Archon of Danmachi

'The first time I set out . . . With any and all preparations so that I would not have to rely on Sanguinare Vampiris and risk becoming that Monstrosity again and losing control . . . I'm forced do do so out of my own volition or die?'

'Is this fate making a joke out of me? Punishing me for having it easy during rest of my time in this world. Or is it because I have gotten too arrogant and bit off more than I can chew . . .'

'Anyway, if my path to victory lies in madness . . . So be it!' Gathering his determination, Nox opened activated an emergency function input into all of his equipment, to return to his Item Box on command.

He had yet to figure out how to equip things directly from it but uniquipping them was fine if he modified the equipment itself to allow for that.

As all of his equipment was stored, Black Wind of Death included, the Black Shell surrounding him disappeared as Nox's eye turned blood red. Not like before though.

Rather than shining ruby red irises with slitted back pupils, it was utterly different.

When the Juggernaut, sensing the lack of defense struck, once again driving its clawed hand into Nox's chest, this time from the front, it looked up to see a mad grin filled with inhuman savagery as eyes with blood red sclera, shining gold pupils and pitch black slitted pupils gleaming with insanity.

Despite not having such an emotion as fear, the Juggernaut's instinct flared with warnings of danger, flinging "Nox" out of its claws and sending him barreling towards the dungeon walls as it too descended onto the ground.

Rather than hitting the wall though, "Nox" shifted position in mid air as the holder on "his" chest rapidly closed and landed on the wall like a spider. "His" neck oddly twisting as "he" looked up at the still falling Juggernaut with the very same grin "he" had before.

Nox had yielded control but the transformation had yet to happen. The Beast was fighting with his body rather than its own but Nox himself no longer had any control of the situation. Until The Beast gave back control, his hand were tied.

The Beast lacked many of Nox's abilities, namely, everything beyond his physical body and the abilities bestowed upon him by Sanguinare Vampiris: The Bloodcurse of Vampirism. However, it an attempt to to not have to relinquish control, Nox had taken a few measures that benefitted it.

Namely, he kept himself fed, drinking blood elixirs regularly to stave off any hunger that might draw out the Beast but, he had also prevented himself from using any of his vampiric abilities. This meant that all that blood wnt towards stocking Sanguinare Vampiris with power and not using any.

So right now, rather than taking over in a state where Nox as a vampire was weakened and starving for blood, it had taken over when he was fully engorged with a full tank of Blood Energy for it to use as it pleased.

Back to the fight, the Beast, still in Nox's body launches itself at the Juggernaut who was in mid air. The monster tried to swipe its claws at it but it dodged by shifting Nox's body and drew its own vampiric claws, enhanced by Blood Arts and tore at the Juggernaut, sending it flying and damaging its armor which had already repaired most of the damage from Nox's attack, once gain.

Nox, while not in control, could still feel and see the fight and thus was left in wonder of what he could actually do without his magic. He consciously realized that, he could do the very things the Beast was doing. He not only had the stats for it but he also had a Mind Pool and magic at his disposal.

As for why the Beast, despite its limited tools, managed to effortlessly cause as much damage as he previously did, was because it was that much better at using his body and Blood Arts.

The Juggernaut got sent flying and the Beast used the recoil from the strike to reach one of the walls so as to not be without footing and then descended onto the ground as the Juggernaut stood up and launches itself at it once again.

It dodged once again and fired a Blood Ray directly behind it before the Juggernaut could reach the wall and bounce off it to dodge which resulted in it getting smashed again. Blood Arts were not magic so they worked just fine.

Since its opponent was sticking to a ground fight now, and its charges were getting into trouble, the Juggernaut simply decided not to leaved the ground and just dash about while always maintaining a foothold.

With its enhanced senses, even though the Beast's physical abilities in Nox's body were only marginally better than his as even Bloodbuff had yet to be used, it could properly detect the attacks and take action to dodge despite being slower as they weren't that overwhelmingly fast for it as they were for Nox of had sealed Sanguinare Vampiris.

What followed was a pure show of natural ability and bestial instinct as each time the Juggernaut attacked one of the following would happen, the Beast would dodge, the Beat would doge while delivering a counter attack and, when it was overwhelmed by the monster's speed, it would become a simultaneous hit.

Of course, the Juggernaut continued to pile up damage and the Beast's wound healed even as they were made, by activating Bloodbuff in a generally conservative way, it had managed to created a situation of absolute advantage. But it wasn't going for the kill.

Part of it was because it was difficult to catch such a fast foe with a decisive blow but with the very viable tactic of a simultaneous hit, the fight could have been finished it the Beast had put the majority of its strength into a counter.

Nox could feel it though, unlike the previous time were it was maddenly hungry, the BEast was quite a bit more sentient and intelligent, it was enjoying the fight. Hunting and cornering an opponent that should outclass it but without holding back either.

It could be said the Beast was prolonging the fight but it was merely taking a conservative approach to winning, one that posed little risk to itself and would cost very little of its Blood Pool to be successful.

Suddenly though, the situation changed, the Juggernaut instantly healed all accumulated damage so far and its aura got increasingly more powerful to the point even an insensitive idiot could tell things were getting far more dangerous.

Trapped in his own head and without control of his body, Nox started spewing all matter of expletives as he could just swear he sensed the dungeon smirking at him and being all self satisfied at the crap it had just pulled.

Nox was right when he deduced the Juggernaut would be his last opponent, he was however wrong, when he determined the Dungeon would not interfere any further as it just did by raising the level of the Juggernaut even further which also healed it as a side effect.

Strangely enough though, after the Juggernaut's power sharply rose, Nox could feel through the Beast's enhanced senses that the ominous presence the he identified as the Dungeon's will had weakened.

'There is definitely a limit to its power! Most likely due to Ouranos' seal, the deeper one goes the lesser the influence of the seal and the more power the Dungeon and its "will" gain and now, it has reached its limit!' Nox finally figured it out.

'So long as the Beast can defeat the enhanced Juggernaut, everything will be alright for now at least . . . Come on, you can do it . . .' He spoke in his mind.

At this moment, sensing the change in its opponents, the grin in the Beast's face disappeared and the expression of a cold calculative predator settled in as it became stone face with its eyes locked on target to not miss even a minor twitch.

Nox, who noticed these changes was shocked as he was unaware the Beast and such an advanced mental capacity and thought it was merely a safety mechanism created by his Sanguinare Vampiris skill but clearly, the idea seemed to be way off mark right now.

The Juggernaut moved in, far faster than before and swiped at the beast who dodged. Even with all the caution and attention though, its body just wasn't fast enough as it still got four gashes on its chest which instantly closed up.

The Beast upped the intensity of the Bloodbuff, increasing the physical ability boost in exchange for greater blood consumption but, despite now barely being able to dodge with a few grazes, it was still impossible to do so scratchless and effective counterattacks could no longer be mounted.

As such, it made a lightning quick decision, the very next time the Juggernaut moved to attack, rather than moving out of the way, it moved into the attack and despite suffering a big wound for it, created an opening for a counter, buffed with Blood Arts, the sent the Juggernaut flying up into the air..

Alas, the enhanced monster's armor, despite being weak against physical attacks, was barely dented by the Beast's mighty strike. Hurting it however, was not the point, knocking into the air was, creating a small window of time, not to attack though.

As the Beast healed instantly, more changes started to occur on Nox's body . . . The Beast was about to get serious.

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