In the depths of the Alpacalacia mountains, lies a hive. But not a small bee's hive that you see on the edge of a tree branch that you will randomly find around the world, no - this a hive fit for an entire army. The hive stretches far and wide, high and low into the earth, hidden from the world.
There are entrances to the hive that are provided by large holes in separate points around the hive. Light from the outside seeps in through these holes, lighting up the hive, day and night. If these holes weren't there - the inhabitants of the nest would most likely moved around blind.
But what would one find in a place like this? A swarm of bees? No, something much worse than that. What would find here - is a nest of Changelings. Changelings are all creatures of dark grey who all stand at a hundred and eighty centimetres, the majority of them are all muscular beings which helps with their desire to feed. These beings are deemed to be nothing more than insect-like shape-shifters who feed on the emotion of love, it's their fuel for life, without it - they would starve. This perception of their kind is further built on their appearance because of their insect-like wings, their fangs, completely reflection-less eyes, bent horns on their temples and holes in their legs and hooves for their feet. The majority of the lesser Changelings were genderless. However, the few more powerful ones had evolved and were more distinguishable features to tell whether they were male or female. The only way to tell the difference between these lesser beings is to ask them for their names, though I doubt they would let you live long enough to ask.
From the ceiling above, to the watering hole below, there isn't at least one changeling in this hive you won't see in any direction you look. Hundreds of them, buzzing all around the place, some are having conversations, some are sleeping and others are drinking out of the watering hole. At the far north edge of the hive, a few Changelings a skulking in a dark corner. This is normal in their behaviour, to stay out of sight, so that they could find suitable sources of love to feed on. A couple of the Changelings are awake and staring silently at their home from the dark corner, in a pensive like manner, while the others are sleeping, possibly regaining their strength for their next hunt.
As time passes on the group of emotion-leeches are sprung to life out of their thoughts and slumber when sudden small sparks of electricity are shooting out of thin air, one after another, lighting up the darkness. The skulkers removed themselves from the secluded corner and stand aghast as the sparks become more constant and larger. One of the Changelings turn their heads toward the rest of the hive and begin snarl out to the others flying around nearby to draw their attention. One call soon becomes twenty as a large group gather toward their brethren that made the first call of attention.
The sparks grew larger and start to come into contact with the hive walls, sending shock waves that shake the area around the group of Changelings. As a couple of more minutes pass, a blue orb starts to appear as it lights up the dark corner. It begins to increase it's size as the Changelings begin to see that the sparks were coming from this orb. More of the hive members began to merge with the group to see what was all the commotion within their walls. None of them dared to hang from the walls, as the sparks were firing off in random directions, making the threat of being electrocuted by these bolts.
A few more minutes passed and the orb grew to be as tall as them, if not taller, lighting up the hive with a blue hue. In time, the hive members gazed into the centre of the orb as a silhouette began to appear, it's size was as large as the orb it was seemingly in-cased in. The silhouette appeared to have legs that reached the floor, its upper half was hard to make out, from what they saw, the Changelings weren't even sure if this silhouette had any arms or a head.
Suddenly a bright flash of light shot out from the orb and lit up the entire hive, temporarily blinding all the hive members that were transfixed on the unknown orb that appeared from out of nowhere. As they opened their eyes, they saw that the corner returned to darkness. Only for their eyes not to be treated as the darkness remained but their ears to granted with the sound of aggravated moans, like ones you would hear from an enraged beast. The spectators froze up from the moans as they seemed to growing louder, more enraged with each heavy exhale.
"KAAAGUURRRAAA!!!!" the beast in the dark roared, it's anger shaking the hive walls. One of the Changelings took a step forward toward the raging unknown. When it's hoof touched the floor, it was received with a pair of crimson eyes that pierced through the shadows. The confidence in this one was shattered once it looked at those eyes because it reminded the Changeling of one thing and one thing only - blood. It tried to take a step back but lost it's balance, causing it to fall on it's rear.
"Wait a minute..." it spoke again, the anger was still present in it's voice but not as much as a minute ago but it's voice sounded masculine. It's blood red eyes began to look at the rest of the group as well as the rest of it's environment. When it returned it's gaze to the cowering Changeling sitting on the floor, it began to laugh, "Hehehehe... Hahahaha... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" As it cackled maniacally, the hive members that were standing in-front of the unknown entity began to slowly back away. "It seems my defeat wasn't without it's rewards. So, tell me; who are all of you supposed to be?" when the question was asked it began to approach the group.
As it stepped out from the shadows, it's figure was finally revealed. This beast's skin colour was a light brown, a big contrast to it's long, dark blue hair that seemed to fall behind it. They knew this monster was taller them by quite a few centimetres. The beast also had a dark blue goatee on it's chin. It is wearing a white trench coat with white buttons that barely cover it's body. It's trousers are pure white with a black cover over it's right leg. It's shoes are a bright golden hue and large, seemingly ceremonial, tattoos decorate a great deal of it's body, including it's back; chest and even forearms. It's body figure definitely confirmed to the group that this angry being was male. One thing that was intimidating about this male monster, was it's body - it was powerfully built, showing off it's bare chest, probably on purpose to show others how strong he looked and it was working.
"We are the Changelings!" Another voice called out from behind the group, the source of the voice came to the front of the group. It looked similar to rest of it's brethren, the only differences were it was slightly taller and a bit more built in it's body and the fact it's horns and wings were longer too. Not to mention it wore black spiked shoulder pads, gauntlets and black loincloth. "I am Commander Avarice, second hand to the Queen. You are in our nest, trespasser! Who are you, beast? And where did you come from?" he spoke confidently to the larger male in front him, he stared at his crimson eyes. The larger one bore a large smile, obviously excited by this confrontation.
"Oooh... You have a confidence. I like that." he replied calmly. "I am Azrael, a human. I am from the Hierarchical cities. I'm also known as the 'Mad Dog'." Azrael spoke that title proudly. "So, I'm trespassing am I? Well, you have to take it up with the people who sent me here, though I wouldn't worry about them if I were you..."
"And why is that?" Avarice asked with disdain.
"Because, you are giving me two choices; surrender or fight, aren't you?" Azrael leaned closer towards the Changeling commander with his smile growing wider with joy. "If there is one thing I enjoy doing; it's fighting strong opponents. From what I am looking at, you are strong, right?" Azrael asked with an eyebrow raised. Avarice gritted it's teeth with annoyance.
"Are you looking down on me, freak? If it's a fight you want, you got it. Brethren, give your commander and his victim some space to do combat!" Avarice commanded. The rest of the group did as their commander ordered and moved a few meters away by air, allowing their commander and the 'Mad Dog' some ground to move around on. Avarice took a few steps back from Azrael and took a combat stance. Azrael merely spread out his large arms, still wearing his joyful smile.
"Good, I could use the exercise... and the meal too. I'll get the chance to taste the flesh of your kind. Get Ready!" Azrael barked out to Avarice with excitement.
"Bastard!" Avarice yelled before charging at the battle hungry beast with a powerful flying right kick, it's power and speed increased by the push force of his wings he used to take off at Azrael. The commander aimed the kick at his opponent's chest. Just as it was about to come into contact, the larger man caught the Changelings hoof within his left palm with ease. Azrael chuckled as he gripped his opponent's foot and lifted the surprised changeling above him and then slammed him into the ground with force, like he was using the Changeling as a roll of newspaper to swat a fly on the floor. When his body collided with the floor, a blotch of blood burst out his mouth, the whiplash shook his body and mind.
'Impossible', Avarice thought with disbelief, 'with one move.. he's wounded my body so easily...' As Avarice's body was imprinted into the ground and didn't so much as twitch for a few moment, Azrael's enjoyment dissipated upon gazing at the commander's easy defeat. Azrael lifted him, the loser, by his foot, his grip still holding on from before. Holding his first Changeling victim in front of him, with disappointment plastered all over his face, Azrael looked into the eyes of the commander, who was unconscious from the looks of things, he couldn't tell by looking at those mono-coloured eyes of the commander's.
"Is that it?" Azrael asked with contempt. With no response, Azrael wanted to do something he hasn't been able to do for a long time. 'If only I could..' Azrael began thinking whilst clutching his right hand into a fist, 'Wait....You mean to tell me?!?' Azrael immediately turned his attention to his right hand, with shock. He could make a fist, a fist! But just to be sure, he brought the fist close to the commander's chest. The excitement the 'Mad Dog' felt at the start of the battle returned tenfold, shown in the large sadistic smile glowing on his inhuman face. 'Wherever I am, the restraint those selfish bastards put on me isn't working! This can only mean one thing; this isn't my world at all!' as his thoughts were confirmed by the freedom of his right hand, he began to laugh. "HAHAHAHAHA!! This! Is! GREAT!" Azrael yelled with ecstasy. His overzealous cry woke up the formerly unconscious Changeling commander. "Welcome back, Commander Avarice. Enjoy your little nap?"
"Huh?... What?... What are you?" Avarice asked, whilst still trying to get all the gears in his brain working, the blood rushing to his head was not having a positive effect for this purpose.
"And..." Azrael came close to the Avarice's face once more so that he could see the look on his face. "Goodbye." Azrael smiled, as he pulled his right arm back, fist tightly clenched. Wearing his wide sadistic smile even more proudly, he looked at the point of the impact - the stomach. Then, with a strong thrust, he punched into the commander's stomach and watched with joy as the punch forced the Changeling's stomach and went straight through to the other side.
He could hear it all, the bones cracking, the organs scrunching, the screams of pain and the blood trickling on the floor. It was something he hadn't heard or felt in a long time. Slowly pulling his arm back out of stomach and retracting it to his side, he enjoyed his work of 'art'. The hole was large enough for all to see and the commander's heavy breathing between his screaming of pain, was evident enough for all the Changeling's watching to hear, possibly even the rest of the hive could hear it.
Dropping the commander on his back, Avarice let out more cries of pain as a pool of blood formed underneath and spread in every direction around him, he tried to lift his head to call out to his comrades, but to no avail - he was into too much pain to even speak properly.
Whilst the victim continued wailing in pain, Azrael looked at his blood covered hand with interest. He began to look at the rest of his arm and then toward his chest, his curiosity was answered with that same sadistic smile that he still wore on his face. 'Good,' Azrael began to think, 'the Enchanted Dragunov is still imposed on me. That means, I can have more fun! This weakling mentioned something about a 'Queen' earlier... Hmmmm.... Hopefully she will provide me with some entertainment.' He looked down at the commander, who started to look at Azrael with one thing only - fear.
"It's a shame you didn't provide me with much of a challenge, but don't worry;" Azrael commented before raising his right foot a few inches above the commander's head. "I will be sure to send the rest of your comrades my regards." The next thing everyone heard was the sound of the Avarice's skull being crushed under the weight of Azrael's large foot.
Despair filled the air in the hive as the Changelings were left breathless by their commander's defeat. A few of them began to shake out of pure fear, for their lives. If this monster could wipe out their commander with simply two moves, then what would he do to the rest of them? As the crimson eyes gazed at the group, one of the Changelings were shaken out of their fear-induced trance.
"Re-retreat! We must warn the Queen!" the Changeling cried, beginning to fly away, some of the group began to follow suit.
"Get Behemoth! He will squash this piece of shit!" another Changeling called out, heading in another direction. A few of it's comrades followed him swiftly.
"No! We can crush him with our magic!" a third one barked out a few metres away from it's dead superior and the culprit of his death. It's horns glowed with a green hue, baring it's fangs with rage. Clenching it's fist tightly and aiming it's horn at Azrael, it glanced at it's brethren standing by, gesturing them to the same with a small nod. The ones who stayed whether out of fear of death or loyalty for their fallen commander began to pump all their magic into their horns, all of them aiming at the trespasser.
Azrael didn't move an inch, still wearing that proud sadistic smile, his lower right leg covered in blood, his excitement grew at the prospect of another challenge. To be attacked by, what appeared to be, twenty to thirty Changelings - it was promising to be a good appetiser.
"KILL HIM!!" the first one barked, firing his emerald beam at magic with great speed at Azrael, the rest of it's kin fired simultaneously. Just before the first blast made contact, Azrael raised both his arms above shoulder length, as he did a dark red aura surrounded the outline of his entire body. As the green magic blast came into contact, it was swallowed into a small red vortex, which appeared and disappeared in a mere second. The rest of the beams were sucked into the same vortex that kept reappearing in multiple places in front of Azrael, just before they would come into contact with him. When it became apparent that all the beams were swallowed up, Azrael lowered his arms and with it, the aura vanished from around his body.
"Mmmm... spicy..." Azrael commented, licking his lips. The Changelings stood aghast by their failed attempt to take down the intruder. "Would you all like a taste? Here, let me give you a sample." The fear that they all felt before, flooded their bodies in seconds. For the 'Mad Dog'; this was merely target practise. He swung his left arm from his lower waist to above him, "Phalanx!", roaring out, a small fireball of concentrated energy flew straight at the Changeling who commanded the magic attack, it was so fast that someone would just blink and they would miss it. When it came into contact with it's target, the Changeling's head, it blew it clean off. Blood spurted out from the neckline, as the body slowly lost all motion and began to fall to the floor, lifeless.
Distraught cries filled the air, as the hive members all came to the same conclusion - they were ALL going to die.
"Don't worry, my customer's, there is plenty to go around." Azrael stated, donning that same sadistic smile from before.
"FLEE FOR YOUR LIVES!!!" one of the group members called out, releasing the rest of them from fear, instilling them all with that one thought. As they began to disperse in any direction away from Azrael, he simply clicked his tongue.
"You know, it's rude to forget your PARTING GIFTS!!" he yelled, swinging his arm in the same style, back and forth, sending his Phalanx's at every one he could see. Each fireball came into contact with their targets, some lost their legs, others lost their wings and shoulders, whilst some lost their heads and others lost their upper bodies. When he ran out of Phalanx shots, Azrael began to admire his handiwork. Casting about his gaze from left to right, he could see every Changeling that he hit were either incarcerated, dead or screaming in pain. All except one. In the far distance on the centre a large platform, he could see a single Changeling lying on it's front, trying to bring itself up, the only damage that one has received was half of it's left wing.
He took a his right foot out the former commander's skull and lunged forward, speaking his mind, "Now, that won't do at all..." Taking a few quick strides forward, he used the speed to leap across toward the platform. Azrael landed a bit over the edge, raising the ground around him slightly, sending a large vibration through the entire platform. If there was one word, one word Azrael didn't have in his mind's dictionary, it was - subtlety.
Feeling the platform shake under him, the wounded Changeling gasped for air as he felt a pair of crimson eyes stare straight at it. It rolled onto it's back and began to scamper back, away from it's impending doom. It watched in horror as the being who was looking to kill it, was methodically approaching. After a moment, Azrael stopped and huffed.
"Fine then," Azrael began, "since you won't let me come to you, I'll just have force you to me!" Making his intentions clear, Azrael implanted his blood coated boot into the platform, sending a shock wave through it, making everything on it bounce into the air. As the Changeling was left suspended in mid-air, it's jaw hung as it saw Azrael appear almost immediately next to it's right, holding his left palm above the temporarily floating Changeling's head. With great force, Azrael slammed the palm of his left hand into the Changeling's face, "Mash!", he roared as he slammed the head of his prey against the floor of the platform, as it did the skull of his victim was squished, splattering blood in every direction. The rest of it's body soon fell to floor next to Azrael, who's sadistic smile was slowly fading as he became fixated on the blood stain on the platform. "Pathetic..." he commented with disgust.
In seconds, an emerald light shone brightly to his left, before he could turn to his head to see what it was, it came into contact with left shoulder and exploded, allowing a cloud of smoke to fill the air. On the far end, in the same direction, a larger Changeling was standing, tall and proud. It had a single, larger jagged horn, pointed to the ceiling. This one had long dark cerulean hair that stretched down to it's chest. Also, unlike it's kin, it had harlequin colour iris'. It wore a long emerald dress, that stretched down it's thighs. It's figure to the form of a female, with a moderate bust and curved hips. One of more it's more prominent features was that on her head, she worm a small, black crown. There was no mistaking it, this was the Queen of the Changelings - Chrysalis.
As the smoke continued to linger, Chrysalis scoffed, "Really?..." she addressed the group of her minion's hovering behind her without directly turning her head to them, "This waste of space, is the reason you all came to me in fear?" she letting out an aggravated sigh. "You useless peons, wouldn't last a day without me cleaning up your mess!" Making her thoughts clear by scorning her subjects, silence filled the air for a few moments until a heavy cackle came from in the cloud.
"I would agree." Azrael commented within the cloud. As it dissipated, he was standing proudly with his hands in his pockets, nonchalantly. "So, you must be the Queen of this horde of weaklings, it's nice to meet you. Can I ask you something?" Azrael questioned calmly, his face showing interest.
"That's Queen Chrysalis, to you!" she yelled, "A worthless freak like you - has no right to speak to me." Chrysalis boasted, anger present on her 'royal' face. "But since you defeated my commander, you have earned yourself one question." Chrysalis proclaimed, lifting one grey index finger.
"Very well." Azrael replied casually before continuing, "Please, tell me that wasn't all your power you put into that little poke of an attack that you used on me?" he asked with a slight chuckle. Chrysalis frowned at his insolence.
"Of course not!" she replied with annoyance, present with the frown on her face. "Like I, the Queen of the Changelings, would waste all of my energy on scum such as yourself!" as she boasted, she followed up her confidence with a loud laugh for all inside the hive to hear. It went on for a few moments, during such time the rest of the Changelings who were present behind her and the ones who came to watch around the platform all began to share in her boastfulness. Azrael, surprisingly, joined in. When he did, the Changeling's laughter began to die down, even the Queen's as they all listened to him laughing louder and more maniacally. Chrysalis frown became more apparent as she gritted her teeth. "What's so funny!?!" she demanded.
A couple more moments passed as Azrael continued to cackle on and on, he eventually calmed himself but, once again, donned a sadistic smile before answering her question, "Oh, nothing. I'm just so happy!"
"You're happy..?" Chrysalis replied, taken back a bit by Azrael's answer.
"Yes. If that wasn't your full power, then that means, I get to have some fun!" Just like he did before the fight with Avarice, he spread out his arms wide. "Now, come at me! Give me the satisfaction of fighting the Queen of these bugs! I'm craving for a fight!" Azrael barked at Chrysalis defiantly. The Queens face scrunched up more at his demands.
"You insolent slab of muscle! You will taste defeat in due time!" Chrysalis roared once more at the peon standing before her. Her attention was brought to what was behind him, once she made out to what it was her smile replaced her frustration instantly, like a remedy. "Behold, you worm!" she called out, pointing her right hand toward the direction he was in but it made it clear she was talking about him. Azrael lowered his arms and turned to see in the same direction the Queen was looking. He was very interested to see what all the fuss was about. What he saw was not just another Changeling, but a massive mindless muscular beast who was twice his size, it had large wings to support it's massive frame. He didn't have any armour like Avarice, but wore a green loincloth around his waist. Slowly it was hovering toward the platform and in turn - him. "This is our marauder - Behemoth! He will make mincemeat of you and feed your bones to the hell hounds of Tartarus!" Chrysalis proclaimed, boasting of her pet's superiority.
"Interesting." Azrael commented. Chrysalis didn't even need to think about it to realise he was enjoying the thought of fighting Behemoth. "How about I make you a deal?" He asked, turning his head to right slightly, addressing Chrysalis whilst his body was facing the muscular Changeling. "When I beat this ant, you will fight me, right?" Azrael asked, but it sounded more like a demand. Chrysalis simply huffed in response.
"Like a lowlife such as you would stand a chance," Chrysalis replied confidently, "But, no matter, you have a deal, though I doubt you will long enough to even stand before me once Behemoth is through with you!" she boasted once more.
"Music to my ears." Azrael said, cracking his knuckles together. He turned his blood lust eyes at Behemoth who roared at Azrael with power, a gust of wind from the force of the roar lifted his coat and as it rustled, the hulk of a Changeling landed on the platform - a few feet in front of Azrael. "Come on, then. Show me what you got!" he demanded at the beast.
Behemoth growled in response, raising his right arm all the way up till it was directly above him. Forming a large fist, he brought it down quickly onto Azrael, trying to smash with him a hammer of an attack. Azrael merely stood in the same spot, allowing the fist to hit, directly on his skull, when it collided, Azrael didn't even flinch but the platform they were on shook heavily. After a moment, Behemoth removed his fist away from Azrael's head and growled when he saw his opponent just standing there - smiling.
"Don't hold back," Azrael began, "maybe you'll live." he finished saying with some excitement. Behemoth brought his right hand back to his side and then proceeded to stretch his left arm to the side and swing his large left hand toward Azrael's entire body, attempting to put him down by swatting as if he were a fly. Within in an inch of hitting him, Azrael simply raised his right palm and faced it toward the incoming hand. When they connected, Azrael barely moved a millimetre, not even flinching as he blocked the attack effortlessly. Azrael frowned in disappointment with such little effort he had to make in order guard, "That's an attack?" he commented with a bored tone.
Behemoth was quite surprised at this, but brought his hand back to his side once more. This time, he planted his hands into the ground at either side of Azrael, who merely replied with a simple curious, "Oh?" Bringing his face close to his opponent for a moment, Behemoth leaned his head back as far as he could, grunting the entire time. Azrael caught onto the idea and decided to join in, leaning his head and body back by forty five degrees. At the same time, as if their heads were magnetic forces attracted to each other, they both swiftly delivered a head butt to each other, the force of the collision create a strong gust of wind that shot in every direction.
Remaining where they stood, heads still connected, they both smiled at each other - out of respect of the other's brutish attack. But then, Behemoth felt it - pain. Pain coursing through his entire skull. He retreated a few steps back, whilst crying out in pain. He brought his hands to his head in order to cushion his forehead. As he did so, blood began seep through his fingertips, the sight of this made all of the Changeling's, including the Queen, wince in shock.
Azrael approached the massive Changeling and stopped just in front of him. Behemoth slowly removed his hands from his forehead, revealing the evident wound he received from his opponent, curious but more so afraid of what Azrael was going to do next.
"My turn." Azrael stated, leaning forward and clutching his hands together in the shape of a hay-maker beneath his waistline. "Hornet!" he roared, swiftly bringing the same hay-maker to Behemoth's jaw. The power of the attack, whilst cracking the Changeling's jaw, sent the receiver soaring into the air with great speed. Everyone watched as the victim was tossed up to the ceiling of the hive, it's back impaled by the various stalagmites hanging from it. He cried out in pain once more, as the stalagmites dug deep into his flesh and after few moments of indescribable pain, Behemoth's life passed out his body. The hulking frame of the Changeling wouldn't leave him hanging their forever, made clear by him eventually falling head first back to the platform, lifeless.
As the defeated Changeling began to fall, Azrael turned his body towards the Queen, whom stood in shock at her pet's defeat. Little did she know that he wasn't done just yet. Azrael lift his left knee up to his waistline and stared at left his foot. Some kind of malicious energy began to concentrate itself into his foot and from what it looked like - it was charging up. Just before Behemoth's corpse was about a few metres from hitting head first into the platform, Azrael quickly shot a sadistic grin at the Queen.
"Valiant!" Azrael roared once more. As he did, he turned his entire body on his right foot toward the dead Changeling, thrusting his left foot into the back of Behemoth's skull, with some push force to make sure it met it's mark. Like slingshot ammo, Behemoth's body was tossed into the direction it was facing. It flew past the Changeling spectators and into the darkness, comically rolling all the way. A moment of silent passed in the hive as Behemoth was flung deep into the hive. No one made a sound until a thunderous smash, shook the entire hive like an earthquake.
The 'Mad Dog' brought his foot down to the floor and turned once more to the Queen, whom's expression was mixture of anger and embarrassment. This is something that she would not stand for. It was time to make an example of him and prove her dominance to all.
"I hope you don't plan on refuting our agreement, 'Your Highness'," Azrael began, methodically pacing toward her, "Your pet was an adequate starter, I hope you will provide a satisfactory main course as I gnaw on your bones!" he proclaimed, keeping that all too familiar smile on his face.
"You think of me - as a MEAL!?!" Chrysalis yelled, infuriated at the casual comment thrown at her. "I will see to it that when you die, your corpse will be used a source food for my subjects till the END OF TIME!!!" she shouted to the heavens, as she did, an emerald aura surrounded her body and she stretched her arms out to the side. "Avarice! Behemoth! All of my fallen warriors! Your Queen demands your power!" Chrysalis ordered, her voice reaching to every corner of the hive. Azrael looked around to the area where he first came from, he saw the bodies of the Changeling's who succumbed to their injuries, glowing in the same colour that their leader was.
Small emerald orbs separated themselves from the corpses and headed toward their Queen. Chrysalis opened her mouth wide, accepting all the orbs of energy as extra portions of power, they flew into her mouth and were swallowed one after another. A larger one came from the same direction as the rest, this one must have been Avarice's energy, it followed the rest of them toward Chrysalis. A couple of seconds later, a exceptionally large ball shot past Azrael, it was just as large as he was. Before it went into the mouth of the Queen, it was condensed into smaller ball and swallowed whole.
Azrael raised an eyebrow at Chrysalis as her aura went away after absorbing the last one. She took a deep breath and then her features began to change. Her figure became quite muscular, not to the freakish size of the fallen Behemoth, it matched the powerful form of Azrael. On her arms and shoulders, she acquired the same black armour that Avarice wore. Once he transformation was complete, she bore a confident smile as she flicked her hair casually with her right hand.
"Now! You infantile worm! Prepare yourself!" Chrysalis beckoned at Azrael, who couldn't contain his excitement.
"Yes..." Azrael said, his smile growing even wider than before, "let us battle, Queen of the Changelings! This will truly be a fight to the death!" as he proclaimed, he and Chrysalis began to charge at each other. Both combatants clenching their right fist tightly, as they closed the distance between each other. They both directed their punches at each others faces but both knuckles clashed together. The battle had begun.
Retracting their fists at the same time, Chrysalis was the first to make a move by using her left fist to try and deliver a quick uppercut directed at Azrael's chin. Azrael simply leaned back a bit, dodging the oncoming attack cleanly. As she retracted the attack, Azrael made his move by attempting to deliver an overhead blow to the Queen's skull with his right fist. Chrysalis easily dodged the brutish move by leaning her frame to the left. Watching the punch miss, she used the opportunity to deliver a strong right round house kick toward Azrael's waist, whom blocked the attack with his left forearm. Feeling the kick bounce of his arm, she used her wings to lift herself off the ground and spin round clockwise. Using the spin as momentum boost, she tried to strike Azrael's right leg with a forceful left kick. It connected, but Azrael didn't even grunt in pain. Without wasting any time, she took the chance to strike at her opponent's chin with a upward right kick. It made contact, forcing Azrael's face to lift up by the right kick. Chrysalis flew away from the larger man quickly and whilst in the air, she turned and fired a concentrated ball of emerald energy with both of her hands, that flew straight at Azrael's face. Like the one from before, it exploded on contact.
Chrysalis landed gracefully, fair distance away from her opponent, donning a proud smile. As she landed, her minions began cheering and chanting her name. She raised her hand up to silence the crowd, for she knew that this was far from over. As the smoke around Azrael's face faded, he simply flicked his nose with his left thumb.
"Sufficient." Azrael said, "Let's continue." Chrysalis' smile went away as she started to hover slightly off the platform. She then flew toward the 'Mad Dog', her horn glowing in an emerald hue. As she came close to Azrael's range, he attempted to strike the Queen with another strong right but as it was about to hit, her body became incorporate and the punch went straight through. The ghost-like form of Chrysalis dissipated as soon as her face came into contact with Azrael's face. Azrael then saw the real Chrysalis back in the same spot she was in before, preparing the same attack she did previously, the one that hit Azrael in the face.
As she fired her attack, Azrael used his left hand to dig into the platform and grip the floor. He lifted his arm up and brought a slab of the platform vertically, like a makeshift shield. Holding this large slab in front of him, he couldn't see anything behind it, he could tell that his rocky shield absorbed the impact of the attack. What surprised him though, was that Chrysalis repeated the same attack - over and over and over. 'Wait a minute....', he began to ponder, '...oh.. I see. You play *that** kind of game, huh?*' Azrael let out an audible scoff before crushing the slab of earth with his strong grip. The shield shattered to pieces and fell to the floor, quickly Azrael raised his arms above shoulders and the dark red aura he used to absorb the minion's onslaught of attacks reappeared around him, and once more he roared; "Growler!"
In an instant, he saw Chrysalis, the real one, retreat from him, holding her left hand tightly as she cried out in pain. The aura, not only snapped him back to reality, burnt the entire left palm of the Queen's hand. Taking a few more steps back, she sneered at Azrael in pain. Azrael lowered his arms and huffed.
"Pathetic.." Azrael commented. "You won't be able to beat me with such measly mind control. Compared to the bitch that sent me here, you are nothing but a speck of dust on an anthill."
"How did you break free...?" Chrysalis ignored the insult and gazed at the man with malicious intent. For someone to break free of her mind control so easily, it was incomprehensible. Azrael merely huffed in response. The Queen, growled heavily, used some of her magic to quickly heal her wounds. As she finished, she stood tall and pointed at Azrael with healed hand. "I demand to know, how did you do it? Answer me!"
"Why would I waste my breath?" Azrael replied indifferently, shrugging his shoulders. "More importantly, we have a fight to continue. You better dodge.." as he stated, he darted at Chrysalis without warning and pounded her in the chest with a quick left. The strength of the blow forced her back so more, bringing her close to the edge of the platform.
'Such power...', Chrysalis thought, 'with one blow, I already feel like my knees are going to give into exhaustion." She tried to recuperate between heavy breaths only to find Azrael standing right in front of her. She looked at him with disbelief, coming to terms with how merciless this man is - not allowing her the chance to recover.
"You know," Azrael addressed the weakened Queen, "if we were fighting in my world, you have had the chance to recover because of the restraint's forced on me during my imprisonment." He leaned closer to the Queen, baring his fangs out for her to see, using this opportunity - he clutched his large left hand around her neck and lifted her off her feet. Azrael began to squeeze, forcing her to gasp for air. "But, unfortunately for you, we aren't in my world... Aren't we?" Making his point clear, he released his grip allowing her to fall back to ground.
Before she could land on her feet, a heavy right ploughed into her stomach, forcing more air out of her body. The fist still buried in her, Azrael brought her body over his head and sending her back first, crashing into the platform. Her weakened form bounced from the impact, causing her to be suspended in the air for a couple of seconds. Not sparing her any moment to restore he senses, he lunged forward and delivered an upward left punch to her back shoulders yelling, "Tiger!", then using the adrenaline, he slammed the back of her head with a swift, but powerful rising right kick, yelling, "Cobra!" The kick caused her entire frame to front flip. As it rolled forward, Azrael spun his entire frame round in a three hundred sixty turn, all the while clenching his right fist. As he came round to Chrysalis, using the speed of the spin, he connected the punch into Chrysalis's spine, roaring proudly; "Leopard!"
Her carcass was tossed across to the centre of the platform, Chrysalis barely remained conciousn after being on the receiving end of Azrael's three hit combo. Landing face first, Chrysalis gave herself a few moments to allow her senses to return to her mind. She tried to assess the situation, quickly, she had no choice but to think of a way to beat this monster. Then it came to her, she always had last resort tactic that she would only use if her life came close to an end. This was the perfect time, or perhaps the only time, to use it.
Her body became enveloped in the same emerald aura as before, but this time it became larger in size. Bringing herself to her feet, her eyes shined with pure white, "Minions!" she beckoned to her subjects, "Now is the time! Become one with your Queen! We must join together and gain victory!" All the Changelings who watched around the hive began to transform, against their will, into emerald orbs of their energy, life force and soul. In a flash, they all came to their Queen in droves, each and every one absorbed into Chrysalis as soon as they came in range of her aura.
After the last one was digested into Chrysalis' being, she stood up and turned to Azrael. Her eyes, still glowing in brilliant white, stared down her opponent with her new found power and confidence. "Kneel before me! My power now dwarfs yours entirely! You will know defeat! You will know DEATH!" As she roared at Azrael, her aura retracted into her as she lowered head slightly to point her horn at her opponent. A large dark orb with a green outline began to form at the tip. As the power behind it grew with it's size, the entire hive began to shake from the concentrated energy radiating from it. Realising it was at it's peak, Chrysalis smiled proudly.
"Die! Scum!" as she bellowed, she fired the black ball of energy at Azrael. It rapidly flew straight at him, but instead of dodging, he simply held out his left hand open and caught the oncoming attack. As it vibrated in his grasp, his body emanated in the red aura once more, it began to shrink in his hand and then eventually vanish into thin air. Chrysalis had no words, all she could do was hang her jaw in disbelief. The aura around him disappeared and Azrael simply sighed.
"Not bad..." Azrael commented, "but, I have to say I am utterly disappointed. If that was you attacking at me, at your peak, then there is nothing more to this fight. However, since you were so gracious in giving me a sample of your full power, it is only fair I give you a taste of TRUE UNBRIDLED POWER!" he shouted, whilst raising his arms to the sky. "Enchanted Dragunov; Level 2 - Release!" as he finished his sentence the same red aura that he used to absorb Chrysalis' attack appeared once more, only this time, it was flowing out him like a geyser. Continuously flowing out of his body, the entire world around them began to shake endlessly, the tattoo's on his body thinned slightly at this demonstration.
Chrysalis began to tremble in fear as the everything around her shook. "W-w-what is that? H-how do you have so much power?!?" she pleaded her curiosity to him in desperation, she couldn't control her words any more.
"Remarkable isn't it?" Azrael asked rhetorically before answering her question, "The Enchanted Dragunov acts a limiter to suppress my power."
"Limiter..? Suppress..?" Chrysalis gasped as she connected the dots, "You mean... You have been holding back this whole time?!?"
"That's right. Do you want to know something else? I'm STILL holding back.." Azrael stated proudly. The Queen felt it in her core - defeat. There was no way out of this, no matter what trick she knew, attack she could hit him with, it wouldn't even so much as tickle this man. It's over. But before she tried to move her legs in an attempt to flee, her fear forced her to ask one more question.
"What kind of monster are you...?!?" she mumbled, but her question became inaudible under the continuous quake shaking around her. Azrael took one step forward, as it his left foot touched the platform, it was the equivalent of a bomb exploding, the crimson aura still flowing out of him.
"Your flesh and bones will know... THE TRUE MEANING OF POWER!!" Azrael bellowed before turning his body in the opposite direction, leaving his left foot in place, he leaned forward, away from Chrysalis. He pointed his left fist at Chrysalis whilst still turned away. "BLACK HAWK," he began, the red aura now in-cased in a larger orange aura that was double in size compared to red one. Charging up his last attack, the hive began to shake even more violently. Azrael then turned toward the petrified Queen and charged at her full force roaring; "STINGER!!!" He swung his charged left hook at Chrysalis's face. When it came to her face, she felt the fist smash her entire skull, whip lashing her entire body. The force of the attack forced her lifeless body through the platform and sent it flying to the watering hole below. Now the fight was truly over.
Azrael stayed in position for a few moments, relishing in his victory. The blood marks on his fist, the corpses around him, the hive shaking by his volition. Today was a good for the 'Mad Dog'. Taking a deep breath and then a long exhale, the aura flowing out of him vanished and the tattoo's on his body retracted to their original size. He stood up and took one last look around the hive to see where the sources of light where coming from, trying to see if he could use them to leave this nest of corpses. After seeing a hole in the distance, he casually placed his hands in his pocket's and began to walk toward the exit.
As he walked, one thought passed through his mind; 'I hope there is one being in this world that can provide me with a 'buffet', because from this battle, I know that I am going to enjoy watching them struggle.' he finished the thought with a maniacal laugh that echoed through the hive. Celestia help whoever he chooses to be his next 'meal'...
To Be Continued.
