This time, Mira was the first to attack her father.
In her mind, she was motivated solely by her wish of cookies for breakfast and she would do anything to make that a reality.
Instead of her usual sneak attacks, Mira elected to go for a frontal assault, and shower her father with a flurry of attacks.
"Mira will have cookies for breakfast!!"
'What a cute motivation.'
Abaddon smiled as he saw the way his daughter was so boldly approaching him, but unfortunately he was going to have to disappoint her.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
Without even moving his feet, Abaddon countered every single one of her dagger strikes using only his bladed tail.
He could see that she was finally becoming a bit frustrated, but that only served to make her look even more adorable.
However, Abaddon ran out of time to appreciate his daughter's puffed out cheeks when his instincts suddenly stared screaming out that he was in danger.
Sidestepping slightly, he narrowly avoided some sort of unseen slashing attack that carved up the ground beneath him.
Searching for the culprit, he raised a brow in surprise when he saw that neither of his older children had moved from their spots yet.
'What was that?'
After taking a moment to hypothesize, he realized that such an attack could have only come from his eldest daughter.
Apophis didn't have any sort of ability or technique like that, as his abilities were directly linked to Lailah's.
But as for Thea, he still was not aware of everything that her bracelet could do.
Making it entirely feasible that she had just lashed out at him with some sort of unforeseen bladed attack.
But how was that possible?
Thea clearly hadn't budged a single inch since he'd begun trading blows with Mira, yet that attack earlier could have only come from her.
He suddenly began to wonder if that strange ability was one that he could learn as well.
'How scary... I should ask her to teach me that if she can.'
Apophis finally decided that now was his time to strike and slithered forth at a horrifying speed.
Now Abaddon could no longer be as lax as before and finally made use of his weapons in this fight.
Channeling electricity into his body, he became little more than a blur as he rushed to meet Apophis before he could begin attacking.
For opponents like his first son who have a unique and deadly fighting style, the best solution is to simply stop them from building up momentum in the first place.
Apophis was an excellent attacker, but his defense was rather lacking since he traditionally chose to rely on his blood red scales that were as hard as diamonds.
However, against his father who could crush diamonds with his bare hands, such a tactic was not going to work.
Apophis narrowly avoided a thrust from his father's spear just in time to block a swing from his massive sword.
BANG!
The living familiar could not help but wince as the power of Abaddon's blow sent a tremor throughout his entire body.
At that moment, Thea seemed to recognize that her brother was in need of help but Abaddon was not going to make it so easy.
The dragon opened his mouth to reveal rows of sharp teeth before he released a blast of red lightning from his mouth.
Thea however did not panic and instead spread her legs into a wide stance as she balled up her fist.
"Ha!"
BOOOM!
The human girl let out a mighty war cry just as she threw out her fist, punching her father's attack.
She winced a bit from the pain, but other than that she suffered no additional ill effects.
Thea had successfully defended, but her father didn't look too happy about it as he realized that his daughter could be rather reckless.
"Remember Thea, I still do not have full control of my powers so it is best that you do not take my attacks head on." He told her.
Thea suddenly puffed out her cheeks and made a very cute expression that was similar to Mira's. "Father if you still have the time to worry about me in this situation then I am simply not doing good enough!"
Abaddon wanted to say that he would always worry about Thea no matter what situation he was in but it didn't seem like that was something she wanted to hear right now.
Thea's eyes suddenly glowed a bright red and Abaddon was assailed with that same feeling of danger as before, only this time it was much more prevalent.
Left, right, from below, from above, Thea launched those strange invisible attacks at her father from every direction.
The first few were relatively easy for him to dodge with simple movements, but eventually he was forced to make more dramatic movements like flipping in the air.
Evidently, Mira and Apophis both recognized the opportunity that their sister had created for them and rushed in to capitalize.
'They're so eager.' Abaddon thought as he chuckled inwardly.
However, his small smile was still noticed by all of his children.
"Don't laugh at us!"
"We will defeat you father!"
"You should prepare yourself to grant my wish."
Instead of their usual method of attacking separately, this time they came at him all at once.
While still airborne, Abaddon hurled his spear at the feet of his children and embedded it into the ground.
Before any of them knew what was happening, the blood lining Abaddon's spear had come to life and traveled through the cement to ensnare them all.
"Uwah?"
"W-What is this?"
"Blood..."
Abaddon had decided that things had gone on long enough and unfurled his demonic wings that were filled with various eyes.
"You kids have done quite well. Now I think you should rest up."
Suddenly, the eyes in his wings began to glow a silvery white and the match was soon over.
A bonus of Abaddon's last evolution was this new ability, cursed wings.
The eyes inside of his leathery draconic wings contained many powerful and frightening abilities like inflicting poison, paralysis, hypnotization, and sleep upon a target.
He had only learned he could do this after accidentally putting Lisa to sleep in a spar one afternoon.
After that incident, he realized the sheer usefulness of this ability as it was capable of putting even a full grown dragon to sleep.
As such, he spent five entire hours learning to master it and was now certain that he could use this ability to end the match safely.
Because this was his first time showing his kids the ability, they were utterly unprepared for the moment when their minds began to get heavy and they had difficulty remaining upright.
"W-What is..."
"Sleepy..."
"Cheater..."
One by one, all of the children fell over onto the ground.
Apophis and Mira were out instantly, but Thea held on a bit longer than her siblings, a feat that Abaddon assumed was due to her nature as a living weapon.
She fell to her knees on the ground and looked at her father with eyes filled with intense determination and drowsiness.
Even now, she didn't want to lose and was still fighting with every ounce of her being.
As a father, there was nothing that Abaddon could have been prouder to see.
"You've done very well, Thea. I'm so proud of you."
The sheer unexpectedness of those words stunned the human girl, and the warmth that they brought proved to be the final nail in the coffin as she finally fell flat on her face.
Soon all three of the children were snoring softly as they dreamed of their own individual paradises.
Abaddon had complete control over the dreams he placed others in, and he was even free to enter them as well but he elected not to spy on his children too much.
He simply willed them to have good dreams and stood motionlessly as he watched the positive auras that were encircling them.
The sound of approaching footsteps spurred Abaddon from his thoughts and he turned around to see his wife and parents coming over with three very different expressions.
Seras : "Well done, husband. It seems like you're gaining more and more control over your powers."
Yara: "Did you have to be so rough with them? Couldn't you let the poor little babies win?"
Asmodeus: "Your wings are really something special... Take them back out so I can get a better look."
Abaddon rolled his eyes at his parents as he accepted an embrace from his wife.
However even if he seemed to be a bit annoyed on the outside, inwardly he was the opposite.
Today had been a good one and he was more than grateful for the surprise visit from the three of them.
His eyes slowly drifted to his three children who were all sleeping on top of eachother and he suddenly felt just a bit guilty.
'They did seem really excited... should I have continued with them for a bit longer?'
The dragon nodded his head and made up his mind that he would reward them anyway.
Some parents might consider it bad to spoil their children but Abaddon and his wives were not among them.
Maybe they would be less inclined to do so if their kids were more bratty but that wasn't the case.
Mira may have been a little greedy, but she was always sweet and obedient and was always a joy to be around.
Thea was still entirely unused to being spoiled even after all this time with the family, and everything she received she did so with a grateful smile.
Apophis was a bit different, as sometimes he did not understand the value of what was given to him, but he always gave his thanks irregardless of what it was.
All three were the kind of kids that parents everywhere would dream of having.
'I wonder what they'll ask for?' Abaddon thought with a smile."
-
When Thea awoke, she immediately knew that she was back in her room at the castle.
She was surprised that she did not remember how she got here, but sudden movement on both sides of her soon caused her to forget.
Apophis and Mira were there as well, both looking like they'd just had the best sleep of their lives.
"Mmm... did we win?" Mira sleepily asked.
"Not quite." Abaddon suddenly said.
The three of them found their father sitting on a chair a few feet away, back in his royal red robes and reading some ancient spell book.
Thea and Mira immediately displayed downtrodden expressions while Apophis seemed rather indifferent on the surface.
Inwardly, he too was a bit disappointed that his wish wasn't going to be granted.
But then, Abaddon said something that lifted all of their hearts in the blink of an eye, and their hopes burned anew.
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