Normally when I entered my Dragon Form I would be filled with confidence, but this time my wariness was unchanged. After we both clenched our fists, an instant later our punches collided. I thought this would be enough to shatter the earth beneath us but it seemed that this place was more stable than I thought. I kept a cold expression and faced his bright smile. Thankfully I found my strength to be greater than his, but the gap wasn't wide enough for me to be relieved since I knew that he wasn't even scratching the surface of his power.
We continued slamming our fists against each other faster than the eye could see. It wasn't like my safe zone right or absolute right to attack had disappeared, he was just using his own rights to cancel them. I tried to attack with my wings, but he grew temporary arms from his back to defend. If I was fighting Alcor with my current power, he would have died without the chance to use his Time Magic, but the one before me didn't even break a sweat.
We went back and forth for a little longer before I decided to push myself. As I grew more familiar with Laplace, I learnt how to use it at any time without any preparation. I couldn't keep it active for long without a clear purpose, but that was simple enough to find in a battle. As long as I took a moment to predict my opponent's movements, everything would become clear to me.
When he tried to punch me, I brushed away his hand and swept his feet. He quickly recovered and pushed himself away using his hands, but I aimed my foot at his face at the exact moment he began to stand up. He somehow managed to block that kick, but since I purposefully held back I was able to quickly withdraw my foot and knocked him away with a roundhouse kick that hit his left side. With Laplace, I began parrying and countering his every move without exception. It would be bad if he got angry too quickly, but fortunately the difficulty excited him.
"More! More!"
The time in which I could dominate him with my technique was short. Once he got warmed up, the Demon King exposed his big white teeth and dull red markings surfaced on his skin, while his horns poked out more and gained a shade of red at the tip. The markings seemed like sigils but they were different in a way I couldn't explain. If I had to give an example then if sigils were like drops of water then these markings were like boiling drops of oil.
Don't blame me if it wasn't a very clear example, the important thing was that these markings were on another level.
With a low growl, he launched himself at me with a velocity that rivalled teleportation. His charging fist didn't even graze my face but I lost the chance to counter. I tried to grab his arm so that I could throw him but then I felt a strange resistance around my hands as if they had plunged into goo. I hastily tried to extract them but his elbow hit me first, knocking me off my feet and sending me flying.
I didn't know what just happened to me, but I assumed that it had to do with his markings so I removed grabbing from my list of effective techniques. It hurt my miniscule chance of victory but another incident like that could be fatal.
After I planted my feet on the ground and raised my head to look for him, he was already in front of me with a fist homing in. This time I blocked with my wings and gave him an uppercut. He stuttered back for a few steps, but that was the extent of the damage. With that darn unfair skill he had, he would continue to grow stronger and tougher throughout our battle so my usual attacks were already beginning to lose effectiveness.
As we exchanged a few more blows I was certain that the amount of damage I did even with a solid hit had decreased. In fact, after I landed a punch to his chest he didn't even flinch before returning one back that nearly cracked my ribs.
'Looks like I have to start causing injuries.'
This was the first time I would use this technique since I theorised it at the start of the battle while using Laplace, but I had enough time to become familiar with it. Once I was able take some distance from the Demon King, I focused on my two hands and feet. I imbued my right hand and left leg with darkness while my left hand and right leg were imbued with light. Although it was surprisingly difficult to maintain two different element imbuements at the same time, it was the next step where I needed to be extremely careful.
I applied a layer of wind above the elements and then added the opposing magic to the mixture. With black on top and white on bottom or vice-versa, I had completed my fighting gear. Unfortunately, this gear did the exact opposite of protecting my body.
With my four limbs encased in yin-yang armour, I crouched while looking straight at my enemy. He had politely allowed me to finish my spell so now it was time to pay him back.
By initiating the fusion of the light and dark at the soles of my feet, I created a powerful blast, used Divine Will to force the explosion to stay under my feet and went off like a rocket. Just like when Alcor used Chaos against me, time was distorted during this explosion so I left a tangible afterimage as my palm suddenly reached his chest. While his facial expression began to change, I used Chaos at point-blank range. I could only fuse it to eighty percent but it was still enough to cause massive devastation.
The dull grey blast shot him away like he was slapped by a wrecking ball and gorged out the nearby earth. Normally this would result in serious injuries for both of us, but thanks to Divine Will I could push majority of the force to him. The Demon King was flung along the grass like a doll, with blood dropping from his body like breadcrumbs. Naturally, I couldn't give him time to recover so I shaped my right hand like a gun and shot a beam of white and black light that combined once it reached him.
After this explosion I used Blink to get close and witnessed the horrific sight of his body. With his swift reflexes he had managed to avoid any fatal injuries but that was only in terms of his heart and brain. His left side had been gouged out, half of his right arm was gone and his intestines were exposed. I would have liked to think this was good but I knew that this damage would only benefit him, and it wasn't like he was the only one getting hurt. Although my limbs weren't flying off thanks to the insane durability of Dragon Form, every time I used Chaos would be accompanied by excruciating pain from enduring my bones being shattered, regenerating and then being shattered again in an instant. We were both taking damage, but he definitely still had the advantage so I wouldn't show any mercy.
As soon as he struggled to his feet, I plunged my fist into chest and sent him flying into the air, then I appeared above him, slammed my foot into his back and used Chaos. I endured the pain and went after him to kick him and activate Chaos again. Ignoring the condition of my legs I continuously hit him back and forth through the air like a volleyball, trying to do as much damage as possible before he grew strong enough to overcome my power.
Eventually, the Demon King started looking worse than a dead man but I still charged to attack him once more. However, the moment I saw the mad look in his eyes, I knew that my frenzy was about to be put to an end.