Stepping outside the gate. The grounds were littered with the dismembered bodies of the people who had been unfortunate to be outside when the attacks had begun. Soldiers and civilians were all slaughtered, the culprits being the giant snakes which were now busy feasting on what was remaining. He shook his head in pity. Aside from the snakes, the only living things outside were the two people levitating a meter above the ground.
He identified Elora Darkfang, with her black hair and silver-slitted eyes. She was one of the oldest and most powerful people who served the emperor. Feared by the empire's enemies for her assassination skills, she was mostly known as the poison mistress, an acute moniker. The other person was probably Igor Shadowblight. Damien hadn't met the man before, but he had made efforts to identify any spirit lord serving under the empire.
The snakes stopped their feeding and focused on Damien the moment he arrived, barring their fangs, the ones without a smidgen of intelligence rushed him, while the older ones with traces of intelligence slithered back to their mother. With a look and a little glow from his eyes, they all exploded, including the ones running away, none were spared. Dying and splattering the desert sands with body parts, parts that began emitting black smoke that began withering any flesh around it.
Looking up at the two people floating. "You should take care to train your children not to bite off more than they can chew," He said to Elora.
She was now looking furious, he didn't know why, probably the killing of children she had spent years of time and resources to make stronger. He didn't care. "You're going to pay for that," She replied, her silver slits beginning to glow.
"I did warn you what would happen if you didn't stay out of my business," Damien said, a sly grin appearing on his face, he nodded to where he could sense the spy screaming in pain with a snake coiled around his body. "Or did your spy forget to deliver my message,"
Igor shadowblight summoned a massive hammer into his right hand, and a huge tower shield appeared on his left. "The empire does not respond well to threats by their lessers," Armour conjured out of the shadow and rose to cover him.
"Did you inform your emperor who you were about to fight, he should know better than to incur my ire," Damien said.
Elora smiled. "We know how weakened you are after your trip to the metaphysical" Her smile widened. "You might be able to fight one of us in your weakened state, but two, we are going to crush you," She said, anticipation plain on her face.
She wasn't wrong. He was weakened after expending massive amounts of energy and straining his mind to power and hold their makeshift domain together, what they didn't know was that as weakened as he was, he could still easily fend off both of them without really trying. Probably kill them if he put in more effort.
Damien began levitating, preparing himself. "Come on then, you both need a teaching moment on where you stand in the hierarchy of power," He said, power flooding him.
Igor attacked first, his passing cracking the ground and causing a shockwave. His massive hammer came down on Damien with the force of a dozen massive boulders, promising a crushing death.
Damien caught it in his palm, the energy from the collision causing shockwaves and shaking the ground around them for dozens of meters. Igor's eyes widened when his attack was casually caught, so he was able to see but couldn't react quickly to the punch Damien landed on his face, blasting him back a dozen meters.
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Elena came in next, daggers made out of darkness with their blades glistening with venom on her hands, one swiped for his neck, the other trying to eviscerate him from hips to shoulder. She was rewarded with both of her hands being cut off at the wrists, it would regenerate in seconds, but it still bought him time to respond to Igor who stepped aside from the retreating Elena, coming in with more wariness now. His hammer was now shrouded in shadow, enforcing it, so Damien instead blocked it with a conjured shield, the shield cracked. Damien responded by trying to punch him again, which was blocked by his huge tower shield, the force still pushed him sliding back, but he was uninjured.
All their exchange of blows had taken only a few seconds, but the damage from the forces expelled had destroyed the environment, causing shockwaves and quakes that caved in one side of the city wall and pulverised any flesh remaining on the ground, turning them to pastes.
Elena conjured dozens of floating daggers, their blades glistening with snake venom. She sent them flying and stabbing at Damien from different angles while she came behind them. Instead of dodging, he blasted energy from his body, destroying her flying daggers.
Catching her on her now regenerated wrists."You're all so weak," he said to her. Stoking the already frustrated expression on her face. His words came back to bite him a moment later when he didn't quickly react to Igor who suddenly appeared at his side, hammer smashing into Damien, he was blasted into the city walls and through it, crashing through multiple buildings, collapsing them before he finally smashed into one that collapsed on him.
He groaned. That hurt, a little. He thought. Standing up, he didn't have much time to take stock of himself before a dagger stabbed for his heart, he turned sideways, avoiding it, but he couldn't avoid the second one that came a moment later, stabbing into his shoulder. He grunted, looking through the human-shaped holes in the dozens of houses he had blasted through. He spotted Elena speeding towards him with daggers raised, Igor following at the back with his hammer and shield.
Deciding to get a little serious, he pulled the dagger from his shoulder, infusing energy into the injured part to destroy the venom. Even though Elena was far weaker than him, she was still a poison mistress at the rank of spirit lady, it wouldn't pay to underestimate her inventions.
Facing his attackers, he summoned his warspear. Seven feet of magically grown wood joined with two feet of black blade met Elora's attack, punching through her defences and into her shoulder, holding her uninjured arm back, he stepped closer, drawing her in and using her as a shield for the approaching hammer. Igor stopped his hammer before it could smash into Elora. Damien took the opportunity, stepping back from Elora to get some space, he kicked her into a surprised Igor, throwing them both into another building.
He could sense that the people were not done evacuating, so he decided to take the fight back outside the city walls.
Attacking, he punched Igor on his shadow-crafted breastplate, denting it and blasting him closer to the walls. Dozens of houses fully collapsed from the released shockwaves.
Grabbing Elora by the neck, he slapped her back down into the ground, creating a large crater. Picking her back up again, he punched her out of the crater and into the city walls, dozens of cracks spreading through.
He floated out, catching up to Igor who was beginning to stand. With his spear, he pierced through the cracks that were opening in the man's armour. Igor tried to bash him with his shield, but Damien stopped it flat with his palm.
Drawing back his spear, he swept Igor's feet out of him, kicking him before he could fall completely to the ground. The man crashed into Elena who was beginning to get up, blasting them both out of the city.
Floating through the hole in the wall, he said. "I remember you saying something about how I couldn't take on the both of you," He smiled, taunting them."You must have overestimated your strengths to think I wouldn't be able to handle a couple of weaklings like you,"
Looking at Elora, she was about to explode, her shoulder and mouth leaking blood, while Igor was starting to look frustrated, his armour was pierced and cracked, blood pouring through.
Despite the visual signs of injuries, he knew they were hardly injured.
He knew what they were about to do next from the way they firmed their expressions.
Energy blasted out of them as their images were summoned, changing the surrounding areas for miles and covering the city in darkness and shadows.