King Albus stares back at me as he prepares himself once again. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

CRRRRRRRRR!!!!

The ground breaks apart beneath his feet until he finally comes to a stop and blood drips from the corner of his mouth.

Drip. Drip.

For a moment neither of us move.

The flames surrounding my body continue burning while the black aura around him grows heavier.

Yet, neither one of us seem interested in backing down.

"Hahahaha!" King Albus suddenly starts laughing.

The sound immediately gets on my nerves.

He’s a damn fool. I don’t really understand what there is to laught about in this moment when we are fighting till one of us dies.

"You finally did it!" King Albus shouts.

My eyes narrow.

There it is again. He seems to know everything there is to know about me. Like he saw the future or something.

The purple and black flames around me surge once again.

BOOOOM!!!!

The ground beneath my feet explodes apart.

I rush towards him once again closing the distance between us almost instantly as I feel my fist back.

WHAM!!!!

My fist crashes into his arm as he barely manages to block in time and the force from the impact sends a shockwave throughout the courtyard.

CRACK!!!!

The ground beneath both of us immediately caves in.

King Albus doesn’t get a chance to breathe as I continue to attack.

WHAM!!!! BANG!!!! CRACK!!!!

I begin throwing punch after punch towards him.

Each one stronger than the last and each one is getting faster every time as well.

But King Albus blocks most of them... except he doesn’t realize I can see the strain beginning to appear.

The black aura around him flickers slightly.

Good. I’m glad to notice that my attacks aren’t for nothing here. Albus doesn’t understand that this is all part of my plan right now.

Wear him down until he can’t handle blocking the attacks anymore. It is a nice and simple plan that anyone could’ve come up with.

Rokuro!!!!

Rika’s voice reaches me again but it is still distorted which means it hard to understand.

I ignore it since right now my focus is entirely on King Albus.

No matter what happens I need to kill this bastard before this person arrives. I didn’t forget that he mentioned that earlier.

I need to start picking it up a bit more in this fight, otherwise he will definitely buy enough time for the person to show up. And honestly, I have a bad feeling about who or what it could be that shows up.

WHAM!!!!

A fist suddenly crashes into my ribs and pain immediately shoots up through my body but it doesn’t stop me.

I immediately respond with another punch towards his face as if nothing ever hit me in the first place.

BANG!!!!

King Albus stumbles backwards yet again. All while keeping his same attitude... As if this is just some sort of game to him instead of a serious fight

"Hahahaha! Good!" He shouts.

His excitement only seems to be growing.

The black aura around him suddenly becomes even heavier than before, almost like he just flipped a damn switch on me.

RUMBLE!!!!

The pressure crashes down across the battlefield once again.

Except this time it doesn’t seem to have as much of an effect as it did earlier. My transformation is really doing a great job at negating these effects.

It isn’t overwhelming in the slightest which is a completely noticeable difference.

King Albus notices it too but he doesn’t seem to be worrying about it.

"You really are changing," King Albus says with a serious tone.

The smile slowly disappears from his face as a more serious expression finally appears on his face again.

His aura shifts around like it has been this entire damn time. Going from this insane pressure to something more condensed, yet it isn’t the same as earlier in the slightest.

I’m glad he has some sort of trick up his sleeve, otherwise this fight would end way too early. I’m not trying to have an easy fight.

I won’t get stronger through quick and easy fights. This will help me see where I stand since my last big fight against someone strong.

The first demon realm is definitely proving to be quite a challenge at this rate. Plus I hate the damn desert so much... Especially with all the walking we have to do.

WHAM!!!!! CRACK!!!!!!

I feel a sharp pain enter my gut as I fly up into the air; my ribs definitely broke for sure this time but it won’t keep me from fighting.

As I go to block his next attack while I’m in the air I realize it is too late.

His fists slam into me once again and I go flying across the courtyard through the walls that we climbed earlier.

TUMBLE!!! ROLL!!! TUMBLE!!!!

I finally come to a complete stop.

The King is quite far from me right now... I didn’t expect to be sent flying away from the entire grounds like that. I force myself to stand up as some of the scales fall onto the floor.

"Is this really the guy who beat me?" A familiar voice asks with disappointment.

I shrug off the voice and rush back towards King Albus. Pieces of the ground break underneath my feet as I use it to propel myself forward.

POW!!!!!!!!

I deliver a right hook across his face in an instant and watch as he goes flying across the area this time. Letting up would be a mistake only a fool could make.

FWOOSH!!!!

As I appear in front of him I swing my leg towards him and immediately kick him in the gut with as much force as I can possibly muster.

CRACK!!!!

It feels as if I return the favor for what he just did to my ribs; multiple cracks are all I hear as he starts to fall to the ground.

I watch for a moment as he tumbles like I did until he finally comes to a stop.

Kicks were never real something I used in the past but maybe I should utilize them a bit more as well.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Blood begins to drip onto the floor from both of us as we both stare at each other.

It feels odd to see a king laying on the ground instead of sitting on a throne. It’ll be better to end this in the next few moments... I’d rather not drag it on.