"Pulsus Obscurus!"

A pulse of dark energy ripped through the air towards me. I tensed up my body and prepared for the assault, taking it head-on since it was impossible to dodge such a widespread attack. It felt as if every organ in my body was being stretched to its limit.

Blood flowed from my eyes and ears, but I ignored the confusion in my mind and moved closer to my target in one split second.

"What?"

My vision was doubled and my ears were ringing, but still I made her out perfectly. When she saw me suddenly appear in front of her, she acted calmly, not a fear in her eyes. My claws traced their way through the air towards her, but they were just shy of her throat as she tilted her head.

"Fighting with your claws and fangs? You really are a wolf. What was I thinking? Someone like you would being disgrace to the dragon race. You must have some sort of defect, yes, that’s it." She mumbled to herself.

"Will you teach me your magic when I make you mine?" I questioned.

"Tsk! Arrogant," she scoffed before swinging her staff towards me, creating a blade of dark energy that sliced through the air, splitting everything in its path.

I nimbly dodged the attack, then struck at the artery in her thigh, but she blocked it with her staff. When my claws impacted with her staff, it propelled me backwards. With my ethereal sight activated, I gazed at her life force.

[HP: 12000/12000]

I hadn’t managed to lay a scratch on her. At this rate, my body will give out before I manage to beat her. I need to change things. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. When I exhaled, steam blew from my mouth, engulfing the entire area in smoke.

"What trickery are you trying to pull?"

She couldn’t see a thing through the smoke, but I could see perfectly with my thermal vision. With the lack of visibility, she was forced to take flight again, and that was when I activated my hellfire skill, but this time instead of only covering my claws, I engulfed my entire body in flames.

The Moth Queen hovered in the air, watching the smoke. She readied her staff, ready to attack through the smoke. I concealed my bloodlust perfectly, and just as she attacked, I launched myself through the smoke towards her like a flaming cannonball.

With a single touch, I had managed to siphon her life force and used it to increase my own stamina.

Her eyes widened as she undoubtedly felt herself getting weaker.

"W-what did you do to me?"

There wasn’t a single scratch on her, but yet she knew that she had sustained damage.

"It must be those flames," she mumbled.

"Tell me something, you’re attacking me because I share the same color eyes as a woman you know, but what exactly did this woman do to you?"

"She’s a thief and a traitor."

"She stole something from you? What was it?"

"Enough talking! As long as you bear the same eyes as her, then you are an enemy." Her words were dripping with malice. She held nothing but hatred for this person. It made me wonder what this person could’ve stolen from her.

"Pulsus Obscurus!" she screamed loudly, and just like before, a dark pulse erupted from her staff.

The two of us continued to fight back and forth with neither of us backing down. Her magic was powerful and dangerous. She tried to use it to keep me away, but I powered through her attacks. I didn’t have to worry about sustaining damage since I could siphon her life force and use the stamina I got from it to heal myself.

Slowly, the frustration was getting to her. Her attacks were powerful, so much so that she took out an entire city block with one attack. But still she was failing to land any critical hits on me. I moved through the city with my exceptional agility, dodging her onslaught of attacks.

The dark magic she was using caused me to heal slower than I would from normal attacks. It felt like a virus slowly spreading through my body, and my cells were barely fighting to keep up. I realized it when I first felt her attack. Her dark magic felt alive, as if it was feeding off me, and at the same time, her attacks had gotten stronger.

Could it be...

While I was feeding off her life force, her magic was feeding off mine. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. If she was siphoning energy from my life force to power her attacks, then I could no longer allow her to land any attack.

I used the entire city as my playground to dodge her assaults. I leaped from skyscraper to skyscraper, ducking through every path I could find. She was relentless, soaring through the air like a hawk hunting down a wolf.

Meanwhile, Kumo was fighting tooth and nail against the Mothmen. She was outnumbered by the giant behemoths, but still she was managing to hold her own.

"Is this all? Do you intend to run from me our whole battle?"

I had barely managed to lower her life force, but she was panting heavily. I switched my strategy midway through fighting her. By dodging her attacks, I was forcing her to waste mana. The Moth Queen was powerful, yes, but all her logic went out the gate the moment she saw my eyes, and I was taking full advantage of that fact.

Her magic was weakening. She could no longer cast powerful spells as before, while I used my hellfire to siphon her life force to give myself stamina to keep myself going. I dodged her magic attacks and clawed through her abdomen.

With her stamina drained, she couldn’t fight as well as before. With every attack I landed, I made sure she felt the weight of my power. Her dark magic crackled around me, but it was all fruitless effort. She no longer had the strength to fight back.

With her magic drained, she did the only thing she could. She swung her staff at me, but I stopped it with one hand and pried it from her grasp. In a panic, she tried to fly off, but before she could get away, I grabbed her ankle.