Life Hunter

Night and Fayla battled with their large-scale magic for at least half an hour. It was also around the same time that Arima threw Karma into the sea to forcefully cool it down and restrain the heat that could have damaged the blade.

Fayla had suffered some injuries and burns, but she was still better off than Night who had a huge cut on his shoulder and chest inflicted by the trident. His fire dragon had already shrunk by more than half of what it was.

Night regulated his ragged breath and calmly looked at Fayla. He opened his mouth and started sucking air into his lungs, or to be exact, the flames. His chest gradually swelled and the red lines on his body glowed once again. The huge fire dragon changed into tourbillon of fire that was swallowed by Night.

Fayla's eyes narrowed. The trident hovering around her began to madly spin like a whirlwind right in front of her. The spinning generated some blue lines in thin-air which gathered together and formed magic runes. Soon enough, the trident had created a magic circle and was already working on a second layer.

"[Ut incenderent Aeternitatis] (Burn for Eternity)," Night gulped the last flame and chanted. His eyes glowed red. Sparks escaped through his fangs and at some point, even darkness magic slowly covered his body and converged around his mouth. But Night didn't open his mouth immediately and, instead, a magic circle appeared at his feet.

Fayla's expression changed drastically, she perfectly recognized that circle's role. Usually, in a fight, teleportation is really limited because of the aura and magic of the opponent. But one can do it if he prepares himself enough before breaking through the opponent's aura with an intricate formation. Fayla wondered if he had been preparing that circle while they were fighting before.

She couldn't think more after that. Night teleported behind her. She just had the time to turn her head around to see a twenty-meter-tall dragon staring at her with bloodshot eyes.

Night roared and spat a terrifying breath of fire surrounded by a spiral of darkness which wrapped and burned everything in his sight. The fire spread on the ground like water until Night closed his mouth. The odd thing was that the fire wasn't going away. It moved weirdly. As if it was alive.

Night exhaled some vapor and stared at the sea of flames he had created.

"[Gaudete](Burst)," He chanted and the flames suddenly rose in intensity before a deafening sound resounded and along with an earthquake. The whole area that was in fire suddenly erupted and formed countless mushroom clouds. It felt like hundreds of nukes had just detonated there.

The fire persisted for a few minutes before disappeared and leaving the ground thoroughly charred and lifeless. Night observed carefully with an uneven breath. He spotted a figure standing in the middle of this inferno.

Fayla stood there. She was panting heavily and her appearance was certainly pitiful. She only succeeded to protect half of her body along with the head and heart by sacrificing the trident. The result was that her entire left side had been burned to crisp. Her arm and leg were simply carbonized.

Night wasn't surprised about her survival. He wasn't focused on killing her in the first place. He only needed her to tell the human capital that nothing wrong happened here.

"Surrender," Night muttered in a quiet and calm voice in the middle of the crackling sounds of the burned earth.

Fayla raised her head and glared at Night, "Never."

"Don't be unreasonable. You can't beat me in that state."

Fayla took a small pill from her storage and immediately swallowed it. When she ate that pill, her skin began to heal back to normal.

Night's expression twitched when he saw that and he wryly smiled, "(A medicine? Arima never even touched that, saying that it isn't a fight if you rely on drugs… But that thing shouldn't be without any cost. Healing injuries is extremely tough when they are caused by powerful magic infused with aura.)"

Fayla had recovered her fair skin, her black dress retransformed to cover the half of her body that was exposed. After that, she brandished her golden sword and stared at Night.

"(Still, I may not be able to hold out for too long. Should I let that woman finish it?)" Night mused then a dark-red light appeared in front of his eyes out of nowhere.

Night observed the red glow wide-eyed before grinning and grabbing it.

***************************************

After he tested Karma, Arima took out Superbia and smiled. In the last phase, he sent all the energy that wasn't absorbed by Karma into Superbia and his bullets. The rifle now was bigger and had a hint of red and purple on it.

When he dealt with the meteorite, Arima realized that Superbia and Karma could be really scary if they were used together. So, he took the opportunity.

After that, he swiftly destroyed the volcano and filled the magma chamber with water. At least like that, it will retard the next eruption for a moment.

"Thank you," The land dragon thanked him right after. "If it wasn't for you, maybe the entire territory could have been in turmoil."

"Nothing much. Really, don't thank me," Arima replied with a darkened expression.

"(I can't tell them I risked destroying the continent for a personal reason…)" He thought and coughed, "By the way, I haven't introduced myself, right? I'm Arimane Blade, call me Arima."

The dragon nodded, "My name is Hieran."

"I'm Rex," The dinosaur shamelessly stated and Hieran sighed.

"Well, nice to meet you, I suppose. I mean, it's a bit late. Anyway, now that I saved your little home, can you do me a little favor?"

"Sure. As long as we can do it."

"It's not much. I'm sure that your forest has a dryad, right? I want to meet her."

When they heard Arima's request, the two beasts' expressions turned ugly. Hieran groaned and shook his head, "Sorry Arima, but I'm not sure we can help you with that."

Arima frowned, "Why?"

"That dryad has one of the worst personalities you can find!" Rex sneered, "She thinks of herself as a Queen and is extremely selfish. For this incident, we solicited her help but she said that she wouldn't do it and told us to scram. She also boldly asserted that even if the volcano were to erupt, she could protect the forest by herself."

Arima listened and furrowed, "That's unlikely. I'm confident I could protect around a one thousand miles' radius area if I give my best. But all of it is almost impossible. She wouldn't be able to protect the entire forest which occupies almost all the territory. Is she stupid?"

Rex and Hieran laughed together. The latter shrugged, "As a dryad, she has control over all of the forest and would probably be able to protect the lives in it at least. Maybe she underestimated the volcano's threat though. Anyway, why do you want to meet her?"

"I need her abilities. Her range to be exact."

"Range? Her mana reach you mean?" Rex asked and Arima nodded, "If you want to find someone or something on this continent, I can do it for you, you know?"

"No, what I want to look at is something out of this continent, out of this planet," Arima retorted and the two beasts were stunned.

"Dryads are extremely good at maintaining long-range magic thanks to the forest's catalyst aspect. I want that ability to find what I want."

Hieran thought for a moment, "I see. Well, I can't really arrange a meeting or something of the sort but I can bring you there."

Arima laughed, "It's fine. If she doesn't want to listen, I'll make her."

The two beasts smirked, "If you do it, maybe we'll owe you one additional favor," They uttered and led him Arima toward the center and core of the forest.

Just a few minutes after leaving the mountain, Arima abruptly felt something through his soul and looked into it. While walking with Rex and Hieran, he fell silent. He smiled after a few seconds. His chest glowed with a dark-red light.

"{Go test it for me,}" He sent a telepathic message and continued following the two beasts.

************************************

"No problem," Night grinned and grasped the red light. The red hue scattered and a sword that was around ten meters long materialized. When the red glow vanished, an exquisite dark-red greatsword with a purple edge was revealed.

"Karma can change form by the owner's wishes," Night mumbled while observing Karma in his hand. He smiled, "That sounds really good."

Night immediately freed the first seal Arima had put on Karma and the latter released a powerful and ominous aura.

Arima had made three seals for Karma. He did so because he realized that Karma was too powerful. That sword could kill and destroy with just a careless swing from the holder now. So, he decided to put some seals to get used to it progressively.

Night shouldered Karma and smirked, "Round 2."

He deployed his wings in a strong motion and created a wind powerful enough to maybe kill a fifth level human.

"But let me warn you, it may not last long," Night declared and kicked the ground. He flapped his wings at the same time and reached Fayla in the blink of an eye.

Fayla's pupils contracted as the dark-red blade approached her. She moved her sword and tried to deviate the great sword falling on her.

Karma was coming from above vertically. Fayla tilted her sword in order to slide the blade on Karma and then hit it from the side to push it away. When her sword touched Karma, the latter didn't change its course at all but cut through her weapon the instant it made contact with it. That clash was literally like trying to fight steel with glass.

Fayla's eyes narrowed, they flashed with golden light and lightning sparked around her. Her black dress blurred like never before and she performed a side step the fastest she could. When Karma missed her, it struck the ground and completely crushed it. A mile-long fissure opened, following the direction at which the blade was pointing.

Fayla couldn't help but retreat, "How?" She said with a trembling voice. "You didn't use any mana or magic, just your physical ability. My sword was made of adamantite, mithril, orichalcum, and gold put together by Dravinite. How can the difference between our weapons be so big?"

Night smiled and pulled out Karma that was embedded in the ground, "That's because this is the weapon of the strongest 'monster' you'll ever meet," He jested and pointed Karma at her. He snorted and propelled himself with an explosion. His wings generated a blast and he appeared before Fayla before she could even realize.

She grunted and withdrew. Fayla had to change her approach now. The only choice left for her was defense. She spent her time dodging and escaping. Although her body had healed, her mana and spirit didn't come back when she took that medicine. After all, mana is something that resides in the soul, there's no such thing as mana potion.

Even if someone were to inject mana in something like a vial, that mana will disperse quickly and be useless. Even with a liquid compound. The only things that can store mana are enchanted weapons. Even enchanted crystals can't keep mana indefinitely, only weapons with an enchantment successfully applied can gather and retain mana on their own thanks to the wisp of soul in it. But unfortunately, someone cannot draw out mana from an enchanted weapon.

But in fact, at the moment, there was an exception. Night was wielding Karma which is Arima's soul weapon. He and Arima are connected together by the same soul imprint. If Night decides to do it, he has the possibility to take mana directly from Arima's soul.

"Sorry, borrowing a bit," Night muttered and Karma glowed a bit. He gripped the sword's handle and the blade was shrouded by fire. Karma's chemistry with fire magic now was completely absurd and the black flame burned terrifyingly, "Well, that's just around a thousandth of your mana though."

Night swung the blazing sword toward Fayla. The latter used her full power to avoid and block but she was getting injured with every single blow. She couldn't do anything in front of Karma's might. What was even more frustrating for her was how Night waved that great sword like it was nothing.

Of course, that was because Karma could change its own weight at ease in function of Night's demands.

"It's time to finish this," Night declared and kicked Fayla away. He brought Karma to his waist and slightly bent his body. The fire surrounding the sword turned into lightning.

"It's Arima's favorite technique, hope you'll like it," Night smiled and swung the sword with two hands, "[Aeterna] (Eternal Night)."

Karma conjured a huge lunar shaped attack that flew toward Fayla. She already knew that she had lost. She also realized that Night wasn't even trying to kill her. All of his attacks were aimed at places such as the limbs or the abdomen. Never the chest, the throat, the head, and some vital organs. But she still refused to give up as long as she could fight.

She gathered every ounce of mana she had left and concentrated her aura.

"[Final Stand]," She chanted and two huge hands made of lightning appeared behind her and blocked 'Aeterna' with a clap. The two giant hands applied pressure on each side to stop 'Aeterna's momentum. But the attack slowly began to cut the hands.

Night frowned when he saw that. If she were to use all of her power to stop Aeterna and still fail, she would definitely die.

"[Praemium](Explode)," Night chanted and the lightning composing 'Aeterna' went berserk and exploded. Night repressed the force as much as possible, so it only caused a small explosion.

After the shockwave that followed the discharge of lightning, Fayla was too exhausted and injured and collapsed on the ground unconscious.

Night exhaled and Karma transformed into red particles that penetrated his chest.

From the sky, Lilis watched the whole scene. She particularly gave attention to the powerful soul weapon, "Karma, huh? I'm sure that name, that weapon, will be famous one day," She said and smiled.