Ascension of the Nephilim

Nightwing stood at the very bottom of the massive pit that was formed from the clash. The blood in him had decreased significantly than he originally had. The amount of energy that he consumed through the Champions and Commanders that had died in their cursed region had been used up and Nightwing now only had the strength of a Commander left.

But he kept glancing to the sky which was now revealed. The shroud of darkness and mist that once covered the castle had vanished.

Around Nightwing were the eight cores he used to attack Angelica in a meteoric fashion.

But it was all a diversion.

The taunting energy formation circles that formed next to her were meant to transfer the blood from the top to the bottom. And there, Nightwing arranged his blood to recreate the same power that he was shooting out. The energy formation circle at the bottom gathered the energy being shot out from the top as Nightwing's main body was already there. The deception was subtle as Nightwing was also diminishing the amount of energy he shot out which further heightened his paranoia about Angelica.

She thought the weakening energy meant that the energy formation circles at her sides which shot out the [Kitty Cat Beam] were gaining power. But in reality, it was because Nightwing was crafting the same spell down below.

Angelica lost power and her regeneration was not enough to heal her wings. She fell straight down as strange gravitational magic appeared to direct her course and she was falling down towards the same pit.

Her body couldn't move and the life energy within her was quickly regenerating her body, but her injuries were too much that she needed her body to regenerate first.

Her wings would not regenerate on time and she needed to conserve her Force energy should the Hydra attack her.

Angelica directed the regeneration so that she would be able to move her arms as she was falling head-first. Such a great fall would wound her and it would be critical in condition. And who knew what trickery the Vampire Ancient would have prepared?

But as Nightwing tried to take another step forward, he lost balance and collapsed. The floating elemental cores that were floating also lost their magic and they fell to the floor.

"I'm this drained huh? I can't sustain all my Elemental cores in an energy conversion circle. And there's no time to make a recovery circle..." Nightwing lamented. But he expected this.

Nightwing knew the price he had to pay and was in a terrible state. He had resolved to fight Angelica up to this state where they would have roughly equal chances of winning.

Several small attacks that were barely at the Champion level appeared as blood spears.

"Hmm... This magic should work. If we are going to fight a drawn-out battle, I have to make it harder for her to move and have to force her to use up all that life and death energy that Menks gave her!" Nightwing decided as he harnessed a certain type of magic and only used the Dark Elemental Core.

Angelica's figure appeared falling from the heavens and Nightwing released his attacks.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Despite the limited mobility that Angelica had, she managed to block the spear attacks.

She slashed her sword numerous times and made careful turns and twists and used the first block to evade the other incoming spears.

At the last moment, Angelica punched toward the ground with force energy to stop her descent.

Many spears attacked at that exact moment but all the blood spears either missed or were blocked!

Nightwing frowned as he saw his attacks failed.

"She's really good. I never found an opening even back then since her movements gave no openings..." Nightwing sighed as Angelica began to struggle to stand.

"You're not... attacking? No spells at the ready?"

"I'm all drained up." Nightwing chuckled.

"Your strength... You should be at Mid Commander level."

"So are you. That attack forced you to recover your body. But in doing so, you lost all that precious life energy. Damn you dragons... Resistant to magic, and terrifying healing abilities!" Nightwing laughed.

"By the looks of it... you will be forced to fight... a physical battle with me... I cannot use all of my dragonic bloodlines to it's fullest extent. But against your remaining blood, my blade will be enough!" Angelica smiled as she tried to stand up.

"Oh? Don't think of me as some useless pool of blood!" A sword, a shield, and dark wings appeared behind Nightwing.

"You're a fighter?!" Angelica was stunned. The vampire ancient had shown terrifying abilities as a magic user with his ancient knowledge of energy formation circles. But now, the enemy revealed weapons that made her scales tremble. It was as if the weapons that were shown had injected fear into the bloodline of dragons!

"When needed. Come, Dragon Knight!"

Angelica gritted her teeth.

"You're also dying. Right now, I still have the advantage! You may have wisdom and power to do magic, but if it's martial arts and techniques, I am confident of my abilities!"

"Let's see!" Nightwing laughed and launched himself towards Angelica.

His wings grew larger as wraiths appeared at his sides.

But at that moment, the recovery of Angelica had given her enough to fly.

She flew to the air but did not choose to meet Nightwing but flew higher.

She noticed strange magic that increased her weight and saw Nightwing shooting out more blood spears.

DING! DING! DING!

It was then that Angelica noticed it.

"Gravity magic!" She cursed and now understood why he 'couldn't' cast spells! There were already numerous spells created on the blood that was casting gravity-increasing magic upon contact.

Her sword became heavy and she was forced to focus on evasion.

Her martial ability and mobility were displayed as she began to evade the attacks and deal with wraiths that flew and attacked her blind spot.

The power of her force energy create thunderous sounds at each attack she made. Thunderous shock waves rang out at each wave of her attack!

Angelica quickly launched the offensive as her wings suddenly grew bigger. Her speed doubled as she swooped out of the attacks.

"A wyvern? You even have that form?! How extravagant of your family! Did your father hunt a wyvern for you to eat?" Nightwing laughed as he waited for Angelica to approach.

Angelica sped up to keep herself away from the blood spears and the wraiths that couldn't track her movements.

The homing spears also turned, but Angelica had left them far away.

"Die!" Confident with her speed, Angelica charged at Nightwing.

Nightwing sneered as he waited for Angelica to attack and began to retreat.

"[Dragon Horn Stab]!" Angelica shouted as she stabbed out.

Nightwing held his shield up and resisted.

"Foolish!" Angelica sneered. Her power and force had surpassed Nightwing and blocking the attack would make Nightwing stagger giving her time to move fast and make ambush attacks.

But as Nightwing held up his shield, a strange vision appeared.

He saw himself as a Paladin knight that fought against many foes. Surprisingly, he was fighting Commanders even as a Champion! Even with several buffs and skills that would nearly cost him his life, his Paladin self, was able to contend with the raw strikes and attacks of the knight.

In his vision, he saw a Commander stab out against him much like how Angelica was.

Clutching his shield, Nightwing forced his shield forward and just as the tip of the sword made contact with the shield, Nightwing began to retreat back.

His shield continued to harness the great strength that was meant to resist the attack.

The full power of Nightwing's dexterity was revealed. His perception had increased by several folds.

It was as if time had slowed down several times and Nightwing made his move.

As the sword of Angelica continued to push forward, Nightwing retreated just enough so that he wouldn't be blown back, but also kept resisting the attack just enough that the stab was slowly losing velocity and power.

The careful execution of the high-level block allowed Nightwing to now be thrown back and even allowed him to make his attack. With a slight turn on the shield, the stabbing attack began to slide to the side while Nightwing positioned himself in a way that he could launch his attack.

Nightwing stabbed with the sword.

STAB!

The entire attack barely lasted a second, and by the time Angelica realized what had happened, there was already a wound on her shoulder!

"H...how?!" Angelica cursed.

"I surprise myself sometimes! Nightwing laughed and was about to make a retreat when he felt that the sword could not be pulled out. Nightwing made a split-second choice of letting go but felt a tremendous Force of energy binding him.

"Wh-what?!"

"I surprise... you sometimes!" Angelica made a powerful slash.

BANG!

"[Vibrating Force Crusher]!" Angelica shouted as Force Energy created a rippling effect that spread and crushed Nightwing's body.