Damien had always been told that diplomacy was not his calling. He'd noticed it, a tacit realization that had grown slowly within him across the years. But realization and acceptance were two different things, and so he'd strived for at least adequate competence at it.

  AND YET PEOPLE COULDN'T HELP BUT SET HIM BACK ON A RELAPSE!

  [Whoaa! Calm down there, buddy,] Gray said into his mind. [Your blood pressure just spiked. Are you alright?]

  Damien breathed in, let it out, and then breathed in again. When he was done, he nodded and then turned back to the serpent. Maybe it was a mistake. Maybe he'd heard wrong, and the creature hadn't just demanded the most absurd thing, even by Spirit lord standards.

  Surely, sense would prevail here...

  "Will you do as commanded or do I have to put you in your place?" It said, baring fangs at him in a very much discernable expression of mockery. Even the Monarchs had moved around to their flanks, obvious in their attempts to cut off any path of retreat.

  The audacity. This was definitely not happening, Damien prayed silently as he took in more breath.

  His brother, unlike him, was more vocal about his feelings on the entire thing.

  "I'll be damned if I let a reptile with shiny scales and feet treat me like this," Keilan said, voice heated with the same anger that flamed his face when Damien glanced at him.

  His brother was not foolish, however, and showed his caution by keeping his physical cool.

  This was beyond absurd, and Damien would have jumped straight to punching had he not been surrounded by Monarchs.

  On their own, they posed no threat, nothing but flies to him. But they weren't, and not only that, they were aided by a mid-tier Spirit lord. This assembly alone heightened their threat levels by a significant degree.

  There was no doubt how this standoff would end if they came to a head, but Damien didn't want to take on that much heat right now. He had enough problems as it was, he didn't want to add sea snakes to the pile.

  "Food is not allowed to complain. No wonder your society is backward," The creature said just as its aura tried to press down on them some more.

  Damien closed his eyes and breathed in once more. Well, he tried. He had finally had enough of the constant arrogance and insults. World peace or not, he was having serpent soup for supper.

  His aura burst forth like a hungry storm, heavy in its weight that it slammed against that of the serpent's and sent it reeling back.

  The creature, stunned, was barely able to withstand and, a moment later, fend off the pressure. The others, however, fared a lot worse; one or two twitching as the sheer spiritual pressure sent them into seizures. The rest quickly came together, combining their auras into a passable facsimile of a Spirit lord's simply to weather his assault.

  "You dare threaten a dragon prince!" Renogoth hissed, joining its aura with the Monarch's and increasing its intensity. He pushed back Damien's aura until Keilan let out his, finally putting them on even standing.

  "Dragon prince my foot," his brother said, "More like an overgrown lizard."

  The serpent's cold slitted eyes turned chilly. "You will beg for death by the time I am through with you," It said right before it leaped for them.

  Honestly, this was already turning comical, Damien cringed inwardly.

  Admirably, the creature did not lack in speed, and neither did it also lack offense, given the energy that washed out into the air when it opened its huge maw. Harsh blue light came through, growing brighter and brighter as whatever the creature intended to release came forth.

  The whirling wind stilled, element coming together to tank the blue corrosive liquid that shot out towards them a moment later.

  Damien and Keilan separated, flying around the serpent until they came upon its sides. Damien used his technique 'Starfall', materializing a dozen grey bolts made out of condensed Destruction. They hovered around him for a moment before they descended, falling in a series of retaliatory strikes that sent the creature retreating in apparent fear.

  It turned its breath away from the already dematerializing wind shield, sending its focused jet of corrosive liquid against the falling balls of Destruction.

  The air howled, a huge wind gale blowing them backwards as the collision from both techniques rocked the world in a massive plumic explosion.

  A shrill whistle was the only warning the creature had—that and the long trail of condensed air that curved like a giant crescent moon towards it. And then a hammer of condensed wind slammed into it, failing to crack its scales but sending it twisting backwards.

  The creature recovered quickly, to its credit, and it shot a baleful glare at Keilan, who hovered a few meters in front of Damien, hair fluttering madly under the influence of the rousing wind.

  The Monarchs must have realized that their leader was going to lose this battle without their assistance, and so they did what they were brought here to do; they attacked.

  A dozen breath techniques came into existence then, blasting upwards towards Damien and his brother who hovered above.

  It did its job, distracting them just enough for the Spirit lord to appear before Keilan, slamming its flattener tail on his brother and sending him blasting into the ocean. Damien was more fortunate, moving aside as the serpent moved to do the same to him.

  He came around with his free hand, grey destruction beam firing off his forefingers towards the iced jagged tentacles of water the beast set upon him.

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  His technique split apart the tentacles, dispersing them as it pushed against the scales of the creature, drawing a long line of smoky burnt blackness as he moved down its length.

  The sea serpent let out a loud screech of pain and anger as its scales finally sustained the first injury of this battle. Hatred burned in its eyes as it turned towards him, baring fangs that dripped with an unknown liquid as the creature lunged for him.

  The ocean heaved, the water level pulling downwards in their surroundings just as a tornado punched upwards, taking the lunging creature out of the blue.

  The others attempted to intercede only to find themselves assailed by the dozens of wind scythes that burst out of the growing natural disaster and into their ranks.

  "Deal with them," Damien said, "I'll handle the big guy."

  His brother did as bidden, which fortunately gave Damien the time to focus on his sole opponent.

  Bolts of crackling gray energy appeared over his head, and he sent them blasting down for the beast, who slithered desperately as it sought to dodge his tby echnique.

  Keilan was no slouch in his battle against the Monarchs. He unleashed half a dozen mini tornadoes, small yet they shredded scales from flesh, sending the little serpents careening into the water. The rest that survived his bladed storm were met with invisible hammers of solidified wind, each shattering scales and breaking bones.

  And the ones who also managed to survive that were soon brought low by the side effects of Damien and the Spirit lord serpent's battle. With stray techniques flying about, Keilan was only able to avoid them because of his speed and the giant tornado he'd wrapped around himself. The little serpents, on the other hand, were absolutely shredded, reduced to falling parts by the grey beams and bolts that missed the Spirit lord.

  The creature did not take it well. It retaliated with its breath technique as well as rows of condensed water sprays that cracked Damien's armor, and would have parted his limbs had his armor not withstood the barrage.

  Their fight covered miles as they flitted about, dodging each other's techniques and returning in kind until they'd completely moved away from the origin of their encounter. Their auras flared out, spreading to the maximum as they fought for absolute dominance. This action had the counter effect of dragging in passerbys, inviting Spirit lord monsters who reared their heads out of the water with the intent to take a bite out of them. Of course, they were met with warning beams and jet sprays that parted a limb or two.

  Damien reckoned their battle had already gone into the hour mark, and everyone who could sense it would have done so by now. It was only a matter of time before more Spirit lords arrived here, and he wasn't in the mood to engage more than he had to. He was already half dried up as it was.

  The serpent prince swung out its claws, unleashing massive claw-shaped blades of condensed corrosive liquid that flashed towards him. Damien interposed four large bolts of Destruction between himself and the blades, retreating just as they exploded on contact.

  He coated himself with his element—a very poor form of defense—and then jumped back into the plumic explosion before it died.

  The creature certainly did not expect his stupid move, and so it was not prepared to defend itself when Damien burst out of the mushroom of fire and smoke, his new spear brought to bear against the already fragile scales of the serpent, blade first.

  A fountain of ice blue blood gushed out as Damien slid down its body with his spear. The creature hissed in pure agony, disengaging violently as it fled back into the midst of the already cowed Monarchs.

  Damien could not find the other Prince, and he didn't care. It could have been dead for all he knew.

  "Damn, you really did a number on the overgrown lizard," Keilan commented as he came to hover beside Damien. Unlike him, his brother looked hale and healthy, with barely any scratches on his person. Had he not been breathing heavily, Damien wouldn't have suspected he'd just come out of a battle with more than a dozen Monarchs.

  "Don't taunt them, we already have enough problems as it is, I don't want another one cropping up," Damien cautioned.

  "I can't help it," his brother shrugged. "feels good to finally put these prideful lizards in their places for once."

  "You won't feel so good when reinforcement from their nests starts coming."

  Keilan swallowed audibly, and his teeth clamped shut.

  Damien turned towards the serpents. "Let's just call it a day, okay? We're adults and shouldn't be squabbling like children."

  Damien was reaching for the sun, he knew. But he at least hoped that given the one-sided beating they'd just sustained, they'd at least have sense and retreat, as any loser should.

  Of course, these were sea serpents, and so he wasn't surprised what they did next.

  ***

  The air burned for miles around as the sea serpent, out of some misplaced sense of pride and the refusal to concede to a human, summoned its Astral image.

  The afternoon glow burned hot and the waters below seethed and thrashed as small waves rose and fell, terrifying and sending other beasts and monsters fleeing the arrival of the Image.

  If nobody was aware of what was happening before, they were surely aware now. He hadn't wanted things to get this far, and still didn't want things to get this far. So as the projection of a truly draconic form slowly flickered into existence behind the serpent, glaring down at everything around with an emanating aura that stretched for miles, Damien shook his head.

  "Nope, not letting that happen. This has gone on long enough."

  A gray cloak manifested over his shoulders, appearing just for a microsecond before it disappeared. And in that time, Damien charged up an attack, infusing his spear with enough energy to fell a small settlement.

  His previous weapon hadn't been able to handle this much power before, but Gray had assured him that this one could. So Damien took the assurance to heart.

  He drew back his arm, set his target, and then let loose.

  There was a loud boom as the spear shattered the sound barrier, crossing the intervening distance between him and the serpent.

  The creature barely had the time to react before the spear took it straight in the center of its skull, punching through its scales and out behind its head in a bright spray of gore, bone shards, and crackling energy.

  "The body, Keilan! The body!"

  His brother didn't need to be told twice. A colossal image materialized behind him: a humanoid in light armor and a giant pair of green wings behind him. Within them were housed the thrashing forms of over a dozen natural disasters, from giant tornadoes to hurricanes and cataclysmic typhoons. His brother was the embodiment of the Wind's wrath, with an aura of wrathful wind energy.

  He launched himself in a blur of speed, appearing near the body and dragging it over to Damien, who took and stashed it within his spatial space just as the unstable Astral image paused, and then plunged the world in white.

  Now, this was a situation Damien would have unabashedly fled from. No one wanted to be in the vicinity of an unstable energy construct. Thankfully, his brother was there, removing his need to run.

  Keilan's wings closed around them, each giant construct locking around them protectively. Damien felt the wind still and solidify, hardening until his view of the outside world disappeared.

  And then the explosion hit.

  The world groaned, hair fractures running across empty air. Damien had been wondering why he'd been fortunate not to have witnessed an explosion during his encounter with Elora and Igor. Guess his luck had run out.

  Keilan's protective dome fractured and cracked, visible lines running across the emerald structure. Damien gripped his spear tighter and braced himself against the slipping energy, weathering a storm that would surely have annihilated them if they had been caught unaware.

  An eternity later, it stopped.

  Keilan waited for a few minutes before letting down his protection, unsummoning his image alongside it, and after he did, Damien still refused to put away his weapon.

  His armor was cracked and on the verge of falling. His bones ached and he felt like hugging a bed for the next eternity. Yet he forced himself to stand tall, turning towards a seemingly empty patch of air.

  "You played your hand well. I reckon this is where we have our first clash?