Chapter 924 A reminder
When Dracula finally came out of the dark realm, he had managed to calm his nerves down a bit, however he could not help but still feel edgy.
The very essence of Max Rajput was unsettling for him as things were not quite what he expected them to be.
Max had grown exponentially stronger in his blood manipulation techniques since the first time Dracula saw him and while he could not match up to his mastery yet, he was not very far behind either.
Unfortunately, that was the only department where Dracula felt like he held any real edge over Max as everywhere else he was being outdone by the tier7 newbie.
Max was absurdly strong and fast, more so than he who was near the absolute peak of tier8 and that was inconceivable to Dracula.
Dracula could not wrap his head around the incredible stat boost that made Max as strong as he was and it was this secret that made him genuinely respect Max as a warrior.
Any power worth having was never earned for free and if Max wielded such extraordinary power, Dracula was sure that he must have had to sacrifice dearly to get it.
As a true battle junkie, Dracula appreciated a good fight and hence he was glad to be facing a strong opponent, however, what put the fear of Max in him though was how effortlessly he escaped the dark realm.
To figure out within five minutes what took him months meant that Max's intellect and understanding of the elements had far surpassed his and this unsettled Dracula.
As a tier8 warrior he was supposed to know secrets of the universe that a tier7 warrior could not possibly fathom, however, in the particular case of Max Rajput he was not sure about it anymore.
He was almost a complete warrior, almost near perfect as no matter how hard Dracula tried he could not wrap his head around Max's weakness.
Attack?
Defence?
Regeneration?
Stamina?
Speed?
Knowledge?
Mana?
There were no obvious flaws in Max's fighting style as no matter how Dracula planned to suppress him, he could not find a clear way.
Truth be told, the act of Max escaping his dark realm unsettled him so much that at one point he considered not fighting him anymore for the time being, however, if the news spread that the modern vampire's waltzed into enemy territory with Max facing Dracula and the primordial vampire king ran away from the fight with his tail between his legs, then Dracula would not be able to show his face anywhere anymore.
His pride would be buried and his legacy would be mocked and that was an outcome Dracula could not accept even if the alternative was death.
Having confronted his conscience with this decision before heading out to fight Max, Dracula knew that it was do or die for him from this point forward as retreat was not an option.
The only way he could run away now with his pride intact was if the queen intervened, however, until that happened he was going to fight as if his very life was on the line.
********
( Max's POV )
The moment Dracula emerged from his dark hole into the controlled universe, Max knew by the look in his eyes that the real fight was about to go down.
Dracula's eyes conveyed the story of an alert and cornered beast and just by looking into them Max was sure that Dracula was going to perform at his absolute best in the fight ahead.
He was going to attack every opening that he saw even if it came with a risk while ferociously defending for his dear life when the situation demanded that he take a step back as a way out of this mess.
Max felt his skin tingle at the very thought of the fight that was about to unfold as although he wasn't a battle junkie like Kartikeya or Dracula, he was a primordial vampire at his core and the very essence of his being felt comfortable while being on a thrilling hunt.
He already had a clear plan of action in mind, a plan where he was going to beat down Dracula to within an inch of his life before devouring him for all that he was worth.
No words were exchanged between the duo after Dracula emerged, as their eyes did all the talking.
As Dracula summoned his blood mist aura and took a battle stance, Max knew that this was his chance to go all out as he used [ Perfect Cloning ] and summoned Drax to his side.
" Let's finish this " Max said to Drax as he activated
[ Constant Regeneration ]
[ Unstoppable Assault ]
And
[ Dimensional Walk ]
With a bottomless stamina reserve and increased strength and speed, Max was a flash as he warped in and out of the Dimensional realm while attacking Dracula.
The primordial god carefully prepared a blood mist defense to try and understand the direction of Max's incoming attack and react before it hit him, however, Drax did not allow Dracula to do as he pleased.
The A.I. in his new wise sage form activated the spell [ Space Wind Hurricane ]
As he sent all the sensory blood mist particles that Dracula had deployed into overdrive of information which made it impossible for him to peacefully predict Max's path of attack.
Although the space wind hurricane did not do any damage of itself, it gave Max the ability to attack Dracula in a defenceless state as the primordial vampire was on the recieving end of a thorough thrashing.
-10,030,000
-10,030,000
-40,200,000
-32,230,000
Max left deep gashes all around Dracula's body as he sometimes attacked his front upper torso, sometimes behind his knees and sometimes on his back.
Since Dracula could not predict Max's incoming attacks at all he was practically a sitting duck against them as within a minute he lost close to 35% of his total HP against Max with no answer to his attacks.
Fortunately, as he instinctively grabbed for Max's arm, through sheer luck he managed to grab Max by his ankle as Max manifested before him right at that moment.
Max naturally slashed down with all his might, his sword cutting straight through Dracula's shoulder blade and getting stuck in his very bone as a normal individual would pass out from the pain right this moment.
Nonetheless, like a beast on a mission, Dracula kept holding onto Max's ankle as he fought past the pain and used the lethal move [ Blood Explosion ]
As he used one of the most dangerous attacks known to the primordial vampire kind to deal with Max.
" NO! " screamed Drax as he used a substitution spell to replace his position with that of Max as within an instant the clone's wise sage body burst into pieces.
Max began to cough uncontrollably as he felt the nerve damage in his own body that had started before Drax sacrificed himself being healed by constant regeneration, however, even he had to acknowledge that if Drax did not bail him out then despite constant regeneration, he would have died at the hands of Dracula.
Constant Regeneration was a fail proof move, however, it could not regenerate injuries such as a severed head or something gruesome such as the brain and body bursting into pieces.
Of all the moves in Dracula's arsenal it was the only one which could one-shot any opponent, even his brother and Max barely escaped that fate thanx to his A.I.
The Activation condition for Blood Explosion was to be in physical contact with the opponent and if Max had the time to focus enough he could neutralise it's effects to a certain extent but even then his survival could not be gauranteed.
This close call was a reminder for him to take this fight more seriously as his opponent had not lived for over 10,000 years for nothing.
Just like Max had his own ways to win this fight, Dracula had his own ace cards to come out ahead and if Max let him dictate the pace of the battle then he was going to be done for.
" I was so close " Dracula said as he absorbed the blood mist particles in his surroundings to regenerate some of the injuries that he had recieved and repair his injured shoulder to an acceptable degree.
He was smiling, despite having lost close to a third of his HP as he had just managed to show his opponent that he was no pushover either and that he could decide this fight within a single mistake as well.
In his own way, he was telling Max to not be so cocky and rely on a single attack as although he did not have a way to break Max's dimensional walk attack, if he even through sheer luck managed to get his hands on Max a second time he could kill him then and there.