Clearing the Spatial Realm

[Spatial realm]

Sinking into the fabric of space, Darganth found himself facing off against two mythic ranks, one mage and one aura user, leading a group of seven fourth rank mages. Appearing mere meters below their formation, he barely had a moment to scan them and get an estimate of their power before his momentum already carried him right into their midst.

As such, he barely had anything to go off before deciding to strike at the mage. Turning his flight path toward him in the last moment, Darganth struck out with his reeled-back claw an instant later. Slicing through where the mage flew, this attack struck the shield surrounding the man dead on.

For a brief moment after, sparks of energy erupted where his claw and the shield spell made contact as his body and the latter's energy clashed. Though with Darganth's massive advantage in mass compared to his opponent his movement remained completely unaffected by this, with the shield, and with it also the mage, being dragged along as he again moved away from the other humans.

This didn't last long as not even half a second later, Darganth's claws tore through the protection of the shield spell. Though this small delay had allowed the mage to pivot his body enough to dodge it when they cut nearly a third of the way to bisect the shield completely, it was also enough that the two had moved a few hundred meters away from his allies by the time this happened.

With at least a few seconds of time before the other humans would catch up, Darganth transformed back into a humanoid form. Using the transformation to instantly turn around by manifesting the new body facing toward his opponent, Darganth left barely any gap before already unleashing his next attack.

Wielding a spear in his right hand, he dashed at the mage with mana already gathering in his other palm. Unleashing it as he approached, Darganth sent a beam of spatial energy crashing into the mage's shield.

Obscuring his opponent's sight with the beam, he easily reached within striking distance of his spear. Dodging the shoddy attempt to keep him at a distance by leaning out of the path of the kinetic energy burst that came flying his way, he struck out in response immediately after.

Canceling the beam just before his attack struck, Darganth raked his spear horizontally across the shield with a wide swing. Twisting his wrist immediately after and shifting his grip, he quickly followed this up with a second swing that ignored the small gash he had already opened up and tore into the shied with a second swing.

With his spear extending far to his right after the second swing, Darganth didn't even wait to see whether his opponent noticed the opening in his approach and redirected his momentum upward. A moment later a rippled spread out from the mage and ripped apart the spot he floated just before, proving his choice correct.

Not deterred by this, Darganth shot closer to his opponent as he started moving back in retreat. Rotating his spear into a throwing position and reeling both arms back, he first struck out with his scale-covered left fist.

Expelling mana across the length of his forearm as he did so, his arm was surrounded by about a dozen darts of spatial energy when it struck the point where both his cuts intersected. Shattering the shield with the force of his strike, he immediately unleashed the swarm of projectiles at the mage.

At once, needle-like masses of energy struck all across the man's body. Though only barely piercing into his flesh and striking with such a spread that their physical damage remained minimal, the mage nonetheless screamed in pain as only part of his body managed to turn into elemental energy.

As such, his arms, legs, and lower half of his torso remained physical targets for Darganth to target with his spear. Still holding it reeled back, he threw it with as much force as he could muster, with the weapon finding its mark in the man's guts practically in an instant.

Knowing full well this this still wasn't enough to kill a mythic rank, Darganth didn't stop his assault. Pointing his right arm forward with two fingers outstretched, he caught his opponent in a telekinetic hold before dragging him closer with a single beckoning motion with those fingers.

Gathering a force spell of raw spatial energy in his other hand to disperse as much of his elemental body as possible, Darganth was already thrusting forward when his arm abruptly moved slightly to the left. As such missing the mage, he instead unleashed a pulse of spatial energy at the enemy aura user approaching from behind the mage.

Quickly expanding as it traveled toward the man, the circular blast of energy that spread out from his palm washed over him moments later. At the same time a violet colored aura formed around the aura user, causing the spatial energy of the spell to discharge in a small shock wave upon contact.

As this small explosion of energy erupted in front of his opponent, throwing him back, Darganth was already forming another spell in his hand. Thrusting it forward in a pushing motion, he unleashed a storm of numerous small spatial blades, with a barely perceivable stream of energy carrying them in a straight line toward their target.

Before the dust of the previous clash even fully settled, tens of these were already reaching the aura user each second. Cutting through his defenses with every couple of hits, the at most half-a-meter large energy constructs quickly started cutting into his skin, leaving small cuts where they grazed him and flesh-wounds wherever they exploded after exhausting their penetration power.

As the wounds on his target were slowly mounting, Darganth was meanwhile gnashing his teeth with a strained expression. Leaning his head to the side and narrowing his eyes as if in pain, he visibly struggled for a few seconds until his right arm abruptly shot forward.

Suddenly, his now outstretched palm was struck by an explosion right as he started undoing his transformation. Erupting into an inferno of silver and red right on his scales, the attack targeting him burned through his scales and skin, leaving his claw and forearm a mangled mess as the shock wave catapulted him backward.

Despite this, the rest of his body was unharmed. With his palm largely enclosing the center of the explosion and the increased resilience of his true form, its power hadn't been enough to reach any vital organs. As such, Darganth managed to quickly regain his bearing and quickly move out of the way of the follow-up attacks by flying upward with a beat of his wings.

Quickly returning to his humanoid form and maneuvering through the attacks that kept following him, he moved fast and kept his distance as he rethought his approach while dodging the projectiles that kept blanketing nearly the entire area around him. The first part of this was turning his eyes to what remained of his right hand.

Grimacing as he found the limb to be nothing more than bones and some bits of flesh that somehow still kept them together, he pushed down the frustration and redirected some mana there. Flooding out of the open wound above his wrist in the form of a shadowy back smoke, his spell started spreading across the bones.

Within moments, a barely corporeal replica of the clawed hand that had been there before was hued around the bones of his hand. Moving his fingers in a wave pattern to test its functionality, he was satisfied to find the mobility of the limb to be restored.

'This will have to do.' Darganth thought to himself. It might be worse in all aspects compared to his real hand, but for the day or so it will take his innate regeneration to repair the damage it would suffice. Though he'll still probably speed up the process once he is in a situation where he wouldn't be needing the mana for anything else.

With this done, Darganth then turned his focus to the problem of the aura user. Even if he now knew of it, underestimating wielders of the psychic element was rarely a good idea. And though an aura user might be more limited in the ways they can apply its effects, the previous exchange showed that this didn't necessarily lessen its danger.

The man might be far from powerful enough to make lasting or even large changes to Darganth's thought, something a mage of his power also wouldn't be capable of, but merely keeping an eye on him allowed him to shift who Darganth wanted to target to himself.

The problem with that was that Darganth could hardly ignore the man. Even in his true form, the aura user could probably wound him, forcing him to keep an eye out for any dangerous attacks.

With that in mind, Darganth needed almost a minute before coming to a decision. Narrowing his eyes in on the aura user, he suddenly dissipated from the spatial realm and returned to the physical world.

Completely ignoring the chaos of battle that happened around where he appeared, he again undid his transformation. Choosing to turn into a slightly compressed version of his true form to gain the benefit of presenting a smaller target while still retaining his full power and his size advantage, he started gathering mana for a dragon's breath while simultaneously preparing to return to the spatial realm.

Keeping an eye on the aura user during this despite the multiple layers of space that separated them, Darganth knew exactly where his target was when he was ready to strike a few seconds later.

Bursting back into the spatial layer his opponents were moving through, he reappeared with his outstretched claw already aimed at the aura user. Cutting through the silvery landscape of the spatial realm and leaving trails of total emptiness behind it, his strike tore through the aura manifestation covering his opponent's torso before the man could even react.

Slightly missing its original target thanks to what little effect the armor had, Darganth's claws tore two bloody gashes into the side of his opponent's torso as he passed by, with one digit missing and the other cutting a far shallower wound just above the knee. Immediately after, he twisted his body to quickly pivot around, raking his other claw across his opponent's back and again drawing blood.

Ascending upward with the turning motion, Darganth then unleashed his breath attack from above. Sending the beam of spatial and temporal energy flying down onto his target, he let the man vanish amid its radiance.

As his breath tore through the otherwise monotone landscape, the mages around Darganth finally sprang into action. Quickly flying backward to make some distance to him, they formed a loose sphere around him before starting their bombardment.

Within seconds, flashes from all manner of spatial magic tore through the silvery expanse. Mostly finding their targets and impacting Darganth's massive form, the onslaught of spells rang out with continuous explosions as it smashed against his scales. Under the intense barrage, these quickly started deforming and breaking, creating a slowly mounting number of wounds as spells tore into the flesh beneath.

Ignoring this, Darganth initially continued to hover in places even as seconds passed, his focus still entirely on the aura user that remained trapped under the impact of his breath attack. Only once this part of the situation started to change did he too start moving again, with him swiftly canceling the beam and accelerating downward the moment he first sensed his opponent's aura avatar forming.

Reaching him before the construct could fully take shape, he easily tore through the still unstable avatar as his claw came crashing down onto his opponent. Almost instantly, the spell-like effect the aura user was using to fly in the endless nothingness of the spatial realm gave in under the force of Darganth's strike, leaving the man to be catapulted downward.

Shooting after him, Darganth quickly followed this up with a swipe from his other claw. Again hitting only with the palm of his claw and lacking a surface to crush him against, he again sent his target flying into another direction.

Quickly leaning to the side and following the change direction immediately after landing the strike, Darganth tried to get a third attack in before his opponent escaped his reach. Reaching out with the fingers of his right claw already half closed to a fist, he swung his arm in an attempt to grab his enemy.

Missing by the slightest of margins as his opponent barely managed to slip through the gaps in the necrotic energy acting as a replacement for the digits on his claw, Darganth started to fall behind shortly after as the sharp turn slowed him down. Due to this, his opponent regained some freedom to maneuver, allowing him to brace for their next clash.

Hovering in place, the aura user had sheathed his sword and was instead positioned in a boxing stance. At the same time, spatial energy rushed toward him and gathered mainly around his arms as his mana suffused the few-meter large bubble that his passive domain formed around him, bringing the energy inside it under the full control of his world connection.

With these preparations done in the blink of an eye, the man then punched out toward Darganth. Directly following the first strike with a second jab from his left, he started chaining punches in quick succession, with each motion warping the spatial realm and creating shifts in its current that shot forward along the trajectories of his punches beyond where his arms reached. And though the effect this caused in the surroundings dropped sharply outside of the few meters his passive domain stretched, his actions still caused a barrage of silver streaks to fly out.

Already having expected this the moment he saw the punching motion start, Darganth was already prepared when the effect of the first strike reached him. Leaning to the side and leaving it to sail past, he responded with the same kind of attack and slashed his healthy claw through the air before himself.

With his motion, the spatial realm twisted to accommodate his wishes. Seemingly parting horizontally as the energy it was made up of thinned along the path of his gesture, it caused most of the incoming projectiles to curve up and down away from its center, clearing a path for him in the middle.

Weaving past the two attacks that he still found in his way, Darganth then appeared before the aura user in the blink of an eye, much to the man's surprise. Sending out a pulse of spatial energy just before coming within striking range, he scattered the spatial energy that responded to his opponent's panicked attempt to push him away before it even fully formed and thrust out with his claw.

With barely a second having passed since he dashed forward, his claw then tore through the leather armor crafted from beast hide that the man wore and sunk into his opponent's chest.

Instantly, the man's body seized up as his own mana slipped out of his grasp along with the more than fatal injury. With his consciousness quickly fading, he nonetheless barely managed to lift his head even as blood came splattering out of his mouth with a cough, allowing him to see Darganth already having turned his head and attention toward the mages accompanying him.

Flinging the aura user's dead body off his finger with a flick of his claw and leaving him to drift through the weightlessness of the spatial realm, Darganth flared his wings with a roar before charging the remaining enemies. Unhampered by the holes and tears that the contentious attacks had created in the membrane of his wings, he broke through the wave of spells still raining down on him from all directions and came barreling down on the mythic rank mage.

Letting his mana surge when he felt his target reach out for the surrounding energy to cast a spatial magic spell, Darganth used it to strain against the metaphysical walls of the spatial realm and manifest a temporal phenomenon. And though he burned through far more mana than the same effect would've taken in the physical realm, this caused the mage's movements, including the speed with which his mana traveled, to slow by about half.

Thanks to this, Darganth reached him before the spell took form, with the claw of one of his front legs balled to a fist and crashing into the man's shield spell moments before he managed to teleport. Sent flying by the impact, he uncontrollably shot backward just as his spell finished and moved him next to three of his comrades who had taken up formation close by one another.

With all four of them taken by surprise by this, they acted of reflex, leading to the mythic rank colliding with one of the men as both shifted their movement into the other's path. Shaken and disorientated by the impact, both only managed to weakly conjure up a barrier before them as Darganth's breath attack came flying at them.

Tearing a hole into both spells within moments and shattering them with the explosions left where it encountered resistance in its wake, it first struck the fourth rank mage's body. Completely encasing his form, it needed no full second to vaporize him, leaving a far larger explosion than before to erupt from where he had been moments prior while the main beam already continued on into the distance.

Caught inside its range, the mythic rank and two other human mages that were nearby all braced themselves as the ensuing explosion washed over their personal shields. Throwing all three back, the explosion sent them tumbling while also eating away and slowly wearing down their shield spells even as they kept channeling more mana into them.

Soon the first of the fourth ranks lost this contest of strength, with the constant stream of energy from the explosion punching a small hole into his defenses through which it then came crashing into his unprotected body.

Sensing his ally's presence vanish from his senses, the other fourth rank had a few moments to consider and conjure up vines and leaves across his body akin to a second skin before his own shield also broke. And though this usage of an elemental body managed to briefly ward off the incoming energy that followed, the dense spatial energy crashing against it quickly stripped it away, leading to his body being ripped apart too.

Watching this through their mana sense, the other remaining mages in the unit that had already started flying to reinforce the four froze in their tracks. In just one exchange a group of four of theirs were whittled down to only their sole mythic rank. Worse yet, even he was only barely hanging on, something that was clearly revealed when the explosion subsided a few moments later, revealing his battered and bloodied form. Even the film of energy that had sealed the gaping wound from his first exchange with Darganth had vanished, leaving him likely only a minute before the blood loss would take its toll.

Just as it then started to seem that the fighting was dying down in the wake of this, Darganth's massive form suddenly appeared in front of the mythic rank mage. Already poised to strike with his right paw, he swiped his claws across the transparent barrier of raw mana his target had managed to conjure up just in time.

But while the reaction was in time, the accumulated wounds meant that some of the ethereal mana circuits in his body were exposed or entirely outside of the remaining flesh, leading to mana being wasted as it flooded out when passing through these spots. With the shield weakened by this, Darganth broke through it on the second swing, with his third strike then being met by an energy construct that shattered under the impact. Missing the mage by a hair's breadth due to this, he didn't let up his offensive and snapped forward with his maw.

Tearing off one of his opponent's legs below the knee with this as the man threw himself to the side, Darganth immediately swirled around toward the pained howl that followed.

Seeing the mage's body already having transformed into a mass of pure spatial energy that was barely distinguishable from its surroundings, he rolled to the side and dodged the arrow-shaped spatial tear that came flying at him. Simultaneously punching out with his still in necrotic energy hued claw, he struck the mage's elemental form.

Immediately upon coming into contact, the two different elements started to clash. Spatial and necrotic energy alike were destroyed wherever they met, scattering both the mage's body and Darganth's claw.

But while the mage was forced to channel more and more mana into replacing every part of his form that dissipated lest he suddenly be missing a limb when returning to flesh, Darganth simply let his right claw be reduced to its skeletal appearance and struck out with his aura wreathed left claw.

Unlike the first strike that had struck with the flat underside of his paw, Darganth's second swing tore through the mage's body with two of the digits on his claw. Blowing apart his form with an explosive impact that scattered much of the energy that made up his transformed state into the distance, his strike forced the mage to expand much of his remaining mana to recover from it.

With his reserves running low due to this, he was then forced to return to a physical form as soon as his energy form had regained enough mass to reform his entire body. Though this still left him missing a leg, this was the least of the man's worries as Darganth wasn't done with him.

Vanishing from perception as he moved one layer of space deeper, he disappeared for a brief moment before returning behind the mage. Encasing both of his frontal legs with spatial constructs in the form of blades that extended far beyond the tip of his claws, he didn't need to close the distance from where he appeared and thrust forward with the tip of one of these constructs.

Then, while his opponent was busy keeping the blade from cutting into him after having diverted the slash to barely miss him, Darganth threw out a horizontal slash with the other blade. Striking his target's back before the man even noticed his swing, the two blades pushing against his personal shield from different directions finally managed to break through his defenses.

The moment they did, the mage's body was carved into three pieces as Darganth's strikes tore through him at the height of chest and hip. Instantly the spells the mana had been sustaining faded from existence as the connection between his head and the mana pool in his heart was cut, causing the spells that shielded the fourth ranks from this environment they couldn't endure on their own to fail.

Seeing them panic in response and reach into the small bag each wore on their belt, Darganth watched cautiously as the first of them found a palm-sized metal card and pushed some mana into it. In response, a series of magic circles lit up across both sides of its surface, shortly followed by the woman holding it vanishing from the spatial realm and reappearing some distance away in the physical realm.

Seeing this being followed by two of the others also being teleported to different locations along with their return from the spatial realm, Darganth didn't bother to give chase. Instead, he turned his sight to a different part of the physical realm and took in the battles happening there before returning to it himself.