The Scrap Tamer

Malrath slowly looked down at his left side only to see nothing. His entire arm was gone.

Meanwhile, Reid glanced just at the severed arm in his hand, a flicker of disappointment crossing his face.

"I was aiming for the head," he muttered "but I guess this is fine too."

"How?" Malrath muttered in disbelief, "how are you still alive?"

"That's because you never hit me," Reid simply said, with a neutral neutral expression, one which Malrath took as a sign of being mocked.

"DON'T YOU DARE MOCK ME, MORTAL," Malrath lost its cool.

"But I truly am not," Reid answered in confusion, "how about this, use that orb attack again and I'll demonstrate clearly what happened."

Those were apparently the wrong choice of words as it only worked to anger Malrath even more.

Malrath let out a distorted, guttural roar as its rage reached a boiling point.

"Fine then, if you crave death so much, I'll let you have it" it thundered, its remaining arm jerking outward.

The air around Malrath twisted violently as it formed not one, but three more Death Orbs, each one larger and more unstable than the last.

Even in the safety of the simulation, Reid's watching forged beasts stirred uneasily. The sheer scale of the energy being concentrated made it hard to remain idle.

"Umm, Miss Evo?" Beel asked nervously. "Shouldn't you stop the simulation now? Dad might get hurt…"

[There's no need to worry,] Evo replied calmly. [Just trust Reid.]

But Reid? He didn't flinch.

He calmly tossed the severed arm aside and raised his free hand.

"Then go ahead," he said.

Malrath didn't hesitate.

The orbs launched forward, streaking through the air like comets, erasing everything in their wake.

They converged on Reid, forming a massive sphere of annihilation that swallowed him whole.

This time, even the simulation itself stuttered, as if unsure whether it could hold together against such a force.

The blast lasted several seconds before it faded.

There was complete silence after the blast. The entire area around the blast was completely erased.

But Malrath's expression didn't ease. In fact, its eyes narrowed even further. It couldn't be sure until there was not a single movement from the blast.

A gust of air swept the smoke away—revealing nothing.

There was no Reid in the blast zone.

"Behind you," came the whisper.

SLASH!

This time Malrath barely tilted its head aside as the massive void-blade screamed past its face, carving a deep trench in the distance behind them.

For the first time in a couple centuries, Malrath felt fear and it due to a human.

Malrath's pupils constricted.

Fear was alien to it. It was an emotion that hadn't touched its mind since it first faced its father's presence.

And yet, right now, standing before a mortal wielding an unnatural power, Malrath could feel a primal shiver running through of its body.

"You should've paid closer attention ," Reid said softly, now standing several meters behind Malrath, sword resting casually on his shoulder. "Because now, I'll have to explain the demonstration."

Reid, in his void monarch form seemed to be having fun toying with Malrath.

If it was one thing he observed, it was that his monarch forms gave him a weird sense of superiority and the urge to toy with his opponents.

"Now listen closely," Reid raised a finger as if teaching Malrath, "this is what happened when your attack got close enough."

Malrath frowned but made no sudden move to attack, since it had completely reassessed Reid as a bigger threat than it initially thought.

"The moment your Death Orb touched the space around me… it was instantly nullified" Reid turned his palm upward, as a small pebble was teleported above his palm and slowly started descending.

"It's a variant of [Null Zone]," Reid continued, watching the pebble fall. Just before it touched his open palm, it disintegrated in an instant.

[You'll need to end this quickly, Reid,] Evo's voice echoed in his mind. [You've got two minutes left in this form. After that, your soul power will be extremely low and you will forcefully eject you from the Forged Lab.]

'Right!' Reid nodded, before focusing his attention back to Malrath.

"But now that we're done with theory—" he vanished

"Let's finish this, shall we?" he reappeared behind it.

BOOM!

Reid's sword came down again, and Malrath barely blocked. The ground beneath shattered in the form of spiral cracks, and Malrath staggered backwards due to the force of the attack.

But Reid didn't stop.

He blinked an reappeared to Malrath's right before slashing at it again

From that point on, this stopped being a battle and turned into a challenge.

A challenge to see how long Malrath could survive Reid's endless turret of attacks, and from the looks of it, it didn't seem like it would for long.

Malrath's dragon like armor was completely cracked, coupled with its missing arms, anyone could clearly see who was winning this battle.

"What was that you said about an infinite gap between us?" Reid taunted again, hoping to get a reaction out of the dragon of death and destruction but he was bound to be disappointed.

Malrath said nothing in response as it was trying its hardest not to fall to its knees right now.

This pest was a lot dangerous than it had anticipated, a realization that came a little too late.

Worse is, he was sure that this mortal wasn't done growing yet. Give him a couple centuries and he'll be just as strong if not stronger than its full form and that thought sent a shiver down Malrath's spine.

'No… this cannot be. I am Malrath, One of the children of chaos. I do not feel fear. I do not retreat. I do not lose, especially not to a mere pest, an ant.'

Malrath was snapped out of its thoughts by Reid's sword which, this time, cleanly cutting off its remaining arm causing it to let out a pained shriek.

"You know," Reid rested his sword on his shoulder again, "at this point you're just boring."

[One minute, Reid] Evo reminded.

"Fine," he sighed, "any last words, son of chaos?"

This… this isn't over… You don't understand the scope of the power you're trifling with—!"

"I really don't care," Reid interrupted, stepping forward, "[Abyss Rift.]"

The moment he invoked the skill, the entire space around Malrath twisted inward as it began collapsing into itself.

A rift with an unfathomable pulling force, appeared behind it and seized Malrath's body, dragging at it with immense force.

"NO—!" Malrath screamed, its tail trying to dig into the ground to escape and its broken wings flapping violently, but to no avail.

The last of its screams faded as it was completely consumed into the rift before it disappeared.

Reid let out a tired sigh, then turned to his Forged Beasts with a faint smile. "Well, that was fun."