Gambit Of The Living Weapon - Chapter 283 Passion to win

“Oh… That hurt… That hurt so much…” he whispered while trying to rub his stomach and checking if his ribs were broken.

Eclipse didn’t seem to be doing much better as the lion was having a lot of trouble standing on its four legs as well.

“Come on guys! Let’s play some more!!!” Lust yelled as he dashed through the arena and stopped right in front of Daren to grab his throat and raise his body from the floor.

“Ugh!!! Argh!!” Daren tried to breathe but Lust kept squeezing his neck.

“He’s too fast! How is he so fast??” Ria asked.

“This must be the dragon parts that Knucker gave him… The dragon’s claws…” Detra guessed.

“Correcto!!” Lust laughed, “Among all the dragons, I am the fastest one!!”

Lust then threw Daren in the air and kicked Eclipse towards him one more time.

“Aaaaghhh!!!”

“We made a mistake!!” Detra cried, “This is a battle of speed! We should have sent lady Lilith instead!”

“No!!!” Daren shouted while landing on the ground, “If this is all this guy has, then I can deal with him…”

Darn then raised his arms that were armed with both Ellie’s metal claws and Evlin’s whip and started to focus.

“Eclipse… I’m sorry to have dragged you into this… But just this one last time… Let’s fight together again!” Daren pleaded to his ally.

The beast opened its red eyes and stood in front of its master while glaring at Lust while taking a deep breath before unleashing a powerful howl.

“That’s my boy!”

A smoke of darkness then begun to appear from Daren’s hands and started to engulf both him and its pet lion. The shadows became stronger and eventually fused themselves with the beast.

“Time to hunt!” Daren stated.

“Roaaaaaarr!!!” Eclipse cried after becoming one with the shadows and growing twice its own size.

The beast then started to chase Lust with its massive body of darkness connected to Daren by a string of shadows like a dog on a leash.

“Now we’re talking!!” Lust stated. He could feel that being close to death managed to increase even more Daren’s passion for his life.

The demon jumped high to try to kick the shadow beast, but his move passed by it completely as if there was nothing there.

“What the what!??” Lust gasped.

Eclipse locked eyes on its target and proceeded to bite the purple lad with its powerful jaws there were now bigger than the demon’s body.

“Guaaaahhhh!!!” Lust cried as he had Eclipse’s fangs stabbed into his skin.

He attempted to punch him, but just like before, Eclipse turned into a pile of smoke and was completely unharmed.

The lion formed itself again and stomped the demon with its claw of darkness.

“Aaaaarghhh!!!” Lust shrieked.

The lion did not stop and just continued to play around with Lust, switching from stabbing him, smashing him, or just chewing on him.

But eventually, the beast’s rampage was no longer enough as Daren started to feel his magic getting weaker with time.

The figure of Eclipse’s shadow body was slowly shrinking and becoming more unstable.

“What’s happening??” Auren wondered.

“Daren is running out of magic…” Evlin assumed, “He’s basically putting everything into that giant lion smoke, but at this rate, he will be completely out of juice in no time!”

“Why is the Lust demon not dead yet??” Ria asked.

Eclipse tried to go for the bite one more time, but Lust just raised his hand and stopped the dark figure with little to no trouble.

“Ugh!!” Daren cried while dropping on one knee. His face was completely drenched in sweat, “Why are you still standing??”

Lust grinned, “It’s all thanks to you! Your desire for victory keeps healing my wounds and giving me the strength to keep fighting more and more!!”

“What…? My desire to win is helping you??”

“Your desire to LIVE is helping me…” Lust corrected, “The sin of lust is the sin of desire, the passion, the showcase of love for something you want… I hate to tell you, but at this rate, I’m never going down!!”

Lust then raised its fist and smacked Eclipse right in its face and sent it flying straight at Daren, who took the full force of the impact as if had just been hit by a car.

“Guaaaahhh!!!”

The shadows began to vanish and all that remained were the brown-haired lad and its pet lion knocked out on the floor.

“I guess this is it then…” Lust mumbled, “You did your best thought, no shame in admitting defeat to a superior opponent…”

“Screw you…” Daren whispered.

Lust tilted his head, “Pardon…?”

“I told you… I’m not losing here and dying to you…”

“Oho…? You do realize that your desire to defeat me is just making me stronger, right?”

“So what!? If that’s the case… Ugh…” Daren tried to reply before spitting a bit of blood out, “Then… I just need to end you in one move…”

Lust began to smirk, “You really love your family, don’t you?”

“You damn right I do!! I love my son, my fiance, my friends, I love everything about my life… For the first time in a long time, I finally have a reason to care about being alive!! And if you think I’m losing all that for some shirt-less weirdo like you, then you better think again!!”

Daren started to take in all the power of his metal claws he had left and started to focus on his final spell.

“You’re just an obstacle standing in my way!! And now… I’m going to remove you!!”

“Then give me your best shot!!” Lust dared.

Evlin started to notice a new group of shadows forming around Eclipse, but this time, they were forming around Daren as well.

“Hey, Ashley…” Evlin whispered, “I know Daren’s element is darkness… But what exactly is his affinity?”

Ashley began to hold her chin, “Considering his personality, his desire to protect the things he cares about, an almost animal-like wish to keep the things he cares about safe… And considering his connection with Eclipse…”

Suddenly, Eclipse’s back body turned into shadows one more time, but this time, Daren’s body became shadows as well, and the two of them started to merge into one mass of darkness.

Once the union was complete, all that remained was the image of a humanoid muscular figure with red eyes and the head of a lion made entirely out of darkness wearing a pair of metal claws.

“I would call it… Primal instinct!” Ashley whispered.

Daren gazed at his own body and proceeded to release a powerful howl that echoed over the entire battlefield.

Marcus noticed that Lance seemed to be hypnotized as he looked at his own father in his current state, but not with eyes of fear, only admiration, as if he could not believe such a powerful creature was his parent.

“Amazing!!” Lust cried, “This is just the best!! You truly are a man among men!!”

Daren bent his knees and prepared to move, “Prepare yourself…”

“Come!” Lust replied.

The two then suddenly vanished completely and reappeared in another location of the arena trying to tear each other apart.

Lust and Daren looked less like two men fighting and more like a pair of beasts as they tried to rip each other apart with their fangs and claws.

They vanished one more time and moved to another location, then another, then another, constantly jumping from one spot to the next with a speed too great for regular eyes to follow.

One second the two would be stabbing each other, the next they would be bitting each other’s skin off.

“This is crazy…” Auren noted as he tried to follow the fight of the lion-man and the dragon-man.

The most anyone could see was the blood from one of them spilling all over the terrain and pieces of debris being broken down into pieces.

“Hahahaha!!” Lust suddenly began to laugh out of nowhere, “This is the best!!! I love this!!!”

“Aaaarghhh!!” Daren did not talk, he just continued to do his best to eviscerate his enemy.

Eventually, the two finally stopped out of nowhere, completely covered in wounds while staring at each other. Lust had its back facing Evlin’s group while Daren stood in front of him with his metal claws in pieces.

“Wha- What happened??” Lilith gasped.

“The fight is over…” Lust explained while cleaning the blood from his mouth.

Daren finally ran out of magic and all of the shadows began to vanish from his body as he dropped on his knees, and right after that, getting knocked out completely.

Eclipse followed right after him and passed out on the ground.

The metal claws and the magic whip had been completely destroyed in the battle.

“Aaahhh… That was really the best… Thanks for showing me your passion man…” Lust commented while stretching his arms and legs.

“No… No, no, no… This can’t be-” Lilith whispered before starting to cry, but the sudden gasps of her friends made her stop right at that moment.

Lust had just turned around and revealed a massive gaping-wound that went from his neck all the way to his abs in the shape of a claw mark.

“That was fun guys… Good luck with the rest of the game!” Lust wished with a thumbs up before dropping dead on the ground.

Daren opened his eyes and gazed at his friends. He had no strength to say anything so he just gave them a weak smile instead.

The group began to cheer again and rushed to his aid while Lilith buried him in her arms and proceeded to kiss his face over and over again.

While they were all distracted, Knucker just repeated the action from before and got his dragon claws back from Lust, as well as all of Lust himself, into his body.

“Five to go…”