Zenith (Part 2)

"Hm?" Barak cocked his head in mild confusion, but said nothing more. 

Still, his mind was reeling with all kinds of thoughts as he carefully observed Damon. In a battle of Armaments—especially against someone with a similar Grade—caution was the most cherished virtue.

No one knew if the other party had any hidden abilities, and any trump card could tilt the battle in any direction. For this very reason, any specialized Squad was required to have at least one observation-type Armament that could aid in perception.

For Delta Team, it was Barak's eyes.

'I can see my future for a limited span, and that allows me to predict all the moves of my opponents. My second Armament, the robe I wear, allows me to phase through anything as well, making me practically untouchable.'

His partner, Bessie, was the powerhouse of the team, with her mobility-centered Armament that allowed her to become wind, and her offensive Armament that allowed her to shoot high-pressure wind blasts.

'The longer she charges the attack, the stronger it is. Unfortunately, our opponent is too fast that she'll definitely miss if she takes too long before releasing it.' Barak sighed at this thought. 'He's probably durable enough to handle a base attack from her too, so the best way to connect an attack is by limiting his mobility when the blast comes.'

The best way to achieve this, according to Barak's estimation was for Bessie to use this at point-blank range—turning into wind to strike Damon, forcing him to catch her assault, while she released her blast at that exact time, with Barak himself being right behind him in case he planned to escape.

'I can always turn intangible in case he finds some kind of way to escape the projectile, but if he is unable to… we should win this way.'

This was his next plan of action, but Damon's sudden words made him hesitate.

"You… your future sight is restricted to yourself, right? You also can't move while you're intangible—correct?" Damon pointed at Barak, causing his eyes to widen in shock despite his best attempts to hide it.

'How did he know?' A bead of sweat fell down his face.

"And as for your partner, she needs to turn any portion of her body physical before she is able to attack, even with that projectile. The reason I wasn't able to detect your arrival was because you allowed her wind to carry you in your intangible form since you couldn't move… but how is it that her wind carried you despite your ability to phase through anything? I have two theories… wanna hear them?"

The further Damon spoke, the more worried Barak became.

"First is that your intangible body isn't immune to natural laws like gravity, motion, and even phenomena like wind. So, even if you are paralyzed and solid matter can't really affect you, sufficient conceptual attacks or energies might do the trick. Second theory is that your intangible form is susceptible to Ne'sh-based phenomena, and since my enhanced hearing can't really detect Ne'sh… only movements and sounds… you remained undetected by me. Personally, I think I prefer the second theory more. It's a lot more straightforward and leaves little room for conjecture."

"I-impressive…" Barak muttered. "But your analysis changes nothing. As long as I can see your next move through my eyes, you can't beat me."

"Hmm… wanna bet?"

"What?"

"Let's make a bet. Try using your eyes to see the future… say 10 seconds from now." Damon smiled confidently. 

"If this is some type of trick to make me waste Ne'sh, then—"

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm sure you have enough in store for a lot more uses, else you wouldn't have been so composed when you first arrived. You were able to track us here with your future sight, and its several hours from the Fortress, which means you can expend Ne'sh to see hours, if not a whole day, into the future. A few seconds shouldn't hurt."

"…."

"Are you done?" Damon asked, already noticing the look of shock on his opponent's face. "Want me to guess what you saw? You saw nothing, right? Sheer darkness… or maybe the light at the end of the tunnel? Either way it means the same thing."

"W-what? How did… what did you…?!"

Bessie was stunned to see her partner become so erratic, but before she could even say anything, Damon appeared right next to her and grabbed her by the throat.

She tried turning into wind, but her neck was snapped before the transformation took effect.

"Funny thing about Armaments… they don't make anyone invincible."

"Y-you—!" Barak swiftly retreated by leaping away, but Damon merely stared at his watch, not even bothering to give chase.

"It's about time…"

The next thing Barak noticed was that he was blind.

He could see nothing! Nothing but utter darkness as he felt the pain of his eyes suddenly gouged out while trapped in an eternal abyss, hearing nothing but Damon's low chuckle.

Out of fear and an instinct to survive, Barak activated his second—no, only—Armament, cowering in the darkness as he took comfort only in his safety. As long as he didn't move, the effects of his Armament would remain intact.

Of course, if Damon could use any Ne'sh attack to directly assault him, he would be a goner, but wasn't there a reason he never resorted to that despite finding out about this weakness? 

'He's a physical fighter, while the old man is clearly in charge of defense' Barak told himself, trembling where he knelt. 'The Ne'sh in my robe is enough to last at least a few more hours. In that time, backup should arrive.'

His thoughts were suddenly broken by a strange sensation that caused a cold feeling to permeate his entire body in an instant. 

It was a finger… a finger gently trailing on his bald head.

'H-huh?'

"Your intangibility is ineffective here." Damon's voice echoed in his ears.

'H-how? Why?' He wanted to ask, but he couldn't move his lips. Instead, he silently trembled in the darkness, feeling the overwhelming presence of the enemy weigh heavily on him.

"The fact that you can hear my voice means you're not immune to sound in your state, which means my earlier propositions were accurate. It wasn't one or the other, but both of them that are true at once."

"…."

"Ne'sh affects you, but so do natural laws and concepts… like the concept of time."

"E-eh?"

Barak was suddenly yanked from the ground, tightly gripped by the throat by Damon who chuckled even more. Feeling himself lifted above the ground like a helpless toddler, listening to the condescending laughter of a man far younger than he was, and feeling the ineffectiveness of his power, Barak broke down instantly.

All the confidence and pride he had built up over the years collapsed in a mere instant.

He was powerless.

"I wonder how you'd react to this timeless world if you weren't blind. It's quite peaceful here, but… in any case…" Damon's final words echoed grimly. "… Ten seconds are up."

CRACK!

Damon snapped his neck.

THUD!

Barak's lifeless body was flung to the side until it rolled right next to his partner, the tears and mucus that decorated his grotesque face mixing with the dirt of the ground.

 Damon dusted both hands, walking towards Drake who remained still. 

"Thanks for nothing, old man." 

"You know I'm a pacifist. I was going to interfere if things got out of hand."

"Yeah, yeah…" He shrugged. "We're square as long as you keep what happened earlier between us."

"You mean your instinctive reaction when you saw that lady despite knowing she was the enemy? Haha… of course, of course."

"Never mind, I can't trust your loose lips." Damon shook his head. "You can loot their corpses at the very least, right?"

"That I can do."

And so, Drake ran to the corpses of the Delta Team members while Damon watched everything with the same disconcerted eyes he had right before they had attacked.

'As always… I could see through them just like with everyone else but him.' A small smile coursed through his face as he stared into the distance.

"What idiots…"