In a location dark and quiet, filled with an endless mist which covered the world in a blanket of darkness, the world brightened, and said mist was washed away as a beam of gray energy flashed out, carving through the air in an arc before dying down. And then the mist rushed back in.

  That wasn't all. For as far as three miles away, creatures, most of which had been slumbering, awoke as the sound of explosions rang out. The ones farther only heard the sound, but those closer had to flee in the wake of the shockwaves that followed.

  The earth quaked as dozens of loud screeches and chill-inducing chittering echoed out in different flavors, pain a major one of them. One by one, they were cut off, shut down permanently.

  Damien jumped into the air, sailing like a thrown javelin to land on the body of a flying ant. He dug his fingers into a crack in its shell, making sure to hold tightly as the ant began trashing in mid air, flying in a zigzag pattern and even doing a barrel roll, all just to throw him off. Still, he held on.

  His spear dug into the monster's neck, at least where Damien assumed it was. He didn't bother knowing what it was, seeing as the ant died just like anything else when cut through the neck.

  Done with that one, he hopped from its careening body onto another one, catching on to it before it managed to veer away.

  This one was more successful in fending him off, though, as its wings caught him an instant before his fingers could find purchase, and that was how Damien found himself falling through the air to crash with a squelch into the body of an ant on the ground.

  He'd barely gotten up when another flying swarm came speeding down towards him, so Damien gave them the deluxe special. His spear pointed into the sky, and a second later a thick gray beam of destruction essence flashed out, catching and tearing through half a dozen ants in one curved arc.

  Taking the chance as the others turned sharply away to avoid the beam of death, Damien quickly got himself back onto his foot, grimacing at the thick squelch that sounded as he pushed through the abdomen he'd fallen into.

  Starfalls rained all around him as he hopped out of the dead ant, falling onto the ones who'd been about to capitalize on his sudden crash.

  Already, the earth was pockmarked with dozens of scars, courtesy of his star falls. And long trenches filled the land, at the end of which held burnt and shattered carcasses of other ants.

  The creatures were swiftly dwindling as Damien tore into them like one of Keilan's tornadoes, yet they didn't give up. Instead, they pushed harder.

  What were these things made of?

  Damien dodged the bottom stinger from a land crawler, tore out one of its legs with his passing left hand, and then jammed said torn-out leg deep into its abdomen.

  He ignored the sharp twitching of the ant as he moved on to his next victim.

  These things might have been Spirit lords, Damien understood, but they were so physically weak he didn't doubt a talented peak tier Monarch would have any issues dealing with them. It was no wonder they were dying like... Well... Flies.

  Two star falls flashed from the circle behind his head, and then impacted a couple of ants in their abdomens, blowing through the icky organ and killing them instantly.

  It hadn't taken Damien much to realize that the abdomen, which held probably their most powerful weapon, was ironically the weakest link in their armor.

  As far as he made sure to target that part of the body, then those things were basically his playthings, regardless of their realm.

  Besides, none of them were above the early tier, which finalized Damien's victory.

  Still, he knew they weren't to be overlooked. After all, they'd already managed to hit him. Who was to say what other feat they could accomplish with that level of speed?

  Slowly, Damien whittled them out. One at a time. A clipped wing saw an ant crash onto the ground, and Damien capitalized on it by jabbing his spear into the crack between the head and the body. Like the few others who'd suffered a slow death, the ant twitched for a few seconds before it finally died. But by then, Damien was already off to the next one.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Since he got the basics on intent wielding, Damien reflected now that he'd never used it in an actual battle. Training with Keilan was just that: Training. Damien needed to see how well his intent would fare against mindless creatures like these.

  He at first thought to slow down o better make it easier for him to focus, but looking at the speeding creatures before him, he instantly realized how that was a bad idea. So he did what other people did when given no easy way out. He improvised.

  Damien targeted a flying ant, one of the last few remaining, and then grunted heavily when something slammed into his mind.

  Recovering his vision, he was just fast enough to bring his spear in an upward slash, parting the head of an ant that was just inches away from tearing out his head, and then he was surrounded.

  Maybe I shouldn't be trying this here

  The ants, whether by planned effort or just plain luck, had already blocked off all paths of escape, which also made it very hard to maneuver.

  His surroundings were so choked full with ant it reminded Damien of an island in the middle of an ocean. He pointed a finger backward, firing a short breath of destruction to ward off an ant that was just about to tear into his back. Another breath tore through the head of an overeager ant; all the while, Damien slashed and stabbed with his right hand.

  He knew this wasn't going to last. He was surrounded and very soon an ant was going to get lucky, and that would be it for him. And he couldn't use his Starfall technique because that would be putting himself in the same boiling pot as the ants, maybe worse.

  Oh, how he wished he had a defensive technique; it'd probably help stave off the shock blast from his Starfall technique and give him a chance to escape. But well... He'd just have to make do.

  Instead of staying stagnant for the creatures to eventually overwhelm, Damien charged forward, going the unusual brute style.

  He dug into his soul well and pulled out more energy than before, blasting out a breath of destruction as thick as his arm. The beam tore through the ants gathered in front of him, leaving their bisected corpse to clutter before him, which would have blocked off his path had he not used his Starfall technique to disperse off the bodies.

  As he ran, Damien noticed distantly that the amount of stars he'd summoned was also the same amount that blew into the corpse mound; none unraveled. He would have smiled had his technique not detonated at that point, blasting the already shattered corpses to smitherings. But by then he was already out, taking his own deluxe treatment on his way out.

  Like a projectile, Damien was launched into the air, flailing like a drowning man to crash down a dozen meters away from the launch point.

  He groaned, and would have preferred to simply lay down and rest forever had he not been immediately swarmed.

  Angry, Damien once again dipped significantly into his soul well, dragging out a huge amount of essence that he then shaped into Starfall. A single one.

  The sky above him brightened as the star manifested into reality, while Damien gritted his teeth as he fought to hold it against the sudden pressure that pressed onto his mind.

  All the while he did this, he was fighting off the dozens of ants jostling to take a bite out of him.

  A few seconds later, Damien sensed the energy in the star construct reached saturation. It couldn't take anymore.

  He grimaced right before he launched the star into the crowded midst of his assailants. This was going to hurt.

  And then he ran for all he was worth.

  For probably the dozen'th time that day, Damien found himself launched into the sky. Luckily for him, he'd managed to get himself a good distance before the technique had landed. He couldn't say the same for the ants, though.

  Damien whistled as he looked on at the level of destruction he'd just wrought. To call the land devastated was an understatement. And even seconds after the explosion had died down, the mist had still not moved in. The site was choked full with the essence of destruction, more than Damien had summoned.

  Of his previous foes, there was none in sight. Damien wasn't surprised. An explosion capable of ripping open a two mile wide crater was certainly not going to leave anything behind.

  With a relieved sigh, Damien plumped down onto the ground. He didn't even bother sitting, simply crashing back first on the sand.

  Above, the mist was cleared for the first time, and this finally gave Damien the chance to see what lay beyond it.

  Nothing.

  Damien sighed. He didn't even have the strength to complain. It wasn't like he'd been expecting anything. An endless sea of dense purple mist covering the sky wasn't much different from what he was enveloped in.

  Damien's eyes had already begun closing when a loud, piercing screech echoed out, shredding through the blanket of relief that had surrounded him.

  Worse still, Damien recognized the aura that followed. Within the blink of an eye, he was on his feet, eyes narrowed.

  He gripped his spear tight just as another screech echoed out, closer. A second later, a heavy whoosh cut through the momentary silence, dispersing the mist to reveal an ant not unlike the previous ones.

  Where there should have been two pincers, there were four. And these ones looked a hell of a lot sharper than what he'd previously encountered.

  There were two pairs of wings on the fifteen-foot-tall giant. One large pair, big enough to wrap fully around him with space to spare, and two smaller ones, which buzzed, bringing the monstrosity to land.

  The mid tier ant queen looked down at him with both hunger and anger, and Damien gulped as he looked into those piercing black orbs.

  "Hello, ma'am," he said nervously. "Were those your children?"