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"Caught you!"
The Mandated Punisher's voice rang out beside Emlyn. The wind carried the scent of seawater and dust, severely interfering with the Sanguine's enhanced sense of smell. Combined with the absence of moonlight, this allowed the Mandated Punisher to stay doggedly on the heels of Emlyn's bat form.
A claw that had become like a sea monster's firmly seized the bat wing on Emlyn's back. Webbing grew between its fingers, its nails were exceptionally long, and scales covered every inch of skin below the elbow.
His other hand reached for Emlyn's collar and hair, but Emlyn twisted away.
"Let go!"
Emlyn ducked his head, evading several wind blades spinning after his head. The enemy now completely controlled the wind here, and his bat wings provided only a little lift, barely better than nothing.
He had already been about to retract them, only to get caught anyway.
Gritting his teeth, Emlyn turned his head and splashed a bottle of potion hidden in his sleeve straight at the Mandated Punisher's head. His opponent immediately countered by erecting a barrier of wind before himself, blocking all the potion.
The two grappled above the church, the potion falling onto its roof like sprayed water.
Emlyn's haphazard fighting techniques infuriated the Mandated Punisher as well. Their nearly equal strength and utterly disorganized grappling made him feel as though he had returned to his school days, when he would fight classmates on impulse, without technique or structure, his brain and limbs each doing their own thing as he tried to defeat his opponent through luck-the Mandated Punisher had never fought like this since becoming a Beyonder.
Both sustained injuries, but nothing remotely fatal, or even enough to hamper their movements.
When that move failed, a pitch-black Corrosive Claw immediately raked at the Mandated Punisher's