( Round 3 )
The moment Seraphiel shifted from 75% strength to full power, Max started to feel a reverse soul suppression in his own soul space.
An invisible force seemed to be pushing him away from Seraphiel and all the support he was previously getting from his soul vessel that helped him cast his attacks faster and made them more potent seemed to be neutralised as he felt his body to be sluggish and found it difficult to circulate mana.
" Is this your true power? " Max questioned as Seraphiel's top golden wing began to glow and somehow his strength climbed even higher than before.
" Sorry I asked " Max mumbled as he assumed an offensive posture and wondered as to what the hell he could do against someone like Seraphiel.
On the plus side, the constant regeneration was still active, which meant that Max could take a hell lot of damage without worrying for now, however, the rules of this challenge were not to survive but to land a blow on Seraphiel.
[ Wind Manipulation ]
For the first time since the fight started, Max was forced to leave the vicinity of his soul vessel as somehow Seraphiel had rendered it useless and was forced to head out on the offensive.
" Take this! " Max shouted as he rapidly moved towards Seraphiel and prepared to punch him in the face.
Unfortunately, it was a fools attempt and even Max knew it as Seraphiel easily dodged his feeble attempt and circled behind him almost instantly as Max felt sharp pain rising all over his body.
*SPAT*
Max spat out a mouthful of blood as he felt like he had just taken a thousand punches, which he actually had as his body was in shambles.
In the split second where Max could not even catch a glimpse of Seraphiel's movement the soulmancer had somehow absolutely brutalised Max's body with body shots.
The strength of constant regeneration helped Max recover, but he realised that this brainless approach was not going to get him far.
Seraphiel's movement was his greatest strength and the gap in speed between level 2 and 3 was astronomical.
" Very well, two can play this game " Max mouthed as he dug deep into his very being and summoned the move that was meant to be his greatest strength.
[ Call Of The Sanguis ]
Max summoned the blood river and the Sanguis obeyed as almost instantly a flood of blood began covering the entire space around him, creating a torrent that covered a massive chunk of space within his soul space.
[ Blood Chains ]
Max called for the blood chains, he directed them at Seraphiel to try and pin him down, however, the soulmancer was too elusive to be caught by the slow moving chains.
He weaved through Max's attacks, almost seamlessly and once again delivered a flurry of blows to his body with the only difference being that Max was able to sense his presence, albeit momentarily.
Alongside constant regeneration, blood rushed to heal Max as he recovered from Seraphiel's assault as his eyes began to shine in a radiant red colour.
His breath became super-heated so that every breath he exhaled came out as a wisp of smoke which made him look menacing.
"You need to learn how to control your Bloodline Powers better, you have so much untapped potential but you have no idea what you are capable of- it's a shame" Seraphiel said as Max felt agitated at this comment.
[ Unstoppable Assault ]
Max decided to activate his ultimate combat move and let his subconscious take over this battle from this point forward.
Instantly, he became much more menacing than before as the first thing his subconscious did was to break the blood chains into small bullet like balls and started to bombard Seraphiel.
The soulmancer dodged these blood bullets with ease but there was a serious expression in his void like eyes now which acknowledged the threat that Max posed to him in this form.
The curse of madness, the form that all primordial vampires went into when their satiety dropped below 60% was a tool to temper their subconscious.
In the olden times, vampire's who could not get over their base instincts and could not conquer their madness ended up becoming cannon fodders in war who were bound to die sooner or later.
They were formidable killing machines in their own tier, but they did not possess the ability to transcend.
Perhaps they survived one war, perhaps they survived five, but eventually those warriors were bound to die.
The true primordial vampires, the one's who could wreak maximum havoc were the ones who tamed their madness and mastered their base instincts.
The instinct that was passed down to their Bloodline by none other than the Celestial God Of War Junfred.
The glowing of eyes, the control of blood as if it were extension of their own body, a part of their inherent senses was the most important skill of a primordial vampire, it was the edge that made them the greatest.
However, instead of conquering that base instinct and learning blood manipulation to its fullest, Max mixed his blood with that of the dragon's to suppress the madness.
Even today he could not use blood as an extension of his body but as a mere tool like fire or wind which was the reason behind why Max could not reach his full potential.
Seraphiel could see it.
The boy with the Bloodline of the God Of War who was walking down the path of the perfect warrior.
He had the potential to turn the heavens and become a celestial unlike any other, however, while he had the potential to reach there, he was currently severely lacking in living up to it.
If Seraphiel wanted to, he could have long ended this battle, but he was purposefully trying to push Max to his limits in the hope that being pushed against the wall would make him have a moment of enlightenment.
He was on the verge of reaching it….. the bright red eyes meant that he was in the zone and had the necessary acumen to achieve the true form, he on the verge of realising that his greatest fighting form was to not fight like a human but like a primordial vampire that he was, but the question was would he get it?
Would he explore the true depths of his bloodline strength or would he be too stubborn to accept change?