"Chaos" Dragon vs Cosmic Jaeger
Eden's Dragon Drive was by far the strongest I've ever seen him since he was ten, and back then he was the Water God. Since then, he'd lost his authority over water and grew a lot weaker because of it. But as he was fighting Hunter, I realized that Eden the Water God was nothing compared to Dragon God Eden. The was a primal ferocity behind each and every one of his strikes. Hunter ducked and weaved his way out of almost every one of them, but for each block- there was a subtle recoil that traveled through his arm. For each dodge, there was a shockwave that followed close behind.
Since the two of them transformed, they've only used martial arts without missing a single beat, matching each other blow for blow. Eden hit Hunter with a high kick, to which Hunter dodged- barely, only managing to escape by the skin of his hair. He rushed him again with a flurry of jabs but each one was dodged at the very last second. Eden closed the gap with each dodge, finally getting close enough to grab both of Hunter's wrists.
You got him! I thought
My celebration was lived far too short though. Hunter extended the distance between them by knocking both feet against Eden's stomach. My husband recoiled and jumped back a good distance himself, and for a time, the two of them stood at their positions. Studying each other. Hunter's aura continued flowing freely, yet ever calmly. Meanwhile, Eden's aura was basically roaring out of his body. Its pressure was reminiscent of the ocean itself.
A blinding light erupted from the space between them. I shut my eyes in an attempt to shield myself, my nose catching a very distinct sort of scent. It felt ticklish against my nostrils, soft against my skin and surprisingly…comforting.
"Idiots," a female voice muttered. "Be careful! Remember you have fragile spectators."
I put the pieces together rather quickly. That blinding light was our husbands clashing fists against one another. Which in turn created a gust of wind, and I assumed some rubble came flying in our direction which is why Scarlett shielded me with her wings. Even with my view fully obstructed, and my life very possibly being in real danger, I still wanted to see. I had to see- my husband at his strongest against one of the strongest people in the First World.
I slipped two fingers under Scarlett's wings to get a much better view at the battle. It was laughable at the very least, but I could still faintly point out two lights colliding against one another again and again. One of the lights was blue. It's aura blazing across the arena. The second light was silver, and it quite literally looked like it was swimming in air.
"Amazing…." I muttered against my will.
The blue light was giving chase to the silver one, jumping from one pillar to the next, rushing at blinding speeds to catch the silver light. Every time it looked like it was catching up, the silver light would duck away without so much as getting a light touch from the blue one.
So, the blue one's Eden and the silver one is Hunter.
I surmised.
Finally admitting to his frustration, Eden bellowed at Hunter. "Will you quit it with the cat and mouse already!?"
To which Hunter responded by appearing right behind Eden. Eden turned his head trying to block. Hunter launched his fist against Eden's left side with the force of a meteorite. It was a meteorite. I couldn't see it clearly but there was a glowing orb coming from Hunter's palm.
Eden blocked it, but the force still sent him flying against the arena's wall. He smashed against it, cratering the wall on impact. Hunter barreled at him foot first. Eden took a side step letting Hunter crash into the wall. From then on, Eden hit a palm strike to Hunter's gut three times. All three attacks landed, each one reverberating against Hunter's ribs.
Hunter responded by unleashing his own combination of palm strikes and it became an exchange of fists, both of them matching each other in terms of speed, strength and ferocity.
"Um, Reiya." Scarlett groaned. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't cling to my wing so tightly. My feathers are starting to come off."
Huh?
I didn't know when or how, but my claws were already sinking deep into Scarlett's wings. There was even a feint trail of blood coming from where I was clinging.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry." I apologized, releasing Scarlett's wings. "Guess I was too focused on fight."
"I don't blame you." She nodded. "Quite frankly, I didn't expect Eden to last as long as he has."
I'm sorry?
I mean, I could understand where Scarlett was coming from. Jokester that he is, no one would expect Eden to be as deadly as he was when it came to a fight. Honestly, he comes off as the type of person who'd talk himself high above the clouds when it came to his fighting capability, only for him to fail miserably when it came to the actual combat. I could never blame anyone who'd take one look at him and automatically assume he'd lose in the worst way possible. Yet at the same time, I couldn't condone them either. My husband came off as a joke sure, but he made sure to train himself nearly to death. He did that to ensure that if anyone did take him as a joke, he'd be the last joke anyone who faces him will ever hear.
He did that to himself for us. For Catherine, Lucy and myself. For our children too. I still can't forgive him for traveling halfway across the world to fight some tyrant for a woman other than me, but I respected his commitment to bringing her back home. His commitment to become strong enough to protect us.
I refused to tolerate any form of mockery towards that commitment.
"Scarlett," my voice came off more lethal than intended. I couldn't bring myself to stop however, the door was already wide open. "Care to explain what you mean by that?"
"Hmm?" Scarlett turned to me. "What I mean is, I'm impressed Eden lasted this long. I honestly didn't see him pulling it off."
"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were calling my husband weak."
"Oh no dear," she chuckled. "It's not that Eden is weak, it's that Hunter is the strongest. Think about it, Hunter is a Morningstar, a royal one at that. He spent his entire life training his body, mind and spirit to becoming the strongest the world- no, the strongest all Five Worlds have ever seen. You think I want him to lose to a no name from the sticks of Ester? Hunter was born from Celestia's royalty, Eden was raised by a nun."
No name from the sticks of Ester!?
I wanted to let Scarlett have it, all of it. Friendship aside, she had no right to insult Eden the way she did. I opened my mouth to speak only to be shut down by a massive shadow that loomed over me. When I looked behind me, my view was blocked by a massive flying body, it's wings spread wide enough to cover half the sky.
The body was reminiscent of Levi, from the horns to the talons to the sheer size of the whatever it was.
"Silvia?" Scarlett snapped.
The body- that is, the dragon, landed and perched itself on the arena's walls.
"Lady Scarlett." The dragon bowed.
"What are you doing here?" Scarlett barked again. "Where's my baby?"
The dragon pointed its wing in the direction that I assumed was Hunter and Scarlett's castle. I didn't dare question what she was pointing at, lest I wanted to get cooked alive. Levi was friendly towards me, but maybe that was because I was married to his host.
"She's safe." Silvia said.
"Then why are you here!?"
"I was curious, my lady. I sensed my younger brother's mana, albeit meager as it were. When it suddenly erupted, I wanted to see him with my own eyes. It's been eons since I last laid eyes on him."
By younger brother I assumed she meant Levi. I didn't remember him saying anything about having a big sister. Then again, he didn't owe me any sort of explanation regarding his family members so maybe it's my own fault for not asking.
"I see…" Silvia muttered solemnly. "You've grown so much, younger brother."
"You seem pleased with yourself."
"I am, my lady. My brother is a Dragon God. What's more, he seems to be holding his own against Lucif- apologies, I mean Hunter."
"Don't get overly excited. He's still a nobody from the sticks."
"Hey!" I snapped at Scarlett.
Silvia cut me off and addressed Scarlett directly. "I understand your frustration, my lady. However, once one has ascended to the ranks of a Dragon God, they shed nearly all mortal aspects of themselves and join the ranks of the divine."
"Wait, you're saying that my husband is a God? Like Terra? Like Saint?" I let the excitement slip through slightly.
Silvia must've picked up on it because I caught her smirking ever so slightly.
"While I wouldn't want to assume that he's on the same level as the Primordial, I very much mean that in his current state, his capable of rivaling the Primordials' children. Such as the Seven Moons, or even the Angel Before Lucifer. Perhaps he could even be as strong as an Agrabath."
Agrabath. I thought. If I remembered correctly, the Agrabath are an extinct race that walked the First way back when. Legend has it that they were feared all over the Five Worlds. In fact, they were so feared that people always thought that they were born from the Chaos God himself.
I was glad to be born years after their extinction. Though nobody ever discovered how they went extinct. I mean as powerful as they were they should've lived a bit longer.
"Aren't they extinct?" I asked Silvia.
"They are." She answered curtly. "They were all slaughtered before the Titan Era."
"O-oh." I stuttered. "Wait slaughtered? Aren't they supposed to be the strongest race of them all?"
"They were. Believe me child, a single Agrabath was equal to a thousand human mages. And even with all their might they were still butchered in a single night."
"Really? By who?"
"By their own ruler. The Mad King, and first ever Dragon God."
Huh.
The confusion on my face was obvious. Silvia was kind enough to enlighten me as she begun explaining what she just said. "You believe the story told by the church; that the Agrabath mysteriously disappeared into the Fifth World."
"Well, isn't that what happened?"
"Well, I suppose it's not entirely inaccurate. However, it's not the whole truth either. Zachariah did go mad, and his child did descend into the Fifth World."
"How do you know all this?" I couldn't keep myself from asking anymore."
"Well, that's simple. I was there."
In order to be there Silvia had to have been seven hundred years at least, or even more than that if you ask me. I turned to Scarlett hoping for some sort of verification, maybe even some clarity but the poor woman had her eyes painfully transfixed on the sky. Beads of sweat streaming down her cheeks. Silvia also seemed transfixed by whatever was happening in the sky. As for me, I was more concerned with the massive meteor that was hurdling towards us.
A strange sensation washed over me. I could feel gravity itself grow weaker, rather, another gravitational force was competing with the one I'd gotten so used to.
"Impossible." Silvia said, sounding uncannily concerned.
"How did he even…" Scarlett muttered.
The source of their awe. The root cause behind the unnatural force of gravity was none other than the Morningstar himself. They'd moved their battle to the skies and though it did lessen the amount of damage they were doing to the arena, the arial battle more or less put Eden at a disadvantage.
I say that because the difference between their two strengths was almost negligible. If anything, Eden seemed to be stronger than Hunter, but maybe that's just my pride talking. I mean he did have Scarlett worry that her royal Morningstar was going to lose. But what I was seeing was totally different from what I saw earlier. I could see Hunter, for a single second he was there. In the next second, he was gone. He'd developed this habit of moving faster than the eye could see. Actually, it was more like he was blending into the atmosphere then reappearing again. I wasn't the only one struggling to keep up with him though, Eden seemed to be having the same problem as he struggled to evade Hunter's onslaught.
While I was still adjusting to Hunter's unprecedented speed, Eden's body was rocketing towards the arena floor. He shattered the ground on impact; tiny chunks of rock flew in every which direction. My heart felt heavy against my chest. I knew he'd be fine but my instincts still screamed at me to jump at him at top speed.
"Dragon Drive," Eden roared from his crater. "Accursed Dragon Wraith!"
The once pure ocean blue aura was infected with a dark obsidian like aura. A vine like patterning coated Eden's entire left arm, crawling all the way up his shoulder up to the left side of his face. His left eye turned pitch black all the while his right eye stayed clear.
"Those idiots are gonna kill each ot-"
"ENOUGH! BOTH OF YOU!!" Scarlett bellowed, her voice reverberated around the arena.
Both Hunter and Eden stopped mid-casting. Their faces downcast.
"Aww…." Eden whined.
That was the same man that was reluctant to fight Hunter in the first place, yet he seemed more disappointed than anyone to end the fight he didn't wanna get into.
"Didn't you wanna skip the whole fight in the first place?" I snapped at him.
"I mean, I did," he admitted. "But then he started cheating!"
"How was that cheating?" Hunter dropped in. "It's not my fault you can't keep up."
"That's dog dokey and you know it. What even was that in the end? You started glowing like some sort of super nova."
"This coming from the guy who called out a literal 'Dragon Wraith'. What, you trying to haunt me or something?"
They continued their back and forth between themselves, completely ignoring me, Scarlett, and even the giant dragon that loomed over us. Speaking of, Silvia chimed in on their conversation and addressed Hunter directly.
"Child Lucifer," she began. "Did you finally reach the Fifth Pentagram?"
Hunter stood quietly, studying his own hands before answering. "Not exactly," he said finally. "It's a form stronger than Fourth Pentagram, it isn't the Fifth Pentagram either. I guess you can call it 'Pentagram Beyond the Fourth'?"
"Dumb name." Eden said flatly.
"Mr Dragon Wraith has a better namesake I presume?"
"Listen to that; 'Dragon Wraith.' Tell me it doesn't sound cool."
"Quiet." Scarlett cut both of them off. She placed her hands against her temple in clear frustration before finally addressing both Hunter and Eden. "Ok, Hunter, don't ever do that again."
"Yes ma'am."
Surprisingly he agreed without protest. I felt the urge to reprimand my own husband. Using Dragon Drive was one thing, but that bit he did at the end.
"Was that Asmodeus' curse?" the words escaped without my permission.
Eden's eyes- his right eye, widened in surprised. He turned his head to me before finally admitting his guilt like a child waiting for a scolding. "Y-yes."
"Why? How?!"
"I don't know," he started explaining. "I just…..it happened while I was fighting Bakuron. When I realized that attacking his physical body was fruitless I decided to go for his astral body. His soul."
"You what?" Hunter snapped.
"Hey, it didn't work the way I thought it would so I decided to shelve it till I got enough practice."
"You decided to practice on me?"
"Tell me you weren't using 'Pentagram Beyond Fourth' for the first time just then."
"Even with the powers of a Dragon God you still weren't satisfied." Silvia chimed in again. "You decided to reach higher. To become more than a Divine Mortal."
"Um…sure, I guess?" Eden shrugged. "If that's what'll take to protect my family then sure."
"I see. I understand why my younger brother chose you. You are the spitting image of your predecessor."
"My predecessor?"
"Yes, the first Dragon God. Zachariah Agrabath."