There was barely any time for him to react, he could see the arrow so clearly from his vantage point, its golden light shining in the abyssal dark so bright it seemed almost blinding, growing brighter and brighter with each passing moment, well that was due to it drawing closer with each beat of his heart threatening to be his last.
With what strength he could muster he wanted to move to the side, avoiding the strike entirely, but that was unrealistic, as he attempted to move a bloody foam found its way onto his lips as he began to choke, coughing up a mix of bile, blood and something he couldn't quite describe, he had failed to avoid the divine light, as it tore through his shoulder.
He had never experienced pain quite like this before ,the pain was hot, unbearably so, as he felt the stone armour crumble away and the flesh of his shoulder torn, he felt the arrow break through his bone, shattering into a fine dust, sending a shock through his system.
Unlike the pain, the arrow itself was cold, painfully so, as the cold sensation mixed with the warmth of pain Damian couldn't help as his whole body began to twitch uncontrollably, feeling pain unlike any he could have ever imagined was a shock that he simply couldn't handle, it took all of his remaining strength to look by his side, and he had wished he hadn't, as laying next to him, was the shattered remains of his own arm.
He didn't remember much after that, only the sensation of slowly bleeding out as he gripped at what remained of his shoulder, the shattered bone feeling rough under his touch, and the ripped flesh like the strings of a violin, it had all been made worse by the biting cold, hungrily eating away at his festering wound, the last thing he heard, was a warcry, not from the legion of war, but from the army of Truth, he couldn't make out their words, as if they had lost all meaning to him, he could only feel the vibrations of a frenzied stampede as his mind went blank, and darkness consumed him, as he felt the frigid air of the night wash over him he passed out from the pain.
By the time Damian's eyes opened once again the scene around him had changed quite a bit, turning his head from side to side he could see numerous bodies laying all around him, many of them were from the legion of war, with only a few being the shattered stone remains of his allies, the battle was long over, as he looked up, blinded by the sun, burning brightly in the clear blue skies, a new day had come.
The heat was unreal, it was like he was cooking in his own skin, and the smell of sizzling flesh only amplified the feeling, with his one remaining arm he managed to drag himself to the edge of the dune, and tumbled down the edge, it wasn't much but the slight shade was enough to put his mind at a better place.
Managing to sit himself up he looked over at his newly acquired stump in order to examine its condition, but was amazed by what he saw. The area where it had been torn had healed over, but not with flesh and bone, but with hardened stone, he couldn't see his chest but was certain that the same had happened there as well, he could see the small particles of dust flowing into the gaps of the armour, slowing repairing his body, by the looks of it, he had been out for some time, a few hours of daylight must have passed already for him to be in as good of a state as he was, feeling his chest tighten he couldn't help but let out a short string of coughs, raising his hand to cover his mouth but what he saw coming out made his blood run cold.
In the palm of his hand lay his own blood, which wasn't very surprising, he was severely injured and knew that without the regenerative properties of the armour, shared with him by the broken chain, he would be dead by now, but that wasn't what concerned him, instead it was the small stones he had coughed up as well, mixed seamlessly with the blood. He knew what this meant, the damage done to his body was worse than he had even known, his internal organs had been damaged and were now repaired with the strange stone he and the other soldiers wore.
It wasn't a good sign, sure it had kept him alive but at this rate he would more closely resemble one of those beasts, and that thought made him horrified, he had a strong sense of humanity within himself, he loved to help others and to work as a part of a greater team after all, his sense of self was intrinsically tied to this, but if he became something else entirely, a new type of being, he feared that he may lose his humanity, maybe not at first, but someday, and that was the worst fate he could think of for himself.
Looking at his stump he had the feeling that given enough time it would eventually shape into a new arm, maybe over the course of a few days, but that was too long, he didn't have that time to spare, he had to finish this the following night otherwise there would be nothing he could do in order to change the outcome of this war.
But all he could do was wait, wait for the boundless day to come to an end once again and charge into battle, but it wasn't that easy at this stage, not only was he stranded in the middle of a deserted battlefield with no guarantee he wouldn't melt away by the time the last cycle begins, reduced to nothing but a steaming puddle, but he also had to come up with some way of defeating the enemy commander, who with a single strike had ripped away one of his arms with seemingly little difficulty.
So he did the only thing he could think to do, he waited, and whilst waiting he needed to plan his final attack, from what he could see the army of truth had pushed into the legions defences like he had hoped but he had failed to strike down their commander, he didn't know for sure but he could feel that she was still alive, ready to destroy more lives with her legion, but he had one advantage here, everyone assumed he had died, it may not seem like much, one lone soldier presumed dead but managing to survive was not going to matter in the end after all, but he wasn't just any soldier, he was the one who inspired the army to push forward, showing them that they could strike down the stronger enemy forces, he had managed to instil a seed of doubt in his enemies, and a seed of desire in his allies.
All he had to do was capitalise on that, but how was the question on his mind, how could he carve a path to victory by exploiting the fear he had instilled, it was a tough question, and not only that, he would have to get in close, since even if he could scavenge a bow from or even fashion one from the remains of the battle in his state, he wouldn't be able to use it.
This left only a melee confrontation, but how would he get in that close, not matter what he had to solve that one issue, without that, anything else he did would be essentially pointless, he had to strike her down or else his fate was sealed but how.
Looking out onto the battlefield in front of him he saw the scattering of bodies, friend and foe alike, injuries in every possible form shallow cuts and shattered bones, torn limbs puncture marks and everything in between and beyond, it was as scene of total chaos, and its in this dreadful slight he realised an answer, so simple he was ashamed of not thinking of it sooner, standing to his feet, he walked over to one of his fallen comrades, their armour broken, shattered to the point in which the man once inside was unrecogniseable, but his sight was not focused on the man himself, but what had laid by his side.
Bending over he reached towards the ground and picked up the fallen shield, cracks lining its surface but otherwise in good condition, and all around him lay hundreds of others just like it all waiting for their turn in enact their revenge, grabbing as many as he could carry with one arm he began the walk back and forth as he carried the shields towards where the enemy forces would be marching come nightfall.