"Your newfound abilities may make you a threat to someone with a blue core, but to me, you're nothing but a chump. You should have done like your Harpy friend and saved your energy.
"You wasted half of your Life Maelstrom for nothing and what's left can't bring you to my level. Surrender now and I'll give you a clean death."
The Sphinx roared at her arrogance and charged forward, using the silver energy he had left to boost his body and increase the effects of elemental fusion by tenfold. Unfortunately for him, Scarlett didn't boast her strength so much as state hard facts.
She had a bright violet core, a perfectly refined body, and over three hundred years of battle experience whereas her opponent was a non-Awakened bright blue cored individual greener than grass.
She flew back, dodging all of his attacks as she gauged the enemy's timing. Just like the Harpy, the Sphinx had only recently acquired the ability to produce Life Maelstrom. He wasn't used to moving at such speed nor did he know how to exploit his newfound strength at its fullest.
Each attack was met with a perfectly timed counter. Scarlett's claws deflected the opponent's and left a huge gash into his armor. Also, her tail struck every time the Sphinx left himself open.
Which happened often. The scorpion tail released acid with each hit, corroding the armor and covering the Sphinx in chemical burns that sapped his strength.
'Moron.' She thought. 'Life Maelstrom is powerful but not omnipotent. The energy he has left isn't enough to fill the gap between a non-Awakened bright blue and an Awakened bright violet.
'Had he used it all for boosting his physique and aimed only for close-quarters combat, he might have stood half a chance.'
The Sphinx charged again, focusing the strength he had left for a deadly bite to the throat that would have pierced through the Scorpicore's Adamant armor. Too bad that going head-first against a Light Master was akin to beg for a wall.
The Emperor Beast crashed against a golden barrier, finding himself sealed inside a perfect cube with each side one meter (3.3 feet) thick.
"Come on, pal. Your Collapsed Space spell makes it impossible to use Dimensional Magic so you've got no way out of there. Surrender now and stop wasting my time." Scarlett said.
"Where there's a will, there's a way!" Life Maelstrom made the Sphinx so strong that each slash of his paws cracked the construct faster than the Scorpicore could repair it.
By focusing on one side of the cube, he compromised its integrity and then charged at it with the full weight of his massive body.
A snap of Scarlett's fingers made the cube of light turn into a mass of darkness that offered no resistance to the Sphinx who ended up hitting the nearby wall with such strength that both the cave and his brain quaked.
The concussion left him in a daze and allowed the dark energy to seep inside his body, eating at it from the inside. At the same time, Scarlett attacked him from the outside with her tier five Light Mastery spell, Spirit Pillar.
A golden pillar of light streaked emerald all over came out of her opened mouth, hitting the Sphinx's c.h.e.s.t with the energy of a collapsing mountain.
She had opted for a mix of elemental and Spirit magic to save up her mana in case the pups needed help with their respective opponents.
The Sphinx coughed out a fountain of blood as Spirit Pillar made him plunge through stone with its sheer impact. Then, it suddenly disappeared.
"I could have killed you, but unluckily for you, I need you alive." Scarlet said, snapping her fingers again and turning the darkness magic inside the Sphinx into light energy again.
The healing spell mended all the wounds she had opened so fast that the Sphinx fainted out of exhaustion before he could utter a single word of surprise.
Light magic wasn't darkness' counter so much as its best friend. Darkness eroded its victim's body and strength, making a well-timed healing spell an amazing tool to capture even the strongest prey alive.
'Okay, now let's see how the kids are faring- Oh, shit!'
After foiling the Origin Flames, Nyka had pressed her advantage, falling into the enemy's trap.
Undead had amazing powers but, unlike living beings whose magical abilities consumed mana and whose physical abilities took a toll on their bodies, all of an undead's abilities consumed the energy stored within their blood cores.
No matter if they cast spells or boosted their physique, they needed to draw power from the same source, weakening them at twice the speed of a living being. Nyka had fallen into a battle frenzy that her enemy was encouraging.
Thunder was true to its name, producing a boom every time it hit due to the air magic boosting its speed and the fire magic converting the kinetic energy of the impact against the armor into shockwaves that spread throughout the Emperor Beast's body, damaging her internal organs.
At the same time, however, the Roc attacked Nyka from below with her talons infused with Origin Flames. They ripped through the Vampire's armor and flesh, letting the Flames move toward her heart and forcing Nyka on the defense.
'Shit. If my heart gets destroyed, I'm dead for good!' Her inexperience had made her arrogant, and arrogance led to fear, making Nyka act without thinking.
She focused on healing the ghastly injuries and consumed too much energy of her blood core. She became so slow that the Roc had an easy time ripping her limbs off one by one with her beak.
First the legs, then the arms, and once the Vampire was defenseless, the head.
The Roc opened her beak one last time while Nyka opened her mouth to scream for help. Yet instead of an attack, it came a gush of blood that filled the Vampire's mouth with new strength.
Vladion had attacked the Roc from behind, piercing through her armor and lungs until his hand came out of her c.h.e.s.t. The Emperor Beast was still alive, but unable to move a muscle as she drowned in her how blood.
"The nectar of these creatures flows sweeter than most things I've ever tasted. Drink it while it's still fresh and full of strength." He said.
Usually, an undead preferred to feed on the members of their own race because their life force and mana were similar to the undead's, making them easier to assimilate. The blood of another species was supposed to taste bad and provide Nyka with limited strength.
The moment she gulped down the blood that the Roc had coughed up, however, Nyka felt her blood core crave for more as it had never happened before, not even with Lith's life essence.
