Igris arrived before his own opponent; unlike Beru, he didn’t attack immediately. He simply floated in place, his eyes glowing a bright blue as he stared at the Vampire before him. The female Vampire held twin daggers in her hands in a reverse grip, her posture relaxed yet coiled with lethal intent, like a predator waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

He wasn’t eager for battle, but that didn’t mean that when it presented itself, he would avoid it, no, he simply did not actively seek it out. Silence stretched between the both of them as they sized each other up, their gazes locked in a silent exchange of intent and calculation.

Bryan, who was floating at the side, could feel the tension thickening in the air, the pressure steadily increasing, the very stars around him flickering faintly as though reacting in anticipation of the clash that was about to unfold.

But in the very next moment, he who had been looking forward to witnessing the battle immediately heard a metallic clash erupt right in front of him. By the time his eyes finally caught up to what had just occurred, he saw Igris halting an attack that had been directed his way.

The Vampire had deceptively feigned an attack towards Igris before instantly redirecting her strike towards Bryan instead. While such a tactic might have worked against ordinary opponents, Igris was a Knight of immense experience; beyond that, he possessed both overwhelming speed and strength, lacking in neither.

With a booming force that distorted the surrounding space, they both vanished from where they stood, their weapons colliding again and again in rapid succession, echoing and thundering against each other endlessly. Their bodies became mere streaks of red and black, flickering across space as they met each other’s attacks with such refined weapon mastery that it bordered on the absurd.

Igris swung his sword, and with a booming, crackling detonation, a searing blue lightning erupted forth, streaking towards the Vampire in the form of a concentrated bolt, accompanied by the deafening sound of what resembled a billion chirping birds compressed into a single instant.

[Red Dagger Technique: Bloodless Moon]

Darkness coated her daggers as she immediately slashed outward, her blades meeting the incoming lightning bolt head-on with immense force. The moment she defended against the attack, she closed the distance between herself and Igris as though space itself had ceased to exist between them.

[Red Dagger Technique: Weakness Pincers]

True to its name, her daggers sought out only the weaknesses in her opponent’s body, and in that fleeting instant, she identified two, her twin daggers darting forward towards Igris’ eye sockets through the narrow slits of his helmet with terrifying precision.

But Igris was not caught off guard; he simply took a step back, evading the attack effortlessly as though it had never posed a threat, moving just beyond its reach with refined grace. The moment he avoided the strike, the very point in space where the Vampire’s daggers landed shattered violently, as she had punctured a hole through space itself with ridiculous ease.

Igris’ body reappeared upon the surface of a nearby moon, his posture upright, his bearing composed, and his demeanor as calm and disciplined as ever, as though the chaos of battle meant nothing to him.

"Forgive my manners and blatant disrespect," he spoke, his voice low, steady, and respectful, as though he acknowledged and honored his opponent despite the fact that their purpose at this moment was to kill one another.

With that, the longsword he had been wielding vanished seamlessly into his shadow, as though it had never existed. In the next instant, his hands moved to his waist, unsheathing two daggers that had been resting there, his movements precise and deliberate.

The Vampire stared at him momentarily, unable to fully comprehend what had prompted such a shift in his combat style, but she did not question it aloud. The next instant, another presence emerged, another Vampire stepping out from the shadow Igris cast upon the moon. It was the same Vampire he had been fighting, and now there were suddenly two of her. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Igris’ reflexes ignited like a supernova as he turned instantly, as though he possessed vision beyond the limitations of sight, his daggers flashing forward as he abandoned defense entirely and chose to strike directly.

[Red Dagger Technique: Weakness Pincers]

Having witnessed the technique only once, he replicated it flawlessly in the very next moment. However, unlike his opponent, he did not identify merely two weaknesses, he perceived several, and in response, he unleashed dozens of strikes in less than a millisecond, each one targeting a critical point with deadly precision.

Seeing the incoming barrage, the Vampire’s eyes widened in genuine shock, but there was no time to dwell on it. She had already committed to her prior movement and could not retreat fully. While mutual destruction was an option, it was not her style. Without hesitation, she activated another technique.

[Dark Movement Art: Swirling Twist]

Her body twisted and transformed into a swirling vortex of darkness as she shifted to the side with dramatically enhanced speed, reappearing upon the surface of the moon with controlled precision. But the moment she landed, she was greeted by the sight of a dagger already tearing towards her neck, Igris had anticipated her movement perfectly.

Her agility responded instantly; her body bent backwards in an almost unnatural motion, her spine arching fluidly until her back became nearly parallel to the lunar surface, her movement reminiscent of a feline evading a fatal strike. A black blade line traced through the space where her neck had been just an instant prior, missing by the smallest margin.

’He can use both the dagger and the sword?’ she thought to herself, her surprise evident as she realized that the movement patterns and combat flow Igris exhibited with his daggers differed entirely from how he fought with his sword.

The first Vampire, the clone, who had remained momentarily stationary when Igris switched weapons, suddenly moved, capitalizing on the briefest opening when Igris had adjusted his stance. That fraction of a second was all she needed. Her daggers shot forward towards his waist with lethal intent.

But Igris vanished. Hs body sank seamlessly into his own shadow as though he had never existed in that position at all.

Before the clone could even process what had occurred, her head separated cleanly from her body in a smooth, effortless motion, the decapitation occurring so swiftly it seemed almost delayed. A moment later, her form dissipated into a wisp of darkness, vanishing entirely.

The original Vampire now stood several kilometres away from Igris, having created distance immediately after evading his last attack. They locked eyes once more, their daggers held firmly in their hands as a silent understanding passed between them.

A challenge. A battle of speed. A clash of daggers. A contest of reflexes and chained, uninterrupted attacks.

With that unspoken agreement, they launched towards each other like missiles, their movements explosive and instantaneous. Their daggers carved through space as though it were nothing more than soft fabric, each strike tearing reality apart as they unleashed countless attacks within the span of a single moment.

Their battlefield became flooded with overlapping slashes and afterimages so vivid and tangible that it became nearly impossible to distinguish illusion from reality.