Chapter 284: Sound Battle

The blonde woman didn’t respond immediately, and that alone said far more than any verbal provocation could. She merely tilted her head slightly, assessing Damon with that same cold, technical gaze, like someone who wasn’t dealing with a person… but with a target that needed to be understood before being eliminated. The silence between them wasn’t empty—it was charged with calculation, with mutual reading, with two dangerous presences measuring range, reaction time, movement patterns. And Damon perceived this instantly.

“So you’re the professional type after all…” he murmured, slightly rotating his neck as if releasing tension, though his eyes didn’t leave her for a second. “No speeches, no dramatic threats… just work.”

The answer came—

But not in words.

The air vibrated.

This time, Damon saw it.

A slight, almost invisible tremor distorted the space around the woman, like waves of heat compressed into an extremely thin line, advancing toward him with absurd speed. There was no sound at first—just the impact arriving.

Damon reacted purely on instinct.

His body shifted sharply to the side, quick enough to avoid the center of the attack, but not completely. The wave grazed him—and the effect was immediate. The sound exploded inside his head with reduced force, but still brutal, eliciting a low grunt as he slid a few steps back, one hand pressing against his ear again.

“…damn it…” he muttered, his teeth clenched, his balance being forcibly regained.

She didn’t stop.

Another blast came.

Faster.

More precise.

Damon vanished.

His body fragmented again into a cloud of bats, escaping by centimeters from the line of impact, but this time the woman reacted immediately, twisting her body with precision and releasing another wave—not in front, but in the middle of the dispersion.

And then—

She hit.

Part of the cloud was struck.

The effect was immediate and brutal. Several bats disintegrated in mid-air as if crushed by invisible pressure, and Damon was forced to recover sooner than planned, appearing a few meters further away, now visibly more irritated, breathing a little heavier.

“Okay…” he murmured, wiping a small trace of blood that trickled from his ear. “You learn fast.”

The woman finally spoke.

“And you bleed.”

Her voice was low, firm, completely devoid of emotion.

And in the next instant—

She lunged.

Quickly.

Much faster than he expected.

Her body crossed the distance between them in a blur, and for the first time, the combat ceased to be merely at a distance. A direct blow came towards Damon’s face, charged not only with physical force but with a concentrated vibration that made the surrounding air tremble.

Damon raised his arm to block—

Impact. The sound wasn’t loud externally.

But inside—

It exploded.

Her arm absorbed the blow, but the vibration pierced her defense and struck her entire body, causing her muscles to lock for a microsecond—enough for her to continue the sequence.

Second blow.

Low.

Straight to the abdomen.

Damon tried to recoil—

Too late.

The impact pushed him back, his feet dragging on the ground as air forcefully escaped his lungs.

But this time—

He reacted.

His hand surged forward, grabbing her wrist mid-third attack, interrupting the movement with enough force to make her arm stop abruptly in mid-air.

Silence.

For half a second.

They stared at each other closely.

And then—

The air around them collapsed.

An absurd amount of pressure exploded from Damon, pushing everything around him in an invisible wave that launched the woman back several meters, her body spinning in the air before landing with feline precision on the ground, sliding a few centimeters until she stopped.

Damon took a deep breath.

Once.

Twice.

And then he smiled.

“Better…” he said, cracking his neck slightly. “Much better.”

But she didn’t seem impressed.

She merely adjusted her posture.

And then—

The sound returned.

This time not as a burst.

But as a field.

A constant vibration began to form around her, continuously distorting the air, creating a zone where space itself seemed unstable. Damon felt it immediately—that frequency was interfering, weakening his presence, hindering the full manifestation of his power.

“Ah…” he murmured, narrowing his eyes. “So this is how you play.”

She advanced again.

But now—

The field came along.

Each of her steps made the ground vibrate slightly, and each movement carried that cursed frequency that pressed on Damon’s mind, trying to break his concentration even before the physical impact.

She attacked with a rapid sequence—short, precise blows, each carrying micro-explosions of sound that made it impossible to block without suffering indirect damage.

Damon retreated.

Dodged the first one. Blocked the second—

Mistake.

The vibration pierced the defense again, making her arm tremble involuntarily.

Third blow—

He didn’t block.

He vanished.

Appeared behind her.

His hand already advancing—

But she anticipated it.

She spun.

And unleashed a sonic blast in an area.

The impact hit Damon squarely this time.

His body was thrown backward, slamming against the stone wall with enough force to crack the surface, the dry sound echoing through the alley.

Silence.

For a second.

Two.

And then—

Laughter.

Low.

But present.

Damon slid down the wall until he was standing again, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes now shining with something far more intense than before.

“…okay…” he murmured, chuckling softly. “Now it’s fun.”

He slowly stepped away from the wall.

And then—

He stopped.

His gaze shifted.

Deeper.

More…heavy.

The air around him began to distort again.

But this time—

Different.

It wasn’t expansion.

It was compression.

As if everything around was being pulled to a single point…on him.

His very presence began to weigh on the environment, crushing her sound field little by little, creating invisible cracks in that frequency.

The woman noticed.

And for the first time—

Her gaze shifted.

Minimally.

But it shifted.

Damon smiled.

Slowly.

“My turn.”

Damon’s smile didn’t disappear—it just changed, becoming more restrained, denser, as if he had finally decided to stop playing games and started taking this fight for exactly what it was: a real confrontation, against someone who could not only hurt him… but who had been specifically prepared for it. The air around him continued to compress, the invisible presence that had previously spread out now being pulled inward, concentrated, refined, transforming into something far more dangerous than a simple display of brute force.

The woman noticed.

And reacted.

Before he even moved.

The sound field around her intensified abruptly, the frequency rising to an almost unbearable level, making the very air vibrate as if it were on the verge of shattering. Small cracks appeared in the ground beneath her feet, not from physical impact, but from the continuous pressure of that absurd oscillation that tried to push back Damon’s presence.

But this time—

He didn’t back down.

He moved forward.

Without disappearing.

Without tricks.

Just one step.

And the world around him responded.

The ground beneath his feet yielded slightly, not from physical weight, but from the density of the energy compressed around him, creating a zone where everything seemed… heavier. Slower. As if reality itself had been dragged into the gravity he created.

The woman launched her attack.

Directly.

A concentrated blast, thinner, more lethal, traversing the space between them with surgical precision.

Damon didn’t flinch.

He raised his hand.

And caught it.

Not physically.

But the effect was the same.

The sound wave collided with something invisible before him and… stopped. Not completely—it trembled, vibrated, tried to move forward—but it was contained, compressed between two opposing forces, as if being crushed until it lost its form.

The air around the collision distorted violently, creating a visible point of tension, like glass about to shatter.

Damon tilted his head slightly, observing it with genuine interest.

“So that’s it…” he murmured. “You don’t create sound… you manipulate it.”

And then—

He clenched his fist.

The blast imploded.

The sound didn’t explode outward.

It collapsed inward, crushed by the absurd pressure Damon exerted, dissipating in a dry crack that echoed through the alley like the breaking of something fragile.

The woman was already moving.

She didn’t hesitate.

She advanced again, but this time completely changing her approach. Her body descended, gliding across the ground at a slow, controlled speed, and in the next instant an expanding wave spread around her, not focused on direct damage, but on an area of ​​effect.

Damon felt it immediately.

The frequency tried to invade again.

Destabilize.

Break his focus.

But now—

He was prepared.

His presence reacted automatically, creating a dense layer around his body, like an invisible barrier that absorbed and neutralized some of the vibration before it reached his mind.

Even so—

It hurt.

But not enough.

She appeared before him again, her fist coming in a straight line, charged with a condensed vibration even more intense than before.

Damon didn’t block.

He stepped in.

He took a step forward at the exact moment of impact.

Her mistake.

The blow grazed the side of his face, distorting the air, but without connecting directly. And at that same instant, Damon’s hand was already in motion, advancing towards her chest.

Not fast.

But inevitable.

She tried to retreat—

Too late. The touch was light.

Almost gentle.

But the effect—

It was brutal.

An invisible, compressed force was released at the point of contact, not as an explosion, but as a controlled implosion, crushing the air around her body and hurling her backward with absurd violence.

The impact against the wall was dry.

Heavy.

Unlike the previous ones.

This time—

She didn’t land gracefully.

Her body struck the stone with enough force to crack around it, the sound echoing through the alley as she fell partially to her knees, one hand braced on the ground, her breath for the first time… irregular.

Silence.

But not empty.

Charged.

Damon remained where he was.

Watching.

Breathing in a controlled manner now.

His eyes fixed on her.

“Better…” he said, in a low tone, walking slowly towards her. “You finally stopped holding back.”

She lifted her face.

Her eyes still focused.

Still dangerous.

But now—

There was something new there.

Recognition.

She spat blood slightly to the side, wiping the corner of her mouth with her thumb before standing up again, completely ignoring the impact she had received.

“You too…” she replied, her voice still firm, though lower. “Stopped playing around.”

Damon smiled.

“Yes.”

A pause.

Short.

And then—

They disappeared at the same time.

The shock in the center of the alley was instantaneous.

This time there was no slow exchange.

It was a direct collision.

Movement against movement.

Force against force.

The two emerged into the space, their blows meeting instantly—her fist charged with extreme vibration, his hand enveloped in that compressed pressure—and the impact generated a visible shockwave that spread through the environment, shattering nearby windows and raising dust from the floor.

Neither retreated immediately.

They remained locked for an instant, opposing forces battling for dominance.

The air around them trembled.

Space distorted.

And then—

Both were pushed back.

But not far.

The fight had changed.

It was no longer a test.

It was no longer probing.

Now—

It was direct confrontation.

And Damon…

Was truly smiling.

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