Gojo smiled. "Do you really think that would stop me?" Magic swirled around Gojo’s body as he started floating. "I’m a void dragon; I can win without even using my draconic might. We are masters of magic."

The clouds above moved, and thunder roared as Gojo’s body crackled with magic. He was ready to start fighting Alcott, wanting to see just how powerful his father was. What Gojo didn’t understand yet was that even if Alcott was objectively weaker than him in terms of stats and sheer abilities, he far outclasses him in many other ways that he cannot even begin to fathom.

From his bag, Alcott pulled a three-section staff, and the entire brewing storm halted as Gojo’s magic weakened. "A climate baton. I got it from the Red-hair pirates’ crow in exchange for slaying a sea dragon that cut their trade route." He then showed the baton to Gojo. "It can’t control the weather as its name suggests, but it infects and overtakes other people’s magic."

He stored the baton after foiling Gojo’s magic and gave him a look. "Weather magic is the most versatile. I bet you wanted to shock with a single lightning bolt and be done with it, but that won’t work."

"You have to run!" Alcott threw a fist toward Gojo’s face, and Gojo flew backward with magic to avoid the punch. He flew over the walls and into the city’s sky, only to see Alcott flying right after him. That cloak is enchanted with flight magic. It seems that his father doesn’t want to use his vampiric wings.

[Air Blade] With a single spell, Gojo cut the chains binding his legs, as that was his priority, but to his surprise, his draconic power didn’t return. It remained sealed. "What?!" But that single moment of distraction was enough for Alcott to reach him. "Did you really think I used the same chain that was used against Tiamat against you? This is an improved version that won’t fail to chain her longer next time."

He tried to catch Gojo by the neck, but failed. Both of them were fast, but Gojo was a bit faster, as he used his own magic, unlike Alcott, who had to control the cloak. The magic of the cloak itself wasn’t slower, but the lag was what made Alcott seem slower.

Gojo flew back once more, dodging Alcott’s hand, but barely. Alcott’s movements felt strange, as if he knew how Gojo would move before he could even breathe. That ended up with Gojo feeling like he was running away from his own shadow.

"Are you reading my moves?" Gojo growled with a smile, and Alcott laughed. "Of course not; your moves are just too generic. I’ve seen at least nine dragons that moved like this."

"Then how about this?" Gojo wasn’t going to play for long, so he decided to go all out.

[Time Stop] [Prismatic Spray] [Gravity Well] [Draconic Mirror Gate]

The first spell stopped time; the second one sealed all of the elements that Gojo could see, effectively shutting down the magic that allowed Alcott’s cloak to fly; and the third one increased the gravity around Alcott specifically so he would get pulled to the ground. The last spell created a temporary clone of Gojo that should still be able to use his entire draconic might, and he sent that to capture Alcott.

This wasn’t a realm where a mere mortal should be able to hold his ground. As Gojo’s clone approached Gojo’s falling body, it looked at him with cold, glowing blue eyes. He was frozen in time, not knowing that the fight had already ended. Gojo wasn’t just a dragon; he was a wizard, a mage who surpassed most mages by a landslide. Yog wasn’t sticking around him for no reason; that mad witch only cares about the advancement of magic, so she only shows interest in those pushing for heights of magic.

He won.

The clone grabbed Alcott’s body and started tying him down in the stopped time. But it was then that Gojo realized something. Why does he feel so... tired? What did... he was already bleeding from his eyes and nose, and he could even feel his heart shaking inside his chest, failing to pump blood.

"It’s a trap!" He gasped and turned around, barely blocking Alcott’s burning fist as he got punched in the face. "What did you do?" As Gojo growled, Alcott kept charging at him, throwing punches with a smile on his face.

Gojo dodged and ducked beneath all of those punches like a boxer, but was still hit with a few of them and sent bleeding.

"Do you think Tiamat can use magic or not?" Alcott asked as he grabbed Gojo by the arm and threw him toward the city’s streets.

As Gojo landed on his feet, he ran through the crowds, and Alcott followed him. Time was still stopped, and Gojo couldn’t wrap his head around how Alcott could move here. Was the body his clone caught a fake one?

"She should have been able to use a lot of powerful magic. So that chain can also block magic?" He frowned as he stood facing Alcott with a food stall between them. "But I can still use magic, and big spells as well."

"It lets you use magic, but increases the cost by several tens of times. If you aren’t careful, you’ll stress your body’s meridians, and they’ll overheat, just like nerves going numb. I knew you would use big spells right out of the gate to finish the fight quickly, so I was waiting for you to take the bait." Alcott walked to the stall, took a skewer of fried fish meat, ate it, and threw a coin on the table for the guy running the stall.

"And if you want to know why I can move in the stopped time. It is thanks to this little guy." He showed Gojo a tiny hourglass that he wore like a necklace. "Just how many dragons do you think could use time stop? I faced many great wyrms, and that was a pretty common trump card."

"And that body? Is it a clone?" Gojo pointed at the one that his clone caught, and Alcott laughed. "What do you think?" At that moment, Gojo’s clone got slashed in half by the body wearing the cloak, and when it landed beside Gojo, it was revealed to be a hairy werewolf.

"Witch’s head concoction, it separates the man from the beast for a short time." Alcott tapped the werewolf’s shoulder. "If I killed this guy, my werewolf’s powers would be severely weakened for a while. But as you can see, the ritual doesn’t really force us two to fight."

The werewolf smiled. "We’re one and the same... that is the harmony I achieved between my human, vampire, and werewolf side."

Gojo immediately turned around, swinging a fist. There had to be a third body, one that belonged to the vampire... but what he hit instead was the empty air as Alcott pushed him to the ground and tied his hands behind his back. "It’s working, it’s working. You’ve got really slow by now." As Gojo’s magic stopped working, he finally realized that there was no vampire body.

"Those potions I drank earlier are dragon-killing poison. I had Claug refine it just recently, and I asked her to make something that can even drop Arad down. She delivered." He clenched a fist and showed it to Gojo. "See those tiny blood needles coming out of my knuckles? I used those to inject that into you. A pretty effective use of my vampire powers, don’t you think?"

"Just... how many tricks do you have?" Gojo growled as Alcott helped him stand, and Alcott smiled. "More than I can count. I’m weaker than you and Arad by a lot, but you two are still young; you can’t outsmart me."

"I can see why dragons fear you. Where in the hell did you get a potion to split your werewolf from human side?" As Gojo looked at him, the werewolf replied as he faded away. "Well, when you get infected with lycanthropy, the first thing you see is a cure. This was the cure I aimed for, but it turned out to be just a temporary fix, not a full one."