Draconic King of Shadows-Chapter 94: Echoes of the Fallen

With swift steps, Damion took a step to the side and vanished, leaving the bolt of blue lightning to hit nothing but a swirl of shadows.

He appeared by Matilda’s side, his gaze still on Kaiden standing in the sky.

Kenzo and Damion exchanged a quick glance, and a few telepathic words later, Kenzo picked Matilda up and bolted away.

The sudden escape took Kaiden off guard, but he wasn’t bothered. They weren’t faster than lightning after all.

The clouds in the sky rumbled, preparing another bolt.

Damion raised his gaze to the sky, and Nyx turned into a three-meter-long, pointed pole.

’Can you handle it?’ Damion asked.

Nyx vibrated in his hands, affirming him confidently.

Damion sighed. "I haven’t really tested my speed and strength in this form," he said, loosening his neck and shoulders with a flex. "I’m much faster than before... stronger, and much more durable."

Kaiden didn’t hear what Damion just uttered, and even if he did, Damion doubted if he would show any expression. He was unable to fly or reach him in the air, so how was he going to do anything?

There was a pulse of Mana from the pole, and Nyx began to circulate a technique he retrieved from his well of memories.

Damion crouched suddenly, his quads expanding and his veins pulsing in his calves.

His bones groaned under the shocking pressure from his downward descent, then just as suddenly as he had crouched, he pushed out, causing a boom to echo as he shot up like a rocket, with a large ball of shadows following behind.

The ground caved in, a web of cracks snaking through it as the soil scattered.

Kaiden’s eyes narrowed at the ascent of the ’Demon’. The strength in its lower body was commendable, but what use was its ascent if it couldn’t dodge or maneuver midair?

Kaiden snorted, the image of the ’Demon’ in his mind practically crumbling into nothingness.

"Fool," Kaiden said, scrunching his nose in disdain.

Another bolt fell from the sky towards Damion, reaching him in an instant. However, he didn’t falter or panic.

The lightning bolt was just half a meter away from hitting him when he threw the pole in his arm to the side, causing the bolt to deviate from its original path and strike it instead.

Kaiden’s eyes widened, but he didn’t have time to retaliate as Damion was already upon him, wrapping his tail around his torso and cocking his fist to pummel his face.

A bang resounded as Kaiden crossed his Blood Lightning arm before his face, blocking the second punch as it streaked towards him.

He would have been launched back by the force had Damion not wrapped his tail around him securely. The force of the attack still pushed him backwards though, taking Damion with him.

Kaiden barely had time to react again, before another bone-shattering punch crashed on his crossed arm, further sending him a few steps back.

Dragon’s Reflective Skin was already activated, so the little bolts of lightning —that would have penetrated his scales— were reflected back at Kaiden.

Three more punches landed in quick succession, before Kaiden finally moved.

First he deflected the punch, then sent out a palm strike towards Damion’s open chest.

Damion twisted uncomfortably, letting the palm graze his skin only a little. He grabbed the arm and locked it under his armpit, before chopping at Kaiden’s neck.

The lightning arm bombarded him with thousands of volts, but he powered through it to complete his attack.

Kaiden’s locked arm suddenly dissolved, and a new one was created. The new arm blocked the chop, and taking control of the previous lightning arm, he attacked from behind.

Damion grunted as the Blood Lightning penetrated his scales and fried his insides. The ball of shadows behind tried to stop it, but the lightning penetrated regardless.

Damion’s eyes glowed with a violent light, and without warning, Nyx tore through the back of Kaiden, twisting cruelly and drawing blood.

Damion accessed his storage, pulling out his Magitech Armor and activating it. He didn’t care if it was destroyed by the lightning. It only had to do one last work before it succumbed.

The armor clicked around his hands, covering the Transcendent Rank hand wraps. His shadow flooded it, and Drake’s Poison Aura activated.

Dragon’s Authority was filled with a dark-green aura immediately, and the poison began to seep into Kaiden, slowly festering his wound.

The gauntlet absorbed a part of the poison, then using one of its skills, Damion’s wound began to heal quickly.

The Magitech had quite useful skills that he had never bothered to use. One of them was its ability to store energy within to be used to heal the user, and the other was what he was using at the moment.

The gauntlet absorbed the poison in the atmosphere, then converted it to heal Damion.

The damage Kaiden’s lightning was doing to Damion was healing just as fast as it was being made. Meanwhile, Kaiden’s wounds were exacerbating, further worsening his condition.

Damion raised his arm up, catching a lightning punch in his palm. His body seized for a second as the lightning electrocuted him, but his gauntlet did the needful, healing him immediately.

He cocked his arm backwards, letting the power of his hand wraps take effect.

A swirl of Shadow rounded his fist, hardening around it to form another solid layer.

A vortex of energy gathered around: Mana, Shadow and Poison.

Damion’s gaze locked unto his target, and his fist tightened. With a loud, primal roar, he unleashed a punch at Kaiden’s face, connecting his fist with a solid impact that sent the lightning user flying through the air.

Damion felt his face deform, his flesh tearing and his skull shattering, fragments of it tearing into his head and doing more damage.

Unrelenting, Damion instinctively formed a shadow platform beneath him and kicked off it, chasing the flying body.

A second punch landed with a reverberating bang, and Kaiden was buried into the ground.

Damion landed with a stomp of his feet on Kaiden, driving him into the ground.

He didn’t linger and immediately began raining down punches like a machine, sending a wave of cracks through the ground and deepening the hole.

A bolt of blue lightning fell from the sky at that moment, but Nyx was one step ahead, tearing out of Kaiden’s body and redirecting the lightning by turning into a pointed, metal pole.

Damion felt annoyed. Why wouldn’t he just die?

A thought entered his mind, and Nyx shot to his side and wrapped around his arm.

The size of his arm was already disproportionate to his body, but he didn’t mind, all he needed was more power!

His arm sparked, and a vortex of purple flames blazed around it.

His fist then descended like a speeding meteorite, threatening to level everything around.

The fist landed, and the collision was akin to a bomb going off.

Damion felt Kaiden’s body distort and twist under the raw power. His flesh scorched and burnt off, his bones fracturing and disintegrating, and his organs practically turning into mush.

Damion’s arm didn’t stop there and went through the body, ripping through the earth with the force of a missile and finally stopping...

Then another explosion erupted aggressively, carrying enough energy to throw Damion backwards, rupturing the ground and the area, denuding it of every fauna.

A shockwave-cum-heatwave spread outwards, pressuring the surviving plants and burning them intensely.

Kaiden’s body parts scattered around, the pieces burning at the same time and almost turning into ash.

The eruption was so strong, a mushroom cloud rose, crossing a staggering height of fifty meters and still climbing.

The soundwaves were great enough to reach the still retreating Kenzo, and he paused, looking back to see the mushroom cloud.

Matilda shook awake, but her pain still clouded her senses, though there was no way she would miss such a loud sound.

She looked back, perturbed, feeling her connection with Damion wavering.

The twins exchanged glances, and with tacit agreement, they slowly headed back.

It might have been be stupid to do so, but what if Damion was in danger?

’Answer already! Are you okay?!’ Matilda asked for the umpteenth time, tears already streaming down her eyes.

’Never been better,’ a reassuring, soothing voice entered her head, calming her nerves.

It took the duo longer than they expected to return, but by the time they got there, they couldn’t help but widen their eyes in shock.

Nothing... absolutely nothing, in the surrounding fifty meters was standing upright.

There was a deep crater there, with a depth of at least ten meters, and at the center of the crater was Damion, sitting with his legs crossed as if he had nothing to do with the destruction.

He was in a lotus position, and before him knelt three beings emitting a black fog.

One had a greenish aura tinted into the black fog, another had a yellow alluring aura to its black fog, and the third had a wild, purple electric aura to it.

"Venara, Lioran and Voltshade..." Damion muttered, rising to his feet. "Those are your names."