Ash watched momentarily from the skies, blood-drop eyes gleaming with quiet satisfaction. His women held their own against foes a rank above (barely, but beautifully).
He felt good knowing that they weren't pushovers.
Then his gaze locked on one figure amid the chaos.
The Eighth Calamity elder of the Iron Fang clan.
"Tsk, this bastard really had the audacity to threaten me?" He grumbled as his eyes flashed before he disappeared.
The Nosferatu hunger roared inside him... it felt predatory, ancient, and insulted. Ten years ago, he might have laughed it off, played cautious.... (maybe) ;)
Now? The intent warped into pure, burning desire.
And as the Original Desire himself… How could he ignore it?
Space folded.
He reappeared two kilometers away from the wolf elder.
The Ironfang patriarch turned instantly, his wolf senses catching the familiar scent. His satisfied smile vanished as he locked eyes with the bronze figure with wings spread, white hair flowing, and blood-drop gaze cold as void.
His aura exploded.
BOOOOM!
The ground cratered beneath him, lightning crackling across silver-black fur.
"And to think I gave you grace," the elder rumbled, voice like rolling thunder across the valley. "As a Third Calamity warrior… your potential is commendable. However, potential is nothing if you die early, brat."
BOOOM!!!!
The elder's lightning-wreathed claw connected with Ash's chest like a comet striking a planet.
Blue-white arcs exploded across his bronze skin, searing through muscle and bone, the force launching him backward through the air like a ragdoll. The ground below split in a kilometer-long trench from the shockwave alone, dirt and rock vaporizing in the wake of his tumbling body.
CRACK!
Ash slammed into a distant crystal tree, the trunk shattering as he coughed blood, ribs caved in, wings scorched black at the edges.
Pain roared through him, every nerve on fire, but the Nosferatu regeneration already kicked in, veins pulsing rose-pink as flesh knit back together.
"Heh... Good," he muttered, wiping his mouth. His blood boiled even hotter, knowing this guy wasn't a pushover. That would make it all the more satisfying when he tore him apart.
The Ironfang elder hovered where Ash had been, massive frame crackling with electricity, silver-black fur standing on end.
He was a beast of a demi-human standing eight feet tall, muscles like forged iron beneath thick wolf pelt, claws longer than swords.
His Law of Lightning at 100 % made him a living storm, but that was just the surface. He had eight Calamity Laws forged from centuries of pack wars and galactic hunts along with five normal Laws (Lightning 100 %, Strength 100 %, Beast 85 %, Blood 70 %, Shadow 60 %), and talents that had made him who he was today.
"Not bad, brat," the elder rumbled, voice like grinding mountains. "You took that and lived. But playtime ends."
He activated his first Calamity Law.
|Stormfang Dominion|
The sky darkened instantly, clouds boiling into a vortex as lightning claws manifested around him thousands, each infused with his Law of Strength at 100 %, capable of rending continents into nothingness.
ZAP! ZAP! ZAP!
They rained down, forcing Ash to twist mid-air, Law of Space at 100 % folding reality to dodge.
CRACK!
One claw grazed his wing, tearing a hole through and sending jolts through his body that slowed his regeneration.
Ash gritted his fangs, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. He was five minor realms lower—every strike from the elder felt like wrestling the gravity of a dying star.
Pain roared through his chest, ribs cracked, wings smoking.
But he countered.
Law of Time at 100 %.
The world slowed to molasses for a single, precious heartbeat. The thousands of lightning claws froze mid-descent, arcs of blue-white electricity hanging like frozen comets.
Ash manifested his Sword Aura—maxed, perfect, the white-rose blade igniting with stellar illusory objects. Nebulae arcs swirled around the edge, newborn stars forming and dying in the swing, pressure heavy as collapsing worlds.
SHWOOSH!
The arc carved through the air, weight of entire stars behind it. Five hundred lightning claws shattered in one clean slice, vaporizing into harmless sparks that rained across the valley.
The Ironfang elder's eyes widened with genuine surprise cracking his arrogant mask for the first time.
"Maxed Sword Aura… at Third Calamity?" he rumbled, voice laced with disbelief. Auras at perfection were the mark of monsters who had lived eras—something even most Eighth Calamity warriors never achieved.
His wolfish grin returned, but sharper now, feral.
"Interesting, pup. You've forced me to get serious."
The elder's aura exploded outward.
It was raw, primal and the pressure of multiple Calamity Laws layering like storm clouds over a dying world.
The ground for kilometers around cratered deeper. Lightning veins crawled across his fur, strength made manifest in muscles that swelled. Shadows coiled at his feet, blood in his veins turning to molten thunder.
He lunged.
Ash met him head-on.
BOOOM!!!!!
They clashed again, the impact sending shockwaves that flattened crystal trees and vaporized distant hills.
The elder's claws raked with invisible shadow-force, tearing wounds that bled darkness. Ash countered with Law of Space, folding reality to slip through strikes, then Law of Fire igniting his blade in rose-pink inferno that seared the wolf's fur black.
Then the upper hand shifted as one of the elder's talents activated—claws multiplying into a storm of lightning-shadow duplicates that hammered Ash from every angle. Ash bled from a dozen gashes, wings shredded, but Law of Protection at 100 % absorbed the worst, reflecting minor blows back as immense pressure.
Ash swung his sword, Sword Aura domain manifesting—nebulae arcs carving through duplicates as star-weight pressure crushed the air.
The elder blocked with a blood-thunder shield, but the weight drove him back, paws carving trenches.
They separated for a breath.
Then the deadlock continued.
Ash used Law of Blood at 100 %, freezing the elder's spilled essence mid-air and turning it into illusory chains that yanked him off-balance.
CRACK!
The elder shattered them with raw strength, countering with a skill that turned his roar into a sonic lightning wave, slamming Ash into the ground hard enough to crater a mountain.
Ash rose, coughing blood, but Law of Paradox turned the damage into an illusion that aged the elder's wounds forward while healing his own.
The wolf snarled, activating another talent—body blurring into after-images that struck with beastly fury, claws rending Ash's chest open.
Ash adapted, Law of Mana threads amplifying his next swing—stellar arcs exploding in nova bursts that scorched the elder's fur and forced him to retreat.
Back and forth.
Upper hand shifting like tides.
Ash bleeding heavily, wings torn, body battered—but regenerating, adapting and growing stronger mid-fight.
The elder no less wounded... his fur charred, blood steaming, and aura flickering from the paradox drain.
They separated again, hovering amid the ruined valley that was stilled filled with cultivators fighting and some dodging the impacts of their battle.
The elder stood bloody, chest heaving, lightning flickering weakly around cracked claws.
He let out a low, dangerous laugh, though he couldn't help but be impressed despite himself.
"Still holding back your Calamity Laws, brat? Too scared to show your trump cards against an old wolf?"
Ash hovered opposite, blood dripping from his chin, bronze skin marred with gashes that already knit closed. Wings tattered but proud. White hair wild in the wind.
He smirked through the blood.
"Are you sure?"