Team up

"Ezran Sol". Damien let the name roll in his mouth as he took a look at the stranger.

"So you found something to put on." Damien said as he glanced at the black shorts on his body.

"You mean this?" Ezran pointed at the short on his body.

"It's just an illusion. It doesn't actually exist." Ezran laughed, placing his palm on Damien's shoulders, which were promptly removed in response.

"Put something on before you touch me." Damien said, only making Ezran laugh harder.

"Nyrer, how long do you think full burn will last?" Damien asked.

"Full burn?" Nyrer raised a telepathic brow at the horrible name.

**** few moments before Damien blew the Titan bear ***

"Whilst Ezran and the talking bear were exchanging fist, Damien was being thrown with the memories of the Titan bear he had just killed.

The memories of the Titan bear, showed how necessary a constant supply of elemental particles were, in other for its skill Titan's armour to activate.

The skill in itself was complicated as it required different elements in other to activate, air, metal and darkness.

What Damien had learned from the dead bear's memories of Titan's armour was that, forcing the faith to select each and every elemental particle from the world energy, was akin to pushing a bolder uphill.

Trying to forcefully filter out the elemental particles needed was simply unthinkable, as the time that would be required to do such would leave you as a sitting duck in battle.

Instead, what the Titan bears do is; they add darkness magic to the elements needed. Darkness elemental particles tend to naturally draw the other elements too itself, like a magnet to iron.

So all the bears had to do was use their faith to draw darkness elements to their leviar where it is, then turned to dark faith and encoded with will.

The will encoded into the dark faith will be instructions on what elements are needed and the quantity needed.

From there, it'll be taking out the body where it will make contact with the surrounding world energy and begin to filter them to supply constant elemental particles.

Having understood all that, Damien began to apply it to his knowledge of burning body, later discovering 'full burn' before he was teleported away from the Titan bear's incoming attack.

*** Currently ***

"This state could last for 20 mins but it'll drain out all your faith and you'll end up like a dried prune, so I advise you stay for 10mins. That way, you'll have enough faith in case things go south." Nyrer said.

"Fine, tell me when to stop." Damien said to Nyrer.

"Listen, we'll settle whatever you want with me later. Right now, we need to deal with that." Damien said to Ezran, pointing at the bear who was slowly walking towards them unscathed by his last attack.

Damien had no idea why the stranger named Ezran Sol had saved his life severally, but he knew he wouldn't be able to get answers if he was slaughtered by the bear, so teaming up with Ezran was his wisest choice.

"Yeah sure, any plans?" Ezran replied, before hearing the voice of the Titan bear.

"You bastards! I'll rip you to shreds!" It roared, releasing a tremendous amount of killing intent with it.

The sheer force of the killing intent almost knocked Damien off his feet.

"N–No way in hell,"

"Ezran can't you teleport us out of here?" Damien said, sweating buckets as he felt that even his new state couldn't hold a candle to the bear.

"It's not that easy, it takes time to teleport like that, most especially when I've used it multiple times to save your life." Ezran said

His eyes focused on the bear approaching them but not forgetting to lay emphasis on the fact that he had saved Damien's life.

Not having any other option, Damien steeled his resolve, a nice plate of pork cutlet and a nice bed to lay in afterwards.

"Fine then. Take as long as you can, I'll keep his focus on me, feel free to dish out blows of your own every now and again. " Damien said before he dashed at the bear, appearing beside him only a couple seconds later to release a flame boosted blow to its torso.

Unfortunately, the bear tanked it like he wasn't even hit, countering with a blow of its own only to be dodged by Damien, who moved back distancing himself from the bear, sweat dripping down his head as he stared at the bear, fear in his eyes.

"You felt that right," Damien said, his eyes widening in fear.

"Y–Yeah, if you didn't dodge that, you'd be dead." Nyrer shivered at the thought.

"If I can't pierce his defences, what can I do? My blade's with Ezran, since he needs to defend himself, leaving me without my most powerful skills." Damie1n complained as he circled around the bear, looking for an opportunity to strike.

Suddenly and without warning, a burst of wind pierced the air, arriving right before Damien's shock filled face. He lifted his arms to defend against the blow, chattering them both on impact.

BRAAACK!!!

The sound of Damien's breaking bones resounded in the forest like a twig snapped in total silence.

Damien's arms fell limp by his sides leaving him defenseless, he braced himself, ready to receive another blow by the bear, but much to his surprise the bear had completely ignored him bolting towards Ezran instead, who was sitting crossed legged on the floor with his eyes closed.

"Watch out!!!" Damien yelled at the top of his voice.

Not liking his only escape ticket being blasted to bits.

Unfortunately, the bear was already behind him dealing a heavy blow to his sides, the massive paw of the bear pierced through him like a hot knife through butter, smooth and exact, maybe a little too smooth, Ezran's figure then began to leak out steam until it completely became steam, shocking both Damien and the bear.

Suddenly a bright purple arch shot towards the confused bear, scaring it on the torso.

Damien turned to face Ezran, who smiled at him in response.

"I'm pretty good with a sword Huh?" he said with a smile.

"How are you? " Damien asked, failing to hide his shock.

"In my line of work, a good illusion can be the difference between life and death." Ezran answered with a cynical smile that made Damien's skin crawl.

"And what about our escape plan? " Damien asked, his eyes focused on the bear's torso, which was healing at a visible speed.

"The real me is working on that, I'm a clone." with that, Ezran bolted towards the bear, Darius' sword in hand, leaving behind a confused Damien.

"How long till I synchronise with the new skill? " Damien asked Nyrer, trying to ignore what he had just heard.

"5 mins" Nyrer replied.

With his questions answered, Damien quickly healed his arms as he followed behind Ezran. They both arrived before the bear, ready to deal out deadly blows.

With its wound healed, the Titan bear had no problem keeping up with both Damien and Ezran's strikes, dishing out dangerous ones of his own.

SHIIIIIIIII

The sound of the blade in Ezran's hand could be heard, piercing the air as he moved with uncanny grace and prowess as he glided around the bear. Ezran's swordmanship was far superior to Damien's. Trying to compare the two was nothing but foolish.

"Damn.... his good" Damien couldn't help but confess, even after absorbing both Darius and the dead Titan bear's fighting prowess and battle awareness, Damien had become a good fighter at best, his skill and execution was simply lack luster, not that he cared though. To him, carving a pig was a far more delicate art than swordmanship.

Damien's skill in cooking and preparing pork was simply outstanding, so him not knowing how to use a sword properly didn't really bother him. It's not like he was that bad at fighting with his fist.

Damien's flame infused punches drove into the bear's large body, leaving fist sized marks that healed as fast as they appeared all over the bear's body.

The bear's body held like a tank, taking in blows and cuts and healing them as fast as they appeared, with its dagger long claws digging into both Damien and Ezran's skin, leaving cuts inches deep.

Huge scars appeared all over the three fighters, although the bear looked to be in a far better situation than the other two.

The fight was nothing short of awe inspiring, Ezran's swordmanship, Damien's raw power and the Titan bear's insane defences, but they couldn't keep up with something like this forever. They all stopped their attacks breathing and panting like dogs, their chest raising up and down like balloons.

"Nyrer, status update?" Damien asked through his bleeding mouth as he held onto his stomach, softly grasping for air, as he regretted why he left his grave in the first place.

A familiar white and black menu appeared before Damien, summarising his current situation.

Name–Damien Hunter

Race–Demi‐divine

Level–[lv 2]

Hp– 5/25

Faith– 12/35

>>Time until new skills synchronise — 1 min

Skill active:

[Burning body- full burn] time remaining: 6 mins.

"FUCK!!!"

Damien cursed inwardly, as he learned of his low faith. His fight with the bear was so intense that if he deactivated the burning body even for a second, he would have become nothing but minced meat.

But burning body was sucking his faith faster than he could recover, so even if he does get the new skills, he can't use them cause he doesn't have enough faith to activate them.

"Our only chance of escape lies in whether Ezran is ready to teleport us away from here", Damien thought to himself as his eyes darted around the battlefield.

Suddenly, the bear spoke with its chilling voice, transmitting fear directly into the bodies of both Damien and Ezran.

"Honestly, you both impressed me. You see, I have a habit of playing with my meals before I eat them, but I guess it's time I get serious." The bear's cold and detached voice stabbed at Damien's ears, dragging him out of his train of thoughts.

Suddenly a killing intent as heavy as a building and as thick as mud surrounded the area, a blue aura leaked out of the Titan bear as its blue eyes grew fiercer.

Suddenly, the Titan bear appeared before Ezran, its paws aimed at his head so fast Damien could barely see its blurs.

BRAACK!!!!!

The sound of Ezran's skull chattering sent Damien to his knees, both his hands on his mouth, but before he could scream,

Ezran's real body shot out of a nearby bush spasming as foam leaked out of his mouth uncontrollably with nothing but the white of his eyes visible.

Drip.. drip.. drip..

Suddenly, all Damien could hear was the sound of blood dripping on the floor beneath him. He looked down to find 3 large claws protruding out of his chest, which was reduced to a bloody mess. He turned facing the bear's menacing gaze with a cynical smile etched on it, and an expression filled with nothing but pure bliss.

HP–0/25