Werewolf Beatdown II

Adam shot past two tree trunks as he stepped into a small clearing, gazing at the werewolf alpha as he struggled to his feet, the impression of an elbow strike gouged into his chest.

"You…you should not be this strong," said the alpha. "You are barely over a day old, and yet, your strength is this overwhelming? How did you gain this strength? How many souls did you devour?"

"How?" Adam shrugged, not about to give up any secrets about his strength. Although, to be fair, it was not like he had the greatest idea of how his powers worked, too. Seemed like nobody knew why he was getting as strong as he was so quickly. "I took a semester of introductory boxing, once, I guess."

"Do not insult me!" The alpha snarled to cover up his wounded pride and lunged forwards, swiping with his massive, claw tipped hand.

[Surge] was still active, the powerful energy coursing black and strong through his veins, and while it was active, Adam could easily see the alpha's movements with his enhanced reactions. He ducked under the swipe and then launched as strong a punch as he could right at the werewolf's stomach.

The sound of Adam's rock-hard fist cracking into the werewolf's solid muscles, even cracking his ribs, echoed through the air as the alpha flew back several meters before he dug his feet into the ground and skidded to a halt.

The werewolf breathed heavily as he slumped over, trying to nurse the pain that must have agonized his midsection.

"From what I'm seeing, seems like you werewolf kind aren't quite on the level of demons," said Adam as he stared at his fist.

Adam's [Surge] died down at this moment because it could only be active in short intervals.

About five seconds, Adam calculated. He felt the bulging black veins around his body clear of their inky color and recede back into his body, and his thick aura of black and red shimmered down a little. Like this, he was figuring out the limits of his abilities that were not apparent in just the text of his Power Matrix.

The alpha immediately capitalized on this and shot forwards without any regards to his injuries.

"Woah!" Adam barely ducked past another swipe and rolled over behind the werewolf. Without [Surge] to boost his stats, Adam realized that all in all, he was around equal to the werewolf alpha, maybe just a tiny bit behind him.

The werewolf swiveled around and smashed into Adam with a back fist. Adam put up a guard with his arms to take the speedy blow. Adam flew straight back like he had been launched out of a cannon, but before his back could slam against a tree trunk, he flipped in mid-air and landed against the trunk with his feet.

The wood splintered and cracked under his legs from the impact, and Adam looked up to see the alpha continue his assault. The werewolf leaped into the air, lunging at Adam while he was against the tree trunk.

Where the werewolf beat Adam out in raw power, Adam beat the werewolf out in maneuverability boosted by his smaller size. He pushed off the trunk and onto the ground, and the werewolf crashed into the tree trunk, completely splitting it in half but missing Adam.

Now down low on the ground, Adam saw an easy vital point to strike and shot a kick up at the alpha's balls.

The alpha crumbled backwards, yelping in pain as he doubled over and clutched at his groin.

Adam took this moment to get a breath in, ignoring the bruises starting to well up on his forearms where he had taken the alpha's back fist. That was when he noticed that the damage he had inflicted on the alpha was disappearing.

The werewolf was regenerating. The indent in his chest from Adam's first tackle had buffed out, the bruised muscle and flesh clearing up. The cracked rib, too, had probably healed considering the fact that the alpha moved as if he had not been injured at all.

Adam did not want to take a long fight, not when the werewolf could regenerate at high speed over short intervals. He had no idea what the limits of this regeneration were, and Adam's own regeneration was not yet advanced enough to heal from wounds instantly.

So Adam jumped into the air, soaring right over the werewolf and taking his back where Adam wrapped his muscular arms around the beast's neck in a headlock, aiming to cut off the creature's air and knock it unconscious.

It was generally well known that in martial arts, a properly executed headlock was basically inescapable, and Adam did know how to perform one.

The werewolf's neck as thickly padded with fur and muscle, but Adam was more than strong enough to coil around it with his arms, gripping one hand over the other and pulling it, tightening the hold as he would tighten a knot.

The werewolf snarled at first, but when his airway cut off, he gargled instead. He dug into Adam's arms with his claws, and Adam gritted as he ignored the pain of the sharp blades digging into him.

He instead felt the power of [Surge] ready to use again, and he used it.

His muscles swelled up as his veins grew black, and Adam's body became denser, too, his muscles becoming more durable and harder to penetrate, pushing the claws out.

"Just accept-," said Adam as the alpha writhed around, slamming Adam into a tree trunk to no avail.

"Accept your fate as my coat, dammit!" said Adam as he spit out a mouthful of leaves. He tightened the hold even further with the power of [Surge], seeing if he could break the creature's neck entirely.

That was when something completely unexpected happened.

==

Meanwhile, with Leila -

"H-how can she use Shadow Magic?" exclaimed one of the two werewolves as both witnessed Leila's aura surge and black flames flicker around her arms. Both werewolves could immediately tell with a single glance that those flames were lethal at a single touch. "Wasn't she weakened? Wasn't she still injured from the others of our pack?"

"I don't know!" replied the other werewolf. "The Alpha said she was going to be easy pickings! He's the one that knows anything about demons and magic and whatever, already reading those creepy ass books. You think I know what demons are like!? You think I cared!?"

"Silence, fools," said Leila. She jumped into the air with graceful elegance, her wings fanning out and causing her to float high up, casting a shadow down on the two silver werewolves. "That is the problem with you bottom feeding weaklings. You are so very good at sensing weakness, and the only fights you take are with those you think are weak.

But then you run into problems like this. When those you think are weak are strong. Then all you do is cower and fear. Despicable."

Leila snapped her fingers, causing countless little tongues of dark fire from her hand to scatter downwards. In a way, they looked quite beautiful, like brush strokes of masterfully painted black flower petals falling downwards like cherry blossoms scattering in the wind.

Leila felt pain in her hands, but she did not show it. Cracks started to line her hands, the very same type of cracks that lined Raum's body when she overused her power in the Overworld that indicated her physical vessel was breaking apart.

This was still far better than before, when she first fought these werewolves. Back then, Leila could not use any Shadowflame for fear of breaking her body apart at even the slightest usage.

On top of this, Leila was not the 'physical' type of fighter. Her stats were not exceptional, and though she could easily beat a single werewolf, against two or more, it became far more difficult. With Shadowflame, though, these fights became absolutely trivial.

Leila's Shadowflame ignored all durability and absolutely destroyed anything. It could even kill a god if they took it head on, let alone mongrel mutts like silver werewolves.

Still, though, Leila did not want to overuse her Shadowflame to prevent her body from deteriorating.

Demons, especially Hell Demons, did not belong in the Overworld, and staying would both drain their energy and make their avatars unstable unless they had strong anchors to the Overworld, the world of humans. Using strong demonic magic like Shadow Magic would only accelerate this process too.

Leila did have a powerful physical anchor to the Overworld in the form of Adam, but her link with him was still new, still developing.

Until it was fully formed and sealed, she could not use her Shadowflame – her Shadow Magic feared across all of Hell – to great extent lest she risk this body breaking apart.

Granted, even if Leila's body did break apart, this was just her physical vessel. Her soul would still go down to Hell and she would reform. A privilege of being demonic Royalty.

Killing a royal demon's avatar did nothing; one had to venture into the depths of Hell and kill them there to make any permanent damage, and in Hell, a royal demon might as well be unbeatable to any invader.

The issue was that Leila's current avatar was highly synchronized with her soul. The reason she could stay in the Overworld for extended periods of time without having to return to Hell was because she had bound her soul strongly to her avatar.

In comparison, Raum's avatars were little more than temporary use dolls meant for short term missions before breaking apart, but Leila had planned to stay years in the Overworld in her search for a worthy husband.

And since Leila's soul was so heavily synchronized with her body, if was probable that if her physical form was destroyed, she would forget many of the memories she had made in the Overworld.

Leila remembered the feeling of Adam's hand clasping hers, at how comforting it felt, at how it made her feel like there was nothing she could not do with him by her side, with him there for her to lean against.

She would never, ever, ever, ever forget that.

Leila broke out of her thoughts when she heard a blood curdling scream. She saw one of the werewolves burning up, his bulky body completely swallowed up by raging black flames combusted outwards from a seemingly tiny petal.

The other werewolf had managed to dodge the falling black petals, but now he paused with wide eyes as he witnessed his pack member dying.

"Oops!" said Leila as she snapped her fingers again, causing the black petals to dissipate. "I just wanted to test how much of my Shadowflame I could use. I forgot to tune back the power a bit."

The burning werewolf struggled for a second before he fell to the forest floor in a mass of black flames that completely obscured his body. Within seconds, his huge form was reduced into a simple pile of ash.

"And I ruined my darling's fur," sighed Leila as she closed her eyes and crossed her arms, shaking her head at herself.

How could she? After all darling had done for her?

Leila opened one of her eyes when she heard rustling. She saw the remaining werewolf trembling as he tried to sneak his way out, but Leila's eye was wide open, the pupil narrowing into a deadly slit. Her hands covered in armor-like red plates while her claws extended like enormous blades, giving her scissor-like hands.

"I won't make the same mistake with you, mongrel," said Leila as she licked her lips before flying down with a psychotic, wide, fanged smile, black energy bulging through her veins.