Ray of Light!

John flew downwards as fast as he could, pathing through a gap in the trees. The trees might have lacked leaves, but they had enough branches on them that visibility beneath them was low, hopefully giving some form of cover.

John specifically targeted the spot where he had seen the captain's body fly off and smashed through a layer of branches to get to him. There, he found the captain still slumped over.Truly amazing.

Despite being unconscious, the captain had managed to in his sleep curl his body around the Astra recordings and shield them like he was shielding a baby.

Truly amazing.

Willpower of unparalleled degree.

The captain's sword lay in the grass to his side, but John was not here for that. The sword would not nearly do enough damage against Severus to be worth the trouble. Instead, it almost made John feel bad to do this, but he pried open the box of recording crystals and palmed some of the crystals in his front claws, and then sped off, zig-zagging through the forest with remarkable agility.

"[Drokynthis]" casted John, feeling the mana drain from him, but he held on through the dizziness and kept himself flying past trees, trying his hardest not to crash into any of them. He was still small enough that he could reliably weave through trees at decent speed, was that going to be enough ground to cover?

He only had about one more second of free time to fly.

Slightly after a second had passed, John heard it, and he gulped as he felt a pit well up in his stomach.

Severus's approach. The vampire was not pathing by the trees, but he was quite literally moving THROUGH them. The vampire laughed as he smashed through tree after tree, his sheer power allowing him to just bulldoze through everything in his way, obviously reveling in showcasing his enormous power.

So much for being physically stronger. Severus was a monster with both his explosive blood and natural strength. The gap between the Mystic grade and the Unbound grade only became that much more extreme in John's eyes.

Then again, Wild Magic was magic of the body, so it made sense that anyone proficient in it was also at the least somewhat physically strong.

"I can smell you, dragon!" shouted Severus. His voice echoed through the forest in unnatural peals, making John shiver as it drew nearer. "Your blood, your fear!"

John knew he was not going to last more than two more seconds like this. He flew up into the air instead to bait Severus out into talking more, because boy, did the vampire absolutely love to talk.

Severus soared high into the air with John as he sensed John leaving the tree cover.

"You finally decide to stop hiding, hm?" said Severus as he stopped to goad in his victory over winning a dumb race against a three day old baby.

"You are fast. Far faster than I thought," said John, stoking the vampire's ego to get another line of dialogue out of him.

"Of course!" said Severus. "You are far inferior to me in every way imaginable. You are slower, your muscles weaker, and your Skills inferior."

"Cut me some slack, I just told you I'm literally three days old," said John. "And as for special attacks, truth be told, I've been holding back."

John exploded his magical energy outwards as much as he could in a threatening display, an aura of sunlight gold extending out from him in radiant waves. However, compared to Severus's aura, it was still far smaller, not to mention being drained by [Drokynthis] did not help.

A fifth of the size of aura projected by Severus, if even that.

"Hah! You threaten me with aura so small!?" said Severus.

"As a wise sage once said: size doesn't mean everything," said John as he threw a projectile at Severus.

==

Severus saw glints of light thrown his way with an expert throwing arm completely unbefitting a dragon, as if the dragon had practiced throwing rocks before. Yet, not nearly fast enough to blindside him and strike hit him directly. He snatched up the thrown lights in his hand with confidence and looked down at his palm, seeing gleaming mana crystals.

Mana crystals? Crystals that stored spells, too, by the looks of it.

What was a mighty dragon doing relying on cheaply produced stored spells to defend himself? Like a weakling human mudblood mage would?

Disappointing. Very disappointing.

Severus had heard much of the draconic race, even that five hundred years ago, the vampiric capitol of Animulus had been completely wiped off the face of the planet by a dragon's attack, but was this all the last of the mighty dragons could muster up?

All of a sudden, Severus's head snapped back in complete distraction as the crystals began to light up. He might have been proud, but he still had a lingering sense of wariness because he was in the face of a dragon, a mighty race that once knew no equal.

But instead of some grand explosion or blast of power to strike him, Severus instead witnessed the projection of a Felid Werewolf girl sputtering up from the crystals.

"Hellooo, my little kittens!" said the girl as she twirled on a stage made of ice, wearing a white furred winter coat with a sparkling tiara of ice.

"What!?" Severus paused for a moment in utter confusion, and when he looked back up, he realized the dragon had used this chance to flee away back down into the forest.

A petty trick. Truly, the draconic race was a mere shade of itself hobbling on its last frail legs, ready to be executed.

Severus was far better suited to bring out the power of the draconic race once he took down this little whelp and drained his blood for his own. The Helic Light imbued in the dragon would take some time to carefully process, but once it was done, Severus would also be immune to the sun.

The pinnacle of vampiric might.

The prospect of attaining such heights drove Severus forward. Now was the time to claim his prize.

No more distractions.

Severus flapped his wings and soared down, to follow the dragon, using his abilities as a vampire to sense the flow of blood in living creatures around him to track the creature. He smashed through a host of tree branches with reckless abandon, his hunger for power and blood fueling him.

There he was. The little critter.

Severus tracked the beast with his [Blood Sense] and surged forward to his location, smashing through tree trunks and coming upon the young dragon in a mere second. He saw the dragon's golden figure soaring low in the forest and smashed down on it, grabbing the creature's neck and driving it down hard into the forest floor with a thudding impact.

"No more games, dragon," said Severus as he raised a gauntleted hand in the air. Blood red claws emerged out from the tips of his fingers, ready to stab into the dragon's neck and draw blood.

"You lose," said the dragon with a growl.

"Another bluff, is it?" Severus smirked. "It-,"

Radiant light engulfed his vision.

Then, burning.

==