Apocalypse Reset: My Crab Can Heal the World!

Adea attacks first, charging at Osmond and swinging her cleaver like a mad woman. Osmond neatly sidesteps her attack and readies a blast of his arcane power. He launches twin missiles of plasma at her, and she cackles. With inhuman speed, she slashes through each of his magic bolts, draining their power and obsoleting them.

"Parlor tricks," she hisses, charging him again. He dodges a flurry of attacks - each one too close a call. Osmond can’t ramp up his attacks slowly - he has to go all out, right away.

Osmond kicks off the ground, hovering above the dark battlefield. Behind him, the thick fog of the Pale Court swirls ominously.

Adea adjusts herself and looks up at Osmond. He can fly, and she cannot - allegedly. He has the upper ground advantage.

All of the energy coursing through the cracks on Osmond’s skin focuses to a single point, and he releases one of his strongest attacks. His body becomes a beacon of violet light as he channels all of the power into a straight line at her like a laser beam.

Adea scrambles out of the way but Osmond continues blasting, chasing her with the laser. She ducks behind some trees as Osmond vaporizes the forest, trying to catch her with his attack.

His concentration breaks for a moment, reaching his momentary limit. The nearby trees are devastated by his attack, but as Adea slinks out of the woods unharmed, he sees this fight has only just begun.

"How about I show you some of my tricks?" she giggles, raking her teeth. Without warning she chucks her meat cleaver through the air like a tomahawk.

Osmond flies to the left to dodge, but as he does, Adea suddenly appears in midair, holding the cleaver.

’Damn it, can she teleport to wherever that cleaver is!?’ Osmond questions as she takes a swing. He propels himself back, but he was caught by surprise. He can’t get away in time.

She slices through Osmond’s arm, a near-miss but she makes contact. Demon blood sprays out of him as he flies higher away out of her range. But he’s not out of the woods yet.

Adea activates another vampire technique, and her body bursts into a swarm of bats. They fly at Osmond in a rabid frenzy, slicing him all over with hooked claws and gnawing him with vampiric fangs. He yowls in pain as Adea attempts to eat him alive.

’Demon Art: Chain Lightning!’

There’s a flash of light and the purple light expels entirely from his body, illuminating one of the bats and electrocuting it. The second the bat is fried, the purple lightning begins to jump from creature to creature, shocking them out of the sky one by one as the energy rapidly tears through them.

Osmond crashes to the ground, his limbs shaking, his breath ragged. The scent of charred flesh fills the stifling dark air. He looks at the pile of smoking bats. Did he get her?

"Over here," comes a voice behind him. He whips his head around and only just barely dodges another swing of Adea’s cleaver. Seems defeating the bats wasn’t enough to damage her.

"Is this all a Demon Lord’s got?" Adea frets, licking Osmond’s blood off her cleaver. "What disgusting blood, too." she spits it out of her mouth.

Osmond narrows his eyes. He can go further - and perhaps he’d have to. But he fears letting his power rage out of control. It can be difficult for a demon to regain their senses after surrendering themselves to the power. Some demons never come back from it, and live in mindless rage until their death.

If he’s ever to see his sweet Maria again, he can’t go all out. Not here. But his regular powers aren’t cutting it. As it stands, Osmond is a dangerous threat to any spellcaster, but he struggles against physical threats like Adea. Many of his techniques only work against enemy magic.

Adea strikes again, swinging her cleaver and her claw at the same time, trapping Osmond. He has no choice but to lean toward the cleaver - if he took a direct hit from her claws, that wound would never recover. It’s a death sentence.

The long chopper slashes through his shoulder. He stumbles back, unleashing a burst of uncontrolled light at Adea. She’s too close to evade, and the lightning strikes her directly in the face.

Mortified by the blast, she howls in agony. Adea leans forward, clutching her eye. The left side of her face is still pulsing with violet electric energy. Her face is warped from the magic, and her eyelid is burned off.

She snarls at him with boundless rage. She’s not worried - a vampire like her could recover from any injury, as long as it’s not dealt by a blood relative. But she could never forgive Osmond for wounding her hideously.

She stares at him with loathsome hate as crimson energy begins to swirl around her and accumulate in her cleaver. It forms a long blade, extending outward from the cleaver and forming a giant sword of magical blood, some six feet long. She swings it menacingly at Osmond.

"I’m going to slice you so many times that whoever finds you won’t even know what they’re looking at."

Osmond eyes her blade. Finally, she’s using magic. This was his moment - his window of opportunity. Adea doesn’t know his true power.

The violet light within him begins to embolden, and he gets ready for her attack. She swings her sword and suddenly, he clasps his hands together.

"Demon Art: Devour Mana!"

As she swings, Osmond opens his mouth wide, inhaling with all his might. The bloody magic forming her blade is sucked away from her in a maelstrom, surprising even the vampiress. She stumbles forward, thrown off balance by the sudden change in direction.

Her moment of hesitation is all Osmond needs. He slams his free hand into her chest and unleashes all of the magic he has left. Adea’s eyes glow purple as the magic fills her completely.

She steps back just once before the inside of her body begins to crack and pop. It’s as if she’s being peppered with bullets while Osmond’s magic blasts holes through her body, violently tearing from her flesh. Black smoke pours from her wounds as the crackling light sears her insides.

She falls face-first onto the ground, still smouldering.

"What a troublesome little demon you are," Adea groans from the floor, mustering all her strength as she struggles to her feet. "Seems that a vampire is no match for you. Good thing I’m not just any vampire."

Osmond readies his staff for another attack as he channels more magic into himself.

Adea twitches, dark energy filling her body, leaking from her wounds. She glares at Osmond with pure evil.

"Vampire Transformation."