Life Hunter

"d.a.m.nit" Malum cursed as he stood up in the middle of a crumbling mountain "This wasn"t what I expected" Almost all of his bones and muscles were damaged in some way. If it wasn"t because of Malum"s "mad" personality and the inhibition created by the Berserker"s Path, he would have already collapsed.

Malum looked down at the ground "This planet is quite big and rich… I"ll take it" He muttered and placed both of his hands on the ground "I can only use it once after all"

"[Fifth Red Art, Exhaurire]" He chanted and drove the Art to its maximum output. He withstood the pain coming from his magic circuits and drained the life energy and mana of the entire planet. The plants were withering and turning into dust while Malum was getting back his mana and some of his injuries were healing.

When he finished, the entire planet had become a large desert "[Fifth White Art, Sana Intrisecus]" He cast another Art and a white halo surrounded him. His wounds immediately closed and only the deep injuries and fatigue were not healed.

Malum gritted his teeth one more time and smiled wryly "My bad, Arima. You"ll need a few months to recover from this" He apologized but it sounded like he was having fun.

"Karma, the "you know what" please" Malum demanded.

"{Coming}" Karma answered in high spirits and the great sword changed into another weapon. The handle became a lot longer and the blade changed shape completely and curved.

The chain hanging down the weapon became a lot thinner and longer too and hovered around Malum as if it was alive. The black dragon ended up with a large dark red scythe in his hands. The weapon was extremely threatening and the hint of purple on the edge of the blade made it look even more intimidating.

"It"s time for the big hunt" Malum laughed and kicked the ground. The agitation he created on sand and dust around him provoked a cloud which looked like a giant sand storm.

Malum left the atmosphere with the scythe on his shoulder and suddenly bent his body when Fafnir teleported right next to him. He evaded a powerful claw-strike and commanded the chain with his thoughts.

The black chain coiled around Fafnir"s arm and squeezed it. Blood spurted out strongly and Malum jumped on Fafnir"s arm. He ran on it until he reached the golden dragon"s shoulder. Fafnir was about to summon a weapon from his "Vault" but Malum smirked and wielded the scythe like a whirlwind before planting it in Fafnir"s arm.

"Karma!" Malum shouted as he continued to run toward the dragon"s neck.

"{Got it}" Karma responded and the scythe made a sparking sound and a powerful electric current went through Fafnir"s body, directly into his muscles and nerves. When his arm was electrocuted, his body acted automatically and contracted.

His arm straightened and his hand clenched. Ultimately, Fafnir himself pulled the chain of Karma and the scythe which was planted on his arm cut his flesh even more and dug even deeper. But he couldn"t do anything about it as Karma was constantly sending an electric current to make his arm move.

The golden dragon roared in pain and wasn"t able to stop Malum as he reached his neck. Malum stopped and quickly pulled out Superore from his soul and fired at the dragon"s neck. Malum couldn"t produce lightning anymore so he was lucky that Superore had a separate mana storage as well as an enchantment casting the magic automatically.

The plasma and lightning fused together and exploded on Fafnir at very close range. Malum was pushed back by the shockwave while Fafnir gasped and gasped for air. His throat was suddenly affected and all of his arteries had been crushed.

He gritted his teeth and the bell above him tilted again. The sound made both Malum and Fafnir cough blood. It wasn"t an attack but just the pressure brought by the bell"s ringing.

Immediately after the first sound, the electric current produced by Karma stopped and Fafnir regained control of his arm. He carefully bent his arm and then pulled out the scythe with a savage expression.

Fafnir recovered from the bell"s influence faster and punched Malum violently. As the latter was being punched, he discretely drew a circle on the dragon"s claw and then was sent flying away "Karma!" He shouted and the end of the black chain flew toward him. He grabbed it and then pulled strongly.

The scythe spun in midair and then landed back in Malum"s hands. He wielded his weapon like a whirlwind and then sc.r.a.ped the edge of the blade with his hand. Some of his blood was left on the blade and glowed before forming runes.

"[Periit sacrificium sanguis] (Blood Sacrifice)"

"[Plasmodium falc.i.p.arum dolore] (Pain Inhibition)"

"[Affectus earumque oppres] (Emotion Suppression)"

He chanted and Karma controlled the lightning by herself as it gathered around the blade. On the other hand, Malum chose to gather darkness magic around the scythe "This will be an improvised magic. Focus" Malum said to Karma.

"{No problem}" She responded confidently and Malum snickered.

"Let"s go then" He declared and clenched the handle of the scythe. He bent his body forward like a beast observing its prey "[Berserker Adventum, Sanitas Detrimento] (Berserker"s Advent, Detriment of Sanity)" He chanted and his eyes turned bloodshot.

His muscles contracted and he flapped his wings. He instantly disappeared and arrived right in front of Fafnir. The latter called upon a barrage of countless spears and swords and then teleported far above them.

He looked down and raised both his hands upward. His mana gathered together to form a small golden marble. Then flames slowly started to ignite on its surface. The attack didn"t seem to be that big but the motion Fafnir was using looked like he was carrying an entire planet.

Malum"s eyes flashed with a cold light. He snorted and flames escaped through his teeth. Although he couldn"t use fire magic anymore in this fight. Fire breath is the ability of all dragons. They are simply capable of producing fire with just their lungs.

Malum"s dark fire formed a sort of veil which protected him from the barrage of golden weapons. Just after that, Fafnir waved both of his arms and the small marble slowly fell on the black fire before shattering.

The temperature raised considerably and the entire s.p.a.ce lightened up as if a new sun, radiating with a beautiful golden light, had appeared. There was no sound of explosion just the incredible heat coming from the flames.

When the light faded away, Fafnir"s expression changed as he saw he was tied up by a very long chain. When he looked back at the target of his magic, Malum was smirking at him while holding the scythe. He lost one arm and a huge chunk of his flesh. He actually discarded his defense to tie him up like that with Karma.

And a second after, the black dragon collapsed on the ground, dead. The golden dragon couldn"t believe his eyes. But he then realized one thing, the chain binding him was still tightening. His entire body shuddered and he looked behind by instinct.

His maddened look expressed shock as he saw Malum raising the scythe to strike him "[Third White Art, Doppelganger]" Malum smirked. He had swapped with a clone just before Fafnir started his barrage. The magic circle he had discreetly drawn on the Fafnir"s arm was actually a one-use teleportation circle for him to use and swap with his doppelganger as he went behind his opponent.

Malum lifted Karma which was filled with lightning and darkness magic "Let"s see how you take this" He uttered and swung the scythe downward. The tip of the blade hit thin air as if an invisible wall was situated there.

But it wasn"t Fafnir"s doing but what Malum aimed for "[Ruunt ad insaniam convertunt] (Mad Rush)" He chanted and his figure became blurry. He then suddenly had over a hundred copies of himself surrounding Fafnir. They all flapped their wings and charged at the golden dragon.

The original Malum lifted his weapon filled with dark lightning and followed them. Fafnir panicked. All of the black dragons around him seemed to be truly physical. He didn"t have the choice. He, first, protected himself with his shields then immediately activated the Bell of Mictlan. It only had the time to ring once but that single tune managed to dispel half of Malum"s clones.

Malum grinned. He knew that the bell could destroy magic theories but although it was impossible to defend against it, it couldn"t dissipate powerful magic with a single sound. Malum rushed to Fafnir before the bell could ring once again.

All of his different clones struck the golden shield of Fafnir. The darkness and lightning contained in Karma were finally released and each scythe easily broke through the barriers.

All of the black dragons a.s.saulted Fafnir and created countless cuts on his body. The golden dragon could only roar in anger and deal with the clones one by one while protecting his vital points as much as possible.

Malum inflicted numerous injuries to his opponent but it only lasted for a moment before the bell rung once again and dissipated all of the clones. Fafnir then grabbed Malum with his tail and spat out an immense wave of fire.

Malum gritted his teeth in the chaos of flames. He raised his strength to the limit again "[Terminus Confractus, M] (Limit Break, 1000)!" He chanted and freed himself from Fafnir as he then was pushed back by the fire.

He threw Karma with all of this strength in a certain direction and grabbed the chain. The scythe was thrown toward a near planet and crashed on a mountain, completely razing it.

But like that, Malum got himself a support and pulled on the chain to escape the endless fire breath. He got out of the area with a fuming body and burned scales. His left eye had been wasted too.

As he was retreating, he smirked and snapped his fingers "[Habente simultatis reliquias] (Remnant Grudge)" He chanted and hundreds of red circles appeared on the golden dragon"s body.

Fafnir"s eyes narrowed as he ended his fire breath but it was too late for him to act as the circles glowed and exploded in lightning and darkness.

Malum then raised is palm "[Fifth Destruction Art, Spatium Horti]" Unlike the ways this Art was used before, Malum conjured it and a small dark blue sphere formed above his hand. He then threw it at the explosion covering Fafnir"s huge body.

The sphere instantly got bigger and locked the giant dragon inside "[Gaudete] (Burst)" Malum"s eyes glowed and the spatial sphere distorted as the red flowers were drawn on it. It didn"t take long for it to explode into a huge spatial tempest.

Malum exhaled and glanced at Jorga. The serpent had closed his eyes and seemed to be pondering really hard about something "Two minutes… I hope you"ll get it by then" Malum muttered and looked grimly ahead as a new, ominous item emerged from Fafnir"s "Vault".