"Fire!"

At once, they unleash a hail of arrows towards Alice! She plants her feet and sharpens her expression before making a move! With her keen senses, she skillfully evades all the arrows with only minor scratches before backflipping to gain some distance! Battle cries quickly follow as dozens of knights rush at her from all angles! Without being able to think or breathe, Alice lunges forward and lands the first strike of the battle! The knight shrieks before dropping down, but three others take his place and simultaneously swing downwards! She jumps and narrowly avoids the blades! Their faces go pale as their swords strike the ground, now vulnerable, Alice cleaves their heads with one sword slash!

Her harsh movements and acrobatics cause her wounds to tear, even more, stirring up agony within her face before landing on the ground. Roy instantly appears in front of her! Catching her by surprise as he throws a deadly punch! She instinctively bends backward and barely dodges the attack! He continues with the assault and throws another! But Alice plants her hands onto the ground and gives Roy a swift kick to the chin! Roy steps backward as Alice launches herself as far away as possible from him!

She huffs and puffs, trying to power through the intense pain as Roy recovers and chuckles. The kick didn't seem to phase him at all, if anything, Alice was probably the one who got injured during that exchange. Roy is like a juggernaut, his punches alone have enough force to smash down entire houses. His skin is more durable than steel, but what troubles Alice the most is that his speed is un par with his strength. She can't take her eyes off of him for even a second if she wants her body in one piece.

"Volcanic glacier!"

One of the knights finishes reciting a spell, lifting his arms as Alice notices a cold breeze around her feet! Her shoulders jump as a massive spike of ice forms beneath her, protruding and striking Alice! Sending her to the very top as blood falls onto the floor!

There Alice stands, at the very top of the mountain with her sword being the only thing stopping her from getting impaled. Her body twitches uncontrollably as her bandages get soaked in blood, her face contorts in all different stages of pain as all of her wounds fully reopen.

Using the mountain of ice to her advantage, she takes these few precious seconds to breathe and gather up some strength. Roy smashes the mountain with an iron grip and causes the ice to collapse! Alice leaps onto the massive chandelier and scans the area! In a short period, she pinpoints everyone's locations and counts every knight who's still alive. Twenty remain, not including the vanguards. She needs to find the perfect opportunity to take one of them out, that's the only way she'll ever get a chance at victory.

More arrows pursue her, chasing her all around the chandelier as she deflects and blocks them all! Mask leaps up into the air! Quickly closing the distance like a fish catching a bug off of a leaf. Alice cuts the chain and narrowly avoids Mask, dropping the giant chandelier onto the horde of knights down below! She jumps away as the floor shatters! Fifteen remain.

A knight clashes blades with Alice! Sparks fly in the air as the two square each other up!

"You traitorous bitch! I always knew letting you in was a mistake!"

He deflects her sword and slams his shield onto her face! Disoriented, she gets kicks right where Axel stabbed her! The pain nearly breaks her as she falls screaming at the top of her lungs! She tightly squeezes her injury, writhing in pain as the knight jabs downwards! Not even having the time to let the painfully set in, she reflects the sword with a kick and kip-ups as more knights rush in! She skillfully breaks his neck and uses his body as a meatshield when the others swing! Her ears twitch, which makes her grab his shield and thrust him into the crowd before sharply turning back.

Slam!

Five blades collide with the shield! The weight stings her arm as she nearly loses her footing! The blades grind off of the shield as Mask gets personally close.

"Hehehe, you can thank your blood for saving you. But the next shot won't be a miss."

His words crawl under her skin as she tenses up her body and thrashes her shield! Mask takes a swipe as Alice jumps back! The shield clashes with the blades as Alice gains some distance. She lands on the ground and prepares to attack, but suddenly her left arm gets slashed! Her arm falls completely flat as the shield drops to the ground, blood quickly starts to pour down at a dangerous rate.

"Quick! Her left arm is now crippled! Now is the chance to kill her!"

All the rest of the knights charge at her at once! With only having one arm left to fight, her chances at victory quickly diminish like a tiny flame inside of a rainstorm.

She tightens her grip and sharpens her focus before charging right at them! To her, it doesn't matter if the situation becomes more grave, it doesn't matter if she ends up dying by sheer blood lost, she will see this fight through the very end!

.

.

.

Inside the audience room.

Bam!

A body smashes into the wall! Steam pours out of the severed body with blood oozing out of the cracks of the wall. Axel's flesh is torn to bits, his face is dismembered, and his limbs are broken. If he didn't have his regenerative abilities, he would have been dead a while ago.

(All stat boost!)

(All stat boost!)

Yokubo casually walks over to him.

"You're gaining health at an incredible rate, but you're also losing stamina in the process. Interesting, so you have the Regeneration ability."

(All stat boost!)

(All stat boost!)

Yokubo's smug rises.

"Your stats are also increasing, perhaps Battle Ready, no, you weren't getting your boosts until I attacked you, Carnage Feast would be more accurate."

He stops in front of Axel's dismantled body, sizing the difference in power.

"Twenty-seven, twenty-seven fatal blows that would have sent you back into the hell that spit you out. Well, it's not like it matters anyway. You'll soon realize that being able to regenerate is more painful than death itself."

Axel's arm instinctively throws a punch! It nearly cuts through the air, reaching terminal velocity with the force of a point-blank cannonball! The fist collides with Yokubo's palm, sending a giant ripple of gust that cleaves through the bricks and shatters the windows!

Ultimately unfazed by the impact, Yokubo grips Axel's hand and pulls him out of the wall. He lifts him off of the ground as Axel's feet dangle in mid-air, towering over Axel in both scale and power.

Yokubo

Level: 76

Race: Monster (Formal human)

Occupation: The seventh Warlord

Hp: 20,767/20,821

Mana: 15,591/15,591

Attack: 17,921

Magical Attack: 16,667

Defence: 19,531

Magical Defense: 18,901

Mana res: 1000%

Speed:17,642

With just a flick of his arm, he chucks Axel into several pillars. He falls onto the floor with a broken and bashed-up head as his body falls like a torn puppet.

"I could have easily killed you several times over by now if it wasn't for that healing factor of yours. It does a pretty good job at keeping you alive, but I know for a fact it doesn't help you with the pain. You must be feeling it, every wound I've inflicted on you burns doesn't it, your quaking body doesn't lie."

He grabs Axel by his hair and lifts him once more.

"How does it feel? To be able to experience something so painful, and not die from it? A pain like no other, something only you can feel. It must drive you mad. Perhaps that's why you've become a monster . ."

Axel grits his teeth and lashes out!

"Shut up!!"

Yokubo easily dodges the swipes and gives Axel a deadly gut punch that makes Axel puke his guts out!

"You're kinda like me ya know, I know what it's like to be driven mad. It consumes you, it completely changes you and breaks your reality. Once you have a taste, you can never go back. I can never go back to being a human with morals again, that's why I became a monster! "

He slams Axel down to the ground! The floor shatters by the impact as Axel screams in pain!

"It's a shame really, clinging onto what's left of your humanity will only hurt you in the long run. Your hatred, your pain, your revenge, you are your own torturer. But then again, I knew things weren't going to work between us since the moment you saved Alice."

Axel struggles to get up, he breathes unevenly as his blood-covered face glares back at Yokubo. Although he doesn't say anything, it's clear that Axel's wary of his statement, and Yokubo takes notice.

"What's wrong? Didn't think I would notice? I know she's alive, I know she's looking for her sister right now. I must personally thank you, Axel, my Vanguards were dying to slaughter something."

Axel's eyes widen before he curls his hands into fists and lunges with rage!

"You're getting annoying!!"

Yokubo snickers before backhanding Axel to the side! Axel falls with a broken jaw, but before he can recover, Yokubo grabs him by the leg!

"Scream! I want to hear those lovely tunes before I kill you for good!"

He smashes Axel into the wall as hard as he can! He slams Axel into the floor with all his strength! Yokubo throws around him like a rag doll and laughs with pleasure! He smears the entire room in Axel's blood as he shouts in agony!

Countless times his body breaks! Countless times his blood spills! But on none of those occasions does he ever die! He can't die! Not until his mana runs completely dry!

(All stat boost!)

(All stat boost!)

"Hahahahahahaha!!! Scream Axel! Scream!"

The entire room rings with Axel's yells! Blood flies everywhere as Yokubo chucks him into a pillar!

(All stat boost!)

(All stat boost!)

(Axel's remaining Mana: 1,756/1,921)

"Black flame."

(Enchanting cast nullification.)

Yokubo opens his hand and within his palm, a black, raging fire emits from thin air. The tiny flame lets out such strong gusts of heat, that it scorches the brick ceiling and burns the banners up on the walls from far away. That's until Yokubo pours a bit more mana into it that it turns into one massive, raging fireball! The room itself turns into an oven as the heat radiating from it can vaporize a human in mere seconds.

Yokubo throws the giant fireball towards Axel and outbursts a sea of flames from every direction!

"All of this could have been avoided, Axel! If only you had accepted my offer! Then we could have been brothers in arms! But it's too late now, I'll drive pleasure from torturing you until your final moments. But until I get bored, you're stuck with me for the rest of your life!"

Yokubo sprints towards Axel! Trying to recover, he summons shadow hands to try to stall Yokubo. But Yokubo smashes through them without even batting an eye! He grabs Axel's mutilated body from out of the rubble and slams his face into the wall! Yokubo laughs hysterically as he drags Axel's face across the wall! Shredding his face off before slamming him into the floor!

(All stat boost!)

(All stat boost!)

Yokubo throws a punch! Axel barely manages to dodge it as he rolls on the ground!

"Ohhh~ It seems like those stat boosts are starting to kick in. Interesting, this makes things so much more fun." Yokubo remarks as he pulls his hand from out of the floor.

Axel stands up, ready to fight despite the beating Yokubo gave to him earlier on. He readies his fists and stares at Yokubo with great intent.

He now understands not to underestimate Yokubo, none of the fights he's been on compares to this one. Nothing could have prepared him for this fight. For once in his life, Axel is taking precautions in every move he makes. His heart is racing from the actual possibilities of dying, his life is at stake if he doesn't win.

But along with the fear of a racing heart, a sense of excitement runs along Axel's veins. For the first time, Axel doesn't know who's going to win. He can't bank on his sheer strength and abilities alone to carry him in this fight. He has to fight with his life in the line, like how a true adventurer would. It's all or nothing, winner takes all!

Axel slowly matches Yokubo's grin, their blood begins to boil as they both start to charge up!

They both share the same level of enthusiasm in this fight as they prepare to go all out! At this moment, they don't care about each other's rank! They don't care about the evil deeds they've done in the past! They don't care about the reasons behind this fight! All they want to do is win! Give it everything they have to see who's the bigger monster in this world!

They both lunge upon a lightning strike! And strike at the same time! Fight until one of them goes down! A true battle between two monsters.