He should expect it. It's not as if he doesn't know that these powers are available to all Blacksworn -- it's just that after so many centuries being accustomed to simply knowing more than everyone, it doesn't even occur to him that anyone else might be on his level here (or that he'd find himself dragged down to theirs, he'd prefer to say.) So when Apollo manages to break his earthen hold so quickly and so easily and then hurl a boulder at him, it comes as a bit of a surprise.
It's more by instinct than anything else that he flings up his hand -- looking for a moment as if he's just going to try and get it to stop by commanding it to -- and conjures a portal in front of him that catches the rock and hurls it out the exit portal a few dozen yards away where it lands with a thump that rattles Emma's party placements, left forgotten, on the table. It was almost too tempting to just dump the boulder out right on top of her, but despite the still-throbbing pain in his nose and his ruined clothes, he's hesitant to try and kill her outright. Never mind that he really shouldn't lessen their already few numbers, death is simply just too absolute a solution for someone like him. Apollo may seem more trouble than she's worth right now, but she's definitely worth nothing if dead.
On the other hand, he can't help but feel that anything even resembling mercy isn't a virtue Deathwing looks for in his acolytes. What a mess.
So he continues to hang back (he's always preferred to keep his opponents at a safe distance) and throws up five portals in a loose, large ring around Apollo, about as many as he manage on this world unaided. Shooting her a look that says just try and get close enough to him to do that, he reaches through the sixth and final one he's conjured at his side. As he does so a beam of energy -- a bright, luminous blue like what he used to heal his face -- shoots out of one of the portals, straight for her.
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It's more by instinct than anything else that he flings up his hand -- looking for a moment as if he's just going to try and get it to stop by commanding it to -- and conjures a portal in front of him that catches the rock and hurls it out the exit portal a few dozen yards away where it lands with a thump that rattles Emma's party placements, left forgotten, on the table. It was almost too tempting to just dump the boulder out right on top of her, but despite the still-throbbing pain in his nose and his ruined clothes, he's hesitant to try and kill her outright. Never mind that he really shouldn't lessen their already few numbers, death is simply just too absolute a solution for someone like him. Apollo may seem more trouble than she's worth right now, but she's definitely worth nothing if dead.
On the other hand, he can't help but feel that anything even resembling mercy isn't a virtue Deathwing looks for in his acolytes. What a mess.
So he continues to hang back (he's always preferred to keep his opponents at a safe distance) and throws up five portals in a loose, large ring around Apollo, about as many as he manage on this world unaided. Shooting her a look that says just try and get close enough to him to do that, he reaches through the sixth and final one he's conjured at his side. As he does so a beam of energy -- a bright, luminous blue like what he used to heal his face -- shoots out of one of the portals, straight for her.