Regus bet big on the Surya-Astra's top-move, the [ Solar Beam ] to turn the tide of the battle in his favour.
Solar Beam was one of those moves that was near impossible to avoid as it came down upon oneself at the speed of light.
It was extremely difficult to detect, much less block or evade and even Dracula with all his thousands of years worth of battle experience did not have an answer to it.
*BOOM*
Left exposed to the full might of a solar attack, Dracula felt his heart skipping a beat for the first time in over five millennia.
His body was hurting all over, his skin burning and fading away as he genuinely questioned his ability to survive the assault while tempering through the horrid experience with grit and unwavering resolve.
At this moment he acknowledged Regus, if nothing else the Vampire King was tenacious and a worthy adversary.
Although he relied on an underhanded artefact to supplement his strength. The battle acumen to use it and the strategy to carry it were all his own.
However, unfortunately for him, despite all the advantages of the Surya-Astra, when it mattered the most, it fell short of completely killing off Dracula with one blow, as teetering at bright orange HP, Dracula survived the Solar Beam.
" PAH, PAH - "
Panting audibly as his skin sizzled from the aftermath of the attack, Dracula looked into Regus's eyes with a look of a wounded predator as he acknowledged Regus and the strength of the modern vampires at that moment.
[ Arcane Arts : Health Regeneration ]
Using an old fashioned move to restore some of his health, Dracula sacrificed some of his stamina to be converted into health points.
The complexion of his skin improved as a result and strength returned to his muscles to restore movement as this time around Dracula wasted no time and decided to go all-out and take no chances.
On the other hand, Regus cursed his luck when Dracula survived his assault, the Solar Beam was the strongest move that the Surya-Astra was capable of producing and unfortunately it was only a peak tier6 attack whose effects could be considered like a mid-tier 7 attack against Dracula who was super weak against it.
Unfortunately, a mid-tier 7 attack was not enough to finish a monster like him and Regus needed to fight him some more to defeat him fully.
However, the fact that Dracula survived did not bug Regus as much as the fact that he regained some HP and was able to move nimbly again.
While he suffered the permanent loss of losing his hand, Dracula had restorative moves in his arsenal that helped him bounce back from critical injuries.
" Charging towards your own death? How cute- " Regus said as Dracula came for a close-up brawl against Regus, however, despite the brave act by the vampire king, he understood that this was not a good situation for him, as he was no match for Dracula while being a one armed cripple.
He defended Dracula's relentless assault as best as he could with his one arm, however, one out of every ten strikes did manage to find its mark on his upper torso making him steadily lose HP as he was pushed back against his will.
Five minutes passed, and Regus's own HP dropped down to a dangerous orange, as Dracula seemed to re-establish his dominance in the fight which Regus had so desperately overturned by throwing a hail-mary.
With the Surya-Astra going out of charge, there were no more divine attacks left for Regus to rely on and with his left arm sliced off, there was only so much hand to hand combat that he could do.
It was truly the worst situation for him as despite his mind working at full speed, it wasn't able to come up with a tangible solution to this problem.
" You've fought well, I did not expect to have so much fun walking into this fight, however you gave me a run for my money, if you were only 20-30% stronger, this battle could have swung either way.
Alas, this is the end of it " Dracula said as he both congratulated Regus for a well-fought fight until this moment and reminded him that play-time was over and that it was time for him to quietly die now.
[ Divine Move - Blood Sovereigns Blood Dash ]
Gathering the divine essence left in his pool, Dracula activated the last move of this battle aiming to take Regus's head off in a high speed dash.
With the attack incoming from his crippled side, Regus stood little to no chances of blocking the move and even if he did, he was most likely going to lose his second arm along with his head even if he tried.
All signs pointed towards a tragic end for the Vampire King, when out of a last ditch desperation, Regus decided to pray to a certain god to save his own life-
" Oh Supreme Lord Shakuni, protector of the universe, I pray to you to save my life as I promise on my soul with the celestials as a witness that should I survive today, I shall yield the throne to your brother without resistance- " Regus said as he closed his eyes and accepted his fate whatever it might be.
Having already come close to death in the Dimensional Battlefield, Regus had long made his peace with the idea of entering eternal rest, however, at that dark hour, Shakuni saved his life and it was him he prayed too once more, hoping that the miracle could be repeated twice.
*********
( Meanwhile Max )
The second Max stepped out of Zandar's teleportation hall, he spread his senses thin to try and locate Regus, as to his absolute delight he located both Regus and Dracula fighting a few thousand kilometres off Zandar.
The good thing was that Regus was still alive, however, the difficult thing was that Max still needed about one and a half minutes to arrive at the spot where the two were fighting.
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