44 Showdown! (Part - 4)

*minutes earlier*

A huge figure smashed through a wall and rolled on the floor sideways. It lifted the greatsword shaped hammer and stood up, just as another blur shot through the hole it had created. It had managed to step back to avoid it, but two sharp blades tore through it's right eye as the blur passed in front of it.

"MOOOUAA" Oclyx roared feeling the pain in it's eye. The blur, which was Nightclaw, stopped and rushed back towards the now berserk minotaur. Fueled with anger, it swung it's hammer at an incredible speed, it's aura compressing air and heat to produce shockwaves from the swing, but Nightclaw had already appeared in front of him with a chi covered fist before the hammer reached halfway. Her fist impacted on it's chest and the fist exploded creating a shockwave sending Oclyx flying through walls back to the main hall.

The impact broke his ribs and chest, with the chi-shockwave doing extreme internal damage, which was being healed. The hammer had destroyed a part of the building from the shockwave generated beforehand. Coughing black lava-like blood, Oclyx stood again. Seeing him stand up, Nightclaw poured chi in her claws, making the runes on them glow as the claws extended and became energy blades.

Oclyx felt danger and started charging his weapon, but Nightclaw burst chi in the soles of her feet and accelerated towards him before he could even react. She appeared behind Oclyx in less than a second. He became confused until he felt a sharp pain in his arm, as his arm carrying the weapon cutoff.

He roared again in pain, but Nightclaw didn't let go her advantage.

She decreased the length of her blades and attacked Oclyx. He tried surrounding himself with a mana coat but it didn't matter for her claws, as multiple cuts appeared on him. He kept stepping back in pain from the cuts from the claws and impacts from the kicks. Nightclaw stopped her barrage as she noticed the club from before that Oclyx was holding.

Healing slowly, Oclyx barely opened his only good eye, which was covered in blood as well in an attempt to see. He heard a sonic boom, and before he could even register what the loud sound was, he got slammed by an extremely fast object, which produced a strong shockwave as well, which intensified all his cuts and internal injuries, and he got sent flying. What slammed onto him was his own weapon Nightclaw had thrown at him, which unleashed all it's charged up mana on impact.

The shockwave destroyed the floor as well, and Oclyx went flying backwards towards the lower floor. He shot towards the ground and crashed a couple of times before coming to a halt. He didn't even register the feeling of something getting crushed under him because of his pain and the speed he got sent flying at.

After lying down for a few seconds, he started shaking and twitching, then slowly rose up. He was on three of his limbs as one of his arms were missing, and he could barely lift his head up, when suddenly a flash passed by him. He could barely see the flash, and didn't register it completely either, as he felt his world turning and then he saw his own body, barely stable, which crashed down as well. He saw his opponent behind his body, getting up, as the two shining claws receded into her adamantium ones, and his vision turned black.

Nightclaw turned to look for any signs of her opponent being alive, when she noticed Katana and Electra looking at her with a complicated expression. She raised an eyebrow in confusion, while they both looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders in unison.

"Phew, this got dragged way longer than it should have." Spidey said landing between them with Silk.

"Yeah, it would've ended sooner if someone hadn't broke the crystal into a hundred pieces." Ghost Spider said, glaring at Arachnid, who averted his eyes.

"We have a hundred pieces to gather as well, it seems." Electra said in a tired tone.

Just as she said that, the ceiling cracked completely and pummeled down. All of them deployed energy shield in their suits, which prevented the ceiling from collapsing over them.

They removed the shield to see the hall crumbled down, and many pillars, holding the room damaged as well.

"That doesn't look good." Spiderman said, eyeing the broken pillars.

"No, no it doesn't" Arachnid answered back with narrowed eyes.

Hearing a fight still going own, Nightclaw spoke, "Dracula's still fighting. Spidey, Silk, go lend a hand. Katana, Electra and Ghost, collect the shattered core under the debris. Arc, help me cut this Ox to see if it has some kind of core as well."

Spidey and Silk nodded and jumped away, while the other three lifted the rubble to find the core.

"So, we're bisecting a minotaur? Does this count as medical experience?" Arc said looking at the headless minotaur.

"Stop yapping and help." Nightclaw said in a 'no joke' tone and Arc followed behind.

*Earlier*

Dracula kept crashing on the floor and finally snapped out of his trance after the third bounce and stabilized himself. He still had an expression of disbelief as he saw Oclyx roar due to Nightclaw stabbing his arm.

He turned back to block a kick aimed at his by Daredevil, who followed with a shortsword aimed at him by DD, which is a mode added to his batons. Dracula blocked it again, but the batons chipped his armor, which added to his surprise, but he just regenerated it and followed by an uppercut, which Daredevil stepped back for.

Before he could follow, he stepped to his left to avoid Blade's sword. Blocking a few swings and kicks, Dracula deflected his sword and shoulder-tackled him. Blade managed to avoid the bigger spikes, but still got sent back by the force.

Dracula wanted to follow, but was interrupted yet again, this time by Iron Fist, who had attempted to trip him. Following this, Iron Fist followed by a barrage of punches and kicks, which Dracula managed to block and avoid because he was somewhat faster than IF.

He went on the offensive which was deflected easily by IF due to having superior fighting capabilities than Dracula, who was just using strength and speed. IF narrowed his eyes, and his fists started glowing, surprising Dracula, who sensed the amount of chi in it. IF's speed also increased, as he was using chi all over his body, but it was more concentrated at his fists, making them glow.

This time, Dracula had a hard time blocking and avoiding, as the impacts not only broke his armor, but the chi strike moved through his body like a shockwave, damaging it, ignoring the bone armor. He started using the demonic energy he learned from Morax and enhanced his abilities and healing, getting better. The exchanged blows, but IF stepped back on one much to his confusion, but he noticed a shuriken shot towards him.

Dracula covered his face from the shuriken which burst in flames in front of him, damaging the armor. He quickly adapted to it, but a second of delay was all the three needed. Daredevil and Blade rushed with their swords, Blade going headstrong while DD being speedy and slowly chipping off. Dracula was already much faster and stronger than Blade, but was cornered and had openings due to Daredevil's barrage he couldn't do anything.

Dracula gritted his teeth and collected mana on the armor in his arms. He took Daredevils hit when he figured wouldn't damage him much and charged through towards Blade, with the elongated spike on his arm extending to stab him. But that attempt got blocked as Iron Fist broke the extending spike by punching it, much to Dracula's frustration.

This gave Blade an opening to slash him with a charged sword. Dracula avoided any injury on the neck by crouching a bit, resulting in the sword slashing his face through his left eye. This wasn't all as DD followed with a quick stab to his right eye, which succeeded in blinding him. Due to his powers being new, he couldn't sense his surroundings, but the swords were connected in holy energy, which he could sense coming close, same with IF, but barely as he was an expert in hiding his chi as well, even while fighting.

Taking hits, which chipped his armor faster than it was repairing, he decided to retreat, making him wide open for IF, who immediately accelerated towards him and unleashed a chi covered punch right on his chest.

The impact of chi and demonic energy covering Dracula exploded due to the force, and Dracula went flying towards the wall, making a deep indent in it. Dracula's armor covering the chest got smashed to pieces by the hit, and the shockwave destroyed all the bones and blood vessels in it. Morax's upgrade had also gave him an similar anatomy to that of humans for better power control. His control over demonic energy was also in a disarray.

Dracula coughed black blood and stayed lodged in the wall, unsure of what was happening.

'Why?' he thought.

'Why am I like this right now? I was supposed to be the ruler. I was supposed to be on top, then why?.. why? why? why?why?why? WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?'

"ROOOOAAAARR" Dracula roared opening his red eyes. But unlike before, when only his pupils were dyed red, now his whole eye was dark red, with black blood oozing over. His bony white armor turned black with red markings over it and red edged spikes, with a upper part of gargoyle skull on his chest.

"... I do not believe this was meant to happen." Iron Fist said looking at Dracula. He just now felt how powerful his opponent has gotten.

"Get ready, he's more dangerous now." Daredevil said, sensing the change in Dracula, who seemed like an extremely corrupted soul in a sea of fire.(That's how DD sees the world due to his powers)

Dracula came out of the wall and shook his body to remove any debris on him. Looking at the three, he growled in anger and sent a roar filled with demonic power. The roar seemed to have an effect on emotions, as a sudden feeling of fear took over the three. Iron Fist and Daredevil quickly managed to snap out of the trance, as they have trained to fight against telepaths and empaths by Phoenix, but Blade couldn't.

Dracula rushed towards them much faster than he had before. IF started using chi to his full potential and rushed to intercept at his full power, same with Daredevil. IF's and Dracula's punches collided produced a shockwave, but IF winced on impact, as just before the collision, Dracula had created spikes over his fingers, which got destroyed due to the collision, but still hurt a bit.

They started fighting, but Iron Fist hadn't yet reached his full potential comparable to the other Defenders who took the SSS, except on his impacts, which easily overpower theirs. And Dracula creating spikes on his armor had started to get annoying.

Daredevil also joined the fray constantly slashing his swords, but Dracula took the hit again like before, but his armor was damaged less than before, even by the full powered slash. Dracula punched Daredevil, who could barely deflect the hit, avoiding the spike on top of his wrist, but the force sent him flying.

Iron Fist's hits got deflected, and Dracula collected demonic energy, very much like IF collected chi, and punched him. IF covered his entire arm in chi to defend himself, and the suit sent a protection shield as well, but Dracula broke through both and his punch sent him flying away.

The effect of Dracula's roar ended as Blade saw IF fighting back and sent flying away. Blade was shocked to see this. He took out his gun and started shooting at Dracula, whose armor seemed to get damaged by the shots, which annoyed Dracula, as he rushed towards him avoiding the shots in a zig-zag manner.

Blade gritted his teeth as he was trying to shoot him, but Dracula avoided all shots and reached close. Blade stabbed his sword, but got deflected by Dracula, who tilted his head a bit avoiding the point-blank shot by hair's breadth.

He backhanded Blade, who crossed his arms enabling the shield on his arm-guards Enigma had given to him. It lessened the impact damage, but still sent him flying over 8 meters. He quickly balanced himself in an crouched position, but he widened his eyes saw a punch coming to his face reflecting on his sunglasses.

*Stay tuned for more...*