The second collision split the clearing in half.
Damien and the captain vanished from their original positions and reappeared twenty ters away in a spray of shattered earth and splintered wood. Their fists t again, and the impact created a concussive boom that sent the remaining soldiers stumbling backward.
The fractured stone disk at the clearing’s center finally gave way, collapsing inward with a grinding crack.
Damien slid back several feet, boots carving trenches through the dirt.
The captain didn’t.
It stood exactly where it had stepped.
Unmoved.
Its crimson eyes glowed steadily, unblinking.
"You are stronger than the reports suggested," it said evenly.
Damien rolled his wrist once, loosening tension in his forearm. The bones in his knuckles ached from the collision.
"I guess your reports are outdated."
He moved first.
No wasted motion.
He closed the distance in a blink and delivered a straight punch aid at the captain’s throat. The demon tilted its head just enough for the strike to graze its armored plating instead of crushing its windpipe.
The impact rang like tal being struck.
Hard.
Too hard.
The captain countered with a short, brutal elbow aid at Damien’s temple.
Damien ducked, pivoted inside its reach, and drove his knee upward toward the abdon.
This ti he felt it.
The plating absorbed part of the blow, but not all.
The captain’s torso shifted half an inch.
A reaction.
Not pain.
But acknowledgnt.
The captain’s fist ca down like a hamr.
Damien crossed his arms and blocked.
The force drove him into the ground hard enough to crater it beneath his feet.
Cracks spidered outward from the impact point.
The captain pressed downward, increasing pressure.
"Your physical reinforcent is refined," it noted calmly. "But inefficient."
Damien gritted his teeth and exploded upward, forcing separation with a surge of compressed essence. He spun and delivered a roundhouse kick to the captain’s ribs.
This ti the plating cracked faintly.
A thin line etched across its side.
The captain’s eyes flickered.
Interesting.
It retaliated instantly.
A palm strike to Damien’s chest.
Not flashy.
Not exaggerated.
Just direct.
The impact sent him flying through three trees in succession before he regained control midair and landed in a crouch.
Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
He inhaled once.
Slow.
asured.
The captain walked toward him.
Not rushing.
Not taunting.
It radiated authority.
Behind them, the surviving soldiers held formation, watching.
Waiting.
This was not their fight.
This was command-level resolution.
Damien charged again, this ti feinting high before dropping low. His fist slamd into the captain’s left knee joint.
A strategic target.
The plating there was thinner to allow movent.
The strike landed solidly.
The joint buckled slightly.
The captain retaliated by grabbing Damien by the collar and slamming him headfirst into the ground.
The earth exploded upward in a fountain of dirt and stone.
Damien twisted mid-impact, reducing the damage, and retaliated with an upward punch from the crater’s base.
The blow connected with the captain’s jaw.
A deep crack sounded.
The captain stepped back one pace.
Its jaw shifted slightly out of alignnt before snapping back into place with a disturbing grind.
Regeneration.
Not rapid.
But present.
"You adapt quickly," it said.
Damien wiped blood from his chin.
"So do you."
The captain’s aura shifted.
It compressed further.
Denser.
Heavier.
The surrounding air thickened.
Damien felt it imdiately — a subtle pressure pressing against his muscles, slowing micro-movents.
An aura-based suppression.
He smirked faintly.
He answered by compressing his own essence tighter, forcing his body to reject the pressure.
The ground beneath his feet cracked again.
They disappeared simultaneously.
Their next collision happened midair.
Fist t forearm.
Knee t ribs.
Elbow t jaw.
Each impact detonated in thunderous bursts that shook the forest canopy.
Trees collapsed simply from the shockwaves.
They fell back to the ground almost together.
The captain struck first this ti — a straight punch aid at Damien’s heart.
Damien deflected it sideways and countered with a palm strike to the cracked section of plating along the captain’s ribs.
The crack widened.
Black ichor leaked faintly from beneath the armor.
The captain’s eyes narrowed slightly.
It grabbed Damien’s wrist before he could withdraw.
Too slow.
The demon twisted and hurled him across the clearing.
Damien collided with a suppression pillar, shattering it completely.
Energy from the damaged node flared and dissipated into the air.
The stabilization grid weakened further.
The captain noticed.
Its gaze flicked briefly toward the collapsing pillar.
Then back to Damien.
"You are not rely attacking us," it said. "You are unraveling sothing older."
Damien rose from the rubble.
"Maybe."
The captain’s expression did not change.
But its aura sharpened.
It lunged.
Faster this ti.
Damien barely blocked the first strike and failed to fully intercept the second. A fist smashed into his ribs, and he felt sothing crack.
Pain shot through his side.
He ignored it.
The captain pressed the advantage, delivering a barrage of controlled, devastating blows.
No wild swings.
Every strike calculated.
Damien was forced onto the defensive for the first ti.
He blocked three.
Evaded two.
Took one.
The final punch sent him skidding across the clearing again.
He coughed.
Blood hit the dirt.
The captain advanced.
"You cannot overwhelm as you did the others."
Damien laughed softly despite the blood in his throat.
"I wasn’t trying to."
He launched forward again.
This ti he shifted tactics.
Instead of matching force with force, he redirected.
The captain punched.
Damien rotated his body around the strike, letting the montum pass, and delivered a brutal elbow directly to the previously cracked rib plating.
The armor fractured further.
The captain retaliated imdiately with a knee strike.
Damien twisted, but not fully.
The blow grazed his abdon and sent him sideways.
He recovered mid-roll and swept low.
The captain jumped.
Damien anticipated that and rose with an uppercut aid at the jaw.
It connected.
The captain’s head snapped back.
A visible fracture spread across its facial plating.
Black blood dripped steadily now.
But the demon did not appear rattled.
It appeared focused.
Testing concluded.
The captain straightened.
"You are approaching the threshold," it said quietly.
Damien didn’t respond.
He charged again.
They collided once more in a brutal exchange of pure physical reinforcent.
Fist for fist.
Bone for bone.
Each strike sent shockwaves through the clearing.
The remaining soldiers were forced to retreat further as the battle zone expanded.
Half the eastern stronghold was now unrecognizable terrain — flattened, cratered, broken.
Damien landed a clean strike to the captain’s sternum.
The plating there cracked.
The captain responded with a hook that caught Damien across the face.
His vision flashed white for half a second.
He felt two teeth loosen.
He smiled anyway.
The captain’s expression shifted slightly.
Confusion?
No.
Recognition.
"This pleases you."
Damien stepped forward again.
"Yes."
They clashed again — slower this ti, but heavier.
Each blow carried more compressed essence than before.
The ground beneath them was no longer stable.
It was a battlefield of broken earth.
Damien’s breathing deepened.
The cracked rib in his side burned.
His knuckles were split.
Blood ran down his forearms.
The captain’s armor was fractured across multiple sections now.
Black ichor dripped steadily from its torso and jaw.
Yet its posture remained upright.
Unwavering.
"You will not break ," it said calmly.
Damien exhaled.
"Then I’ll tear you apart."
The captain’s aura flared briefly — not explosive, but intense.
This was only the first half.
Testing phase over.
Assessnt complete.
Now, it stepped forward once more.
And this ti, the pressure doubled.
The real battle had just begun.
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