"This absurd talent for combat is depressing... Just who was the being that created this man?" Maya asked in disbelief. She knew very well how much effort her son put into developing this technique, and to see someone replicating it even a little bit with just a few minutes of observation was another level of ridiculous.
It was inconceivable! A being should not be allowed to have such talent!
"Hmm... Me?" Anna pointed to herself shyly, "I raised him since he was a child. He is my son, after all." She snorted proudly.
"..." Maya looked at Anna with a focused gaze.
'That woman is his mother... She must be talented too, right?' Maya's interest was piqued.
Feeling a little uncomfortable under Maya's intense gaze, Anna decided to change the subject:
"Does Adam have the bloodline of lightning powers?" she asked curiously.
"...He has a lineage, but it's not about lightning. Unlike vampires, werewolves don't need specific bloodlines to get stronger. All wolves have a natural 'energy' within themselves that is capable of becoming any element as long as the werewolf has an affinity with it." Maya explained.
"Of course, a bloodline of Alpha werewolves like my Clan has a certain facility in training that energy."
'...She avoided my question about lineage, huh.'
It may seem that Maya answered Anna, but that is not quite true. She clearly did not say exactly what the powers of the Lykos Clan bloodline were.
Anna noticed it, and she wasn't the only one who noticed this fact either, but no one commented on it. After all, it was her right to withhold information about her own Clan.
"My father once said he was proficient with lightning... But I've never seen him use it." Leona spoke.
"That's normal. Werewolves are more the physical combat type, and they usually use their energy to boost their own physical body like Adam is doing now." Maya spoke.
"So, you're saying that werewolves can't unleash gigantic lightning from their hand like my son and Clan Fulger?" Anna asked Maya.
"They can, but it won't be as destructive as someone of the Clan Fulger bloodline, and the werewolf will just expend a lot of energy for nothing."
'Our bloodlines have more different purposes than those of vampires.' Maya thought internally but didn't comment on it. "... This is complicated..." Anna frowned.
"Hmm... In terms of games, Werewolves are the perfect warriors who are most proficient in using any element to boost their own body." Eve explained.
"And noble vampires are more like glass cannon mages who have a weak body and high firepower."
"Hmm... Is that right? I feel like things aren't that simple anymore." Anna pointed.
"That is true. Times are changing more and more, and vampires, at some point in their evolution, are using their powers like werewolves. For example, Victor can cover his body with his own element, and Scathach, who has overcome the weakness of the vampire's weak body."
"Hmm, but Victor isn't the only one anymore? After all, all the mainline members of Clan Scarlett, Fulger, and Snow can do it now, Maya." Leona explained casually.
"... Eh?" Maya looked at her granddaughter in disbelief: "How is that possible? I would understand if it was the descendants. After all, vampire traits are passed onto the next generation much stronger than the past generation, but the entire Clan?"
"I mean, all the main members of the Clans are my husband's wives, and he helped them all get stronger. Haven't you heard the news?"
"... Yes, but... From the way you say it, it sounds like even Scathach is involved."
"But she is?"
"..." Maya was speechless and didn't know how to answer for a few seconds.
'Did that woman finally find her a partner?' She looked back at Victor, who was dodging the beams being thrown at him.
'... Looks like her wait was worth it. She got the highest possible prize...' Maya thought she should go visit Scathach later.
Leona smiled a little when she saw the look of shock on Volk and Tasha.
Natalia and Kaguya glared at Leona, their looks said. 'You said too much.'
Leona just smiled at the two of them and pointed at Volk and Tasha.
When the two Maids furtively glanced at the two leaders, they understood Leona's plan.
'Sneaky woman... She should have been born as a snake, not a wolf.' Natalia laughed.
What Leona was basically doing was preparing the 'ground' for when their Faction comes out publicly.
Currently, the two werewolves were thinking that the noble vampires have gotten stronger as a whole, but in fact, it's just Victor's faction that's getting stronger.
Leona wasn't stupid, and she wouldn't reveal personal information for nothing. Another reason she said this information was to get the attention of her 'grandmother' since the woman clearly knew Scathach and the two were clearly very similar, possibly even rivals.
What happened when Maya saw how Scathach was getting stronger due to Victor's influence? She would be motivated to go after it too, and through this motivation, some kind of relationship could be created. She completely relied on the charm and charisma capable of making all women into Yanderes from her husband.
After all, in less than a few months, he managed to make Scathach obsessed with him... Even the goddess of beauty herself was captured by him. A wolf who was clearly interested in him, it's quite easy.
Not to mention that she was sure that in this fight, Victor would show something interesting that would attract Maya even more. She was sure of that; after all, Victor was 'motivated' thanks to her.
Leona would take full advantage of this situation to at least get Maya on her side. With her Clan Matriarch by her side, she will effectively include Clan Lykos in the Faction she belongs to.
'All for my Darling~.' The smile Leona gave just now made Natalia and Kaguya, who were watching her, shudder a little.
'Victor, you're definitely being a bad influence on her.' The two thought at the same time.
Natalia looked at Adam with pitying eyes. The older wolf had no idea how much his daughter had changed compared to before.
...
On Volk's side.
"What do you think?" Volk asked.
"A genius in combat, coupled with an unquenchable drive and will to get stronger... Alucard is a monster of combat." Tasha didn't hold back on her praise.
"..." Volk was silent, and no one knew what he was thinking.
But the same couldn't be said for Thomas and Anderson. They both looked in shock at their own mother since they had never heard her praise anyone this much before.
'I expected that reaction... But even so, it's still shocking to hear those words from her mouth.' Anderson felt a little jealous of Victor now. After all, no matter how hard he tried, the only 'compliment' Tasha or even his father gave him was.
"You're still not good enough."
Hearing those words hundreds of times numbed Anderson's feelings about his parents.
Unlike Anderson, Thomas didn't have that kind of problem since he grew up to be Volk's true successor. Even Fenrir himself recognized him and blessed him, and allowed him to use his name.
Thomas grew up full of expectations from his parents, while Anderson and Fenir grew up with none.
Although growing up with high expectations was also bad, Thomas had to always be excellent, and it was often difficult to meet his parents' expectations.
'She never showed that face to me before, no matter how hard I tried.' Thomas thought.
Like Anderson, Thomas was also feeling a little jealous of Victor.
While Fenir? The first prince had long outgrown such things. He didn't care anymore whether his father or mother approved of him or not, and he just went about his business.
...
"Sorry for the delay; let's continue." Victor undid the ice punch bag and looked at Adam.
He smiled at the old wolf and jumped a few times as if warming up, then he got into a martial arts stance, a completely different stance from the one shown just now.
Adam narrowed his eyes seeing this. He couldn't recognize the position Victor was in now, so he also prepared himself and got into position with his Naginata.
Victor's dragon pupils became thinner, and the environment around him completely changed to feel more dangerous.
"This time, I'll go on the offensive, Adam. Try not to blink." Victor vanished and reappeared in front of Adam.
"!!!" Adam immediately attacked him with the Naginata, but when the blade pierced Victor's chest, he saw Victor's image disappearing.
'An afterimage!?' Adam's brain didn't even have time to process the information properly, and all he heard was a voice behind him.
"Or you will get hit."
Victor hit Adam in the back with an open palm.
"Cough!"
The entire shock wave of the attack reverberated through Adam's body, the attack so strong it sent him flying away.
Adam grit his teeth and rebalanced his body in the air, but before he could do anything, he felt an attack hit the same spot that was hit before.
Adam roared with rage, and his wild features became even more prominent.
He rebalanced himself again and looked at Victor, who was standing in another open palm martial arts stance.
Adam narrowed his eyes as he wondered how many martial arts this bastard knew.
'I can't react to his speed; the Naginata is disturbing me.' Adam dropped his weapon and removed the armor's gauntlets, and his hands rapidly began to change into sharp claws.
Adam lowered his center of gravity, lightning began to crackle through his body, and with a kick of his legs, he propelled himself towards Victor.
Adam made the first move with his claws, but before he could strike, Victor slammed his palm down on his arm, effectively parrying his attack.
Adam did not lose momentum and continued to attack relentlessly, but just like before, all of his attacks were countered with the palm of Victor's hand.
With every hit, a bang was heard, and the ground around Victor broke, but still, Victor didn't move; it was like he was an unshakable mountain.
"Such proficiency in martial arts..." Tasha murmured. "In this short confrontation, I counted over 5 different martial arts styles."
"Look, he changed again, Mother," Anderson said.
Soon the group watched as Victor completely broke his stance as Adam made room, and he ducked low to the ground and tripped Adam with his leg.
He then placed his hand on the ground and used it as support while using his feet to attack as if he were dancing.
"Capoeira... Really? Even that." Maya spoke incredulously. What surprised the older wolf the most was that even though he had learned many different styles and even created his own martial arts for himself, Victor didn't feel 'limited'.
Every martial artist had a basic 'gut instinct', and they would always go back to the techniques they mastered the most, which was why Maya decided not to learn martial arts from Scathach. She didn't want to mess with her own instincts, but it looked like Victor didn't have that problem.
Adam tried to get up, but every time he left the ground, he was knocked down again, and his face was hit.
'Damn bastard!! Let me get up!"
"Victor is definitely doing that," Leona laughed.
"That? What is he doing?" Anna asked.
"He is repeating the same move over and over again to annoy the opponent. It is a common tactic in fighting games." Leona explains.
"Ohh... I always do that when I go play with Aphrodite. For a goddess, she's annoyingly good at games."
With more anger in his heart, Adam punched the ground, completely shattering it.
"...." Victor raised an eyebrow and changed his posture again.
He placed both his hands in front of his face in a typical boxing stance... But it wasn't Boxing; it was a deadlier martial art.
Victor kicked the ground and propelled himself towards Adam, who managed to get off the ground.
When he got close enough to hit Adam in the face with his fist. Adam threw sand in Victor's face.
"!!!" Victor instinctively closed his eyes and lost concentration for a few seconds. Long enough for Adam to attack Victor's chest several times with his claws.
"AHHHH! He's playing dirty!" Maria screamed.
"Call the judge! Call the administrator!" Anna didn't stay behind and screamed indignantly too.
"He's not wrong since I said all's fair in the duel. Only death is out." Maya spoke.
"What about that Honor talk? Hmm? Where did his so-called 'Honor' go?" Bruna spoke with narrowed eyes.
"... I mean, Victor was the one who broke 'honor' first when he attacked Adam's private parts."
"..." The girls couldn't argue with that.
Victor was sent flying backwards, with his eyes closed, as he 'looked' at Adam.
He didn't really need his eyes to see, his spatial awareness was excellent, and his other senses were very strong, not to mention that Victor could sense an individual's emotions, all of which could easily pinpoint Adam's location.
"..." Adam looked down at his claws in shock. The reason for his shock? All of his claws were broken.
Adam looked at Victor's chest and saw no damage.
"... Just what is your body made of?" He couldn't help but ask in disbelief.
"Dragon characteristics and lots of love from my wives."
Adam was speechless and didn't know how to respond to Victor's statement.
So all he did was get into position again and ready himself, Adam's hair turned back to snowy white, and the lightning power went out of his body completely.
Suddenly, a green aura exploded from his body, and that green aura began to condense on his hands, and the claws on his hand grew again and became visibly sharper.
"... What is that?" Roberta asked.
"The most basic form of using our energy projections. Adam judged that his normal claws would not harm Victor's body, so he decided to power up his claws."
"... So now he can cut Victor?"
"Unlikely. Victor's body is abnormally tough; the dragon he has a contract with must be very special."
Victor got into the Boxing Stance again, then he opened his eyes and looked at Adam.
The two stared at each other for a few seconds and then lunged toward each other.
Adam attacked, and Victor dodged, then attacked with a left jab.
Realizing he didn't have time to dodge or defend, Adam decided to attack with his head.
At that moment, Victor stopped his attack and held Adam's head with his body. Then as if he were a slippery snake, he went behind Adam and immobilized him as he knocked down the old wolf and captured him with a rear naked choke.
"... Of course, he knows Jiu-Jitsu too... Are there any martial arts he doesn't know about?" Maya asked the group.
"Why are you looking at us? We do not know. The only one who can answer that question is Scathach since she is the one who trains with him the most." Leona answered.
Maya decided that she would ask Scathach this when she saw her in the future.
Adam tried to get out of the rear naked choke and attack Victor, but all of his attacks failed.
"Are you going to give up?"
"Never!"
Victor smiled, satisfied, since he didn't want it to end like that either. It would be anticlimactic, so he decided to do something else and released Adam.
When Adam got out of Victor's control, he quickly tried to get up, but instead of getting up, he saw his world spinning around, and when he realized he was thrown, he was already in the air.
Victor appeared in front of him, and again, he was in a completely different martial arts position.
Yes... He was in a martial arts position in the air! It was as if gravity meant nothing to him!
"What -"
"This technique has no name. I developed it a little while ago, but if I were to name it now... It would be something like this."
Everyone in the arena could hear Victor's breathing. It was so damn loud and sounded like a dragon was breathing.
"Alucard Original Style..." Victor closed his fist completely, except for the middle finger, which was not fully closed but slightly raised.
'... Well fuck.' Adam knew this attack was going to hurt. "Inner Destruction."
BOOOM. BOOOM. BOOOM.
Deafening bangs followed by Adam's scream of pain.
"ÐÐÐÐÐÐ!"
From the point of view of the untrained eye, Victor only attacked once, and his entire arm completely caught fire.
But those more experienced knew.
It wasn't just one attack. There were several focused on one location.
Adam flew toward the ground and created a cobweb-shaped crater. The moment his back hit the ground, all of his armor was shattered into thousands of pieces, completely destroyed. Outwardly, there didn't appear to be any damage to Adam, but Maya, Volk, and Tasha knew his body inside was a complete mess.
"Was that pressure points...?" Volk asked his wife.
"Yes, but it wasn't just that. That last attack was a mixture of Chinese martial arts focused on internal destruction and knowledge of pressure points on a living being's body." Tasha answered.
"...Tasha, you learned medicine that uses these pressure points. Could you perform such a feat in mid-air?" "Impossible."
"Pressure points are something extremely delicate to get right, and we usually use needles for these feats. After all, it's a very small point on the body."
"Attacking a pressure point with bare hands is hard enough, doing it while in mid-air while hitting the same pressure point multiple times with a force capable of causing one's fists to catch fire from the friction of the air..."
"This feat requires dexterity beyond absurdity... this attack alone is already in the realm of impossibility. I have never seen anything like it in my entire life."
Even with Tasha's superhuman body, there were things only a genius could do, an example of which is what Victor had done now.
Maya looked at Leona and saw the woman's neutral face.
"Aren't you worried about Adam?"
"Victor will never do anything to hurt me. He knows I love my dad, that attack may have been over the top, but I'm sure it just caused him some internal damage but nothing that would kill him." Leona didn't even have to think about her answer. She had complete trust in Victor.
"..." Maya was speechless at Leona's confidence.
Deciding not to think about it too much, she looked out over the arena.
"Victor is-" When Maya would declare Victor, the winner. The man himself interrupts her.
"Wait." Victor landed out of the hole, then jumped to Adam's side and crouched down.
"Sup, father-in-law. Are you dead?" Victor put his hand to his ear as if he expected him to say something, but nothing was heard... Not getting the reaction he expected, he commented. "It's a shame... You'll miss the birth of your grandson... My father-in-law was killed so young, Sniff, Sniff."
"Who is your father-in-law, you damn bastard!?"
"He's alive!!"
"Of course, I am - Cough, cough." Adam spat out a bunch of blood onto the floor.
"Easy, boy. Your body is a mess right now."
"Don't call me Boy! I am older than you!"
"I am 723 years old, and you?"
"...I am three hundred and..." Adam replied unconsciously but quickly fell silent when he realized what he was saying. Victor's smile grew: "Heh... Still in the age range of 300? You're still young, BOY. You need more training. You lost to me just using martial arts, SHAME!"
"Fuck you! You fucking monster, I hate you!"
"Ahh~, I know you love me, but without hugs, instead of hugging sweaty men, I'd rather hug a beautiful woman like your daughter."
"Bastard- Cough, Cough." Adam thought that if he did not die from Victor's attack, he would die from the stress he was causing him.
...