Two men faced each other. On one side was the current General of the Werewolves, Adam William Lykos. On the other side was The Progenitor of an entire species and the literal King of Hell, Victor Alucard.
Maya was in the middle of the Arena, and everyone could see that she had changed her clothes. She was wearing dark red pants with black details and a black lace top that only covered her breasts and shoulders, and she wore a choker with the symbol of a silver wolf on her neck while she had tied her hair in a ponytail.
Leona could see that while her grandmother might be old, she had a good fashion sense... though her fashion was more showy, like all Werewolves.
"Though the duel is allowing anything but death. A minimum of respect for your opponent is required."
"Low blows like attacks to the private parts or taking advantage of each other's weaknesses will be seen as poor conduct by the public."
"You two are two honorable warriors, so fight as such."
Maya looked at the two men, and realizing they heard what she said, she nodded in satisfaction, then looked at Volk.
The Werewolf King nodded, understanding Maya's intentions. The next moment, he extended his hand towards the Arena, tree branch-like tattoos began to appear across his arm, green Energy covered the Arena.
"This shield regenerates and can withstand several hits from The King of Werewolves himself at full strength. It was made to protect the audience when a fight happens but is not invincible, so be careful."
Hearing Maya's explanation, Victor looked toward the shield, and just as he expected, the shield was made of Pure Natural Energy.
[Interesting... It can be used this way too.]
[Can you do it, Roxanne?]
[Yes, but since my Main Nature is Negative, my shield will not be a shield that protects but a shield that destroys.]
[Hmm, it would be interesting if we could find the Samar World Tree.]
[I find it quite unlikely; World Trees prefer to hide from everyone's sight. After all, we are quite desired by Beings... We don't want to be exploited.] Roxanne explained.
Victor narrowed his eyes at that remark but didn't refute her words since she was correct. Those with a World Tree in their hands in the form of a Contract could build a Pantheon in the future, not to mention producing Energy that surpassed even a Dragon's Heart.
"Considerations given, let's get down to business." Maya took a golden coin from her pocket.
"When this coin hits the ground, the fight will begin."
Victor looked back at Adam and got into a Martial Arts stance.
'That posture... Bajiquan? But it looks a little different than what I know... Hmm, Interesting.' Maya smiled.
Unlike her sons and daughters, who chose the path of blades, Maya was practically a Martial Artist against weapons. She believed that her body was her weapon, but despite this philosophy, she was not foolish enough to believe that she shouldn't use weapons. Because of that, she also trained with many other weapons; after all, in a war, one must use everything to destroy their enemy and not be limited to fists.
But it was a fact that her best Martial Arts were her unarmed combat.
Seeing Victor getting ready, Adam did the same with his Naginata.
Seeing that the two were ready, she tossed the coin in the air and disappeared from the Arena in the next moment and appeared in the stands next to her granddaughter.
Everyone watched with bated breath as the coin slowly dropped to the ground as if Time was running in slow motion.
Then the moment the coin bounced off the ground...
The sound barrier shattered, and in the next second, Adam had flown towards the walls of the Energy Dome with a fist
imprint on his chest plate.
"Cough!" He spat blood and fell to the ground on one knee. He looked up and saw Victor standing where he had previously been in a Martial Arts stance while his fist looked like it was on fire.
A common question appeared in everyone's mind: 'What just happened!?'
They literally saw nothing!
Not even Volk or Tasha saw anything.
Maya was the only one who could see anything, but she merely caught the beginning of Victor's movement.
'He's a bloody monster.' Maya smiled widely.
"...He used the Power of Fire? Didn't he say he wouldn't use his Power?" Thomas asked.
"Wrong, Boy. He didn't use any Power. His fist is on fire because of the friction between the air and his fist."
"... Are you saying he punched so fast that his fist caught on fire?" Thomas asked incredulously.
"Correct." Maya nodded.
"...Is that even physically possible?" Anna asked.
"Yes... In theory... But it's obviously possible. We just saw it happen.."
Victor pointed his hand at Adam and called out, "Come on, Adam. Get up. Let's continue our dance."
"Cough, Cough." He spat on the ground and got up. In the motion of getting up, his whole appearance started to get wilder, and hair began to grow on his body.
"This Martial Art, this is Bajiquan, right?"
"Close... But not quite. This is Scathach's Style, a Martial Art she developed, and I modified it for my own needs."
"..." For a moment, Adam, Volk, and Maya thought they had gone deaf.
'Did this man just casually say that he took The Strongest Female Vampire's Martial Art that took millennia to create and altered it to his liking?' Maya never thought she'd hear so much bullshit in her life.
Maya, of course, knew about the Martial Arts that Scathach had developed. She even tried to learn from the Elder Vampire in the past, but both concluded that learning the Martial Art from her would be a disservice to Maya, who had already created her own style of Martial Arts. After all, Scathach's Martial Art was created to be a 'foundation' for everything the user wanted to become. It was a powerful Martial Art that was quite balanced and capable of adapting to various fighting styles and Bloodlines of Vampires.
However, Maya's Martial Art was more explosive and focused more on speed and internal damage.
Scathach's Martial Art was perfect. She combined several Martial Arts she'd learned and created her own unique style that didn't require modification. Her Martial Art was like a Masterpiece that shouldn't be defiled... But this man just said he took that Martial Art and modified it?
'Just how talented do you have to be to make that possible?' Maya couldn't understand.
Adam and Volk had similar thoughts to Maya; both men knew the Martial Art the redhead created very well. In the past, even Volk himself tried to negotiate for Scathach to teach this Martial Art to the Wolves, but the woman denied it, saying that the men he appointed were useless.
Scathach was a True Teacher, and she only taught her own fighting style to those she deemed worthy.
"... You are a monster, Alucard."
"People tell me that a lot."
The blade of Adam's Naginata was covered in green power, and soon the man leaped toward Victor.
With his Hybrid Form, Adam's strength practically doubled.
Adam swung the blade horizontally, and a blade-shaped arc of Energy flew toward Victor.
Instead of stepping away from his position, Victor just casually turned his body, allowing the arc to pass by him harmlessly.
Adam wasn't surprised by this and kept throwing these attacks, but Victor kept dodging with minimal movements. This continued until, in a moment, he stopped moving toward Victor, and with a burst of speed, he went to the opposite end of the Arena. His body started to be covered by green Energy, and slowly that green Energy changed into Lightning.
Rumble, Rumble.
Soon he disappeared and started running all over the Arena, leaving only Blue Lightning Trails behind.
"Using the Power of Lightning against me, are you serious?" Victor asked in disbelief.
Suddenly a beam of Blue Lightning flew toward him, and Victor dodged it.
"Oh?" Victor watched with interest as the Lightning flashed past him and headed toward the other side before that same beam of Lightning came back at him again.
Victor swerved again, and this process repeated.
Each time this happened, the Lightning got stronger and stronger.
'Hmm, what is he doing?' Victor wondered, confused.
"This is boring..." Victor said as he dodged the Lightning again.
He opened his eyes wide when he saw that the speed had gotten even faster and more destructive.
Suddenly, instead of just one bolt of Lightning coming, two came, and then three, and then four, and the number began to increase.
Fushhhhhhh.
The surrounding wind started to blow harder, and slowly a hurricane was starting to form.
'Just what ridiculous Technique is this?'
From Victor's point of view, every time the Lightning returned to Adam, he could see the man redirecting the Lightning with his Naginata.
When the hurricane was powerful enough, Adam suddenly appeared next to Victor and attacked him diagonally.
Victor dodged by jumping, and with his innate slow perspective, he saw that Adam's entire body was covered in Lightning in a manner much like his Vampire Count Form. Victor returned to the ground and looked at the hurricane with a narrow gaze. His eyes were moving as if he was following the movement of everything.
He smiled widely and said:
"I understand..."
Victor's leg twitched, and the next moment, he kicked upwards, extending his leg.
With just the air pressure caused by his movement, a hole was made in the hurricane. Not only that, the clouds themselves were split in half.
"You really do have a Werewolf-like physical body, Victor."
"Like?" Victor raised his eyebrow as he lowered his leg.
"That is far from the truth, Adam." He looked at the man who was entirely covered in Lightning.
"I am superior." He smiled widely.
"Your arrogance knows no bounds, huh."
"It's not arrogance if it's true."
"Hahahaha, that's true." Adam chuckled in amusement, and slowly his expression began to change.
"...I will show you what a fully trained Werewolf can do." All the Lightning accumulated in Adam's body started to travel towards his mouth as if he were eating the Lightning itself.
"Heh~?" Victor watched everything with interest. Anderson hadn't done that in their fight.
When Adam swallowed all the Lightning, a change occurred in the fur on his body as it became brighter, and static electricity could be seen.
Adam's hair started to float around, and when Adam opened his eyes, his sky-blue eyes were glowing even brighter.
"Unlike Vampires, who in the past had to train to withstand their own power in their body. Werewolves never needed that. We're fully compatible because we're already born bonded to Nature."
"Therefore...doing something like this."
Adam lashed out with his fist, and for a moment, his own fist disappeared and almost hit Victor, but his reaction time was even faster than Adam's fist.
"Is possible."
"..." Victor's smile grew.
"Have you become one with the Element itself, Adam?"
"It's more complicated than that, Victor."
"My body hasn't changed. The way I interact with the world
has changed." Leaving that cryptic answer behind, he continued:
"Let's continue."
He vanished and reappeared in front of Victor, slashing him.
Victor used his arm as a defense, and the blade collided with his arm producing an ear-piercing clang as if two metals collided.
Adam was stunned for a brief moment, long enough for Victor to punch him in the stomach, sending him flying backward.
Adam regained his center of gravity in the air, kicked the air to gain momentum, and came back to attack Victor.
Victor dodged Adam's attack with the slightest movement, seized the opening moment, and punched him in the face. Adam pulled away and looked at his Naginata.
"Bringing such a long weapon in range of a Close Combat Master is foolish, Adam."
"... You're right... In part." Adam attacked in the opposite direction of Victor.
At that exact moment, Victor felt electricity strike his back. 'What happened?'
"Your body really is superior..." Adam spoke in shock. "That should have blown a hole through you."
Victor narrowed his eyes. 'When he attacked me with the Naginata's Lightning, it somehow attacked me from behind without me feeling anything.'
"The way I interact with the world, huh..." Victor thought about those words and decided to test a few things out.
Taking a stance that Lacus would immediately recognize, Victor disappeared and reappeared before Adam.
Adam punched toward Victor's face, but the next moment, Victor changed his posture again. He lowered his center of gravity and punched Adam's private parts!
A rumble was heard all around.
A cold sweat ran down Adam's face, "You're crazy. You would really attack me in such a place! Where is your honor as a man!?"
Victor didn't care what Adam said and looked at the small barrier of electricity created where he was going to punch Adam.
Victor's smile grew: "I understand..."
Any action a Being took usually needed to get from point A to point B.
For example, for Victor to use the Power of Lightning, he needed to use his Power, manifest his Power outside his body, and use that to attack the enemy.
From the point where he decided to use the power until it reached the enemy, three processes were necessary. This was how Victor interacted with the world. In fact, this was how most Beings interact with the world.
But Adam didn't need to do that. Instead, he can skip the whole process of manifesting Energy and use it directly to attack the enemy.
While Victor was doing three things, Adam was only doing two.
It may seem insignificant, but this is a significant advantage in a high-level fight where any second can be decisive.
An example of this was what happened in the previous confrontation: Victor would've destroyed Adam's balls, but the man, in milliseconds, created a protection for them.
'What is the area of influence? Up to how many meters can he use this?' His mind started working at high speed. Victor knew very well that it couldn't be used from very far away.
It didn't matter if he could skip some processes or not. The Energy needed to come from somewhere, and the process of 'manifesting' Energy was essential for that.
So it was safe to say that Adam could interact with the world differently just a few meters around him. But, more than that, he needed to 'manifest' the Energy.
Victor grinned widely. He felt like he was fighting two Adams; one was visible while the other wasn't.
"Interesting... Very interesting indeed. Can all Wolves do this? I mean, the whole skipping process thing, etc?"
"... Have you figured it out already?... Damn geniuses." Adam grunted in disbelief. Then he answered his question.
"Everyone can't do this. Only I can. How a Werewolf develops their Internal Energy is unique to each one."
"I see... This is quite educational."
Suddenly, a punching bag of Ice appeared, and Victor positioned himself and started punching it a few times. He tried to focus on the feeling of when he'd been attacked, remembered what he saw with his Dragon Eyes, and tried to imitate it:
"Something like this?"
FUSSH, FUSSH.
Victor clearly attacked on the right, but a hole appeared on the left side of the punch bag.
"No, that's not how he did it. I just attacked simultaneously... Should I use Lightning Power? But how do I cut off the process of manifesting Energy?"
Rumble, Rumble.
Victor's body was covered by Lightning, and he attacked the punching bag again.
This time, the result was a little more similar but still pretty bad by Victor's standards.
"..." Adam looked at the punching bag in disbelief.
"Hmm, a little better. Ugh, this is hard... Although I have full compatibility with my Lightning, I can't fully mimic it." In theory, Victor was no different from how the Wolves described themselves.
Since he was reborn through Roxanne, he was very bonded with Nature. So, in a way, his body could also be called a Werewolf-like body now.
'How did he attack in the opposite direction, and yet the fist landed behind me? That doesn't make any sense.' Victor had decided he needed to fight Adam more to understand.
While Victor was lost in thought, Adam was recovering from his shock.
'A little better...? A LITTLE BETTER!? It took me several years to do what you just did in a few seconds!'
Victor's monstrous talent for combat made him very depressed.
"..." Adam came to wonder what was the reason for this duel? Was it to make Victor stronger or for the 'honor' of his daughter?
Adam looked at his daughter, who was looking at Victor with a look of adoration and excitement.
He saw that she was talking animatedly with Maya and completely ignored him.
Somehow Adam felt the effort wasn't worth it.
What's the use of him fighting if his daughter didn't support him?
Adam was a sad parent at that point.