Mind Demon's Path of Domination

As the night moved towards the light, Mark drove his jeep to the abandoned ruin of a city. Due to the encroachment of the mega-dungeon, finding a city like that was simple. He and Yuri then searched for a good place to fight and broke into something similar to a football stadium that was in the middle of the city.

A cool night wind ruffled their hair. They walked down the steps in between the audience seat, silent.

"Such an apocalyptic scene," Yuri said, gliding her hand along a railing as she walked. "Empty stadiums, empty cities, silent roads. Skies faintly golden. The world is ending."

Mark took a deep breath and reaching the edge of the audience area, jumped into the field itself. The grass was soft. He looked up at the night sky through the opening above the stadium and sighed--hands in his pocket, he walked to stand right in the middle of the field.

Yuri came to stand beside him.

"I wonder why they didn't salvage what they could from this stadium, this is a lot of money wasted." Yuri looked around. "Maybe they do plan to come around in some time to get the stuff but this place would be devoured by the mega-dungeon in like a week more."

"Maybe an A-ranker owns this place," Mark said, guessing. "They would know salvaging it is meaningless."

"True." Yuri nodded. "So, what's the plan? We fight?"

"Let's test our body strengths first."

Mark took a step forward. He clenched his hand.

Pulse.

The shirt on his torso was torn by the sheer friction of his movement. Heilan was weaker than Mark, but he still had Pinnacle Tier 1 level Physique. Nerves bulged throughout his human hand and moonlight cast a shadow over his back.

Whoosh.

His fist connected against the turf.

PWOOF!

An airwave blasted Yuri's hair back, she blinked. Mark straightened himself.

The ground had cracks all over and where Mark had been standing, there was a rather prominent crater now. Mark smiled. "My main body could have done way more damage with a similar output."

Yuri walked forward with a smirk next and Mark moved back, curious.

Rubbing her wrist and breaking her knuckles, Yuri looked at him.

"You are slow," she said.

Her hand blurred in Mark's senses.

BOOOM!

A powerful shockwave forced Mark to take two steps back. Yuri blew the dust off of her fist.

Her half of the stadium had cracks. The railing and the roof were still trembling. Her petite form contained so much strength that one couldn't believe it.

She was full of substance.

"You really want to fight me?" she asked, a faint smugness to her lips. "With that slowness of yours? You are basically moving in slow motion."

"You underestimate me," Mark took some steps back and smirked, a slight spring to his foot. "Come, do you think you can truly win against me with brute strength?"

Fwoosh.

Two feathery wings sliced the air as they appeared behind Mark.

Yuri squinted. Her shadows shivered and a snake-like shadow blitzed through space towards Mark's shadow out of hers.

Flap.

Air blasted across her face.

"Not there," said Mark.

Her eyes flitted across the stadium, searching for Mark who had vanished. Her gaze moved towards the roof. Bathed in the moonlight, Mark sat at the edge of the roof, swinging his legs back and forth in the air, wings spread wide behind him.

With eyes that faintly glinted golden, he stared down at her.

Flap.

"Not there either."

Yuri turned again. In the audience seat, he was there.

He was playing her.

"Half the speed of sound," she said, grimacing. "Ungodly."

Her shadow snake surrounded her body, ready to bite Mark's shadow the moment it got closer. One bite on his shadow and he would be out of the battle.

"Not half the speed of sound," Mark clenched the air before him, the air escaped his hold with a pop. "This body can't handle that speed. But yes, I am fast. Even Hanmo at his fastest couldn't catch me while I was in the air and he was on land and you are not yet at the peak of A-rank. Not nearly--If I was in my main body, I'd be even faster than this."

And his senses would be twice as sharp. And he wouldn't be limited in his means.

[Hakase Yuri]

[Tier 2]

[Physique: 243 (Below Low)]

[Mind: 247/230 (Below Low)]

[Hunter Ability: Shadow Curse]

[Resistance: Shadow Resistance (Tier 1--Pinnacle)]

Flap.

Yuri blinked and Mark was gone once more.

"You are too stiff," he said, appearing in front of her this time. Still, he was too far for the shadow snake to reach him. "Move. Don't stand around--you are not a target," he said, "You are a moving, living, thinking creature. MOVE!"

He disappeared once more and her eyes shifted around, adrenaline was burning in her now. Just as she was about to focus, something hit squarely against her face and broke into pieces. She grunted, blood leaking down her nose.

She touched the blood.

"A chair from the audience seat?" she said, "You threw it at me before you moved this time."

"Rigid. Rigid like a statue!" Mark said. "Don't stay in one place. Move like the wind, never be so rigid."

Yuri took a deep breath and... closed her eyes.

The snake coiled around her--shadowy, like a form made of mist, no substance to it whatsoever. It couldn't interact with anything, not anything that was not a shadow, at least.

Mark once again looked down at her from the roof.

"If this goes on, your Mindpower will just get exhausted. In contrast, using the wings to run around you doesn't take me even a bit of Mindpower."

Yuri frowned but didn't open her eyes.

Mark was silent.

The moment she reached below (100), he could use Heart Input and it will be over.

Yuri suddenly opened her eyes and the moonlight shined within her gaze.

The shadow of the snake vanished from around her.

"I don't need the snake to fight you, either," she said. "You can't absorb other people's Mindpower using Parasite while you have a Parasite Host, right?"

Mark floated down and stared right into her eyes.

She said smugly, "My body is stronger than you. You can't do anything against me even if I let you get close to me."

Mark licked his lips.

Having less Mindpower than her, Dream Shock and Heart Input didn't work. Parasite was also useless since he already had a Parasite Host (Heilan)--he couldn't use that demonic trick to absorb others' Mindpower while he had a Host.

Alchemy Shapeshifting didn't work when his main body was stuck inside Hailen's physique, either. For it to work, he needed to touch others with his own demon palm. If it was a real life-or-death battle, he could just fly away and Yuri would be helpless to catch him, but this was just a duel.

And he didn't have any plans to lose against his own girl.