Adam’s voice broke the tense silence, a smirk appearing on his lips as he began to speak.
"Spawn ha?! Hmm... Well, I guess you can say that. But sorry to pop your bubbles, but I’m not one of those. I’m a monster, just like you...just a really special one."
Casimir’s eyes narrowed, skepticism evident in his glare.
"Lies won’t make me let my guard down. The scent of a Gordon lies heavily on you... And the only Gordon around here is that woman. And those eyes...you have her eyes."
"Ohhhh... really... I gotta say I like them more than my usual blue ones... it really makes me more monster looking, doesn’t it."
Adam casually said to Casimir.
But Casimir, on the other hand, just glared him down from afar, as he soon began to glance down at his hand, where a transparent magic circle lingered...proof of the use of Attributeless Magic Adam had just used on him, the mere thought unsettled Casimir...as his thoughts churned.
’How the hell did this brat manage to use Attributeless Magic against me? It took me 300 years just to master the basics of it.’
He pondered to himself.
’But that’s not even the main issue here... this is a type of magic that only vampires know how to use, and the information of its existence has been kept a well-guarded secret since its antiquity.’
Casimir argued. As this entire situation with Atrributless magic did not make any sense to him at all.
’So how did knowledge of its use end up in the hands of this brat... Given what I know, it’s a power that has been confined strictly to the noble and royal vampire houses that serve directly under the Vampire King...
’So...for a nameless brat like him to wield it...
Casimir thought as he continued trying to make sense of it all.
’The only plausible explanation I can come up with in this moment is the fact that he can copy my magic because his Monster Lineage is that of Desire... given the Gordon race has 100% full ties to that line as they are a pure blooded monster species.’
Casimir said to himself, either way, this was going to be one annoying fight.
’After all, monsters from that lineage often possess abilities that are unusual, and can defy conventional reality in some shape or form.’
’Usually those from that monster bloodline from what I remember can do weird shit, like for example, a monster with the power to create domains where they’re invincible for as long as someone doesn’t know their name; or maybe a monster that has the ability to nullify any attack’s thrown at them by converting said attack into literal air.’
But even so, this did not deter Casimir, the enemy might be formidable, but not outright unbeatable.
For that reason, he acted, wasting no time in attacking Adam.
The cavern trembled as Casimir raised his hand. The ground beneath him cracked, and from the expanding shadows beneath his own feet, jagged spires erupted, hurtling toward Adam.
But with a fluid series of motion, Adam sidestepped, his body moving unnaturally, as if unseen forces guided him. Casimir’s eyes narrowed; his years of battle were coming to his advantage now. He could instantly tell that was no ordinary dodge.
It was as if something invisible had grabbed him and moved him out of the way of his attack.
Unfazed, Casimir intensified his assault.
Blood seeped from his pores, coalescing into a series of multiple crimson spheres that launched toward Adam at breakneck speed.
Again, Adam evaded them, his movements erratic yet precise. But Casimir had anticipated this.
As Adam dodged, the blood spheres detonated, releasing iron shards. As Casimir used self-mutation on his blood beforehand, mutating his blood’s natural iron, the shards themselves began to fly in all directions. And Adam was caught mid-motion, the blades piercing him from every angle, pinning him like a pincushion.
Both eyes were stabbed, several blades were launched into his torso from different angles, his left leg was amputated, two blades were stabbed deeply into his neck, and one literally peirce him directly into his brain.
But despite this series of horrific injuries.
Something unexpected occurred moments after the attack.
Adam’s form began to dissolve into a swarm of black and red snakes flooding the cavern floor.
Casimir said in shock.
As he began to back away, defying gravity, as remained standing upside down on the tunnel roof.
But even then, the swarm of snakes was massive in numbers; there were easily thousands of them, all of which began surging toward Casimir, who stood on the roof above the ground. Reacting swiftly, Casimir attempted to repel them with telekinesis, halting their advance momentarily.
Red psyche energy escapes his being.
As each snake was engulfed with this energy.
For a moment, it looked like Casimir had things under control, but that was far from the truth. Yet again, Adam began to abuse his third-person perspective on the world to one-up on Casimir.
As the snakes began defying his control, resuming their assault with renewed vigor, their movement was weird as something was manually moving them around the battlefield as such rendering his telekinesis ineffective.
It wasn’t before the sea of snakes began surrounding Casimir, ready to attack.
However, desperate to survive, Casimir transformed into a shadow to evade them. They can’t attack what they can’t touch.
And that indeed proved effective... but only for a moment, because what Adam did next was the total opposite of what a Gordon could do to flesh with their eyes.
As all of the snakes began to look at Casimir, who was a shadow, Adam then began to talk, his voice seemingly everywhere at this moment.
"...That’s not going to help you, batsy."
He mockingly said, as his eyes began to glow ominously, their nocturnal gold started to glow brightly, and what happened next completely took Casimir by surprise, as the shadows around him, and Casimir himself, who was one at the moment, began to petrify.
"WHHHHHHHATTTT... HOW... HOWWWWWW!?...
He asked in confusion, but got silence quickly after, as his shadow body was turning into stone at a rapid pace.
Panicking, he began to take desperate measures... as a familiar red light flashed around his body in certain spots, using space to cut away in different unaffected locations of his now petrifying body after quickly reverting into his flesh-like state in the same instant.
As such, multiple pieces of his body, engulfed in the red light, teleported away, leaving behind parts of his stone-transformed form. Blood splattered behind the swarm of snakes, as he quickly reformed his body, his passive racial regeneration kicking in at supersonic speed.
It was not long before he was whole again.
But he also realized something as well...using his shadows was futile now... because this brat before him showed the bullshit ability to not petrify physical things like flesh as a normal Gordon could... but rather petrify intangible things instead, something no Gordon is capable of doing.
"Ugh... This is exactly why I can’t stand fighting Metahumans. Your kind always twists the natural abilities of us monsterkind into something... perverse. Taking the inherited powers we bestow upon you, and warp them like that...it’s practically criminal."
Said Casimir in annoyance, as he continued.
"And what’s with that form of yours? It’s like a grotesque version of the Gordon race’s natural ability to transform into a giant, monstrous snake... normally, they’re invulnerable in that form unless you find their reverse scale and strike it, where they’re incredibly vulnerable there to the point where one good hit instantly kills them. But you’ve managed to distort even that."
Adam, however, just looked at Casimir unbothered, as he began to reform his upper body from the giant swarm of Snakes, his lower body the swarm itself.
However, just looking at him disturbed Casimir to no end, given how uncanny Adam looked at this very moment... but Casimir aside, Adam just looked at him and said.
"Hate the game, not the player, batsi... It ain’t my fault I evolved ."
"GHRRRR... You are really starting to piss me off."
Casimir growled in anger, as blood began seeping from his pores at extreme speeds, till a series of blood spears formed behind him, as the blood cells combusted outwards, the mitochondria within each heated up the entire series of spears.
And in accordance with his will, they were fired towards Adam, each going faster than the speed of sound.
BOOOOOM! BOOOOOM! BOOOOOM! BOOOOM!
The flaming blood spears flew and ripped through Adam’s upper body, tearing him to pieces, sending chunks of his flesh flying as they burned away under the intense heat. The same logic applied to the swarm, as the spear exploded upon impact, burning all in the explosion’s range till they were nothing but ashes.
Yet despite the intense firepower, the swarm itself was too large to properly cover.
And Adam’s body that was injured dissolved into more snakes, as the upper part of him reformed once again as the snakes took his shape, and solidified back to normal. Whatever damage he had taken prior was completely gone as a result of his reformation.
Seeing this, Casimir looked on with horror in his eyes; if it were not for his mask, everyone would have seen just how worried and scared he looked.
But his horror was far deeper than just seeing how freaky Adam’s new evolved body was.
Rather, it was caused by his internal condition; his body, for some unknown reason, was not behaving properly.
’Why do I feel like I am getting weaker, and more tired, vampires have infinite stamina... our body is essentially dead, so why... am I... getting... weaker?’
Casimir said to himself as he tried to hide his weakened state.
But that was not the only problem here; even his Astrum was somehow being affected.
His Astrum, the essence fueling his magic, was depleting rapidly with each use of magic he used. Or rather, it was like his body completely stopped absorbing Astrum from the world around him completely.
Confused and alarmed, he suspected Adam was manipulating him in ways he couldn’t comprehend.
Adam, on the other hand, just laughed at Casimir from afar as he said, folding his hands.
"You are feeling it, aren’t you, something you have never felt before, right...weakness... the weight of your own mortality pressing down on you as time goes on...well, don’t worry, it will only get worse from here one out... the longer we fight to the death, the more weaker you will get as this battle drags on, you dont have much longer to live anyways."
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om