"That strike." She mumbled before dropping to one knee.
She had tapped further into her ability, but it took a great of deal energy. She suddenly felt her body begin to waver and her vision shaken, but looking at Jasper she slowly pushed herself to stand.
"If one of those attacks can put you down, then a second one can finish you off." She grumbled stepping towards his body.
Raya's face twisted and her eyes widened in confusion. Instead of a hurt Knox, there was a human shaped shadow body the same size as knox laying on the ground instead.
"Maybe its just around his body, if so then ill blast through it while he's down."
With staggering weight, Raya generated another beautiful flare, but this time put the remaining of her power into it. Everything she had left. Instead of blue and pink sparks of fire, a red was now added making the colors twist together. Inside the transparent globe, it now looked like three small burning ropes or a fuse on a dynamite stick.
The ropes burned with their own colors and Raya's hand began to shake. She was using too much while already being over her limit. Sweat poured from her body as she used the little strength she had left to step back and throw it with all her might.
A small explosion caved in the ground creating a crater that could bury half a car. It didn't stop there. Multiple strings of pink, blue and red smaller explosions that made rapid sequences of loud bangs crawled over the ground as Raya fell to her knees breathing heavily.
Colorful smoke captured the air like she was in the middle of a gender reveal. Once cleared, Raya exhaled and fell backwards on the road unable to move. Turning her head to see Jasper, she cracked a painful smile thinking about his previous words.
"You we're right muscle for brains, you can really learn when pushing yourself while your backs against the wall. " she thought.
In a very short time, Raya had learned two new skills thanks to her determination and ironically her carelessness. A added flare which was red and a plam strike that sounded off like a cherry bomb.
She had just begun to relax when she heard light laughter, soft claps and steady footsteps approaching. She couldn't lift her head to see, but knew who it was. She couldn't believe it, she put everything she had into their fight which escalated quickly and didn't last long.
Knox stood over her as she was fighting to stay concious. The over exertion of her body and energy was taking a toll fast. Clapping his hands and giving her a round of applause for her efforts, Knox smiled.
"Man my ears are ringing something serious right now. I'd be totally messed up if you had actually hit me."
The shadow figure Raya had seen on the ground formed next to Knox. Its obscured form emotionless.
" My very first skill believe it or not. It cant harm you at all, but it does make one hell of a decoy." He said with a smile that turned sour quick as a surge of pain shot through his chest.
He coughed a bit, hacking up a blob of blood.
"Damn, that strike to the chest had some serious bang to it. It even went through my low matured armored clothing. I knew she would be the main problem, but not to this degree." He thought holding his chest.
Raya didn't say anything, she couldn't. Not a single sentence.
"That's what happens when you're out of energy completely. Ya know, you could have killed yourself, well technically you can still die if you dont get help soon. Over exerting your power when your body isnt ready for it is suicide." He said kneeling down.
Drops of rain slapped his shoulders and head making him look up in the sky. In seconds the rain turned from light to heavy. The large rain cloud had finally reached him as well.
"One more." He thought standing up seeing Damon break through the brush.
"Well, you just missed the show. It was rather illuminating, colorful and pretty loud. Pyrotechnics can provide some great excitement. " he spoke softly but confident as ever.
Knox was hurt, but he was doing his best to play it off. He was in pain, a chronic vibration of pops felt like it was stuck in his chest. His breathing was unstable and he had taken one too many shots to the chest by Raya and Jasper.
Damon's jaw tightend with tension seeing Raya and Jasper on the ground a few meters away from eachother. A darker liquid was splattered around Jasper and pushed around by his rain, Damon believed it was blood. He couldn't really tell but that's what his mind told him it was.
Looking at Raya, she was dirty and looked extremely pale with chared smoke marks covering her torso and face. It was more like smudge someone would get on themselves from charcoal. Damon allowed his rain to affect Raya for only a few seconds washing most of it off. He hopped it would wake her up, but she didn't budge. The same went for Jasper.
"I take it your silence is your way of saying you give up right?"
"It very well should be, I've been trying to tell you all the truth and not let it come to this. So im going to say it one more time, I am not your enemy Damon. The people who is behind all of this aren't either."
"This is all for...
"The future. " Damon interrupted saying. His tone turning cold and dark.
Knox looked at him with unsure eyes, he could feel the air around them change like a cold wind sweeping through giving him a sense of worry, but only for a moment.
"Yes, the future. " knox responded.
"So you beat Raya and Jasper unconscious for the future is that it ?" Damon asked stepping further on the road slowly.
Knox brows raised in question.
"Hold it, putting it like that isn't right, you're twisting my words.
"Fuck your words, your actions said everything. "
Knox lips tightened in aggrevation before he also stepped forward.
" my actions were based on the reactions of you three, I tried to reason with you, I tried to tell you all the truth." Knox said with a twitching eye.
"You tried telling us the truth after the fact, if you would have told us after you gained our trust...."
Damon stopped his words abruptly.
"You know what, it doesn't matter even if you're telling the truth."
As Damon spoke his anger was rising and his tone turned, overlapping with frustration, worry and fear. It was all negative emotions that would usually hinder people actions, making them limited, but at that point and time it was Damon's fuel. In truth he felt like a beaten dog trapped in a corner. Like any cornered animal, it was only two choices. Curl up and get eaten or fight back with everything he could muster.
He knew Knox was more skillful, an advanced thinker and most of all had a much better ability. The chances of him beating Knox when Raya and Jasper couldn't were slim to none. All in all, he still didn't give a damn.
"He's weaker than those two when it comes to ability, so why do I feel so hesitant. Is it because im injured, is it because I actually respect him. Is it because in one punch his impact with his bare fists hurt me just as much as Jasper's who's strike was increased by his ability ?..... No, This should still be easy, even with my injuries, I'll make it quick, so quick he won't feel a thing." Knox thought sliding his right foot forward with his hands at his side.
Damon didn't bother changing his stance, he didn't care. He was simply going to fight.
With a swift step Knox launched forward bringing his arms to waist level just before he struck, but to his surprise Damon met his strike with one of his own. They're fist collided and their eyes darkened with intensity as they threw multiple strikes. Each time meeting the other with their own fist.
Knox speed had decreased, with every second passed, his injuries came more alive. He was beginning to feel them more with every move he made, but ignored them the best he could.
It wasn't until Damon landed a clean blow to his stomach, that he realized he needed to stop playing and use everything he had, if only for a moment before it was too late and his body gave out.
Warping in the ground, and then coming from Damon's shadow, knox connected several punches to Damons head and body making him stumble forward. The rain suddenly increased, coming down like a storm was brewing.
It decreased Knox's visibility greatly, but it didn't matter, Knox could locate Damon through his shadow. Warping again and again, he landed blow after blow, but with gritted teeth Damon managed to stay on his feet.
"What the hell." Knox thought briefly before a memory came to him. It was the memory of they're marks above their brand. Damon didn't budge when he cut him. Demonstrating his tolerance for pain unintentionally.
"Well i tried to knock you out without seriously injuring you, but..."
Knox then warped again, but this time he was met with a fist to his face that staggered him back the moment he appeared.
"That's getting old already. " damon said in a low, but aggressive voice.
"Show me something new. Fight me for real if you're going to fight. Stop holding back because im weak." he shouted making Knox look at him with more respect, but in an odd crazy way.
Damon was giving it everything he had, pushing himself while degrading himself at the same time. With every punch Knox connected, Damon would talk crap to himself, calling himself a fool for not blocking or foreshadowing the strike. He didn't know why he had begun to insult himself, but it was actually hyping him up.
It was a weird way to think, but it helped him with filtering out the pain of Knox's hits.