The Princess With The Jet Black Hair

[Fiore's castle, Infirmary]

Damian laid on the comfy bed, unable to bring himself to sleep. It was just one of those nights where he got insomnia. Many thoughts were on his mind but one in particular was how tempted he was to just escape from the castle right then and there, especially knowing how he might bring trouble to Emily and "pawns".

"Man... My plan didn't go so well did it?" He subconsciously blurted out.

Just then, a shadow flew past the window. It was quick, but it was caught by Damian's vigilante eyes. He jolted up and called out, "...Who's there?"

After a few seconds of silence, he began to doubt his eyesight, "Maybe it's an animal? Or maybe I'm just going insane? Honestly, I would not be surprised."

As he was about to fall back on the bed, the window nearest to him shattered. With his fast reflexes, he managed to evade it just in time. He landed on the floor and instantly went to his defence stance.

A shadow appeared on the ground, yet there was no one in sight. Slowly, the shadow moved onto the wall and a person manifested. Erik, to be exact.

Upon his arrival, Erik lunged towards Damian, attempting to grab him by the neck. Damian grabbed onto Erik hand, avoiding his grasp. However, Erik's power overrode his, thus causing Damian to ultimately lose to him.

With Damian's throat in his hand, Erik smashed Damian against a nearby wall, leaving a distinct spiderweb crack. Without mercy, he then dragged Damian, by the neck, up the wall. Damian's eyes rolled back as he struggled to breathe. His feet were also off the ground, and that was definitely not helping with his situation.

"How... Dare you betray Phantom?!" Erik shouted, "You would need to pay for that!"

Despite suffocating, he managed to forced out a couple of words. "...Ph...antom? I... don't want to b...be part of your filthy group any... more."

Erik gritted his teeth in anger as he increased the pressure of his grip, "...How dare you insult the organisation."

Just as his vision was about to fade to darkness, Damian mustered up there last drop of his strength and swung one of his legs towards Erik's face. That kick was much faster than his usual ones and it actually made contact with his ex-partner's face. It made Erik stumbled to his side, releasing Damian.

Damian coughed and gagged as he struggled to gasp for as much air as his lungs permitted, before Erik returned to his composure.

Erik wiped the blood that was trickling down his lips as an intimidating aura began to surround him.

"Uh oh... He's mad." Damian thought as he felt Erik's bloodlust. "Look, Erik. I'm quitting Phantom."

"What do you mean I need to beat you...?"

"If you want to quit Phantom, you need to beat one member before you're allow to leave." Erik replied calmly with his eyes fixated on Damian.

Erik then walked closer, closing the gap between Damian and himself, "Since you want to leave, I'll be your exit ticket. However, I will not go easy on you."

In a fraction of a second, black spikes started to manifest themselves on the ground and the walls that were near Damian. He quickly jumped away, avoiding them.

However, just as he landed, more spikes appeared, which made him moved to dodge them once more. "What... The hell? Isn't these made out of his element, shadow? When was he able to manifest all these at such speed...?"

As he was about to land on another spot, again, those spikes appeared. "How...?"

Unable to change his course of direction, he grabbed onto the tip of one of the spikes and pushed himself away from that spot.

He landed on the floor in a unprofessional and disorderly manner, as his wounds began to hurt. He looked at Erik, who was not moving much. Actually, he was stationary at his original spot and didn't seem to be tired at all. Compared to Damian, who were jumping around like a monkey for the past minute, Erik had an clear upper hand.

"Well, I'm not in the best position, am I?" Damian thought as he struggled to think about a strategy to save himself or to at least get him out of this situation. He was not in the best condition to fight in the first place, so meeting his hot headed ex-partner was not something lucky. "...Crappp, what should I do?"

There was a good second of hovering before Damian was about to fall back down onto the spikes. "You know what? Screw it."

Just as he about to reach those spikes, Damian landed on the face of the wall behind him momentarily, before pushing himself to Erik at high speed.

He pulled back one of his fists and tightened it, so as to prepare to launch an attack when he got close to Erik.

Even though he was nearing Erik, Erik did not budge a single inch. That itself made Damian feel a little uneasy.

"Can he not see this attack coming towards his face? Am I really moving that fast? Or is it... he has something else plan for me...?"

As his fist got nearer and nearer to his face, Erik let out an eerie grin in the last second and he said, "...How naive."

Afterwards, everything just happened so quickly... way too quickly.

Before he knew it, he found himself stuck in midair and he was unable to move. In the state of shock, he looked down and saw red liquid that splattered onto the floor. He looked further down onto his body and the pain finally settled in. His body was penetrated by the spikes. His hands... arms... legs... and torso... They were all punctured.

Erik dismissed his spikes, causing Damian's body to fall onto the cold and hard ground.

Erik walked over to him and kicked him over, disturbing his train of thought. "Damn, I thought I could finally die... Apparently not."

"...You lost. Return to Phantom and receive you punishment, traitor."

"...Return to Phantom? What a j... Joke." Damian forced out as he panted.

Erik narrowed his eyes at Damian intimidatingly, before giving him a kick to the side of his cheek. He then forcefully grabbed Damian by his collar, "You're coming back, it doesn't matter if you want it or not. It's an order by the Boss himself."

Erik smashed Damian's head onto the ground, sending more agony and pain to his body. Even so, he managed to forced out a couple more words, "...Why don't you just fuċkɨnġ kill me... already..."

Erik paused for a while, before he said, "...It will be pleasant if I could kill you, trust me. However, even I can't do that, since, the Boss, himself told me not to."

"W...Why...?"

"Because... you--" Erik was about to reply when suddenly a voice appeared behind him, "Wow, this place is in such a mess. The king would definitely be mad if he sees this."

Erik released Damian and turned to see who it was.

"Hey, Damian. You aren't doing so good huh. Need some help?" Ben asked with a smile.

Flabbergasted, Damian stared at him for a few seconds. "...Where the hell did you come from?"

"Um, the window." Ben said as he pointed to window, or now the window panel.

Damian could not believe how casual the guy was and began snickering to himself, "...Emily's friends are sure weird... just like her."

"Hey, what are laughing at?" Ben asked as he looked over to him, "You know that, you're about to die, right?"

"Pfft-- Yeah. It's nothing and I sure do need some help. I'm dying, like literally. Can't you see these holes on my body?" Damian replied as he lifted one of his hands up to show him his punctured arm.

"Yeah, I can see that." Ben said while retaining his smile. "Ah, I have one question, before I help you."

"Question? What... Question?" Damian asked as he slowing pushed himself up, even though his body was screaming in pain. He then used the walls to support his frail body.

"...This is Erik, right? I mean I heard you calling him by that name already, but just to confirm." Ben asked in a rather chilling voice.

"Well, let's just say I was here a while ago and I maybe wanted you to get beaten up a little bit, before I make my entrance. Because you did cause Beck to suffer, didn't you? So, I guess this is my type of justice. Don't worry though, I did call Mary in advance." Ben replied with a plastered smile.

"So, you were here long ago, from the beginning?" Damian asked once more as he gave him a droll look, "...And you wanted me to suffer?"

"Well, yeah, just a little bit." Ben answered nonchalantly.

"Anyways, you want to quit Phantom, right? I'll help you with that. I'll fight in your place. Mary should be outside the infirmary." Ben informed. "So, get out and find her."

"...I'll deal with the trash here."

Damian noted how extremely chilling Ben's last few words were. Subconsciously, he nodded.

Running solely on adrenaline, Damian limped to the door and twisted the doorknob. Just as he wanted to swing the door open, it did not budge. He looked up and saw Erik's hand on it, "...I didn't say you can go. You are coming back with me."

Just then, a sword cut through the room, flying directly between the two of them, but it was aimed at Erik's hand. It was so fast that Erik had no choice but to dodge it in order to not get hurt.

Seeing that Erik's hand was off, Damian took the chance to rush out.

"...You're my prey now."