When using her soul weapon, and absorbing the energy from those around her, Layla needed to be a little careful. For one, she knew that not everyone practised Qi. It would be very dangerous to take away a large amount from those people, since it was their life force. Luckily, there were more than enough people around, that the process would hopefully just weaken them temporarily. Unfortunately, taking in that energy wasn't easy. It worked similarly to her telekinesis ability. Where she had to use her ability on each one as if she was lifting a force from them. After absorbing so much energy, Layla stood there and took a stance with her sword. Her skin appeared to be somewhat glowing, making the black sword stand out even more. "Now, things are starting to get exciting." Helen Dalki grinned as she looked at her own hand. "I can feel you sapping away the energy from my own body at this very second. As much as I would love to see how strong you can get… I won't just stand around and wait for you to be finished." Throwing out her very own arm from around twenty or so metres away, it started to extend. The Dalki part of it became similar to the strange looking vines. Seeing this, Layla lifted her sword up above her head. She gathered as much Qi as she could and waited for the perfect time. The Hannya could see the hand approach her. Swinging down, the black sword clashed against the hard scales and fingertips, but the next second the fingers gripped onto the weapon. "Too bad, looks like my scales are still stronger than your attack." With this, Dalki Helen retracted her arm, and since Layla refused to let go of the black sword her body was being dragged across the field. 'Even with that much Qi, I still can't hurt her?! Just how strong are these New Gen Dalki?!' Layla started to panic somewhat. 'No, I have to calm down. I can't hurry the process… if I drain too much energy, I'll be responsible for more deaths than just Ivy's. "The longer the fight lasts, the stronger my attacks will be. I'll just have to keep her occupied until I'm strong enough to defeat her! I'll aim for that fleshy body of hers.' Just as Layla was about to reach Helen Dalki, the Qi was concentrated in her arms, swinging the sword, she moved one of the arms to the side. Still, Helen Dalki was fast and used her other hand to throw a punch towards Layla's face. However, the young woman wasn't just idling. Layla threw out a black ball and the second it touched Helen, black chains surrounded her, freezing her in place. The Spiritual Chains broke easily, unable to hold down the humanoid Dalki's great strength. Nevertheless, it bought her opponent a fraction of a second… and that was all she needed to swoop around to the side, and ready the black sword. In the middle of her strike, though, something burst through the ground again. Placing her sword below, she managed to somewhat stop it, and if she was a second later, then she would have been done for. 'Time… I just need more time to beat her!' Layla thought. Right now, Helen Dalki didn't seem to be too greatly affected by Layla's soul weapon. Unfortunately for the Hannya, she was unable to control the speed of each individual draining target. As such, the humanoid Dalki was moving just as fast as before. With one hand out, Layla pushed herself with her ability, allowing the vine to continue going upward, but soon another one came towards her. "How many of these things are there?!" Taking a swing, Layla planned to hit it away like she had done all the others. When she swung, it hit nothing but thin air. The vine-like arm had bent avoiding the blow and as quick as it avoided the blow it came out and reached grabbing Layla's left arm. 'That's not good, she got me!' Seeing this, the other vine-like arm from before, was now heading straight for Layla, she had to think fast, and she only saw one option. With the black blade, she swung just past her own shoulder. The Qi that would have been covering that area she got rid of it, and now one arm was left with the Dalki, before she eventually landed on the floor. Blood was spewing on the ground, but slowly the wound was starting to heal, and using her green flame she spat out from her mouth, it healed quicker than before. "She lost a freaking arm!" Dennis shouted. "We have to help her! I don't care if she might be getting stronger, there is no way she's going to win this battle unless we intervene!!!" That was when Vincent looked over toward Sam to see if he was okay. He looked to be still wrapped up by one of those strange vines. 'In the fight so far, Helen Dalki has only used two of those strange vine arms most of the time. But there have been some instances where she has used four like when she had blocked those arrows, then there is one wrapped around Sam as well. 'We don't know if there aren't more of these things around. This humanoid five spike Dalki, is too much… I'm not even sure, I could handle her on my own. How many casualties will we have if we try to fight her… , and our forces are being weakened due to Layla's power.' However, there was one person that was acting and Vincent knew it. Logan had dispersed some of his spiders to have a look and move over to Sam's position. Still, there was a big problem, because the strange vine-like arms scales were just as hard as those on a normal Dalki. It was unlikely that Logan could do anything without getting Dalki Helen's attention. Layla was no longer bleeding, but she was now down one arm, which was now with Dalki Helen. The vine had retracted and handed the arm back over to Helen. To which she threw off into the grand distance far away, almost landing right where Sam was. "I thought that perhaps with that yellow glow all over your body you would have gotten stronger, but that doesn't seem to be the case at all." Dalki Helen sighed in disappointment, pushing off the ground, and coming for the attack. One punch, Layla gathered a second stage of Qi, to create some type of barrier wall and block the attack. She held the black sword in place as well. The punch broke through the qi barrier, and hit the sword, causing Layla to skid across the ground. Her remaining hand felt numb without the support of the other, taking the hit despite all the power she had. 'I'll stop taking the Qi from all the others, and just focus on taking it from her!' Layla decided. Doing this, the increase she was gaining in power was lessened, but the drain on her opponent should be more effective. Helen Dalki continued to punch, and all Layla could do was create Qi barriers and use the first stage to empower herself to block attack after attack. When looking at Dalki Helen this way, and Layla blocking attack after attack, it reminded the young woman of when she was training against Erin. Too weak to do anything, too weak to retaliate. 'What would they do…what would they have done if they were in the same situation... ' The Hannya wondered. "You're good at blocking, but you will never win a fight this way. Don't you care about the people behind you! Do you even care about anyone but yourself? Is this all you can do… I thought you wanted to help Quinn? What's the use of him having someone so weak by his side like you? You don't deserve him!" Finishing these words, four of the strange vine's rose up behind Helen's back. It was now as if she had a set of six arms on her. The strange vines and the Dalki's own arms. 'I can't block it... I can't block enough of the attack... and she isn't getting weaker…am I going to die here?' Layla didn't want to accept such a fate. Her hand started to shake, and Layla initially thought it was due to her trembling. The next moment, she realised that wasn't the case, and that the black sword was shaking on its own. Layla thought she was hallucinating, but a weak voice seemed to whisper something to her. 'Let me…take over…' Listening to it carefully, and feeling the power, without a doubt the sound was originating from her own weapon. ***** My Werewolf System has finally arrived on Webnovel! If you want to support me, you can do so on my P.A.T.R.E.O.N: jksmanga You will get access to the MWS novel, and webtoon for only $3 dollar a month. For MVS artwork and updates follow me on Instagram and Facebook: jksmanga