Selene super backflips away without touching the ground, watching amusedly as the blue-skinned Deviant with bat wings turned her focus to Vampiro who desperately dodged her following fire breath attacks.
Turning to Nicodemus who was looking particularly unhappy at the moment brought her no amount of small joy,- "Check her out, she even has bat wings, why on earth didn't you change her?" Selene jokingly asked.
Grinding his teeth, His eyes shifted angrily to her, annoyed at how relaxed she was with the situation, fully confident that she could get him anytime, and truth be told, she probably could with her super speed. The fact that she was drawing out the moment she's been waiting ages for, showed how twisted she really was. Even willing to risk something unknowingly happening that would cause her to miss the chance.
Gathering fire around himself, Nicodemus prepared to make a move when a sharp pain pierced his skull causing him to lose focus as he clutched his head, glaring menacingly at Selene,- "Nice try, but your mental bolts won't work on me."
Selene grinned,- "Seemed to work well enough, why don't you just sit back and enjoy the show, let's see how your Eternal does against them, I'll even make it interesting, how about a bet, he wins I let you go, he loses you surrender your life to me."
His heart leaped before taking a moment to calm himself as he remembered who he was dealing with. Studying her with narrow eyes, "Are you serious?" He asked cautiously, ready to act at a moment's notice if she moved any closer.
Trying to keep a straight face, lips twitching, Selene couldn't help but grin,- "Why not? There's no rush for us immortals, gotta take the fun where you can get."
"As if I'd believe you!" He spat which only made her laugh.
"Haha, what's wrong, wheres the trust, but I can understand if you're not confident in your minion, it's not looking so good for him," she said drawing his attention back to Vampiro who was still retreating from the flames of another.
Dragona caught a little bit of tunnel vision having an Eternal in front of her, not concerning herself with the others. Hoping that the woman who was fighting him earlier wouldn't interfere since they weren't enemies and take care of the other one as she spent a great deal of effort corralling him towards her incoming companion.
Carefully listening to the crashing sounds approaching, shouting,- "Toro now!"
Honing in on her call, Toro burst through the wall, goring Vampiro from behind as he lifted his head with a victorious roar. Looking proudly at the dangling form of their most hated prey upon his horn.
Seeing him still twitching, Toro lowered his head once more, ramming him into a nearby wall before pulling his horn out leaving Vampiro in the collapsing rubble, standing victoriously overhead.
"Move, I'll finish him," Dragona said, nearing ever closer as her mouth filled with flames once more.
Toro grunted,- "No, I'll do it," he said lifting his hoof. Slamming it down just as two arms shot out catching it, and then with a burst of strength, Vampiro threw him and the rubble away, quickly getting back to his feet.
Dodging the following fire breath, Vampiro swerved around, closing the gap between them. Catching her leg before she knew it, he pulled her in right out of the air and then punched her back away.
Crashing into Toro who wanted to swat her away but thought better of it as their eyes met, wisely choosing to catch her.
"Get off me!' She snapped, flailing wildly out of his grip,- "This is your fault, I could have finished him with ease."
Toro ready to retort was interrupted by Vampiro,- "I think not, Vampiro would never lose to someone so dishonorable, prepare yourselves for Vampiro's wrath!" He warned, charging them with a hiss, displaying his fangs.
Toro grinned,- "I like this guy, I'm gonna kill him!" he said meeting his charge, leaving an irritated Dragona who shook her head, calling out,- "Careful, he's already healed, he needs to be burned, and if you get in the way, I'll burn you along with him," she said noticing there was no longer a bloody hole.
Ignoring her, Toro lowered his head connecting with Vampiro's straight full-body flying jump kick, both feet landing right on the bullman's head, causing him to momentarily pause as the masked Eternal flipped back unharmed.
Rushing right back at him, Vamprio threw his body which Toro was more than happy to catch, intending to crush him within his grasp, only for the slippery bugger to somehow rotate it around to where he surprisingly found himself slammed into the ground wondering what just happened.
Vampiro then got up into a jump slam, bringing his elbow straight down on his abdomen, eliciting a painful groan from Toro who rolled out of the way of another.
That's when Dragona did a fly-by which Vampiro easily dodged much to her annoyance.
Closing in on Toro who swung wide, Vampiro ducked under, grappling him into a suplex as Toro's world was turned upside down.
He then maneuvered around while the bull-man was down, grabbing the hoofed legs, pulling them back towards his head, using the leverage of the floor to bend his spine in the opposite direction it was supposed to causing his foe immense pain as Toro tapped the ground in agony, "Aghhh, get him off me, get him off!" he shouted.
"Haha, now you know the fear of Vampiro."
"Agh! I'm going to kill you!"
"It seems a bit more is required in order for you to realize my greatness, Haha," laughed an amused Vampiro as he turned up the pain.
Dragona ignoring them flew over to their Deviant army that just caught up intending to give orders just as the last rays of light disappeared, all except the flickering of lightning overhead.
That's when they heard the awakening of many inhuman cries ring out, bringing a grin to Nicodemus's face,- "Finally."
The grin however didn't last long as he looked over to Selene who didn't seem the least bit concerned.
He sneers,- "You have no idea how many are about to descend upon us, you may be confident in taking on an army but I'll see you swarmed by so many you'll be regenerating for centuries to come before you're finally healed."
Selene smirks,- "Before I get you?" She asks, enjoying his hideous scowl.
"We'll see..." he says keeping his hands alight ready for anything as well as signaling his position to his army.
Selene was actually excited to see how regular vampires compared to the Aqueos who should also be heading straight for her now, despite bringing only a few along.
"Vampiro, fall back," said Nicodemus, tired of seeing him fight the Deviants who were nothing but a distraction.
Released, Toro angrily got up ready to strike back before Dragona told him to stop,- "Wait Toro, something isn't right, everyone be on guard."
Toro snorted,- "You be on guard I'll take care of the Eterna..." he tapers off as numerous more vampiric cries rang out, much closer now as many were heading straight for them.
Dragona's eyes widened spotting a dark wave moving in the night from her high vantage point,- "Prepare yourselves, we have incoming!" She quickly shouted as the first of them clashed in the back with the unknown enemy.
Shots went off followed by howls of pain and death as more began to engage the horde of bloodthirsty vampires that swarmed from all sides.
An agitated Toro asking for answers had his voice drowned out by the fighting but soon got them as the vampiric force showed up around their leader Nicodemus ready to receive his order.
Dragona seeing this development turned back around and watched along with Toro as the man who seemed like the leader of this new terrifying army squared off against the unknown woman, unsure of what they should do with the new situation they found themselves in.
Just as Nicodemus was about to make his big speech Selene put a hand up stopping him, saying,- "Wait for it."
And then they saw a group of tall grey fish-like entities, the Aqueos, come from behind her, killing some vampires along the way as they joined the circle. Bringing everything to a standstill except for the fighting in the back where the Deviants continued to defend themselves.
Selene waved her hand, showing off the new attendees,- "Like them, I found a whole lot of them at the bottom of the Ocean, sadly I only managed to bring this small bunch with me, still I'm quite interested in how they'll fare against your's, from what I've seen so far I have high expectations." she said with a grin.
Gritting his teeth, Nicodemus hated this new development. It was bad enough the stupid Deviants interfered, now he had to deal with a strange new group she found and turned with no idea what they could do while trying to ignore the fact that she said there were many more that he would have to deal with in the future should he survive the current situation which didn't seem to look any better.
Suddenly an idea popped into his head, thinking about the sea beast's battle,
Ordering his minions to seek out and wipe out all life in the city, Nicodemus sent a wave of flames around the three of them before raising his fiery hands up, cutting them off from the outside. Creating a superheated dome, trapping Selene, Vampiro, and himself inside away from everyone else.
Outside the dome, chaos erupted as the city saw another 3-way fight, the Aqueos holding up surprisingly well despite the dry land and low numbers compared to their advisories.
Dragona called out to Toro,- "You handle things here, I'll see about taking out their leaders," she said preparing to dive through the flames.
"You sure about that?" Asked Toro, showing a level of concern rarely seen as even he was aware of how dangerous a decision that was.
"The worst-case I just fly back out, best case I catch them off guard and fry them instantly, I think it's worth a shot, you just hold the line out here until I get back." She said, drawing closer to the dome, raising herself a little bit higher as she prepared to dive.
"The line will hold, I'll hold it all day on my own if I have to, you, just don't die, we can't let the others down, I'm sure they are just laughing it up some were having the time of their lives," Toro said as he turned to swat another vampire who tried to bite him.
"Yes, I"m sure they are," she said solemnly having major doubts about what's been going on, choosing to ignore it for now she took a deep breath,- "Wish me luck," she said as she dived in releasing a breath of fire to protect her against the dome as she went right on through.
"Vampiro attack," Nicodemus ordered before noticing the intrusion,- "Huh, it's you, how dare you play with fire in front of me, it's about time I got rid of you," he said taking control of her very fire breath and sending it right back down her throat while increasing it's temperature and expanding it, burning her from the inside out, disintegrating into ash without so much as a whimper.
On the other side, Selene was avoiding Vampiro's many grappling attempts in between clashes.
Quickly growing bored, she unclipped the sword hilts on her hips, flicking them out into two strong thin twin blades. It was a shame she couldn't/wouldn't absorb life force from one already turned, there was a nasty degrading effect from vampire to vampire that could potentially be harmful which is why they never fed on one another.
With a flurry of moves, she sliced and diced the Eternal Vampiro into minced meat.
Selene then started to move towards Nicodemus before noticing movement behind her as a reforming Vampiro attacked with many of his parts floating behind him, trying to reconnect.
Dodging the half bloody arm with bones still exposed, she sidestepped another, watching the reassembling process.
"I guess he's not completely useless, his durability is very good, but the way the body is healing is not ideal," she commented to herself, taking a minute to study him for future reference. Taking special note of how the body was coming back together rather than actually regenerating new parts.
Fangs protruding, hissing with each strike, Vampiro attacked like a wild animal with half his head still missing, acting on instinct alone.
When the walls of fire crept in, she grinned attacking with a horizontal slash, slicing through an arm while taking off more of the head.
"As fun as this has been, I think we should wrap this up," she said spinning around throwing both swords straight at Nicodemus whose defending flames did nothing to stop them as they pierced his unmoving chest, unwilling to stop his actions.
"Damn you!" He groaned, not bothering to take them out.
She then quickly turned back around using a magical force push to send the crazed leaping Vampiro back into the flame wall, instantly turning him into ash.
"There, that's better, now it's just you and me," she grinned at Nicodemus, only to lose it when she saw him grinning right back.
"Are you sure about that?" He asked with a smirk.
Confused, she paused her steps not taking it lightly as she turned back around to where she took out Vampiro just to double-check.
At that moment a cloud of ash slammed into her, almost knocking the surprised woman right off her feet.
"Impossible! How?!" She asked while swiping at the swarming ash.
Nicodemus painfully chuckled,- "You have no idea what's possible."
She glanced over,- "No? I know one way to find out," she said as her eyes narrowed dangerously towards him, but had to stop when the ash hit her face, blinding and sticking to her.
"Get off of me!" She yelled, coughing moments later when it tried to go into her mouth.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Nicodemus didn't waste any time putting his hands on the ground causing the entirety of it to begin heating up. The intensity of the domes fire grew with every passing second as it closed in further towards his target as he prepared to unleash hell upon his enemy, the very area around warping from the extreme heat.
With one final push, Nicodemus gave it everything he had, focusing all his power at one point, right on top of her, sending up a great big column of fire and lava straight into the air as the ground itself melted. Those unlucky enough to be too close instantly turned to ash as a superheated heatwave expanded outwards with others bursting into flames as the rest fled from the attack.
Toro was one of the first to sense the dangers as he quickly retreated, his eyes widening when he looked back at the threat, realizing that Dragona was most likely dead.
Sigyn and the girls were busy fighting vampires and some Deviants nearby, using her powers more and more efficiently. Now running around with long vines wrapped around her arms that she controlled as whips or just plain arm extensions to grab and throw enemies around, next to her big green bodyguard Grani who had fun squashing those she missed or left for him. While Nina and Lydia had fun target practicing from behind them, Nina with her magical bow and Lydia with the blaster she picked up, discovering the joys of technology.
They all stopped and looked up in wonder at what was happening as the night sky turned bright once again.
Nicodemus, feeling his vitality drastically dropping the longer he keeps at it, eventually brought everything to a close, believing that if she wasn't ashed by now then she should at least be very weakened and possibly buried by lava.
Gasping when he stood back up, feeling a crink in his back, he sighed to himself looking upon his wrinkled hands that looked like they aged by more than a few decades while dreading what his face must look like, but before he could even think about getting any blood, his eyes widened upon seeing a sphere of semi-dried lava in the center as his flames died down.
His dread building as the sounds of cracking could be heard before bursting apart, revealing a completely unharmed Selene who only had some white hair and a bit of bad skin for his troubles.
Selene grinned,- "Well that was something."
"No, no, no, how can you be fine, I haven't heard anything about any cities being drained dry, how do you have so much vitality!?" Nicodemus shouted in disbelief, thinking she should have run herself dry like him, defending against his assault.
She smirked,- "Let's just say you're not the only one to make interesting discoveries, now I think it's about time we finish this.," she said flashing in front of him, eyes glowing red, grabbing him by the neck before he could do anything.
The corner of her mouth split open revealing far more sharpened teeth as she unhinged her jaw like a snake and began to devour him whole ignoring his pathetic struggles. His entire mass seemingly disappeared into a dark abyss, her stomach showing no signs of having consumed something so large or anything at all for that matter.
When she finished, her body pulsed with power as her hair changed back to black and her dry skin became silky smooth again. Maniacally laughing as she felt power swelling inside her, sending a chill down many spines, made that much more disturbing by her mouth still being in its monstrous form.
Catching the eyes of those around her with that creepy grin, gave them shivers as a feeling of danger shot through them. She then flashed in front of a group, lifting her hands up, shooting out a wave of fire, burning many of them alive. Their cries were like music to her ears, controlling the flames just so that they would slowly burn and not just turn into ash, enjoying her newfound power.