Zurat’s avatar was slowly being consolidated and with that his overall strength and abilities grew many fold. At this point Damien could no longer keep his flame materialized as it was being devoured by Zurat’s reinvigorated ability. Damien was now stuck in a predicament since he did not expect him to have another state at this point.
‘It’s all or nothing at this point. I just have to continue on.’
Damien hardened his will to go through with his plan regardless of its outcome. He calmed his mind once more and focused on the circulating Mana Mist in his body. Instead of making it power an ability, he let it all out in its natural state. In the next moment Damien was completely surrounded in thick fogs of Mana Mist. The mist was as pure as ever, reflecting the color of his hair. Sprinkles of shining gold could be seen throughout the mist like stars in the night sky. Everyone became confused by the scenario since bringing out your Mana had no real practical effect in any matter. On the other hand this action only caused more unrest to occur where the Elders gathered.
“Take it all, Zurat! It’s waiting for you!”
Zurat placed his glowing red eyes upon where Damien would be. His figure was covered by the density of the Mana Mist, but Zurat knew he was in there. Zurat’s avatar’s circular rows of teeth started rotating at faster and faster revolutions until it shook the very foundation of the arena. The spectators had to hold themselves together since they were experiencing violent tremblings. Once the avatar hit the max revolution it began to take in most of Damien’s Mana Mist he deliberately ejected.
In a few seconds Zurat had devoured all of the pure Mana Mist that hid Damien. His avatar has become fully corporeal, allowing Zurat to merge into his true self. The nightmarish creature took its first real steps, sizing Damien up from above. A voice filled with shrieks echoed into everyone’s mind.
“You are just a dumb human brat. You just gave me the power to transform into my true self. I’ll slowly take my time with you.”
Damien stood straight without cowering, to Zurat, who was a culmination of demonic night terrors. Even still, deep inside of Damien’s being, he was battered with fear. The only thing keeping him up was his Flame Core that was now actively pulsing through his body. It was a defense mechanism that was already built in. Damien took the moment to quell his fears and took a step forward.
“Why do you think I did that, Zurat. You couldn’t even devour all of my Mana! And now you can’t devour anymore! You are too filled with my Mana and I know you won’t be able to digest it right away. This was my plan and now I will face you with everything I got!”
His plan was heard by everyone, but not even the Elders could see the upside of such a plot. Damien did not care of the opinion of others as everything was now set in motion to unleash a full scale barrage of pure destruction.
‘I practiced this technique quite a bit, hopefully it does not fail me now.’
Damien still had a little over half of his Mana reserve left. It was so dense and pure that not even a beast that could cause disasters with its devour ability, could take too much of it in. This time Damien did not hold back on his output and focused on creating a throwing spear made purely of his white flame. It was 2 meters long with wisps of fire jumping out. The heat was so intense the air was being distorted creating a mirage of multiple Damien. The two were in a standoff as they both felt danger coming from each other. By the strength of the heat Zurat felt, he knew it was on a whole other level. Even then Zurat knew he must go on, so he broke the stalemate by coming at Damien head on.
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Damien raised his flame spear to the level of his face and prepared to throw it. He let nothing back as he let it rip through the air. The spear pierced through the air that made sound waves explode everywhere around it. As the spear left Damien’s hand he had already worked on creating a new one to follow up on his attack. Each of those spears were filled with the maximum amount of Mana he could control into a form at once. This came out to around 10% of his Mana so he only had a couple of uses left before he ran dry.
Zurat was on track to collide with the spear, but he did not mind. He had the confidence to be able to take one hit in return to be able to land an attack on Damien. Zurat swung his serrated tail to cut the spear in half. The speed of his tail was a bit faster than the speed of the spear and he landed a perfect blow to the middle of its shaft. It snapped perfectly in half and that was when Zurat found out he made a mistake. The moment it was broken the spear began to glow brightly blinding Zurat and most of the students around. Instantly all of the energy inside of the spear exploded, covering the entirety of the arena. The remaining energies were stopped by a barrier that protected the spectators.
Damien stood by unaffected since it was his own Mana. He waited with anticipation with a new spear ready to go if needed. He waited for the smoke to clear up but he failed to sense quicker that Zurat was approaching from the side. He was a step too late and Zurat was already upon him with his 4 jaws open to munch down.
‘What the hell! It didn’t even slow him down!’
Damien could only react by jabbing his flame spear directly into its mauls. Zurat laughed hysterically at his action and welcomed it by trying to devour it for himself.
“Thanks for the meal! I’ll use your own Mana against you!”
It’s as if Zurat refused to believe that he could not absorb any more energy. This would’ve been checkmate and the end of the duel if he were to be right, but he wasn’t. It was exactly how Damien said, he had no more space to devour. Zurat’s revolving teeth tore the spear to shreds but the remaining energy from the spear exploded into flames inside of Zurat’s mouth. The blast was concentrated in a small radius causing it to be more deadly. Zurat shrieked in pain as he stumbled backwards from the blow. He shook his head vigorously trying to shake off the pain but it was worse than what he expected. 2 out of 4 of his jaws were maimed and burned beyond recognition. He could no longer control those limbs while they sagged down his face.
The crowd was too shocked to make any noise. Everything about this duel was outside of their expectations. The only noise they made was the sound of their lips smacking from their parched mouths. Zurat thrashed around a while longer, giving Damien the chance to re-up on another spear.
‘I need to get him while he’s distracted! If I can pierce through the skin and send the blast inside of him then I feel like that would be my win!’
He went for the opportunity to land a surprise thrust into Zurat’s open abdomen, but Damien did not expect for what came. Zurat ignored his attack in favor of landing one of his own. They both struck each other, but Damien was the one sent back flying with no recourse to balance himself. He slammed straight into the barrier making it crack slightly from the force. Damien heard bones snap from his side and he puked out blood while he was fading in and out of consciousness. Damien slid down to the floor where he could only look up and see Zurat rushing in once more. Damien could not move his body but he was able to notice through his blurry sight that his flame spear had been stuck into his abdomen. He reached out his open hand and closed it into fist to detonate it. Another explosion occurred that derailed Zurat’s route and put him onto the floor as well.
The impact that Damien sustained was tremendous that it even knocked his glasses off his face. He didn’t even realize it since he could not even form thoughts anymore. Even still, his body automatically used up its own Mana with the help of his Flame Core’s control and used it to begin mending his wounds. Slowly the pain began to fade away but at the cost of his remaining Mana.
‘Damn, this is as far as I can go. Hopefully Zurat stays down, but I doubt it. I just didn’t work hard enough.”
Damien slowly stood up as he held his side where his ribs were still healing. He also unsheathed his word from his back and stabbed it into the ground for extra support. He watched intensely at the dust cloud Zurat was currently in. Every second that passed by, Damien felt a greater sense of fear bubble up within the depths of his being. When he felt his fear reach the peak, that was when the dust cloud began moving. At the same time a maniacal laugh pierced through to the entire crowd. The dust dispersed with Zurat revealing his own gruesome injuries, but he was in position to finish what had started.