An emerald dome of large interlocking plates, sheltering the entire town, drifted down in motes as its structure dissolved, successful at its job in handling the impromptu attack.

Damien immediately spread out his senses, enveloping the entire town and most of its surroundings. He saw the massive splash attack surrounding the town at the edge of the dome's protection.

"How did they appear without us knowing? This should not be possible," Keilan said, perplexed.

"I plan to find that out soon enough," was Damien's answer.

"The town—" Elas began.

"Is safe," Damien assured him. "Other than some minor, healthy shocks and a few light bruises, the people are fine." He kept the fact that their near future was uncertain.

Elas, though unable to ascertain their attackers, still stood calm, not a shred of fear in his eyes. Damien smiled at the sight.

'he has so much confidence in us that he doesn't believe he will die'

That, more than anything, resolved Damien to deal with this without any casualty.

Finally, the dome cleared, revealing a sight that would have sent anybody else into despair.

Above the town, drifting languidly through the skies, were blue sapphire-scaled dragons. Sea dragons. Damien counted six of them. All Spirit lords.

"How did they find us?" Surprise and worry bled into Keilan's words.

"Their king seems to be absent, so I'd summarize that these must have been in the area and by coincidence, detected us."

The six, two of which were mid-tier Spirit lords, with the remaining falling into the category of Low-tier, or early tier as most people called it, regarded them with unhidden hunger.

"Leave now, or your blood will water this land." He didn't bother shouting, they clearly heard him.

One of the mid-tier dragons drifted down a little. It bared its fangs at him. "You are the one known as Damien Elason, the so-called grey-eyed calamity?"

Damien didn't bother clarifying the question. Clearly, they'd already ascertained his identity before attacking.

Behind him, his sphere of perception detected the widening of Lena's eyes. Her eyes snapped back down toward him, taking him in with a newfound expression. Damien didn't have the time to uncover its meaning, he had bigger fish to fry.

"I know why you're here, so I'll give you this warning again, the same way I did for your prince. Leave. Now."

One of the low-tier dragons immediately roared, its deep primal roar echoing through the land for miles. "You dare threaten us!?"

This time, Damien's voice came out as a whisper. Yet, it carried through the entire town, reaching the ears of everyone, including the dragons.

"Trust me, I do not threaten."

Unwilling to give the dragons more of a headstart than they already had, Damien moved.

[Use this moment to train your intent.] Gray quickly suggested.

Damien refused. "A mistake might not kill me, but it can certainly obliterate this entire town and everyone in it. I can't play with the lives of people like that."

Still, Gray wouldn't be deterred. [Hey, there's nothing better than pressure to push your growth.]

Just to get the little grey man off his back, Damien quickly acquiesced. "Alright, I'll find a way, but I won't play with the lives of these people."

[No argument here.]

A single spatial step took him over the town just as another emerald dome materialized above it, Keilan appearing behind.

Despite his fearlessness, Damien knew not to underestimate dragons. They weren't a pinnacle race for nothing.

He could have gone through this battle without any form of protection, relying solely on his body to weather any attacks thrown at him. But he knew how foolish that would be. Certainly, he couldn't be killed by these dragons, but if another attack came while he was still regenerating from his physical injuries, it could see him immobilized or worse, captured. So he did something he hadn't thought to do for a while.

Over his simple white shirt and black, brown pants, a long coat draped over his body. Grey, with silver lines tracing down from his shoulder down to his wrist, and an incalculable number of tiny nigh invisible — even for him — runic inscriptions emblazoned all over it. And lastly, a silver raised collar protected his neck, giving him a final noble elegance.

[Are you sure about this?]

"Like you said: I need to learn how to use intent. What better way to sharpen my willpower than to push it beyond its limits."

[... You have a point.] Gray said, his voice strangely cautious. [... Just be careful, Damien. Don't push yourself beyond anything you can handle.]

"Sure."

Damien could admit, relying only on his raw physique for his recent battles had been more stupid than daring. He hadn't suffered any devastating injury, sure, but he could have. A head on attack from an image powered Spirit lord could have seen him severely injured, or worse, dead. Luckily, that hadn't happened.

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What he was about to do was something he had been avoiding for some time, more likely out of fear than caution. His physical prowess was supreme amongst Spirit lords, able to contend even with the powerful scales of dragons.

[I suggest you take back that claim.]

Damien coughed. 'maybe fifty-fifty'

He was extremely strong physically, though, but his mental strength remained his easiest weak spot. That was one of the reasons he'd avoided the fight when Shadow Hall's hands had come for him.

Shadow Hall assassins, especially those at the rank of 'Hand' were, above everyone else, masters in the shadow arts of infiltration, assassination, and all sorts of shadow activities. That meant some or, more likely, all, were certainly adept at what Gray called 'invasive type concepts.' He didn't want to be brought to his knees just by the snap of a mind wielder's fingers.

'But I can't do that anymore, can I?' he said to himself. 'Fear is good, healthy, even. It warns us when it's time to take a cautious approach, but refusing to face and overcome those fears would likely see me dead faster than the other way around..''

And besides, what right would he have to be called unparalleled amongst his peers if he couldn't even shore up his own weaknesses?

Resolved, a spear appeared in his hands as his aura spread, momentarily contending against the six Dragons, until Keilan joined his with him and their aura strength firmed.

Determination he'd thought lost to complacency ignited within him, burning brighter by the second, till it showed in his aura.

'Nahh, I don't want to be content with a mild superiority amongst the others. I want to become so strong they'd have to shield their eyes to truly look at me'

And with that, he attacked.

With a burst of speed so powerful it cracked the sound barrier, Damien impacted the closest dragon, his spear thrusting against the powerful dragon's scales and crushing it.

A roar reverberated through Damien's entire arm and straight into his body as the dragon recoiled from his attack. A deep, large hole could be seen in the location where its bulky head met its long serpentine body, with rivers of blood pouring out.

'We can't have such a waste.' he grimaced, calling on Keilan.

"On it."

And soon, a small gust of wind swirled through the air, capturing the blood into a whirlpool that was then funneled into an emerald constructed container placed on the ground.

Dragons were walking treasures.

He turned his attention to the rest, gouging their lack of decision other than the immediate retreat at his opening attack.

'Menoe was right. Dragons respond to true power'

He'd show them true power.

Not giving his first victim time enough to heal, Damien once again disappeared, tearing through space to appear on the other side of the dragon. He delivered the same attack again, eliciting another cry of pain, this time mixed with rage.

Before he could get out of the low-tier Spirit lords range, he got a glancing blow from a limb he didn't see coming, sending him crashing into a hill close by.

His body blew off the cap of the rocky mound, boring a hole deep into its foundation until he'd formed his own artificial valley.

Yet, physically, he was unharmed.

But his eyes struggled to focus through the sudden spike of headache that pierced into his brain, causing him more pain than if he'd suffered physically.

Luckily, the dragons proved uninterested in the settlement, immediately slithering through the air toward him.

Two of them were held back as a giant birdlike construct of emerald essence crashed into them, scratching and clawing against the scales of one, eliciting a loud metallic scraping sound. The other dragon suffered more, as a hammer of wind slammed into it with a thud that lifted sand from the earth.

Not one to let his brother have all the fun, Damien rose back into the air, his spear leading the way.

The dragons, judging by their proximity to each other, clearly wanted to capitalize on their numbers.

He didn't let them.

A flurry of starfalls flashed one after the other into their midsts, leading to small but powerful explosions, explosions which did nothing harmful other than forcing the dragons away from each other.

Damien came in, this time targeting one of the Mid-tier dragons, since his previous victim was now extremely wary of further attacks.

He knew his spear, sharp as it was, could not as easily pierce through the mid-tier scales as how it did with the low-tier dragon, so he came in with a full punch.

His fist managed to slam into the dragon's side, causing nothing but a small crack. Before he could get over his surprise and disappointment, the dragon's claw came in with a blur, catching him square on the chest.

He slammed back into his artificial crater, suffering no physical damage, though he had to stagger back up to his feet as his brain threatened to tear itself apart. He felt something warm trickling down his nose and ear. Raising his fingers to check, he was rewarded with the sight of blood.

'I can't take much more of this.'

His brief intermission ended as the dragons formed into a circle around him, their mouths opening wide and spewing high-pressure jets of blue-white corrosive liquid down on him.

The world slowed down to a crawl as Damien watched death come straight at him. He wasn't defiant like some people would when staring death in the face, oh no, Damien was terrified. So he did the only thing he could do at the moment.

He stepped through space, immediately appearing beside Keilan, whose bodily construct was cracked in multiple places and leaking droves of essence.

The two dragons he'd been battling with immediately fled, clearly un-eager to resort to an equal numbers fight.

"You look like the unfinished work of a blacksmith," Damien choked out a laugh at Keilan.

"Trust me, brother, you look significantly worse. Is that blood on you?"

"Later," Damien waved his brother off, his eyes sharpening as the dragons, back together, arranged themselves before him and Keilan. Their mouths opened in a low, reverberating growl as they stared at him threateningly.

"Let's not take this any further. Clearly, none of us wants to bring out our Astral images. So let's just call it a day, alright?" Damien said, trying for peace.

Now that his confidence had been subdued, he was already woke to the fact that if this fight continued, it would surely, at the very least, lead to a significant injury that would see him immobilized for the foreseeable future. And in a world where he was being hunted by an organization of shadow assassins who were obviously waiting around the corner for him to make their job easier by suffering a debilitating injury... Damien didn't want to risk it.

"The mouse opens its mouth now that it realizes it is not a lion," The mid-tier level elder growled. "Did you think a few words and the threat of an Astral image would see us leaving? Your head is wanted by our king, and he will have it." The other dragons growled in agreement.

Damien frowned but didn't reply. Another threat would only escalate the matter beyond what it was right now. So he held back his anger at the insult.

"Good," the dragon continued. "It is good that you now realize your place. Surrender yourself now and spare yourselves the terror of being hunt—"

The monologue was interrupted as the sky immediately vanished, replaced with the view of something else, something truly vast.

Everyone, including the dragons, stepped back as they no doubt felt the chill that spread through his spine.

The thing, shaped like a ginormous snowflake, radiated a pressure that was no less than its size. And although he recognized the core essence it was made of, the familiarity, his fear did not abate.

And as soon as it came, Damien immediately felt the brief attention of something brush past their location. Though he didn't feel anything hostile from it, clearly, the same could not be said for the dragons seeing as they'd immediately fled.

They didn't even look back.

[This should teach you a lesson in arrogance.]