Damian tossed the tanto into the air, formed several hand seals, and, putting both hands in a tube shape in front of his mouth, exhaled a Huge Fireball into Deathstroke's back. A clot of fire the size of a bus flew fast, and only Ra's al Ghul managed to dodge it. The heat charred the tip of the old man's beard, the wooden floor underfoot smoldered into ash in a couple of seconds, and it seemed that a howl of pain should have come from the bonfire.
But the slightly singed figure of Deathstroke jumping out showed that things would not be so simple. Fire was still splashed across the armor plates of his suit like napalm, but the mercenary seemed to have taken no damage. The Nth metal from which the armor was made completely absorbed the radiation and temperature. Such were the properties of this miraculous metal.
Catching the falling tanto, Damian rushed into close combat. Now Deathstroke had to fight off both Ra's al Ghul and his little copy. However, if the head of the League of Shadows presented difficulties, Damian did not. Strength, speed, reaction, experience, mastery—the twelve-year-old boy was fundamentally inferior in all parameters.
Damian retreated again, formed seals, and freezing with his hands clasped together, spat out Ice Needles. Deathstroke took them on his bracers. The mercenary's reaction allowed him to deflect bullets.
Damian retreated, formed seals, and exhaled three Fireballs. They were the size of a football and flew fast, but the mercenary managed to dodge, and Damian tried to get into close combat again. Unsuccessfully. Two bullets hitting his body resonated with pain, his breathing faltered, his ribs cracked, but the presence of chakra made his body a little stronger than it should have been. Damian could continue. Even with one sword, the mercenary easily fought off both Ra's al Ghul and his future heir; moreover, cuts began to appear on the boy's body.
At one point, the 20-round magazine was empty, and with an imperceptible movement, one pistol was replaced by a second.
Despite all the seeming hopelessness, Damian was being useful. Ra's al Ghul began to press, trying not to let the opponent be distracted; the number of cuts on the unprotected areas of the armor began to increase. Deathstroke realized that the fight was becoming dangerous. His brain process, accelerated nine times, quickly analyzed the surrounding space, and, realizing that it was no longer possible to save his personnel, he gave the order.
"Plan Gamma-four!"
All 16 remaining H.I.V.E. fighters rushed in a single impulse toward Ra's al Ghul, completely ignoring their opponents. The decision came unexpectedly. A Fireball released by Damian in an attempt to scare off the operatives simply doused three of them with fire, but even so, they mindlessly continued to rush forward.
Ra's al Ghul tried to retreat, but Deathstroke did not let him, pinning him against the wall. The fighters at the end of the assault began to fall. The League of Shadows ninjas, having gained freedom of action, plunged their swords into the gaps in the armor, but even this did not distract the attackers from the received command. They seemed to have lost their minds, spinelessly executing the order.
The Head of the League of Shadows was surrounded on all sides; multiple strikes rained down on the six-hundred-year-old man, and while he fought them off, Deathstroke, operating beyond human speed, plunged the point of his sword right into his neck.
Red blood splattered, and the subsequent swing severed the head from the shoulders with a squelch.
"Father, NO!!!" a female voice screamed.
One of the figures in black clothes erupted in a hail of strikes, trying with all her might to break through the ranks of H.I.V.E. fighters. Having fulfilled their order, they turned around and began to fight back again.
"Plan Bravo-six," Deathstroke's cold voice rang out; the figure in black-and-yellow armor swept across the entire room like a blurred shadow and flew into the corridor.
The League of Shadows ninjas rushing after him were intercepted by the fighters in armor, providing the necessary precious seconds according to the received order.
Damian's small figure was the first to break out of the encirclement. The boy popped into the corridor like a bullet, and at the same moment an explosion sounded. The main exit from the base collapsed, cutting off the possibility of pursuit. Damian was about to dash to other exits but quickly realized he wouldn't make it in time. He decided to help his fighters.
Deathstroke, meanwhile, was lifting the helicopter into the air, and with him, the twenty fighters remaining outside rose into the sky. The ten stuck in the pagoda, who could not get into the base due to the blocked corridor, and the ten traitors.
Bursting back into the main hall, Damian formed hand seals and exhaled several Fireballs, burning four soldiers in yellow armor at once. The next seals produced four Ice Needles that pierced the necks of three more fighters.
Finding themselves in the majority, the League of Shadows fighters quickly finished off the rest. Some were taken prisoner. Looking around quickly, Damian noticed that neither his grandfather nor his mother was in the room. A quick brainstorm, and the boy rushed into one of the corridors.
First turn, second, a hidden manhole, and a long run down a spiral staircase began, leading to the deepest level of the base, into the heart of the mountain, into the heart of Ra's al Ghul's greatness.
Damian had never been here. He was not allowed into the holy of holies—the Lazarus Pit, rightfully fearing excessive curiosity and the subsequent death of the heir.
Ten minutes later, Damian ran out into a large underground cave with a rather large natural pool of an almost circular shape. The water in it bubbled, glowed brightly green, and gave off a pleasant smell of freshness. Inhaling the vapors, Damian immediately felt the chakra in his body respond to the energy hovering around, but pushing the strange sensations into the background, the boy ran to the figure of his mother sitting at the edge of the Lazarus Pit, with a headless body at her feet.
The young woman's face did not express grief. Sadness, anger, but not grief for a loved one. Damian felt exactly the same. He was sad, hurt, anger splashed in his chest like bright embers, but he did not feel an all-consuming sense of loss.
Damian did not love Ra's al Ghul. Neither as a grandfather, nor as the head of the League of Shadows. Respected, acknowledged, but did not love.
"The Lazarus Pit won't help him anymore, right?" Damian asked calmly.
"No, father is dead," Talia answered just as calmly.
Damian sat down nearby, just silently staring at the green, bubbling water. With every breath, the chakra in the youth's body bubbled stronger, responding to the new energy. Taking the opportunity, Damian fell into a light trance, absorbing the energy hovering in the cave with every breath, and carefully monitoring how it reacted and worked with the chakra flowing in his body.
The boy felt how the new energy, which he associated with mint, passing through his lungs, wove into his chakra. With every breath, the green tint mixed more strongly with the cold blue stream, and Damian felt his body gradually heating up, his muscles filling with a strange languor and strength, his mind becoming slightly clearer and freer. His breaths became deeper, the green tint mixed more strongly with the blue color of his chakra, until at one moment the boy's head shot with pain.
Following the head, the pain rolled throughout his entire body, causing spasms and convulsions. And then his whole body turned into one big nerve cell that was being burned, ground up, crushed, sucked dry, and torn apart. Hellish pain became synonymous with Damian's existence, pulsating, rolling in waves, knocking out his thoughts.
Under Talia's shocked gaze, her child, the future of the entire League of Shadows, suddenly contorted and screamed. The howl of pain spread throughout the cave, echoed off the walls and the vault, only worsening the atmosphere.
"Damian, what's wrong with you?" the woman immediately jumped up to her child, checked his pulse, tried to check his pupils.
They darted madly from side to side, the boy's body was like a working furnace, and his pulse beat faster than a machine-gun burst.
A thousand thoughts flew through Talia's head. Poison? A magical curse? A psionic attack? All possible threats could be the cause of Damian's torment. Shaking her head, the woman put her thoughts in order, focusing on the most important thing—how to help her child.
The realization that everything started when he came into this cave became the trigger for action. The mother took her son in her arms and quickly left the green-glowing cave, taking the elevator up. The decision turned out to be correct. From the first seconds that Damian found himself in the elevator, cut off from the room with the Lazarus Pit, the terrifying scream of agony stopped, replaced by pained moans. Gradually the convulsions stopped, and when the woman carried her son into the medical wing, there were no more symptoms. Her son was just sleeping peacefully.
"Does the Lazarus Pit somehow harm your chakra?" Talia muttered thoughtfully, looking at her son and in no hurry to leave the room.
The boy woke up a couple of minutes later. Blinked. And stared questioningly at his mother.
"You felt bad, pulse, temperature, convulsions. How do you feel?"
"Like I was chewed up and spit out," Damian grimaced.
He felt that his insides were burning, like a stomach burns after spicy food, not painful, but damn unpleasant.
"What is the Lazarus Pit? Where did it come from?" Damian asked.
"It was always there. It's the physical condensation of the world's energy, or so father said."
"Condensation of the world's energy, eh," Damian pondered. "First association—Sage chakra from Naruto. There was also some special world energy there, which gives decent buffs when used. And it also turns everyone who can't handle it into stone. Let's assume. As far as I remember, the Lazarus Pit has side effects, which is why the rejuvenation effect goes hand in hand with the loss of sanity effect. I clearly absorbed the vapors of this liquid, which means that's what warped me, so the association is only strengthened."
"I'm fine," Damian turned to his mother. "You'd better go back down and make sure grandfather's body doesn't resurrect itself; the last thing we need is crazy undead around here."
"Aren't you sad about this at all?" Talia was surprised.
"No, I am sad. He taught me a lot, and I might miss him," Guang honestly admitted.
"You still didn't accept him as a grandfather," Talia stated with a hint of sadness and left the ward.
Damian, on the other hand, plunged back into a trance; hissing and enduring the pain, he began to inspect his insides. Overall, everything was fine. The chakra was pure and blue, without impurities of foreign green inclusions. It flowed without problems, only leaving a burning residue from damaged pathways, but that should pass. Damian really hoped so.