A short hurdle

Damion is sitting there still smiling even after his story.

Julius-"I'm sorry all of that had happened to you"

Damion-"It's alright all of that is in the past after all and there is nothing I can do to change it"

Julius-"You still hold on to things your father told you?"

Damion-"Well yeah, no one else has ever given me any advice"

Voice-"With all of this information you're original plan might not work out too well"

Julius(In his head)-"Why is that?"

Voice-"He may not be able to re-enter society like this"

Julius(In his head)-"You're right, it will probably take him some time to adjust"

Damion-"Hey, can I see what I look like?"

Julius-"Oh, yes, special skill: molecular reconstruction"

Julius uses some more rocks from the wall and transforms them into a mirror, he then uses some more light magic to make it a little brighter. 

Damion-"It's certainly different"

Julius-"Do you like it?"

Damion-"I think this hair and eye color could grow on me"

Julius-"Hey, um, if you need any help from now on, you can ask me"

Damion-"I appreciate that, although you have already done so much for me"

Julius-"It's alright, I like to help people"

Damion-"Well, I'm happy to have you as a friend-"

Suddenly the wall behind Damion becomes muddy and two arms covered in long black sleeves and black gloves grabs Damion and pulls him into the muddy wall.

Damion-"What the-"

Damion is cut off as he enters the wall at an incredibly fast speed.

Julius-"Damion!"

Julius is shocked but after a moment he flies towards the muddy wall.

Voice-"It appears the wall is solid again"

Julius-"Doesn't matter to me special skill: phase!"

Julius phases through the wall rushing between the stone and dirt molecules. Using his eagle eye perception Julius is able to see a moving patch of liquid state molecules containing Damion.

Julius-"They are moving insanely fast, they are already a third of the way to the castle!"

Voice-"You will have to use a skill to catch up to them"

Julius-"On it!"

Back to Damion.

Damion-"Mmmmmpphhh"

Damion(In his head)-"I can't talk, although I can't see or breath either which are probably more important"

Damion can feel a massive amount of mud flying past him along with the feeling of acceleration of moving very fast.

Damion-"mmm mm: mmphm (dark skill: unbind) 

Damion disconnected himself from the person grabbing him, this causes him to quickly come to stop with the ground around him becoming solid again.

Damion(In his head)-"This is even more restrictive"

Back to Julius.

Julius-"Look Damion stopped moving!"

Voice-"He must have separated himself from the enemy"

Julius-"That large patch of mud stopped moving underground though, they must have realized that Damion got away"

Voice-"They appear to have turned around and are now heading back for Damion again"

Julius-"I have to reach him first! Special skill: particle accelerator"

Julius gains a huge increase in speed and catches up to Damion in a small fraction of a second.

Julius-"earth skill: tunnel creation!"

Julius hollows out the earth around him and Damion creating a path towards the surface.

Julius-"Gravity skill: launch"

Julius and Damion are launched upwards to the surface. They are once again inside the kingdom's walls. 

Damion-"We are back here that fast?"

It is now very early in the morning so people who would begin their jobs a couple hours before sunrise are around and see a person get launched out of the ground.

Damion begins to fall back towards the ground but where Damion would have fallen has turned to mud.

Julius-"Whoever took you is trying again!"

Damion-"Dark skill: unbind!"

The mud that was surrounding the captor is separated from them leaving the ninja attired captor without cover.

Damion-"dark skill: spacial unbinding"

Damion launches himself face to face with the captor. Damion looks into the captor's eyes and sees yellow eyes with a lined pupil.

Damion-"dark skill: muscle unbind!"

Damion reaches his hand right up to the captor using his spell to try to disconnect their muscles like he did in the tournament, however, the captor quickly teleported with a distortion effect away.

Damion-"So fast!"

Julius-"I didn't even hear them shout out a skill!"

Damion lands inside the crater caused by the removal of the mud being one of the now two holes in the ground. The captor reappears above Damion. The captor draws a dagger and jumps towards Damion at sonic speed.

Voice-"Look at that dagger!"

Julius looks at the dagger and sees some poison molecules lining it. 

Julius-"Lightning skill: thunder bolt"

Julius shoots a lightning bolt at the captor, the captor notices this and jumps out of the way with the thunderbolt hitting the ground causing a third but smaller crater. Damion jumps out of the hole and enters a battle stance.

Captor-"There was somebody else with him, for some reason I can't see them"

Julius-"Any idea who they are?"

Damion-"They must be someone they sent to capture me"

Julius-"But how could they find us? I removed your tracker"

Damion-"I don't know"

Captor-"Curseborn!"

Damion and Julius stop talking.

Captor-"I have been tasked with returning you to your imprisonment"

Damion-"That's not going to happen"

Captor-"And to whoever is helping the curseborn, I suggest you surrender too before you put yourself in any more trouble"

Julius-"Also not going to ha-"

The captor grabbed a knife out of their cloak then threw it in Julius's direction, it missed him due to his small size.

Voice-"It seems the enemy was trying to hone in on your position"

Julius(in his head)-"I noticed"

Captor-"Missed..."

Captor(in their head)-"Are they intangible too?"

Damion-"Dark skill: spacial unbind"

Damion once against lunches himself towards the captor but same as before the captor teleports several meters away.

Damion-"How can this person use their skills so fast?"

The captor grabbed the knife they had thrown earlier out of the wall it was sticking in. The captor then holds out their hand and without saying anything the ground beneath Damion turns into mud again and begins to wrap around Damion.

Damion-"Dark skill: spacial unbind"

Damion is launched several meters into the air away from the mud.

Damion-"Not giving me a break are you?"

Julius-"It seems they can use skills without needing to say anything, also it seems they have the skills to teleport and to turn this stone and dirt into mud"

Julius(in his head)-"Hey voice, any idea what skills they are using"

Voice-"It seems they are using the teleport skill and the matter state change skill"

Julius(in his head)-"And how is it that they don't need to say anything to activate their skill, I need to use my sound skill to amplify my voice loud enough to use my skills to an effective degree"

Voice-"You don't need to make yourself loud enough though for everyone to hear"

Julius(in his head)-"But it's cool, that's not what I asked!"

Voice-"It's possible they were able to obtain the ability to cast skills without talking through training"

Damion-"Once more! Dark skill: spacial unbind!"

Damion once again launches himself towards the captor.

Captor-"teleport skill: self movement"

Damion flinches getting ready to look for where they are about to teleport. The captor then jumps towards Damion stabbing him with the poison dagger while he was momentarily distracted.

Damion-"What!?"

Julius-"They did a fake out!"

Voice-"They said the skill as a diversion but didn't actually use it"

Damion fell to the ground.

Damion(in his head)-"This person is a lot better than anyone I fought in that arena"

Captor(in their head)-"Now for the one who helped him escape, they seem to be both invisible and intangible, how do I attack them?"

Damion(in his head)-"This poison is acting fast, I'm already starting to loose feeling in my arms, I have to quickly cast my skill"

Damion-"(raspy voice) Dark skill: damage unbind"

Damion removed the poison from the dagger from his body. He then proceeded to quickly jump back to his feet.

Captor(in their head)-"Dang it, they were able to remove the poison, this is going to be more difficult than I first thought"

Julius-"Seems you underestimated us"

Damion-"Time for round two"

End of chapter 20

Note: If the guard from several chapters ago had injected the poison into Damion he could have removed it from himself, however the announcer and guards were unaware of this.