• What caught the attention of his wandering gray eyes was an open spot under a tree down an embankment. Perhaps it was more the rushing cool waters that attracted his attention more then the need to sit down. After making his way down the narrow path and past some questionable plants, Damon sat himself down firmly on the ground with his back pressed up against the moss covered tree trunk. The area was remarkably similar to every other place in the forest, yet somehow the way the water flowed was different here, perhaps the way it whipped around the rocks and moved the branches down stream, Damon didn't know, he only liked it. Normally, one would be concerned with having no idea where they were, little water, and night approaching quickly, but Damon wasn't. In fact he was actually very relaxed, enjoying the cool breeze moving between the trunks of the trees and the calming sound of leaves rustling. As as he could tell, the only information his special map had given him was a dot in the middle of a vast patch of forest with the words "you are here" stamped in bold red letters next to it, and an arrow pointing at the dot.

    Damon listened to the inane chirping of the birds in the trees, and for a moment he wondered to himself what they could be talking about. He thought about it for a moment while relaxing. 'I bet their discussing all the sights and sounds they've encountered in their travels all around the world. I bet the birds could tell some interesting stories. ' In reality, the birds were actually carrying on inane conversations about wing-spans, wind to mass ratios, and the speed of wind gusts. But despite this truth, it was still a very good day not to be able to speak bird language.

    The reason the man was out here was because he had heard that this path led to some kind of nice inn. Why do so many inns have to be in the middle of the damn forest?! You'd think people would realize that business was not going to be as well out the in woods as it would be in, oh, say a city or town where people actually traveled. Yet here he was, out in the middle of the woods, looking for an Inn that might not even exist. Though he was sure that he would randomly stumbled upon it eventually, and it would most likely be packed. Gaian reason was always funny to Damon. For now he didn't feel like moving. He had shade, water, an open spot to relax, and even food. This was would be home for a little while.

    Suddenly, a slight feeling; a tingling sensation like anxiety if you will, ran up Damon's spine. He couldn't quite place what the feeling was exactly or why he suddenly felt it, but in the back of his mind his subconscious did not deny what his conscious mind attempted very hard to deny. He spoke without thinking. " I wonder if I'm about to get blown u--"

    BOOOOM !!!

    Suddenly a burst of fire ripped through the area, Damon just happened to be relaxing at. Damon's instinctive reflexes kicked in and his adrenaline levels spiked; every muscle in his body had memorized the actions needed, and his mind had already put itself into defense mode. As though propelled by an unseen force, well, propelled by an unseen force, Damon's body flew up following a forward trajectory at the farthest tree in his line of sight and away from the event happening behind him. He made it behind the first tree he needed to pass before the fireball made contact, causing a huge flaming explosion to rip through the area. Damon felt the shock wave, air pressure and the heat slam directly into his back and throw him forwards, but he caught himself within his own field of psychokinetic force, flipped forwards, then stabilized himself in the air before quickly getting behind a tree. He was floating just two yards from the ground, now hidden behind a tree with his back to the direction the fireball had come from. Many thoughts stirred in his mind, not many of them were very rational. Quickly, though, he regained his composure and set his mind calm. If a battle was starting, he would need to be ready mentally.

    Moments passed with no appearance from the attacker.

    Cautiously, Damon turned to face the tree and began to slowly float backwards. Perhaps there was a battle taking place somewhere else and somebody had misfired; strange he hadn't seen or heard any other noise till now. Maybe the attacker was waiting in ambush for him to do just what he was doing now? Maybe they had attacked and then circled around, expecting him not to expect them to do just what his mind was now expecting them to do. Maybe they were expecting him to expect the unexpected and had already thought ahead?

    Damon quickly cleared his head of the logically illogical conclusions his mind kept reaching. These were the thoughts of an inexperienced fighter, something Damon did not happen to be. At least he thought that five years of combat made him fairly equipped to deal with most situations. By some peoples standards, he was still just a rookie. But other people's thoughts were inconsequential right now. Damon's eyes shifted around and he listened for any noise behind him or to his flanks. He allowed himself some comfort, but not too much, because he didn't want the enemy, if there was one, to get the jump on him again. But the enemy would in fact get only a half jump on Damon.

    He could hear the wind whisking behind him, something big was coming at him from behind! Immediately he pulled his legs up to his chest and his body dropped towards the ground, just as a massive metal fist pulverized the tree in front of him. Damon spun his body 180 degrees and kicked his legs forward, shooting backwards away from another fist that would have slammed into his back a second earlier. As he peered at his attacker, he was bewildered; the thing was extremely ugly and fearsome looking. It stood at least nine to ten feet tall, and its entire body was filled out with unsightly bulging dark skinned muscles bloated with power. It's head appeared to be encased in a cast-iron cage, and the only clothing it wore was a appeared to be metal cast-iron briefs. But aside all of that, what really caught Damon's attention was a huge circular red jewel stuck into the flesh in the center of it's chest. That had to be where the fireball had come from.

    " What tha fu--"

    Damon was unable to finish his sentence; quickly overtaken by the urge to retreat as the huge creature began to charge. Each step it took shook the ground and echoed through the forest - how could something like this sneak up on him in the first place? That little detail could wait, cause this thing was really fast. Despite it's large mass, it's speed was like that of any lean muscled fighter and it was coming up really quickly. Damon's next reaction was to begin moving backwards at twice the speed, but the problem was the fact that he ran the risk of slamming back-first into trees if he attempted to fly. He could always fly up and attempt to escape, but then the thoughts came to him. If this thing had found him out, it was obviously hunting him, and if he lost sight of it and it managed to conceal itself, he could be ambushed again. It was better to try and deal with it right now then wait till later where things could get more complicated.

    Damon shot backwards using psychokinesis to propel his movement. He was moving backwards and from side to side at an angle, so that his feet would touch the trunk of trees. He would move through this forest like one would go down steps. Jumping from one tree to another. His speed was good, but the monster that was now charging him just ran right through the trees, its bulk splitting trunks like they were toothpicks. After only a few moments, the creature had already gotten close to Damon and it's large body smashed into the trunk of a tree Damon was just landing on, throwing him off balance. That's when the creature slung it's huge muscled right arm at Damon's unbalanced body. A clothesline that could snap his body in half. Damon defended by wrapping psychokinetic force around his body, creating a field of strong opposing pressure for the creatures arm to hit. And when the arm hit the pressure, it bounced back, but Damon was sent shooting backwards like a like missile for ten yards, luckily, his pyschokinetic armor was still active, so when he slammed back first into a tree and it shattered the trunk, leaving Damon only stunned.

    Damon managed to recover fairly quickly, though the whole ordeal left his head and back hurting a bit. He rubbed his hand through his hair, and got to his feet. He stood amongst the debris of the fallen tree; legs spread apart evenly, arms at his sides, and a breeze gently rustling his now dirty white t-shirt. His light blue jeans now had a hole torn in the right leg and his black leather belt was a bit too loose for him as well. But overall, he felt okay. Damon realized he had exhausted two options; running and hiding. That left only one option and one alternative. Damon tried hard to suppress the grin creeping across his face; he much preferred the serious look on the happy one when in a stressful situation like this.

    " I can fight or... well, die. "

    He gripped his fists tightly, but his mind relaxed and stabilized. He closed his eyes and then opened them; they were shimmering with power. He was ready, and so was the creature only four yards away from him and getting closer, literally, by the second. But Damon didn't wait for the creature to come to him, he went to it. He charged silently towards the creature as it charged towards him; like a car charging a train. Seconds before they were right on top of each other, Damon cocked back his right arm and gripped his fist tightly, preparing to strike. Damon dove directly up at the creatures chest, throwing his right fist forwards following the same trajectory. Damon could feel the insignificance of his arm- no, his entire five feet ten inches and one hundred and seventy five pounds of body against the creatures solid wall of muscles. He could feel the overpowering brute strength in one arm that surpassed every physical muscle in his body, but one thing kept his strong; one idea of discipline; mind over matter.

    When Damon's fist slammed into the red circular device lodged into the creatures chest, time seemed to stop all around him. All the kinetic force from his physical attack instantly exhausted and did nothing, but what came next proved to make the detail of his small physical strength meaningless. A force of psychokinetic pressure exploded from Damon's arm following a path down his limb and into the creatures bulky chest. It was an explosive force producing the kinetic energy of an arm almost a hundred and fifty times stronger then Damon's. That is, a punch with the power of a hundred and fifty men moving at top human speed. The device in the creatures chest fractured and the creatures body was jolted backwards, though not very far. It fell to the ground back first with a great thud, just as Damon himself flew back, only landing on his feet instead. The creature was motionless and a crackling sound could be heard from the broken device on its chest. Damon just stood there rubbing his fist and staring. He didn't want the thing to wake up and he had to make sure it was dead, and was cautious while making his final approach towards it.

    He stood over the now pathetic looking beast. It was out of it, but still appearently alive. Damon stood back and extended his right arm over the beasts head. His hand was tensed and his fingers curved to look like a claw. He focused for a second as he readied his last move. He could feel the psychokinetic pressures building around his hand and the creatures head; his mind reaching out to grasp a hold of the physical matter. Damon snarled and then rapidly jerked his hand upwards, brining with it a rush of psychokinetic force which ripped the creatures head from it's body. There was no blood. Only a loud fleshy rip and the sound of dried crack. Damon kept the head but left the body. At least he might be able to sell it for a little money to refill his flask. Which he needed to go back and get.

    Somehow, later that evening, the path through the forest lead to an inn. It wasn't strange to find an inn in the middle of a forest after all. At least that meant the path wasn't too deserted, or perhaps a town was nearby. There always seemed to be. When he arrived he attempted to pawn the creatures the head off to a few warriors that had also stopped in at the inn, but he didn't have any luck. Instead, he gave it to the staff of the inn to place as a trophy over the entrance to a makeshift arena they were building. That night, Damon got to eat a warm meal and sleep in a nice bed. Life was good.