Van and Luna tried to brainstorm ideas for the fight ahead. They wished they had a little more time, but even being given two hours was better than fighting right away.

“Do you have a plan?” Luna asked as they rummaged through what little belongings they were allowed to take with them.

“So far, the rank up one…” Van responded. “Thankfully, Karmine allowed us to use all resources at our disposal. Though it will still take quite a bit of my energy reserves, I think I can rank the both of us up before the battle.” He then prepared the magic circle and sent Luna in first.

“Do you want to rank up your succubi bloodline? Or become a greater vampire?” he asked. “I only have enough to rank you up the one time, after that your body will have to take a few months to a year or two to acclimate to your new body before you can take another forced rank up.”

Luna gave it some thought. “As much as I would love to rank up my succubi bloodline… I think I will have to go with my vampire one… it’s the only one that will greatly increase my overall battle power.”

Van nodded and began to activate the circle with Luna in the center. After about ten minutes and a glowy light show later. Luna came out of it somehow looking even more elegant and sensual, her figure more eye-catching, her body's every movement more precise with hidden power just beneath the surface.

Luna gave a few experiential jabs into the air, pleasantly surprised by the swiftness of her form and the swish swish swish sound she made with every punch.

After her was his turn, and Van got into the center of the circle, using what they could take from the loot, as well as what he had stored in his soul realm. With the help of his followers inside providing him power, he ranked up his incubi bloodline from lesser all the way to mid, or normal…

Van’s appearance changed subtly… but it was enough for Luna to just stare at him and blush, and perhaps drool a little. More importantly, he felt a well of mana swell inside of him, and he almost ached with power that desired to be used and released. But the biggest change was his eyes… whose gaze was enough to make one feel like they were going to fall into deep pools of desire…

He quickly noticed what he was doing to Luna and used a glamor spell he awakened alongside his rank up, to tone down his attractiveness instead of increasing it. “Well… what do you think?”

Luna swallowed. “You look… hot…” she drooled.

Van frowned and adjusted his appearance to look a little more normal, back to who he was before. “And now?”

Luna smiled. “I still want to bang you.” a smug look on her face.

Van rolled his eyes, figuring that she was just teasing him now.

He blinked then closed his eyes. Kella and the others were trying to talk to him, and convince him to let them out to help. But he refused, wanting them to be a last resort. After all, it wasn’t like their lives were in danger just yet. This was just a dual, nothing more…

Anna, Lyn, and the others he souldbonded accepted this, but only on the condition that they be allowed to force themselves out should things go south. He accepted…

After that, the two began trying to prepare a few more things, and go over what kind of tactics they might try to use. They had no idea how strong Karmine was or how she fought, so they were going in blind. But before they knew it, their time was up and they got ready to set out.

“Alright then, are you ready?” Van asked, a little nervous.

Luna nodded and the two of them walked out of the cabin, ready for what may come.

Karmine seemed to be waiting, a small crowd of her bandits watching at a very respectable distance. As if afraid of accidentally getting caught up in whatever was about to happen.

“Are you two ready?” she asked, looking very relaxed, bringing out her two wicked-looking axes. She took notice of the subtle change in both Luna and Van, but decided to keep quiet about it, figuring that it must be one of the things they prepared for the battle ahead, and not wanting to be spoiled of the surprise…

Van and Luna looked at each other nervously, now that they were about to fight, they could almost task the power wafting from Karmine. It looked like she was raring to go… they walked the distance towards her and stopped, then nodded in confirmation, getting into their stances and waited.

Karmine gave a feral smile. “Good… then let's get TO IT!”

She flung her axes, much to the wide-eyed surprise of Van and Luna, at frightening speeds. The two barely had time to dodge the spinning buzzsaw-like boomerangs, Van doing the limbo and Luna jumping hers.

“Are you crazy!” Luna shouted, “Are you trying to kill us!”

Karmine smirked. “Don’t worry, they have my aura on them, at most, it will hurt like hell and make you wish you died. Not actually kill you…” She joked.

Van was about to say something himself when his instincts warned him of something. Immediately he began to spin around, a warning on his lips before he even had a chance to confirm his suspicions. “LUNA BEHIND US!”

And it was just in time.

Van dogged out of the way as the axe made its return, Luna a split second after him did the same with hers. Trusting her husband's warning and thankful that she did.

The axes returned to Karmine’s hands, and she could help but laugh at the display. “Bahahahahaha!” looking like someone who was having a bit too much fun.

Van was just glad he was smart enough to realize that at the speeds that those axes were going at, they should have crashed into the cabin behind them. But since they didn’t… that made him think there was a trick to it. He was glad he turned out to be right…

“You should see the look on your faces!” Karmine smiled, face filled with mirth, then chuckled a little more. “Don’t worry, don’t worry, I’m not going to use my full strength on you two…” her smile turned into an evil grin. “Just half… if you can get me there…”

All of a sudden Karmine pulled out four more axes from her soul realm. And like an expert juggler, played with them for a bit before sending them Van’s and Luna’s way.

The two paled, even ranked up, dodging all those flying axes was a terrifying experience. What's worse, they didn’t have to come back to Karmine’s hand to be reflung. They spun around in arcs, then seemed to home in on them. Van noticed that it must be some sort of aura trick or power, though he wasn’t sure of what to do to stop it.

“If we had actually brought out our army… and if this really isn’t even half her power… then that means she could easily kill dozens of our troops a second…” imagining what a dozen spinning axes of death might look like.

“I had enough of this! YEA!” Luna yelled. She followed the trajectory of one of the axes and aura upped one of her legs. Then did her best to kick with all her might. The two aura’s clashed and both the axe and Luna went flying several feet, only for the axe to return to its flight pattern and follow Luna once more.

“Luna!” Van dodged another axe and then used his magic to shoot at some that were aiming for his wife, messing with their trajectory and narrowingly saving her.

They ran to each other and now we're side to side, trying to dodge or redirect the axes trajectories. After a while, he realized that they were just going to tire themselves out at this rate, even if they could spend hours doing this… they had to change this up…

Looking around he noticed that one of Karmine’s hands was twitching around, perhaps helping guide the axes path. With a mental thought to Luna, he told her that they had to focus on Karmine, otherwise, they will be stuck like this.

Without a second thought, Luna ran at Karmine, much to Karmine’s surprise as Van dealt with the axes as best he could by shooting at them with his powered-up spells.

Luna was then sent rocketing back, practically flying through the air from a single swift kick from Karmine. Much to Van’s wide-eyed horror and surprise.

The kick was so smooth and quick that Luna didn’t even have time to register it. The next thing she knew, she was flying and then skidding about twenty to thirty feet away from Karmine. Her stomach felt like someone made a hole in it, and she actually feared that there might be a footprint in its place… oh, and did she mention she felt like she was going to throw up her organs? Because she was pretty sure that if she didn’t hold it in, that was what was going to happen…

“LUNA ARE YOU OKAY!?!” Van yelled, concerned for his wife, only to have to dodge another axe at the last second as he was still targeted.

Luna croaked a burp looking miserable. “I’m fine…” though she did appear a little teary-eyed and slightly like she was in a state of shock.

“Oh…” Karmine winced. “Perhaps I went a little too hard on you…” Looking very apologetic towards Luna, giving the poor girl a few moments respite from her axes while she recovers. Though it meant that Van now had to deal with six axes targeting him…

“Dammit! No one kicks my wife like that and gets away with it!” Van growled, now and truly pissed off.

He then flickered and disappeared from view. The axes stalled in mid-air as they lost their target.

Karmine thought she must have blinked because she had no idea where Van just went. Then the next thing she knew, a kick hit her so hard in the back of the knee that she wobbled. Turning around she was met with nothing but empty air, only for another kick to smash itself right across her face from the other side.

The kick stung…

But it did not hurt, and she tried to make a grab for it, only to catch nothing but air…

“OOOF!” Karmine stumbled, taking one foot back as Luna took the opportunity of distraction that Van provided her and the respite from the axes. Forcing herself into a mad dash and giving a massive tackle right into Karmines stomach.

Karmine grabbed Luna, lifting her the waist, legs up, planning to ram her into the ground head first to knock her out.

But Luna used her dexterity and flexibility as well as her experience to snake her legs around Karmines head and began to struggle.

Karmine now tried to tear Luna off her, but Luna was like a cat and a snake combined, using every inch of herself to twist, bend and contort her body, giving out scratches and kicks. Much to Karmine’s frustration.

The next thing she knew, her legs felt stuck to the ground. Inky black shadows sunk her into the dirt and then held her there.

“Luna! Now!” Van shouted, and Luna took a page from her mother's book, flaring up her aura, it became hotter and hotter until it became scalding.

But Karmine was not deterred… After a while, she finally was able to hold Luna down into a tight squeeze. Luna’s fiery aura meant nothing to her, as she simply overpowered it with her own. She continued to squeeze until Luna was beginning to pass out, but then she felt something massive hit her from behind, rocking her forward and loosening her grip on Luna.

“FLAME CANNON! FLAME CANNON! FLAME CANNON!” Van shouted over and over again as a large fiery ball of fire the size of a watermelon smashed into Karmine’s back over and over again at extreme velocity.

Like the namesake, it was like a cannonball of pure fire was smashing into Karmine’s back. Slowly burning the skin on her back away with every blast. If she didn’t do something soon, it would leave a mark that could take weeks if not months to heal. Though that was for someone like her… if it were one of her girls, they would have been blasted to pieces…

With a grunt, Karmine ordered the axes target Van once more and began to put the squeeze on Luna even harder now. but then a freaking shadowy cat started to scratch and attack her face out of nowhere, blinding her and generally being a nuisance, and she felt more than saw her axes be pulled down by shadows and held in place. Though the struggle was real and they looked like they could break free at any moment…

Then the blasts continued once more as she did her best to squeeze Luna out of commission without seriously hurting her. With a low growl she had enough of this, and she decided to use the full fifty percent of her power to end this fight before someone got seriously hurt…

Her aura began to spike, and a thin film of purple began to cover her body and give a unique look to her eyes…

Electricity began to flow from her body and she began to shock Luna and the stupid shadow cat in the hopes of at least getting rid of one of the two sometime soon.

Luna screamed and struggled, and Van upped his attacks, now double casting and flinging more powerful spells at a higher rate. Forcing Karmine to use more of her power for defense.

Luna then blasted her aura out hard, her sheer determination trying to push through, her eyes going red and her sclera blackened as she also seemed to tap into whatever power boost she had back when the trolls were attacking their fort in the woods… shadowy wings and horns forming on her body…

Karmine had had enough though, she used even more power, raised Luna up high, then slammed her down! Creating a depression in the dirt… finally… Luna’s body seemed to have relaxed…

The next thing Karmine knew, she was struck in the back of the knees once more. This time hard enough to make her topple and hurt her. Her injured knee on the ground, looking like she was bowing to someone, but just as quickly she got up, and searched for Van… but he was already gone…

Then she was struck from the left side… then the right… then in multiple places…

Karmine calmed herself down and began to breathe, even as each strike left a welt of pain that hurt. Slowly she began to figure out the pattern and quickly set a foot out to trip Van up, to which she did, ripping out the shadowy gunk that held her foot down with sheer force. She then grabbed him before he had a chance to fall or right himself and planned to do the same to him what she did to Luna.

Only to be taken aback by his appearance. Just like Luna, Van’s eyes were red and his sclera black. Though that was not what surprised her, it was the fact that he had black runic tribal-like symbols all over his body. Clearing forcing it to push it beyond its normal means.

Van kicked her hard and Karmine grunted, but she raised him anyway…

Only to be tackled by a large tiger-sized shadow cat that sent her flying.

Karmine then grabbed the cat that suddenly grew in size and just exploded her aura into the creature. Azra was blasted into pieces by the sheer force of aura.

Van flinched in pain as he felt his familiar forcibly desummoned to rest once more inside him. His eyes then narrowed in rage and he disappeared once more.

Karmine then met him speed for speed, and miniature explosions rocked the area.

But Karmine had far more skill and experience… and after a while she got the better of Van, sending him flying right into an empty cabin, destroying it.

Finally… it seemed like Van was done for the day…

“Damn kid… a full fifty percent of my power and my actual effort…” Karmine huffed “You two did well… rest up… you deserve it…”

Van’s eyes slowly closed… oddly enough… the broken planks he was resting on were weirdly comfortable… it wasn’t such a… bad place to rest… was it?

He then joined Luna into a deep sleep…