Black flames covered Arthur from head to toe and his strength was greatly boosted. He decided to rely on long-range attacks since Makaze is absent and replacing it with a sword made from Dark Magic isn't that effective.

More than a hundred spears and blades from Dark Magic materialized behind Arthur and with his signal, they flew at the target, who jumped from one place to another, easily avoiding them.

They just weren't fast enough to hit the transformed Claudia, who's already in her strongest dragonic form. Just as she was to dodge the last spear, thin chains sprung from the ground and wrapped around her left feet hence slowing her movements and immobilizing her for a split second.

The time bought by those chains allowed the dark spear to clash with Claudia's crossed arms and despite resisting and dispersing the Dark Spear, direct contact with it was all what Arthur needed.

Now, a tiny bit of Dark Magic invaded her body and all he needed was time for it to consume and corrupt her body. She'll be focused on fighting him so getting rid of it immediately is practically impossible, plus, she hasn't even discovered yet.

Although his physique was strengthened, Arthur was no match for the dragonic form, so, when Claudia appeared before him and punched his chest, all he could was use his arms to block the incoming strike.

He was sent flying dozens of meters before falling on the ground and coughing a bit of blood, nonetheless, he quickly stood up and clutched both of his fists, causing two spinning black whirlpools to appear around him.

The whirlpools headed toward Claudia, who retaliated by spitting large amounts of fire that did nothing to the whirlpools which absorbed everything in its way.

Left with no choice but to get away from them, Claudia tried to escape only for the ground to turn black and for countless creepy dark hands to hold her feet. The black whirlpools hit her from both sides and fused together, dealing much more damage.

Unfortunately, she was much more resilient and only a few scales were corrupted and fell from her body…

****

'3♣ Serpent Creed!'

A serpent-like weapon appeared on both the Joker's hand. Both the serpents had their mouths open and the fingers were transformed into sharp and long fangs.

"Let this party get started!"

He jumped on the wolf, unfazed by the suffocating aura the latter was emitting. In retaliation, the wolf also leapt at its opponent, swinging its claws at the strange man while one of its tails unleashed a barrage of white flames.

The fangs of the serpent, albeit short compared to the wolf's claws, still managed to resist the big wolf along with causing strong and intense vibrations that demolished the ground.

Each one of them was trying to overpower the other, however, the Joker never liked cliché clashes like this, he quickly retracted his hand and struck with the other.

This time, the fangs released a green miasma which instantly covered the wolf, causing it to cough. He grasped this moment to jump upwards and use his sharp fangs again to stab the back of the coughing wolf. Lots of blood gushed from the two deep wounds induced by the Joker.

As it wanted to get rid of the Joker, who pulled the fangs and was about to stab its back again, the wolf used its four tails to attack the Joker. For some reason, the white flames did no damage to the lunatic, who ignored the incoming tails and stabbed again.

After two additional stabs, the Trickster was forced to unmount and evade the tails which transformed into sharp white spikes that were as fast as lightning.

Feeling that the serpents in his hands have done their purpose, he threw them away only for them to turn into black smoke. He then raised another card

'2♥Heart's Haze!'

The four tails, which were lengthened and kept chasing him, hit nothing but air as two other Jokers appeared from behind the original one.

The tails focused on one of the three while the wolf opened its mouth and seemed about to use some sort of long-ranged attack.

Unfortunately, before it could prepare its attack, its mouth was forcefully closed by a Joker who fell from the ceiling and pressed his body on the upper mouth of the startled wolf.

"So slow and stupid… tsk!"

Another Joker attacked from the wolf's rear, literally kicking the beast on its butt and sending it flying in the air. The finisher was done by the third Joker, who was busy dealing with the tails just a second ago.

He raised another card in the air, prepared to deal a devastating blow.

'8♣ Hex Dice!'

The card was converted into a grey dice which showed a random number from 1 to 6. As he saw the number with the symbol next to it, the Magician grinned and said

"The irony! Ah! I can't believe it!"

The dice emitted a blinding radiance which slowly grew in size until it turned into a creature. Seeing its white fur and non-intimidating appearance, the Joker became even more excited.

While pointing at the incoming wolf, he ordered the animal before him

"Dumb Sheep go get him!"

Indeed, the dice turned into a sheep that looked normal in every sense of the world. Whether it's its size, behavior or non-existing Mana inside of its body, anyone would describe it as a normal sheep.

"Baaa!"

It gave such a response and strangely flew in the air and headed straight at the big wolf, which opened its mouth and was about to use the same attack it couldn't unleash few seconds ago.

***

Surprisingly, the other parasites surrounding Leiu didn't attack, only their leader was the one prepared to fight him.

"What a coincidence! The first body I possessed was of the first Sword Saint that ever appeared!"

The green-haired man held a 1.5 meter-long blue sword and took a fighting stance then waited for Leiu.

"You know I-"

Before he could finish, the youth cut him off and said

"You talk too much."

The Nameless Knight rushed at the green-haired man, who welcomed him with a swing of his blue sword. Just a simple swing caused the ground to freeze and the air to become frosty yet it those changes in the environment were destroyed by Leiu's greatsword which split the ground in two and pushed away all the frosty air.

A simple swing of that normal greatsword caused a wind cyclone strong enough to push away all the spectating Parasites, which were motionless and unresponsive.

This was, of course, suspicious and Leiu wasn't the kind of person to let the enemy do as he pleases. While their leader was pushed back a few steps, he grasped this opportunity to strike the closest parasite.

His greatsword descended upon a non-resisting parasite which was turned into a bloody mist when hit by the greatsword.

Seeing his shameless actions, the green-haired man angrily said:

"This is a fight between sword-users, where's your honor and pride?"

"…"

He was met with nothing but silence as Leiu jumped on another parasite and finished him off. Feeling enraged, the leader's aura suddenly erupted, causing half of the room to become frozen yet a dark aura was enveloping Leiu, rendering him immune to all exterior forces.

The youth did a backflip then raised his free hand and clutched the air, releasing a terrifying darkness that gobbled up the expanding ice and even killed three more parasites.

From within the chilling air, the green-haired man appeared, leaping at Leiu and swinging his sword which released a thick beam of light that hit the ground under the target's feet.

A hole suddenly appeared, causing Leiu's body to fall while the enemy was coming down from above, ready to stab the youth's head.

Unfortunately, a large hand made from nothing but darkness appeared from Leiu's back, it grabbed the man's feet and pulled him downwards while the greatsword finished the combo by slamming into the parasite, who desperately used his sword to block the incoming attack.

Instead of the enemy, it was he who fell into that ice pit while the youth relied on strange and long dark hands that grabbed the surface and pulled him back into the room. The parasite coughed some blood and held his chest, in which a severe wound appeared.

Some sort of Holy light shone upon the wound, healing it in a few seconds and restoring the leader into his peak state.