With a flick of his hand, more than half of the air bullets dropped toward Damian, all converging on the spot where he stood.
Damian sprinted forward in a zigzag, narrowly dodging each one. Then, they all expanded at once. The sudden blast of compressed air slammed into him and hurled him sideways.
Fex didn't let up.
He threw two punches from distance, each one launching a compact gust that slammed into Damian's chest like an invisible fist.
He closed the distance in an instant. With the opening, Fex unleashed a flurry of punches to Damian's chest. Blow after blow landed cleanly
Damian predicted the next strike and caught Fex's arm mid-swing.
"Shit."
Lightning surged through Damian's fist as he threw a counterpunch. Before it could land, Fex released a powerful gust of wind. The force ripped Damian's grip away and launched Fex upward. He twisted mid-air, planting his feet on nothing but compressed currents.
Damian looked up just as Fex brought both hands down like an axe. A massive column of compressed air dropped from the sky. Damian threw himself sideways. The column hit the ground where he'd stood and the floor shattered
Damian rolled to his feet and Fex landed a few meters away
Fex once again threw a barrage of punches from a distance. Each one a fist-shaped gust that streaked toward Damian. He did his best to evade but one of them clipped his shoulder, spinning him. Another caught his ribs. A third slammed into his forearm
Fex threw a right hook from a distance. The gust curved wide, trying to catch Damian from the side. Damian ducked under it and sprinted forward with incredible speed
Fex's eyes widened. He raised a guard as Damian's punche landed, sending him flying.
Damian lowered his fist and stared at his hands, confusion flickering across his face. One word surfaced in his mind.
Slow.
He wasn't moving the way he used to. His body felt heavy, weighed down by something unseen. The pressure faded the moment Fex pulled away.
He looked at Fex, then at himself, then back again
Damian exhaled sharply.
"God, I hate manipulators."
The vast majority of Gifts and curses fell into three broad paths, Nearly every gift could be placed somewhere within these three paths, whether neatly or imperfectly
Conjurers were those who created, forming objects or constructs from essence/curse energy that possessed shape, structure, and persistence.
Emitters released their power outward, converting essence/curse energy into raw phenomena such as lightning or fire
Manipulators governed what already existed, exerting influence over elements, forces, or environments through constant focus and precision rather than raw output.
A manipulator's effectiveness depended on access to their medium. Without access to it, their abilities are greatly weakened or may fail entirely. A water manipulator, for example, becomes severely limited in areas with little or no water.
This weakness is balanced by a clear advantage. Compared to conjurers and emitters, manipulators use far less essence/ curse energy during extended combat, allowing them to fight for longer periods of time.
In Fex Caster's case, this limitation did not apply.
His element was air.
And air is everywhere.
"Looks like you've noticed, not that it matters, though there's no-"
Before he could finish, Damian charged up a lightning bolt and shot it from the tips of his fingers straight at Fex.
It was inches away from his skull before Fex was able to jump vertically to avoid it.
Not letting up, Damian leaped into the sky and grabbed Fex, hurling him straight into the ground and causing a small crater
Damian gathered lightning around his body and came down like a thunderbolt, both feet aimed at the crater's center.The impact made the battlefield rumble. However, Fex was nowhere to be found.
Damian straightened and started scanning the battlefield
Near escape after near escape, and somehow Fex was still breathing.
Damian vanished and reappeared thirty meters away, right in Fex's path.
"Found you," he said with a grin
Damian slammed his foot into the ground and Lightning poured from his leg and vanished into the earth
For a heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then the floor erupted.
Energy tore through the ground and erupted outward, flooding the area in violent arcs of electricity
Fex shot upward on a spiral of air, barely clearing the blast radius.
Fex sent a few more air bullets in Damian's direction, but this time, he effortlessly dodged the attacks and slammed his fist into the last bullet as it exploded on impact
The reason Damian was slower was because of an application of Fex's gift called Air Lock. It allowed Fex to exponentially increase the air resistance around a target as long as they were within a certain range.
"Ten meters. That's his range." Damian thought
"As long as I stay outside it, he can't slow me down."
"But I don't want to stay outside it"
"I want to tear his head off."
The onslaught of long-range attacks was to keep Fex from focusing and using his ability to make Damian slower again. And without Air Lock, Fex physically couldn't keep up with Damian
Fex sent out another wave of wind, but this time, it came from behind and struck Damian, pushing him forward.
Fex charged in as well and threw a punch that landed square on Damian's cheek.
Contrary to what Fex expected, Damian did not get knocked out. He didn't even go flying.
He barely moved. The punch had almost no effect on him.
"You call that a punch?" Damian asked.
He immediately kneed Fex in the gut and grabbed him by the hair.
"Let me show you what a real punch looks like."
He charged up lightning in his fists once again and threw a punch that connected cleanly with Fex's face.
The strike was so powerful that it sent Fex flying from the middle of the battlefield all the way back toward the entrance of Rebellion's castle.
Fex's body lay still. Rebellion members who rushed over could have sworn he was dead if not for one thing: the numbers in the sky hadn't gone down.
If Fex wasn't dead, he was very close to being so.
Aurora Winterborne was one of the first to reach him. The moment she saw Fex lying there, her eyes widened.
"Oh no…"
She knelt beside him and quickly checked his condition. From the start, she had been against the idea of Fex fighting Damian. But Alexandria had insisted that Fex's ability was the perfect counter.
The battered body in front of her told a different story.
"Fex! Fex! Wake up!"
His eyelid twitched. The other was too swollen to move.
He parted his lips and sound escaped
"Did… I die and go to heaven?" he murmured weakly. "If not, then why is there an angel here?"
Aurora blinked, almost stunned that he still had the energy to flirt.
"Shut up," she whispered. "Just... shut up and let me get you out of here."
She pulled his arm over her shoulder and lifted. Fex screamed as he rose and ultimately passed out.
Blood dripped down her back as she carried him towards the defense line
In the distance, Damian's figure came into view.
On his way through the battlefield, he had run into groups of Rebellion fighters again and again. Each delay, each interruption while Kai was possibly being relocated, only fueled the anger building inside him.
A girl with a spear lunged at his back. He caught the spear with one hand, wrenched it from her grip, and drove the butt into her throat. She fell gurgling.
Two more charged. He sidestepped the first, grabbed his face, and pushed. The man's neck snapped with a sound like breaking wood. The second froze. Damian punched through his chest.
He kept walking.
His head jerked to the side. Then again. Sparks danced violently across his armor in random bursts, and his eyes went wide.
"The nerve," he muttered. "The absolute nerve."
More fighters blocked his path. Twenty of them. Thirty. A desperate wall of bodies trying their best to somehow take out Damian, no matter how impossible it might seem
Damian stopped.
He looked at them. At their raised weapons. Their shaking hands. Their terrified eyes still held hope.
"What do you think this is?"
No one answered.
"What do you honestly believe your efforts will amount to?"
He took a step forward. Lightning crawled up his arms, his neck, his face.
"THE ANSWER IS NOTHING!"
The word exploded from him as he amplified his voice with essence. The shock of it rippled through the battlefield, and everyone within earshot felt their bodies tense.
Damian's head snapped to the side. Then again. The lightning surged brighter.
"I'M TIRED OF ALL OF YOU STANDING IN MY WAY. WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT? WHAT GIVES ANY OF YOU—"
He stopped.
Breathed.
When he spoke again, his voice was quieter and that made it a whole lot worse.
"Fine....I think I get it now"
"Maybe a little demonstration will remind everyone just how powerful a knight really is"
Almost immediately, Lightning exploded from his body in all directions.
---
Back in Vanguard's castle, Isaiah sat upon the throne.
His armor remained spotless, its white surface still gleaming as if it had never seen battle. In fact, he hadn't taken a single step outside since entering the castle.
He hadn't even bothered to use the throne's special privilege that allowed him to monitor the war outside
Instead, he had simply gone to sleep.
Several Vanguard members stood throughout the throne room as guards, though a few of them quietly questioned the necessity.
Why would the strongest person here need protection?
Isaiah himself didn't believe he needed any protection either, but he allowed them to remain. If they wanted to guard him, that was their choice.
His indifferent attitude toward the entire exam was a trending topic of discussion among the students.
Some believed it was arrogance, confidence that no matter how the battle unfolded, he was strong enough to drag Vanguard to victory.
Others had a different impression.
They thought he simply didn't care.
And the fact that he was currently sleeping on the throne did little to disprove that idea.
Then, without warning, his snores stopped.
Isaiah's eyes slowly opened.
"Damian's essence is becoming unstable again," he said casually, as if speaking to a friend standing beside him.
The guards exchanged confused glances, unsure how to respond.
"Honestly," Isaiah continued aloud, "his hotheaded nature and his volatile gift are a terrible combination."
He leaned back slightly in the throne.
"One of the perks of his gift is immunity to lightning and electricity," he went on calmly. "But when his mind starts to fall apart, controlling the current inside his own body becomes a problem."
"His essence burns faster. His attacks lose precision."
He paused.
"If he doesn't regain control soon… he'll become a burden."
Isaiah leaned forward and rested a hand on the hilt of the sword at his side. For a moment, he seemed lost in thought.
Then he spoke again
"Do you think it's time for me to join the war?"