did not have reserves as monstrous as Dracula and in a drawn-out battle it was going to be him who ran out of steam first.
Having already used [ Ixtal's Supremacy ] once, he had already used a big chunk of his divine essence and hence the Surya-Astra was like a blessing for him that gave him the opportunity to rebuild his reserves while relying on its strength to keep up the offensive.
Unfortunately though, his luck ran out once Dracula managed to retreat to a rocky asteroid belt, as once he had gained the ability to take cover against sunlight behind large rocks, the complexion of the battle changed entirely.
By strategically utilising the asteroid belt as cover, Dracula ensured to always stay behind the dark side of the rocks whenever Regus produced a miniature sun while using the same rocks as a base to launch his own hidden counter-attacks as Regus was bombarded with a plethora of [ Blood Bullets ] from a variety of angles.
[ Call Of The Sanguis ]
Converting the asteroid belt into a blood asteroid belt, Dracula used Call of the Sanguis to summon the blood river as he flooded the space between himself and Regus with countless small blood particles.
Regus contemplated the decision of whether or not to retreat from the asteroid belt once he realised that he was at a disadvantage at the location, however, before he could make a decisive choice, he lost his left arm to one of Dracula's notorious attacks.
Initially, it looked like just another barrage of blood bullets to Regus, however, it was faster and more powerful than the rounds before.
Regus evaporated some of the bullets using [ Solar Wall ], while he deflected some using his sword.
Finally, he tried to dodge some that seemed to be at a trajectory that would usually only graze him as he did not bother to defend against them as they were not aiming for a vital organ in the first place.
Unfortunately, however, this was a grave mistake on his part. One that cost him his left arm!
As he tried to dodge against a bullet that was incoming towards his shoulder, he tried to dodge against it by dropping his shoulder and turning slightly so that his body would move out of its trajectory, however, this manoeuvre was exactly what Dracula seemed to be aiming for.
As Regus dropped his shoulder, he immediately manipulated a blood mist particles placed behind his shoulder to transform into a sharp blade as the second that Regus turned his shoulder slightly, he sliced himself open while Dracula manipulated it to go all the way as he claimed Regus's left arm in full.
It was a old trick that Dracula had learnt while fighting as a kid against stronger opponents as he would do this often to change the tide of battle in his favour.
After all these years, he was glad that it was still as effective as it was when he was a kid.
[ Solar Burn ]
Without mourning for the loss of his arm, or wasting even a second, Regus used solar burn to completely burn off the flesh of his open wound so that not a single drop of blood came gushing out of it for Dracula to be able to manipulate, as despite the pain Regus decisively sacrificed his left limb to keep fighting this battle.
Regus knew that with the kind of blood manipulation ability that Dracula possessed if he kept bleeding for long the battle would be over before he could even understand what happened.
While there were methods to grow-back limbs, there was no spell to resurrect the dead from the grave and hence he chose to lose his arm over his life as he retreated from the asteroid belt where he was at a disadvantage as Dracula followed him hot in pursuit sensing that without his arm Regus was a lot weaker than before.
Although the battle was far from over, at least for the start it was Dracula who managed to gain the upper hand.