Draven grinned, bloodied but unfazed.
"Sleeves? Then try to find out!"
Without hesitation, he launched forward.
Even with his burned and battered body, pain was just another challenge to push through.
He blinked.
Then again.
And again.
And again.
Each ti, his attack ca from a different angle.
Left.
Right.
Behind.
Above.
Straight On.
A relentless assault.
Commander Dex kept up, eting every strike with his battle axe.
"CLANG!" "CLANG!"
A perfect block.
"BOOM!"
A sudden Erupting Circle forced Draven to evade mid-attack.
"CLANG!" "CLANG!" "BOOM!"
The battlefield flashed with steel and fire as attacks blurred faster than the eye could track.
Bryan and the others could only stare in awe.
"This is an insane fight. All of them are fast. Wait, Draven is gaining the upper hand!"
The other Verdants had their hands clasped, praying for Draven to win.
Then, as the fight dragged on, Dex began to struggle.
His timing was slipping.
He could keep up with Draven’s speed, but not forever.
And Draven knew it.
He grinned.
’Let’s try this.’
In his final blink-strike, Draven appeared behind Dex and swung Morphos in a wide arc, smashing from right to left.
Commander Dex turned.
His great axe slashed in a brutal arc, expecting to block Draven’s attack.
But to his surprise, there was no impact.
No resistance.
No weapon to et his blade.
Dex’s eyes caught sothing in mid-motion.
Morphos was falling!
Draven had dropped his weapon.
"What the—?!" Dex thought, mind racing. ’Did he just drop his weapon?!’
But his slash was already in motion. He couldn’t stop now.
"BAM!"
Draven’s fist t Dex’s wrist.
Perfect timing, perfect placent.
The force recoiled through Dex’s arm.
His great axe whipped back from the impact.
His stance broke.
His balance wavered.
And Draven was already moving.
In an instant, Draven gripped Dex’s wrist tightly and jumped.
Dex barely had ti to react before Draven twisted mid-air, his body coiling like a viper.
A leg hooked over his armored shoulder.
Another swung across his chest, pinning him in place.
Then, gravity took hold.
’What the heck is this!?’
Commander Dex was confused as he couldn’t fight back against Draven’s consecutive movents.
Draven’s full weight yanked them both downward.
Dex’s arm was trapped.
His feet barely touched the ground before his body followed the montum.
"SLAM!"
His back hit the cold stone floor. Draven was beneath him, and his legs locked in a vise around his arm.
Suddenly, there was pain.
A sharp, unnatural pull on his elbow.
Dex’s mind raced.
"W-what the hell is happening?!"
He tried to jerk away, but his own armor worked against him.
The plates trapped his arm in place, tightening instead of protecting.
Draven’s hips suddenly surged upward, hyperextending his elbow.
"CRACK!"
Dex gritted his teeth as his arm bent the wrong way.
"Ahh!"
His fingers spasd, and the battle axe clattered from his grip.
anwhile, Draven thought.
’I thought this move would fail since I hadn’t practiced it before.’
For a long ti on Earth, he learned so moves that he wanted to use.
But he could no longer use them since the first ti he did, his opponent broke a bone, even though he wasn’t even applying full force.
"Thanks, Commander. I can finally do what I wanted to do then."
However, Dex didn’t stop.
He used his free hand to punch Draven.
But Draven used his feet to kick Dex’s shoulder, stopping the punch.
"Not a chance."
"You, bastard!" Dex scread in rage.
Without hesitation, he lifted a desperate, all-consuming burst of magma.
[Erupting Circle!]
Dex sacrificed his entire arm, detonating the area around them both.
He didn’t care as long as Draven burned with him.
However, Draven just smirked.
"BOOM!"
Dex felt the searing heat.
The armor on his right hand lted, and his arm burned.
But Draven was gone.
He had evaded.
Dex lay on the ground, breathing heavily.
anwhile, Draven picked up his Morphos from the ground and twirled it.
"You still wanna fight, Commander?" he asked, raising a brow.
Dex didn’t flinch.
Instead, he smirked.
[Molten Arms!]
His body pulsed as his veins glowed fiery red.
A new limb surged forth, forged from pure molten rock.
His right arm, once burned, was now reborn.
A monstrous, muscular construct of hardened magma.
The air shimred around him, waves of heat rippling from his body.
The battlefield beca a furnace.
Draven let out a whistle.
"Wow, this magical world is really cool!"
Then he smirked, spinning his Morphos onto his shoulder.
"Let’s see what your new hand can do."
Draven launched forward again.
But Commander Dex wasn’t slowing down either.
With a fierce glare, he fired another barrage of [Erupting Circle!].
Multiple explosive rings of energy expanded outward, forcing Draven to keep moving.
Draven evaded, weaving through the attacks.
But each dodge left him with no room to breathe.
"It looks like he didn’t feel weakened at all," Draven muttered.
Before he could even land, Dex was already there.
The commander dashed in, his massive fist raised high.
A brutal, hamr-like blow ca crashing down, aid straight at Draven.
Draven blinked, reappearing behind Dex.
But before his feet even touched the ground, [Erupting Circle] was already there, waiting for him.
Draven’s instincts scread, and he blinks again.
This ti, he reappeared directly in front of Dex.
But his body collapsed to one knee.
A searing pain tore through him.
He didn’t realize that from his feet to his shoulder, half of his body was burned.
The stench of scorched flesh filled the air as smoke curled off his skin.
The Verdants gasped in shock.
"Draven!"
But Draven just gritted his teeth.
’Tch! How the hell is he reading my movents?!’
Dex smirked. "Struggling now?" he taunted.
His chanical shoulder hissed with steam, the tal glowing from its previous attacks.
"This shoulder is part of my body now. That’s why the pain was gone."
Draven clenched his fists, trying to force himself to stand.
Dex watched him, eyes sharp yet curious.
"Tell , why do you keep fighting for the Verdants?" His voice was steady, almost amused. "Join us! You have an ability that could give you a good life."
Draven’s breathing was heavy. "Good life?"
Dex nodded. "Yeah. You could have anything. Gold, fa, won... Even a position like mine as commander."
For a mont, silence hung between them.
Then Draven laughed. His chuckle grew into a grin as he looked up at Dex.
"I already had all of that."
Dex frowned. "Huh?"
Draven wiped the blood from his lips.
"None of it satisfied ."
Dex narrowed his eyes. "Then tell . What does?"
Draven smirked.
[Spirit Heal!]
A green aura surrounded him.
Slowly, his burned flesh regenerated, wounds closing as if ti itself were reversing.
He rolled his shoulders, flexing his fingers, feeling his strength return.
"This," he replied. "Fighting bastards like you."
Without warning, Draven launched forward again.
Dex’s expression darkened.
"Who the hell are you?" he muttered, confusion flickering in his eyes. "Blinking and healing? How is that possible?"
"If you don’t want to join us, then you are a great threat to us!" he added as the realization hit.
Draven grinned and was going to launch again.
But he stopped abruptly
"Again?" He murmured as he felt Dex releasing a kind of aura that he had felt before.
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