Draconic King of Shadows-Chapter 87: The Showdown (1)

Damion dived to the side, hiding behind a tree and regulating his breathing. Toby had began spamming those beams for some reason, and it was beginning to get annoying.

They were useless against him, and he could take out Toby using that advantage, but there layed the problem.

If Toby realised that his yellow energy was ineffective against Damion, he might change tactics and keep his distance, even worse, choose to retreat.

Damion wished to get close enough to Toby to be able to take him by surprise and end the facade, but that wasn’t looking easy. If he got hit and Toby didn’t see any effect, he might keep distance, defeating Damion’s goal.

"Change of plans then," Damion voiced out, the cogs in his mind already rattling, spinning plan after plan.

Another beam came for him as he left the cover of the tree into the open. He didn’t linger on the spot and moved forward, crossing the distance between himself and Toby quickly.

The beams became harder to deflect and dodge, but he pressed on.

Toby, also, took step after step backwards, his arms continuously moving.

His armor’s invisibility duration was almost running out, but what use was the invisibility in the first place if Damion could pinpoint his location.

Toby shook his head.

’If it runs out, fine, but I wouldn’t deactivate it until then.’

He took another step back, and a stream of information entered his mind, causing him to smile.

He jumped back again, before stopping and gathering a torrent of energy in his palms. The air distorted as the mass of energy converged, resulting in a series of effects.

First the plant life around him seemed to finally react to the energy, falling to the sides as if they lost their grip on themselves.

Damion had thought that the energy couldn’t work on the plants since they reacted slowly to stimuli, but Toby’s energy negated that trait and forced them down.

Damion felt a movement in Dragon’s Authority, and the weapon in his hand suddenly turned into a shield, and he spun on his feet, turning around just in time to block a black curved claw aimed for his back.

The sleep-inducing yellow beam blasted from Toby’s palm at that point with shocking velocity, tearing through the air to reach Damion a split second later.

Damion, however, was unfazed and let the beam hit him. His shield transformed into a large scissor-like construct with dull curved blades, and he used it on Aspasia, holding her in place before she retreated, resulting in the yellow beam washing over her. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Aspasia suddenly shrieked, her eyes rolling to the back of her head and her limbs flailing about. She seemingly reacted more fiercely to the beam than Damion thought she would, but he was unbothered.

Toby’s eyes furrowed when he heard the scream. The voice didn’t sound masculine, and the only female that should be here was...

"Aspasia?" Toby said as the beam died down, his yellow eyes concentrating on the figures ahead.

The plants and trees around, that were too weak, tilted to the side a little, nearly snapping from their base due to their own weight. The path towards Damion and Aspasia was torn a little, and even Damion took some damage, though miniscule and worthless.

The attack looked more potent and corporeal than the previous ones, and it had inflicted damage to his skin and the surroundings, scorching it slightly.

Aspasia on the other hand took the full brunt of the mental and physical attack combo, making her pass out in merely a few seconds after being hit, and she lay in Damion’s grasp like a laboratory specimen.

The tool Nyx had turned into was crafted right out of Damion’s imagination. He couldn’t reach her in time with his hands, so he used his knowledge to capture her instead.

Aspasia’s face was scorched just like Damion’s, and she didn’t seem to be waking up any time soon, even as she flopped to the ground after being released.

A deafening silence descended on the area, both Toby and Damion staring at each other.

Toby was staring ahead in what appeared to be shock, confusion and above all... anger.

Damion had surprised and thwarted his plan once again, leading to him taking more losses than gains. He had signalled Aspasia to come to his aid, but he never expected her to be taken out in measly seconds. Quite pathetic.

"You never cease to baffle me," Toby said, a certain calmness in his voice.

"I’ll take that as a compliment," Damion replied, his gaze sharp and focused.

"Aspasia was never my match since I reached a certain level, and she hasn’t been able to surpass me since then."

Toby raised a brow.

"It wasn’t part of your plans to meet me here right? So you mustn’t have prepared enough for the clash,"

"Either way, you had a backup plans in case of failure —that backup plan being Aspasia— only for her to fail in the most ridiculous way,"

"I know how you must be feeling now, and truth be told, I’m enjoying every second of it," Damion smiled dangerously. "You made me suffer then, now’s your turn."

Toby stared straight at Damion, then chuckled. His small laughter grew into an intense mirth, and in a few seconds, tears were rolling down his eyes.

"How the tables have turned," he voiced out. "I never expected this actually, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to fail. Not again."

Damion raised a brow, instinctively activating Dragon’s Reflective Skin and Shadow Possession.

The sudden change took Toby off guard, but his smile only widened in response.

His armor’s invisibility duration had come to an end, so he was very much visible.

His green-colored armor featured overlapping plates of finely shaped metals to form the chestplate and Pauldrons, a skintight flexible and durable metal to form the rerebraces, vambraces, greaves and sabatons; and some other pieces of interlocked metals for the joints.

He wore a pair of metallic boots on his feet, reaching his knees, and a loincloth weaved with iron threads. There was no armor for his head and lower torso, but that same iron-thread-weaved clothing.

Everything stuck to his body perfectly in the right places, making him look like a fearsome warrior.

Damion’s gaze turned frigid, and he felt an itch on his skin again. He didn’t know what it was, but he noticed that he felt it anytime Dragon’s Reflective Skin was activated.

He ignored the feeling and focused ahead, pushing all distracting thoughts out of his mind. This was the showdown that would determine who left this place alive.