*BOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!*

A large explosion floods the castles main hall along with burning chunks of lava and smoke as the latest clash of the two inhuman combatants concludes.

Jumping out of the smoke on opposite sides, Juniper and Dracula's battered and bloody forms come into view.

Demonic blood and chunks of charred skin and flesh splatter onto the ground with every movement the moth makes.

Two of her arms hang limp, one riddled with holes and the other seemingly melted and steaming to the point that one can see all the way down to bones beneath.

The king of vampires isn't off much better, his once pristine garb is shredded, burnt and drenched in blood.

Half a dozen wounds are slowly closing up while his left side is busy shedding the burnt skin and flesh from the last exchange.

"Kekekekeke, your healing is slowing down old bat." The demoness remarks with a grin despite the grievous wounds that send waves of pain all throughout her body.

"Looks like this is how far you can go." She declares before taking a deep breath.

Narrowing his eyes at his foe, Dracula slowly straightens his form.

"Is that really what it looks like to you, demon? My recovery might be slowing down, but compared to you, I am in a much better condition." He answers with a frown.

Tilting her head, Juniper turns to look down herself and takes note of all the damage her body has sustained before gazing back at the old vampire with a smirk.

"Oh? Is that so?" Raising one of her still intact hands and stretching it out in front of her, the moth opens her system and pulls out an item.

The moment it appears, the old vampire's eyes narrow.

He could sense the immense amount of lifeforce contained within it, and it isn't difficult for him to guess what his opponent is intending to do with it, especially when he already knew that she has some kind of life-steal ability.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Reacting fast, a shadow spear is launched out from beneath him, aimed at the crystal.

Seeing this, the demoness smirks amused and does nothing to stop the spear from hitting its target and shattering the crystal into thousands of fragments.

Before the old vampire could take a breath of relief over his success however, he notices how the pulsing red core containing the lifeforce remained floating where it was instead of dispersing.

"Good try, but not good enough." He hears her say before the core collapses and sinks into her chitin covered hand.

Red energy pulses through the veins on her arm and rushes directly into her heart from where it then spread out to the rest of her body.

Clenching his teeth in both anger and frustration, Dracula witnesses how all the wounds across Juniper's body heal rapidly.

Even the heavily damaged arms return to full functionality in mere second along with their respective mantis blades.

"Hnnngh~ ahh~, much better. Really don't like pain if it isn't in the midst of a fight where my adrenalin runs high." She sighs in satisfaction while stretching her fully recovered body.

Despite the obviously disadvantageous situation he now finds himself in, the king of vampires still held confidence to put up a fight.

In their battle, he has confirmed that while his opponent did indeed possess strength that matched if not exceeds that of a normal middle-rank demon and combined with some of her weird abilities and magic capabilities it can be argued that she's even at or near the peak of the middle-rank, she lacked the corresponding magic power reserves.

He still has at least a third of his own left while he's pretty sure that the demoness has run out by now.

But this fact did him little good as his body won't be able to keep up for much longer.

The large amount of damage he sustained today together with his degradation in strength over the past year because of not feeding for a long time and an unstable mental state have pushed him rather close to his limit.

So, most of the truly powerful spells would put too much stress on him and turn into an act of mutual destruction.

While the old vampire is thinking that, Juniper casually pulls out another crystal, this time with a blue glowing core.

Without reacting to the change in her opponent's face at this action, she crushes it and lets the pulse of pure magic power sink into her heart, refilling her magical reserves to full and completely restoring her to peak condition.

'Fuck me. This is only his weakened state and I already used up one of my lives. If I go through with my plan and initiate his second phase, the chances that I will win are quite literally shit.' Keeping her thoughts off her face, the moth calculates the probability of her winning a fight against peak power Dracula and feels a certain weight press down on her as a result.

'He definitely is a peak middle-rank being. He only needs to find a way to condense his magic power into its liquid state and he would step into the high-rank territory… … Okay, I'm gonna cash in all my upgrades before going for round two.' Coming to a decision, she focuses her attention on the now healed king of vampires.

With his situation having gotten even worse now that she also recovered her magic power, his confidence took a hit.

After a silent second of staring at each other, the old vampire blurs into action, attempting to gain the initiative.

Just as he reached halfway across the distance separating them though, he hastily raises a wall of shadows in front of himself as all his instincts start screaming danger.

*BRA!BA!BA!BA!BAM!!*

Came the booming sound of rapid-fire along with bright flashes that light up the hall as a swarm of .75 calibre, self-propellant, blessed, explosive rounds rip through the black wall like it was made out of paper before hammering into the body behind, penetrating into the flesh and then detonating, sending a shower of blood and bones flying across the hall.

Releasing her finger form the trigger, a low chuckle that quickly grew into a hollering laugh escapes Juniper's throat as the remains of the shadow walls collapse to reveal the form of her foe, or at least the half of it that is not sprayed across the walls and floor.

Held tightly in all four of her chitinous arms is an absolute monster of a gun.

Hefty, chunky, brutal and powerful.

It is all of these, and probably more, for it is the weapon designed to be wielded by THE Emperor's warriors to purge the Demon's, the Xeno's and the Heretic's.

[Boltgun: The weapon of a Space Marine with a 30 round's magazine that can be refilled by injecting magic power into it. Fires .75 calibre, self-propellant, blessed, explosive bolter rounds. Recoil dampened, assisted aim and never jams.]