Briggs pointed at the Rhiener family. A spinning vortex formed in the black clouds above which then channeled a beam of the black cloud onto their location.
Rhiener let out a mild grunt before he and his family turned into tiny particles that scattered around and turned invisible even before the beam struck them.
Puff.
The beam landed on empty earth leaving an almost liquid pool of darkness in its wake. The Rhiener family's particles reappeared and merged together to reform their bodies in a distant location.
"Blergh" Rhiener spat out blood. The strain on his body was getting unbearable. "Your void powers are quite scary. It's a good thing I'm going to kill you now. You can't be allowed to live and give me headaches in the future" said Briggs.
"Particle explosion was supposed to reconstitute my body afresh returning me to full health and removing all debuff. Why am I much worse?" asked Rhiener. The suppression on his body had become stronger and the black gas around his face had become denser.
"It's not called black plague for nothing. The darkness infects your cells, separating yourself on a molecular level will not help you. In fact, it will worsen because your body will not be able to fight it as a whole" replied Briggs as he pointed at the family again.
The vortex formed in the clouds above and released another beam to the family's position. Rhiener spread his arms apart and two white disks were formed on his palms. He threw one onto the incoming black beam and it expanded enough to absorb the beam while he pointed the other disk towards Briggs.
The beam absorbed by the disk in the air was shot towards Briggs from the disk in Rhiener's palm. Briggs attempted to dodge the beam but Rhiener's wife, Selena stepped up and screamed at the beam.
"Screeeee" an immense sound wave was blasted from her mouth and hit the beam forcing it follow the movement pattern of the sound wave thereby making the straight beam attack become a wide area of effect attack.
"Argh" Briggs could not dodge so he was hit by the attack. Not much damage was done to him because the power was originally his and the power of the attack was reduced due to it becoming an area of effect attack. But it still hurt a lot though.
Rhiener pointed at Briggs' heart and a red beam was sent toward him. Briggs burst into a cloud of black smoke and then moved sideways in an attempt to dodge the red beam. He reappeared soon after but there was a red X drawn above his heart. He dodged too late.
"You have been marked and under my crosshairs. No matter how you try to evade, my attacks will always hit that spot" said Rhiener. He willed it and the disk floating in the air rapidly flew towards the mark on Briggs's chest.
Briggs punched out and a torrent of black clouds was sent from his hands towards the white disk. The two powers collided and were struggling with themselves almost soundlessly. The victor among the two struggling powers was almost soon to be revealed.
Any part of the dark cloud that touched the white disk would absorb a little of the disk and brighten a bit before falling lifelessly on the ground. A large portion of the forest's ground was filled with a black mist which was a result of the fight.
Rhiener noticed that his disk was quickly getting smaller so with a flick of his wrist, the disk stopped opposing the black cloud but started absorbing it instead.
The disk had two modes. One was as a channel between two points which was used at the beginning of the fight. In this mode, the two disks were incorporeal and the white light was just a representation of a break and continuation in space. Anything that passed through one disk came out from the other one.
The second mode turned the disk into a terrifying weapon that could cut through anything although it depended on the caster's power. It is even rumored to be able to cut through space at the appropriate power level.
The black cloud absorbed the white disk because the power of darkness was ever hungry. Its main purpose was to devour everything and the disk was in its attack mode so it could slowly nibble it at the edges.
The disk quickly absorbed the black clouds and was sent out through the other one which was pointed at Briggs. "Screeee." Selena also used her Sonic blast. She screamed into the emerging black cloud scattering and mixing with it to form an area of effect attack. When the attack drew closer to Briggs it returned its shape to become a single target attack that headed straight for the mark on his chest.
Briggs dashed away, trying his best to evade the attack. Try as he might though, he could not evade the deadly black cloud beam that had locked onto him. There was a flash in his eyes as he suddenly thought of something.
He burst into black smoke which had an "X" mark on it. He knew that he could not let the black beam hit that mark as it would most likely vaporize a whole chunk of particles which would be a pain in the ass when he reconstitutes himself.
The "X" mark suddenly broke down and the particles that made up the mark were moved around the total surface area of his gaseous body. This happened because he distributed the particles which had the "X" mark across his whole body. This in turn changed the black beam headed towards him back to an area of effect attack since they had to spread out in order to hit all molecules with the "X" mark.
"Arghhh. Goddamn it" Briggs was hit but the damage was not too severe. "Don't think you are out of the woods yet. You are in for a world of hurt" said Rhiener as he pointed at Briggs who was in the form of a big clump of floating black gas.
The floating white disk which was still in channel mode moved closer to Briggs and positioned itself right above him. Rhiener then moved closer to Selena and sent the second disk floating in front of her face.
Knowing what to do, Selena screamed into the white disk and the Sonic blast was channeled through to the one above Briggs' gaseous body sending the Sonic blast crashing into him.
"Arrrghhh" screamed Briggs. He was in a lot of pain. The cohesion between his molecules in gaseous form was weak so he could not resist the power of the Sonic blast. He could also not reconstitute his body because the "X" mark would reform on his heart. He also tried moving towards the Rhiener family but his pace was quite slow because the Sonic blast was compressing his body and restricting any movement.
"Honey, the kids!" Selena suddenly screamed. Rhiener turned to look at the boys behind him and he immediately felt rage building up inside him. The boys were standing still but they were deathly pale and black smoke moved out of their noses and into their open mouths. It would appear that life forms that were significantly weaker than Briggs would be infected by the darkness even if they were not directly attacked by him. They would also die shortly.
"Dairus!" Shouted Rhiener as rushed towards his first son to provide any form of assistance. He touched the boy's face as he tried to examine the boy's condition.
Rhiener's head was suddenly grabbed by a slender, fair hand. "Screeee" he could not react in time as Selena moved her lips closer to his ear and shouted.
As the Sonic blast passed through his ear, it rattled the contents of his head; brain included, and passed through the other ear along with a spray of red blood. The force of the attack blasted Rhiener away and he fell to the ground limply as he had taken a lot of damage.