The Princess With The Jet Black Hair

[Some abandoned building]

"Okay, it's 8.58am, I'm on time."

Grabbing on to metal wiring, Damian climbed over a barrier that kept citizens away for the abandoned land, he then jumped off the top of the barrier and onto the ground.

He walked to the centre of the ground floor of the building and sighed, "This is probably the last place I'll see before I die. Well, at least I'm doing something right."

"Man... This sucks." He muttered under his breath.

Just then, a chilling breeze blew by and a rather displeased voice was heard.

"...What is he meaning of this?"

Damian's heart sank momentarily, when he heard that familiar voice. He whipped his head around and there he was, Erik. "Dude, can you stop appearing all of the sudden like that? I thought you're a ghost--"

Without allowing him to finish his sentence, Erik stomped towards him and crumpled the collar of his shirt, "...Where. Is. She?" Every word was said with much emphasis, which signified that he was not playing around.

Getting the hint, Damian threw him an expressionless look, "...She's not coming."

Erik gritted his teeth in anger, before he threw him across the room. His body hit against a wall, that was pretty old and wore out, causing the whole wall to collapse. Fine particles of debris scattered the room, forming a temporary grey cloud, before falling down onto the floor and Damian. "...Ow, that hurts."

Irritated, Erik walked towards Damian, "Go get her now."

Damian pushed his aching body up and reached out for his wounded head. Looking directly at Erik, he spat out, "...There's no way I'm doing that."

His superior was obviously not having it. Without any warning, he lifted one of his legs and made a swift movement, giving him a hard side kick to Damian's face.

The impact of that harsh blow made him fall to his side.

Erik then couched down and grabbed onto a handful of Damian's hair and yanked it such that his face would meet his, "If you don't want to die, get the princess."

"Die?" Damian repeated once before cracking into smirk, "That will be SO much better than going against my will." He then looked at Erik straight in the eyes, "...Why don't you do it now?"

Erik narrowed his eyes at him for a moment, before slamming Damian's face onto the pile of rubble. He stood up and walked away from him, towards the exit, "...I'll settle with you later."

However, just as he was about to leave, Damian appeared, suddenly, in front of him, blocking the exit. "Sorry, I can't let you go that easily."

Erik glared at him, but he still did not back down. This time, he then had no choice, but to attack.

Erik started by giving a kick which was aimed at Damian's jaw. Unfortunately, he blocked it with his forearm. Even though, he blocked it, the kick was so heavy that it made him lose a little footing. He tried to retain his stance immediately, but it was too late.

His instability was already caught by Erik's vigilant eyes. He hit the back of Damian's knee with the back of his heel, causing his to fall on one leg. Now that he had Damian at a disadvantageous level, he manifested a huge shard, of what looked like black tinted glass, from the ground. But, of course, it was not. It was actually a shard of his element, shadow.

He stabbed Damian, in the arm, with that shard which was surrounded by black vapour.

An acute pain exploded throughout his arm, that caused him to fall forward and crumpled into a ball. His face was in so much pain that his complexion has started to ashen and his vision was slowly turning blurry. Even so, he tried to pushed himself up, but sadly, he could not find the strength to do so. The pain was just too excruciating, "...Dammit. Why does it hurts so much...?"

Looking at his betrayed partner in agony, Erik took this chance to leave... Or so he thought he could.

Erik manifested an another shard, and launched it into hand, hoping that it will loosen his grip, but it did not. Cursing under his breath, he manifested the next one and went for his back. Again, it did nothing effective.

This time, Erik looked down at the casted shadow of himself and focused his energy on it. Suddenly, his shadow twisted and started moved on its own, forming a rope like shape. The shadow then manifested itself from he ground and wrapped Damian whole, like a snake.

Yet, his ankle was still not released.

Focusing more energy into his attack, the manifested shadow tightened its grip. As it got tighter and tighter, Damian could feel that his organs were about to be crushed. The pain was just torturous, but he did not want to let go. He knew that letting him go this early would not give Emily and her group enough time to escape from this place, so he wanted to buy some time for them. He really wanted to persist, but his body could not. He could feel a couple of his ribs were already broken, further evident from his blood filled mouth.

With every second passing like an eternity, he could see black patches slowly filled his vision. Before he knew it, his sight faded to darkness.

Erik kicked the unconscious guy over, to see him in an extremely dreadful sight. Damian did not looked alive... He looked like a fresh corpse.

Erik squatted down wanting to check if he was still alive or not. However, the presence of a fireball, that was approaching him at full speed, had stopped him from doing so. He jumped away from the body, in order to evade that surprise attack.

He gyrated and took a look at his attacker.

It was the fire demon.

Beck's eyes were lit with rage, once he caught sight of Damian, "...What did you do to him?"

Erik said nothing.

Beck did not took that silence as an answer, he launched himself towards the mysterious man and manifested a sword that was blazing with fire. He swung it vertically, hoping that it will line up his enemy's flesh. However, it did not. Instead, Erik countered it with a sword with his own, which was black tinged.

Both of their swords crossed with neither of them were willing to give in. However, Erik's strength overpowered Beck. He staggered backwards, after his failed attack, to only met with another attack.

Erik threw himself to Beck to land a kick to his ċhėst, but he blocked it abruptly with his sword. Unfortunately, the impact of the kick made him flew momentarily towards a pillar nearby, which was already worn off. The pillar collapsed and more debris filled the room.

Seeing his opponent was not moving, Erik dismissed his sword and turned to the exit...

"This is GREAT!" A voice suddenly boomed throughout the room.

Erik turned to see Beck had already shot up on his feet.

Beck started laughing like a lunatic, before pausing to give Erik a taunting smile. His eyes and hair had completely changed, they were both red in colour and his pupils were slit. In first second he was laughing, but in the next second he had landed a hard blow on Erik's cheek.

Erik stumbled to the side as blood trickled down his lips and onto the ground. Suddenly, a kick sent him flying towards another pillar, completely smashing it as well.

"What's wrong?" Beck asked in the most mocking tone, "Where's all your energy? You were doing great just now, you know?"

Erik got up and his shadow moved once again. This time it went straight for Beck, his shadow then went up to his ankle and it darkened around his skin, causing Beck's feet to be planted onto the ground, unable to move an inch.

"Oh? Shadow, huh." He said in amusement, "That's an interesting element, don't let me down."

In the blink of an eye, Erik appeared in front of him, with the intention of attacking. Unable to move, he decided to take that attack. Erik manifested his sword and put it straight into his ċhėst.

Beck jerked forward as the weapon went through his flesh and almost instantly. Black coloured blood started to fill his mouth and soon after he couldn't help but to cough it all out.

Wheezing and panting, he forced out, "...That...That was a pretty good attack..." He paused for a moment and looked up to give Erik a grin, "...Unfortunately, you're in a tight spot as well."

Erik looked down to see a fireball aimed at his torso. Without hesitation and warning, Beck launched the ball of fire straight towards his bottom half torso. Erik wanted to escape from the attack, but Beck held one of his wrists tightly, not wanting him to dodge the attack.

Erik immediately manifested a shard of his element, on his other hand, to block the attack. The fireball was reflected back, hitting one of the two remaining pillars.

Once that pillar collapsed, the whole building started to shake and debris from the ceiling started to fall onto the ground.

"...This isn't good." Beck muttered under his breath, "Well, I guess Beck can deal with this himself."

All of a sudden, Beck's appearance returned to normal. Lost, he stared at Erik for a second followed by the ceiling, and then his wounded ċhėst.

Erik released his shadow and pulled his sword out of him, making him jerked forward once more. He then immediately vanished to avoid being crushed by crumbling infrastructure.

Beck grabbed hold to his ċhėst as his breathing got weaker by a heartbeat. He turned to see Damian, lying unconscious a few inches away from him. "Crap, we got to go out as soon as possible."

He rushed over to Damian and grabbed him, even though his wound protested. He then headed for the exit as quickly as his body could handle.

Fortunately, he managed to get out at the last second, before the the whole building collapsed, leaving nothing, but rubble.

Beck dropped onto the ground, just after their sheer escape, dropping Damian along as well.

Lying on the ground, he struggled to gasp for oxygen, but the pain was preventing him from doing so. His vision started to blur and slowly his whole world turned into nothing, but darkness.