The Moon

"No!" the Abyss Eater felt slight panic, as though it was his very life force that was being stolen from him, like the wretch had grasped his heart and begun squeezing it.

Like a brutal alligator, the corrupted man snapped his jaw shut reflexively, coming to a conclusion about the new turn the fight had taken.

'He is too fast, he will be able to drain me of my Abyss before I can somehow luck out and hit him...'

'He has adapted to the Abyss too... It's corrosive nature won't get to him so easily, I must get him with my own strength!'

'If my Abyss can not hurt him and will only be drained... Then...'

"I'll use it all!" he roared like a mad beast as he pushed out a great mass of Abyss in a mist-like form, not aimed to damage.

Axiolypito moved back and it was a mistake, the mist had the same effect as when he was back in the stagnating ocean, it slowed him down but to a much more significant level!

He couldn't absorb it all in a mere few moments, it would take time, time he didn't have, now that he wasn't any faster than the Abyss Eater.

The man's palm sunk into his chest, his bones and flesh turning soft, his skin extended and rippled, dispersing the strength of the blow efficiently.

The blunt force was stopped successfully, the corrupted human wasn't done, he grabbed the now extended skin with his hand, the tip of his fingers ressembing the claws of a foul beast.

He was ready to rip Axio apart, even his dreadful claws failed to cut him in time, the skin seemingly turning all slippery, allowing the wretch to get away from him.

'I see, his body reacts automatically to any sort of damage it appears, he appeared surprised for an instant but everything still went perfectly for him in this brief exchange...' th Abyss Eater reasoned.

'Another trick on your part, it won't last' he thought coldly as maddened grin formed on his Abyss ridden visage, the glow in his eyes growing more intense as he pursued his prey.

Axiolypito wasn't unaware of his situation, he had managed to counter the man's sudden abyssal prowesses by following suit and adapting as well, both of their actions had happened due to nothing other than their respective gifts of evolution as species and their seemingly unbreakable wills.

They had outdone each other in a matter of a few seconds and it was happening again, the Abyss Eater had dragged Axio into a contest of might.

The wretch had been unable to understand what was happening when he had faced Sir Solitar, how the swordsman had gotten through his bodily defenses but his mind was clear this time, the blighted hunter was skilled, he had most likely already figured out to an extent how to bypass his defenses.

As such, Axiolypito didn't try to rush away after his initial move, standing his grounds, his eyes still wide open and filled with blood.

He wasn't fast enough to outrun his opponent anymore, if he was to run, he would need him to be unable to give immediate chase.

And if his defenses weren't going to hold for much longer, then he wouldn't rely solely on them.

The clawed hand of the man neared his face, probably aiming to blind him, Axio felt his bones, organs and very flesh moved seemingly on their own, independent from one another.

Appearing like a mangled puppet, his body twisted in a gruesome manner, the likes one would see on the body of the victim of a high fall, nothing oriented in the right direction, everything appearing broken.

The corrupted hunter wasn't a fool however, he was taken aback by the extent of control Axio actually had on his body but what truly mattered was the way he had bent his body, he had seemingly crumpled to the ground, his limbs twisted the wrong away against the ground.

The Abyss Eater had no time to move out of the way as Axiolypito's body wrung itself back the right way in an instant, pushing him from the ground right into the chest of the enemy.

Feeling the Abyss being drained out of him, the hunter felt weak, he grabbed Axio by the way and smashed his face into the ground without thought and no finesse.

With a single claw, Axio cut the hair being held and took a step back.

The man puked a great deal of dark blood onto the ground.

Expelling so much Abyss to slow the wretch was the only move he could do, but getting rid of so much of it made him much easier to drain to near nothingness, he would then have to recall some of his abyssal matter, weakening the slowness inflicted on his prey.

It also had another counter-productive effect, the Abyss within was keeping him running, after all, the wretch had still crushed his organs and bones with his earlier attack, it hadn't been fixed.

Even the meek frame of Axio had stirred up his injuries in a terrible fashion.

The hunter didn't want to be in contact with his prey for too long, as even that sucked out abyssal matter from him.

'He needs to die now' he coldly assessed, extending this hunt any longer was only giving Axio the advantage.

He moved toward his prey once more, removing the shackles of cautiousness, he kept on attacking, the more he attacked, the least Axiolypito's dodging techniques worked out, until he began landing blows.

He landed blows until he figured out the way to get past this cockroach's survivality.

Each exchange was draining him of more and more Abyss, he had to be quicked, grabbing one of the monster arms, he ripped it off.

He was escatic and proud for finally truly harming the monster himself but it didn't last as he hurredly dropped the severed arm before the limb could drain him any longer.

The meager amount of blood still present inside of the arm splashed over him and it is with horror that he realised that even this was sucking out the Abyss keeping him alive, forced to call back some of the mist at every instant to counter act this, he granted more mobility to the wretch.

He was aware of that, as such, he didn't allow Axiolypito to get moving, striking him straight in the jaw, it was still bizarre for Axio to actually feel the brunt of strikes against his body.

Still, he didn't stay still, moving his body alongside the strike to avoid getting pulverised.

Some of his teeth broke and it felt like his jaw both snapped and dislocated.

As shards of his own teeth stabbed the inside of his mouth, he spat in the hunter's face, his one arm still being connected with his prey, he used the bundle of tendrils coming from his missing arm to block the blood reflexively, in an effort to avoid more of his strength being sapped.

The tendrils were pure Abyss however and the second blood touched it, it absorbed a greater amount than it otherwise would have, had he not tried to stop it.

Once again, feeling close to being completely depleted, he recalled some of the mist, only to realise that he had recalled the entirety of it, only to be left with a little bit.

'Where is he?' without anything to slow him down, Axiolypito was once again completely gone, the Abyss Eater wasn't willing to attack with tendrils or any other form of Abyss.

The slighest of contact would drain him completely, even now, the blood that had sprinkled over him was sucking in some of it...

Though, he had completely figured out how to bypass all of Axio's defenses now, if he would get in even a single hit, it would have to be a killing blow, it would expend what he had left but as long as this hunt ended on a high note, he would be satisfied.

He was already content with it, he had never been challenged so far before, even overcoming the Abyss plaguing him hadn't been enough.

"It was worth it" he spoke to himself as he stood still, waiting for the moment Axio went in for the kill.

The focus of one that was knowingly going to die was unmatched, as such, the second Axiolypito reached out for him, he reacted and struck.

'...'

'...'

He struck the disembodied arm he had ripped off earlier.

He felt the last of his strength leave him.

Indeed, Axio would never risk himself if possible, he had no honor to go in personally to finish his opponent off.

The Abyss covering the hunter vanished as he collapse, leaving behind the body of a human, a human that bled red blood.

As he achieved this victory, Axiolypito was met with the vision of this solitary rock endless orbiting in outer space.

The rock finally moved away from the mass below, it grew until it began its very own orbit, around nothing, it was the center of it all, it would move on its own and everything else would be spinning around it, not the opposite.

It was a dark blue moon.