Glow In The Night

Axiolypito stood in place, eyeing the blonde girl curiously.

'The way she's placing her legs...' shifting his chest cavity to the side, he dodged the first thrust of her spear, nonchalantly looking at her as she tried to sweep his legs.

Retracting his legs up without pushing off the ground, he wrapped an offspring around his hand and swiped at her face.

Putting his feet back down, he took a few steps back whilst moving his hands behind his head.

'...She dodged it too, I wasn't trying very hard but that speed had still overwhelmed Sovereign and Reduvia, it had Solitar and the rest running as well...'

"Mmh, did Solitar train you by any chance? If so, the world is an awfully small place" not entertaining him, she continued to try and skewer him with her spear.

"Not feeling like talking with your parents's killer?" he moved forward at full speed, bringing the offspring in the shape of a blade back, he aimed for the side of her waist, where a major artery passed through.

'Mmh?' he missed.

'She actually dodged me at full speed?' evading the counter attacks that came his way with ease, something felt off.

She wasn't nearly as fast as he was, her attacks weren't any issue for him to avoid and he movement speed wasn't anything to write home about, he guessed that she hadn't gone all out just yet, most likely trying to get a good gauge of him first.

Still, she had avoided his strike just now.

Moving a fair distance away from her, he made use of another one of his kinship techniques.

'Donation' as he thought this, a pair of antennae appeared on his forehead, those two limbs were an entire offspring, created to minimise the deficiency of Axio in the energy department.

Since he was awful at everything concerning mana and the likes, he had this offspring made to allow him to feel energies.

As such, he was able to notice the golden particles spread over a wide area all around them and the condensed golden energy concentrated in Superstes eyes as well as her body, though, it seemed like she was keeping it down everywhere except her ocular globes.

'Ah, she must have extraordinary reaction speed, pairing that with the particles she spread around and her enhanced eyes, she's able to feel my position at all times and see my movements, allowing her to dodge me efficiently in spite of being vastly inferior in terms of speed' Axiolypito grinned as he dropped his relaxed pose and rose his arms as though he was going to start a fist fight.

'She is still keeping her cards hidden too! It seems like I better not underestimate her'

'Could she possibly be like the Old Hadal King?!' there were few individuals for which Axiolypito held some form of respect for, though, only the Old Hadal King had truly gotten close to being called an equal.

Axio didn't know why he of all of his adversary was deserving of such a high position, especially when Sir Solitar was so low in his esteem.

Perhaps it was because even in the state he had reached now, Axio couldn't imagine a clean victory against the mage of the deep.

Now that he stood at the pinnacle of this world however, he couldn't but look forward to crushing an adversary capable of shaking him from his position.

"Kinship: False Hydra!" slamming his palms into the ground, he released one offspring into the stone below.

The platform shook as the floor was quickly upturned, revealed dozens of serpentine-like shapes, colored with the typical grey of wretches, the swirling mass rushed haphazardly toward Superstes.

Some going up before slamming down on her position, some swimming through the stone without any care.

Each of the snakes sported a face twisted by hilarity, two sunken dark eyes, mismatching nasal cavities and a huge grin filled with the dark, pointy teeth all wretches possessed.

Despite having been bred to ressembled nothing more than an abomination to be utilised for a single used attack by their own father, they laughed and laughed without stop.

Indeed, to empower this attack even further, the false hydra would die on its own not long after being released.

Superstes had no idea of this however, amping up the golden energy flowing through her body, she dodged one head coming from her side, landing on its fleshy serpent body.

Getting out of the way as another tried biting down from above, only sinking its teeth into its own body.

Yet another head rushed toward her, but only to suddenly stop in its movement and open its maw wide, letting out a powerful and strident shriek.

Result of having been partly created with harpies.

Still on her guard in spite of the auditory attack, she arched her back forward just in time to evade Axio's collective strike.

She tried to wrap one of her legs around the loathsome monster but he slippered away as though she never touched him.

He disappeared behind part of the false hydra and shrunk his size, taking control of his offspring himself.

Indeed, although some of his newest creations lacked a nape to implant his needle claw in, it wasn't the cause for the behemoth that was the false hydra.

Without interfering with its normal behavior of laughing like a madman, he positioned its various heads to force Superstes to steps into the center of its mass.

Since he wasn't actively keeping the heroine on her toes himself, she began to strike back against his offspring, demonstrating much greater strength that he expected from her scrawny physique.

Beheading one of the heads coming her way and kicking one into another.

Although it seemed like child's play in Axio's eyes, the way she could contort her body whilst retaining such striking force was beyond impressive for a mere human.

'This won't work on its own' Axiolypito shook his head, as he had expected, she hadn't even shown half of her actual capabilities, false hydra on its own, even if piloted by him directly would never even land a single blow on her.

Returning to his original size, he decided that it was time to switch things up.