The Shadow Cat vs The Calamity Witch

Boom!

A random building erupted in a massive explosion, destroying it entirely as a person with cat ears and a pair of shadowy daggers landed safely with a soft thud.

Julian gazes upwards on the large fog with a frown. Within the fog was the Calamity Witch herself, looking down on him from the sky with a grin, yet had a cold and emotionless eyes.

"Oh Julian, why do you protect these men? You do know in the beginning this is the Empire's business."

Julian chuckled and calmly stared at the witch, blue-crystal eyes clashed against purple amythest ones. A fierce clash resulted in a draw.

"Oh please, even if they are unregistered citizens or mysterious people with no records, that doesn't mean you imperial dogs enter someone else's land and take something."

"You may be right. However, this is the Veldarun Empire, such law means no shit to them." Zabrina calmly stated as she simply raised a finger.

The moment her finger moved in a single inch, an innumerable amount of blood-like strings erupted from her fingers and moved across miles of area.

Zabrina did not move, instead she smiled as thirty men and women that seemed to be vampires appeared and surrounded Julian. They did not immediately attack, but their expression seemed tense and perplexed as if something was controlling them all of a sudden.

As it turns out, Zabrina used her blood magic to caputre nearby random vampires and used them as puppets. Some of the many skills she had with her blood magic, controlling any forms of blood is also one of them. However, the only drawback is that she couldn't control the blood of more powerful beings due to their stronger mana defending from the current level of her magic.

And the second drawback is the most odd one.

…Which is that she couldn't control the blood of others who had the blood type 'O'.

That's why its ineffective against Julian.

Anyways...

At the next moment, all of the control vampires didn't have to wait as long as Zabrina ordered.

"Tear him apart."

Immediately after, thirty vampires pounced on Julian like a predator pouncing on a helpless lamb. The weakest was Rank 3 while the strongest was Rank 5.

Julian coldly snorted, his figure blurred, and he dodged one of the vampire claws. The vampire woman was surprised that she missed as vampires are naturally born speedsters. However, she didn't get the chance to pond over what happened before blood flew in the air followed by her hand, it wasn't the end as she saw a flash of light then her second hand also flew,

"What the hell." Those were the last words she muttered before her head was removed from her body and fell in the river, lost forever. A Rank 4 vampire had just died like that.

The remaining vampires became vigilant, that woman must have been one of the weakest, but her death was too easy. Normally, vampires possess an enormous vitality, they could live even after their heads got cut off. Still, somehow, it was not the case for that female vampire, almost as if Julian's knife possessed anti-vampire property.

Even though Julian is stronger than they have thought, the remaining vampires believe that with numbers, they could kill him, so they moved simultaneously, not holding back as they unleashed their blood arts, special vampire magic.

Blood claw, blood sword, blood arrows flew toward Julian. Facing the incoming attacks, Julian took a deep breath and moved. This time, he poured more mana into his body, especially his legs.

Within a fraction of a second, Julian was moving fast as lightning, avoiding almost all of their attacks like a blur.

His pair of daggers spun and whirred around, so fast that it was impossible to see it half the time with whatever frame-rate a slow-motion video had to offer. It was severing heads and limbs, sometimes even severing their adamantite armor and weapons in half, cutting this way and that, leaving deep gashes in the floor and walls.

Here, he kicked a large rubble into the air with such force that it flew and smashed into one vampire's face, causing his head to explode into bloody mist. There, he leapt and landed, like a cat, on top of one of the building on his feet. In half a second, he had pulled something from his belt, and threw it. Twenty feet away, one of the vampires fell back against the wall, a long blade protruding from his neck.

The twenty remaining vampires pounced at them once more, this time more ferocious by using their berserk-related skills.

However...

With one move of his shadowy dagger, dozens of energy slashes were sent toward the incoming attacks, it was so fast that even Zabrina's momentarily tensed up. Even though he killed only a few, some of them managed to reach him, which he blocked some of their attacks with the dagger on his right hand, with his left hand, he summoned another dagger and threw it, which tore through the air and arrived before the slowest vampires and penetrated their heads.

"Iiahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

The recoil pushed their heads back as if someone had given them a hard slap before a soul-chilling scream was heard.

Fwish!

Seven bodies were set ablaze, silver flame covered the seven vampires, and they were instantly turned to ash.

Watching the whole scene, instead of a frown on her face, Zabrina seemed incredibly amused as she shook her head and chanted.

"Forbidden Magic..."

As Julian moved like the wind, he appeared before one of the vampires and swung his knife, silver light flashed and the dagger was about harvest the vampire life when suddenly out of nowhere a crimson shield appeared in front of the vampire, and Julian's dagger was bounced back. Julian glared at Zabrina after putting some distance between him and the vampires.

"Tch!" Julian clicked his tongue and watched helplessly at the witch execute their forbidden art.

"[Blood Magic: Bandersnatch!]"

Immediately ffollowing Zabrina's chant, crimson light poured out of the twelve vampires' bodies and melted into one and a big body that stood eight meters tall with four mechanical arms. The moment Julian saw this thing, goosebumps rose all over his body, and he unconsciously stepped back.

Swoosh!

Bang!

Julian was punched in the chest, he cough out a considerable amount of blood with his body spiraled through the air as he immediately shifted his body to avoid one of the Bandersnatch's claws.

Even so, he was still injured. His chest was ripped, blood flowed out, but his regenerative ability kicked in, and his injuries were instantly healed.

The Bandersnatch was almost as strong as him. A moment later, Julian stabilized his body before he sidestepped to dodge a crimson flame fired by the monster.

Suddenly, the Bandersnatch body shrunk before getting multiplied into ten small Bandersnatchs that attacked Julian from all sides.

Inhaling deeply, Julian opened his eyes and used kne of his skills to deal with the incoming attacks calmly. He slowed down the Bandersnatch's movements before killing them with his daggers. However, every time a Bandersnatch was killed, it would go back into the main body, and more Bandersnatch would be created, it was like an endless circle. Julian started to become annoyed as he was forced to fight the same thing endlessly. It was not like he had endless stamina, nor his mana was limitless.

Numerous injuries appeared on Julian's body, but they got instantly healed. One of his eyes glowed and used a skill to search for the whereabouts of the real Bandersnatch. It was only by doing this he would be able to put an end to the endless circle.

And it worked, amidst the many Bandersnatchs was a particular one. It had crimson light surrounding it. It was like numerous tentacles that stretched out its body to connect to the other Bandersnatchs and control them.

Julian threw a single dagger at Zabrina, which latter snickered. Still, her expression changed when the dagger shifted its trajectory before colliding with another dagger to produce an explosion that blocked her vision.

Making use of this opportunity, Julian moved and used his special ability on the real Bandersnatch, which froze in place as Julian appeared before the monster, the blade pointed at where its heart should be. And with a flash, the Bandersnatch's body violently shook, and it vanished with a puff as it turned into a cinder. Immediately following the death of the original Bandersnatch, the other Bandersnatchs died.

"You puss! You killed my dog!" Zabrina spat out, and her figure blurred before she reappeared behind Julian punched him. It was too fast, he couldn't immediately follow. Therefore, he was sent flying across the river's surface before crashing against the fog, which turned hard somehow.

Bam! Booom!

"Cough! Cough!" Julian crashed and coughed a mouthful of blood as he glared at Zabrina.

"You lucky to have dodged in time, but I will not give you the opportunity to avoid it," Zabrina stated. It was like she was saying that her previous strike was not her full strength.

Once again, her figure blurred, Julian focused on his senses, even with his divine sense on full alert coupled with his cat sense, Julian could not perfectly dodge the blow.

Boom!

He was sent flying again, then again.

Boom!

She seemed to be toying with him.

Julian could sense her, but his body couldn't keep up as he tried to use a skill to slow down time but failed as she would disappear before he had the chance to do it.

While trying to understand what was happening to him, Julian swiftly raised his hands to protect his chest as Zabrina's bloody claws reached there.

But then Zabrina surprised Julian by stopping the hammer just a hair's breadth away.

Her lips curved up, and she said, "Let's make it more fun."

Then she opened her mouth to whisper something. Julian was not able to hear what she said, however, his brain shook, he felt dizzy, a sudden feeling of wanting to sleep overcame him this dulled his movement making his body stop for a second and Zabrina wasn't going to miss this opportunity.

Her crimson claws disappeared to be replaced by a slender blood-red sword with black engraving on it. In a blink of an eye, she flashed behind Julian with the sword going straight for his heart.

Just as the tip of the sword was about to pierce through Julian's back, Zabrina hair stood at the end, and an extreme feeling of danger assaulted her, instantly she knew she had fallen into Julian's trap, she must escape, but before she could move.

A savage smile formed on Julian's face.

"[Eternal Night]"

A sword made out of pure darkness materialized in Julian's hand and tore through the air and struck Zabrina in the ribcage at lightning-fast speed, piercing righr through her.

Boom!

"Guh!"

Zabrina vomited blood and couldn't believe that she was injured and was blasted back as her body collided against a river's surface before it started falling in the water. The weapon of shadows struck her abdomen as a deep slash could be seen, blood was falling.

Zabrina was still shocked by what just happened, one moment she was toying with the man thinking that she had the upperhand against hin, but she was careless and got gravely injured.

"That hurt does it?" Julian mocked in the distance, "Now do you learn not to underestimate your little opponents, Zabrina-"

Boom!

A big explosion cut off Julian's words.

The river violently shook as if a terrible monster was about to jump out of it. However, what came out was a slender looking woman, surrounded with a dangerous aura that turned everything around her quiet, even the falling water after Zabrina jumped out from the water seemed to fall back, almost afraid of enraging the queen slowly.

Both of her purple eyes and hair turned blood red, crimson gothic robe appeared around Zabrina's body as it clung tightly onto her body, giving her a certain charm. Like the absolute ruler, she lifted her head and muttered, it was only two words, yet an ominous feeling assaulted Julian as he heard those two words.

"[Blood Moon]"

With his cat instincts screaming at him, Julian tries to escape, but it was too late. Before he could move, a bloody moon appeared above them, immediately a creepy feeling assaulted Julian's body as he noticed that he couldn't move as if countless hands were holding him down, a bloody scent assaulted his nostril making him want to vomit.

"[Hellsing]" Julian said, with the activation of his domain, the effect of the Bloody Moon in the sky decreased. However, it will all changed when Zabrina added,

"[Blood Magic: Bloody Mary!]"

Screeeech!

The bloody moon in the sky became more bloody, blood started falling, and soon a bloody rain started. Every time a raindrop touched his body, his body would feel heavy. It became impossible for him to move, not only did the rain increase his body weight it also had a Corrosive effect. Even his uniform made out of high-level materials started to show signs of cracking, the damage received surpassed the speed of auto repair, so the armor started to lose its effectiveness.

Suddenly, Julian lost sight of Zabrina, not even all of his senses could locate the Calamity Witch.

Spurt!

Before Julian could turn, he felt a pricking sensation on his neck, causing his eyes to widen.

"Bloody Hell!" He shouted, having his blood sucked by his enemy during a fight couldn't be more humiliating.

"I shall suck you dry, cat!" Zabrina's sultry voice reached Julian's ears. It gave him goosebumps and he knew that this witch wanted to do and he couldn't ever allow this twisted desire of her to come true, but how could you fight an enemy you can't see nor detect? The answer was simple, and it's simply by surpassing your limit.

Switching off his domain, Julian used a skill to accelerate his thought process at a greater rate, giving him a temporary perfect control over his body, his senses increased, and his eyes turned brighter blue as he was able to see another world. In this world composed of mana and element, an ugly crimson thing was moving toward him. Instantly, Julian knew what this ugly thing in this beautiful world was:

Zabrina in her Ethereal form.

Whoosh~! Whoosh~!

Faster than his shadow itself, Julian's hand moved as he threw more daggers in the direction of Zabrina.

Once again, the Calamity Witch was surprised, never would have thought that ability that made her famous that even impressed the strongest individuals of the Republic would be ineffective against her opponent.

"[Blood Magic: Blood Shield]"

A transparent crimson shield appeared before Zabrina to give some time to cancel her Ethereal form and finish her opponent. However, just as the dagger was about to touch the shield, they simply curved, disappearing into the mist. As it was the first time experiencing this, Zabrina was shocked, but she quickly regained her calm and was about to raise her hand when Julian, whose brain was on overdrive, muttered.

"[Shadow Shift]"

Swoosh!

The Calamity Witch was forced to switch places with Julian. Julian, who appeared where the witch was, immediately pour all of his mana into both of his dagger which he fused them into dark matter. And in the next instant, it morphed into a spear that seemed to be dark as the night.

The moment he threw the dark spear with all his might, it roared like an enraged beast before pouncing on Zabrina. Everything happened too fast, not even the witch had seen this coming. However, Zabrina showed why she got the title as the Calamity Witch. Just before the dark spear struck her heart, she executed several skills simultaneously.

"[Forbidden Art: Sacrificial Shield]"

Her face paled.

"[Atomic Heart]"

Bloody doors in the form of a shield appeared to stop the dark spear momentarily. However, it was soon destroyed, and the dark spear continued its course but before it could reach Zabrina, a blinding crimson light glowed from her chest that engulfed her entire body.

Kaboom!

A crimson light engulfed the radius two kilometers of the river as some part of it completely evaporated, the thick fog covering the river increased before dissipating as two figures started to fall from the sky and landed on the ground with a loud thud.

"That… was tiring." Julian commented, catching his breath.

"And fun." Zabrina added, chuckling.

At that moment, Julian noticed that he was lying on the floor on his back, while Zabrina...

...was lying on top of him.

"Hey witch, can you get off of me." Julian said coldly at her while their faces were just an inch close.

"I tried… but couldn't."

"What?? What do you mean?"

Zabrina explained, "I mean we are very exhausted that we couldn't move a single muscle of our body, because we used all of our mana to use our ultimate attack. So… yeah, we stuck like this."

"Then we have to wait for hours then?"

"Yup..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...Come to think of it, when looking at you closely, you look rather attractive that makes me want to kiss you~"

"Don't you fucking dare, witch."

"Then who's stopping me~"

"You little-... mmph! Mph!?