"Do you think all these excuses allow you to torture someone to death?"

Arthur spat on the ground and mocked:

"In the end, you're just an obsessed psychopath."

The two leapt at each other, exchanges dozens of punches and kicks, their clashes destroyed the whole place which no more resembled a throne room. Half of the room was gone and what remained either got scorched by the dragonic flames or corrupted by the Dark Magic.

The more Claudia fought, the more savage her attacks became, she was like a lunatic on the loose, letting her accumulating emotions control her.

Fortunately, all the soldiers were ordered to remain outside of the castle lest they get killed by the collateral damage. It is no longer a fight mere mortals like them can join in.

After one final exchange, the two of them were pushed back a few steps. Eternium started wearing off so the black flames covering Arthur slowly but surely started weakening and disappearing.

Claudia, who was holding her chest and screeching from the rage and pain, suddenly roared loudly, causing the whole place to shake violently. More and more scales covered her exponentially growing body and in just a few seconds, she no longer resembled a human.

She was becoming a dragon, a Fire Dragon, to be more exact. Her height surpassed 6 meters and her eyes emitted a dangerous and savage red light.

"See? You're just a monster."

He snickered while waving his hand, conjuring a Dark Barrier which protected him from the heat and flames surrounding him. He created two daggers made of Dark Magic and lunged himself on her.

Although he no longer had his Mastery skills, it doesn't mean the experience and knowledge gained from all the corpses he possessed had vanished.

Despite becoming stronger and faster, her large size greatly decreased her speed so when she tried to hit him with her long tail, Arthur dodged to the side and slashed a few times with his daggers, leaving black marks on the dragon's body.

The daggers suddenly merged, transforming into two-handed axe which Arthur used to cleave down. His attempt to cut the tail was unsuccessful, however, large amounts of blood gushed out of the fresh and severe injury.

The ground underneath Claudia became jet black and numerous sharp black spikes sprung from it, causing the dragon to flap its wings, trying to getaway.

Expecting such an outcome, Arthur's axe transformed yet again, becoming an ominous longbow. Arthur pulled an invisible thin thread and fired two arrows which flew straight at the dragon's eyes. Though they did manage to hit their target, they did close no damage and in retaliation, the dragon spat a fireball half of its body.

Due to the cramped place and the short distance between him and Claudia, Arthur couldn't dodge so he conjured a second Dark Barrier and raised the bow high in the air.

The bow became a shield covered in black flames, he slowly advanced while using the shield to resist the huge fireball. Unlike earlier, the flames were much more dangerous as they melted the ground and stopped in his tracks for a moment before sending him flying.

Just one fireball was enough to get rid of the black flames covering him, returning him to his original appearance. He had severe injuries all over his bodies and his vision was dyed red from all the blood covering him.

He couldn't use his ultimate skills, moreover, he didn't have Makaze so his fighting prowess was greatly reduced, nonetheless, Arthur swore to take her down today, no matter the cost.

If it were back then, before meeting Lucy, he wouldn't have cared if he lost his life in the process, however, it is different now. He has a place and a family to return to and he can't afford to lose his life in this foreign world.

******

The innocent sheep which rose into the air and faced the angry wolf suddenly transformed into a creepy and terrifying monster. Its teeth became sharp and lengthy and its fur was dyed with the color red.

Like a shooting red star, the sheep dived inside the wolf's body and suddenly exploded resulting in the plummeting of the four-tailed beast. It no longer has its majestic aura revolving around it, the parasite whimpered as it tried its best to get up only for three Jokers to appear in front of its face and ruthlessly punch it.

The huge beast was pushed back as blood flowed from its mouth and nostrils, the opponent was just too strong even for a parasite like her.

"To be honest, I expected a better fight… *sigh*"

He cracked his knuckles, patted the dust off his costume then added:

"Let us finish this!"

He took a deep breath, took a weird pose similar to throwing a baseball and mumbled

"Second move of the Trickster Series: Winners above all!"

A ball made of mysterious black light appeared in his hand, he locked his gaze onto the wolf then threw the ball with all his strength. Whatever was thrown was too fast for the injured opponent to block it or dodge, so, before anything could be done, the ball penetrated the wolf's skull and turned into a statue made of dark gold.

While whistling, the Joker walked toward the statue and flashed a blank card it, which in its turn, sucked the whole thing. This resulted in a picture of a beautiful four-tailed fox to appear on the blank card.

"Another one to my collection! Hahahahahahaha"

After laughing for a while, he randomly walking around the circular room then stopped in its center, glued his ears closer to the ground and closed his eyes, seemingly trying to locate something.

His hand took the form of a claw then it hit the ground which had countless cracks on it. The cracks spread to all corners of the room before crumbling, causing large amounts of rubble to fall along with Joker, who elegantly jumped from one boulder to another until he found himself standing at the deepest room in this complex place.

Two pairs of eyes landed on the Trickster, who grinned at the youth clad in dark armor. The enemy, however, was shocked, to say the least, as he didn't expect the female parasite to lose, much less in such a short amount of time.

"Don't mind me, please continue."

The Joker was really not going to butt in for he knew that Leiu wouldn't want that. His words only alarmed the anxious green-haired man, who was already having trouble dealing with the youth before him.

"Go get rid of the other pests."

While still smirking, The Joker did a military greeting while sarcastically relying

"Sir yes sir!"

He vanished right after, going after the other parasites which dispersed soon after Leiu slaughtered some of them. From the beginning, not all the parasites were hiding in this room, there were others that were tasked to do other things and they were the Joker's target.

As for why he didn't go help Arthur? It was obviously because the feud between him and Claudia was personal and both his companions knew better than to interfere.

Left alone, yet again, the parasite leader and Leiu glared at each other for a moment before the former stabbed his sword in the air, sending some sort of flying water sharks at the latter.

In retaliation, Leiu slashed his sword at the incoming projectiles, pulverizing them with one sweep. However, the opponent failed to notice that Leiu's attack actually contained two slashes and the second was not invisible and much deadlier than the first.

His instincts warned him so he backed away but it wasn't enough to dodge the invisible strike, which came crashing at him like a mountain, flattening him on the ground and causing a hideous bloody slash mark on his chest.

Just like before, a holy light covered the parasite and healed his new wound only for a dark hand to appear from the dark ground, immobilizing him.

Though he struggled and tried to free himself, he couldn't and by the time he realized it, Leiu's greatsword was already upon him, impaling him and causing him to cough a lot of blood.

With the greatsword going through his chest and penetrating the ground, the parasite could only flail his hand, trying to reach his blue sword.

Unfortunately, Leiu wasn't going to sit around and watch him, he pressed his foot on the enemy's hand and leaned his head closer to the parasite.

"Why do you want to summon your God?"

His cold and chilling voice rang inside the parasite's ears, causing him to slightly shiver.

"You think you won just because you managed to land a few hits on me?"

Despite the blood leaking out of his lips, the parasite flashed a disgusting smile and grabbed Leiu's sword, stabbing it further down his chest.

A few moments, the parasite's body laid on the ground, limp and lifeless. A soft sigh escaped Leiu's mouth, he pulled the sword and was about to get rid of the body only for it flash with a blinding holy light which healed it instantaneously.

The body flew a distance from Leiu before it floated in the air with life coming back to it. The parasite raised his hand toward the blue sword, which flew toward its master.

"We, parasites, are immortals! Inferior lifeforms such as you humans are only here to serve as out stepping stone toward glory!"