{Shadow Code: Paralysis Spikes}
Nichole launched the shadowy spikes before Seventeen made a move. He flinched as the black spikes froze him in place.
Immediately, she held out her hand to Clara and Jaimi. Shadows enveloped them and with a yelp from Clara, they sank into the ground.
A second later, two mounds of shadows rose from the ground beside her and dissipated, revealing Clara and an unconscious Jaimi.
"Grab Jaimi! We're leaving!", she ordered Clara who was shocked.
"Why? What about the mission?", she demanded.
"Screw the mission! We must stay alive!", Nichole yelled.
Clara waved indignantly in Seventeen's direction, "He can't move! We can finish him off together! If we return like this Master will severely punish us!"
"Better than facing him! I will take responsibility!", Nichole summoned a shadow minion and it picked up Jaimi's unconscious body.
"We're leaving and that's final!"
She turned around to leave only to stop in her tracks.
Standing a few feet in front of her was Seventeen. He looked at her calmly and shrugged, "So. You are not a talker?"
Nichole couldn't believe it. Her Paralysis Spikes are among the strongest in the whole of Arken. They are capable enough to trap Captains indefinitely.
Even her master took a full minute to break free.
But this man broke out in the same amount of time.
Does this mean that he is on the same level as her master?
This is bad. Very very bad.
If that is the case. Then there is no escape. It would be the same as trying to escape her master.
An impossible task.
So there is only one thing to do.
She pulled out her black polearm from her storage ring and took a stance. At the corner of her eye, she saw Clara pulling out clawed gauntlets and donning them.
"More of a fighter, I see.", Seventeen nodded, "Very well then. Show me the skills of a Fallen."
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Clara appeared before him and jabbed forward with her claws.
Seventeen leaned back out of the range of her sharp claws. He grabbed her hand and pulled. Clara yelped as her face connected with his fist.
On that day, Clara learned to fly backward without using any magia. She crashed into the trees for a second time.
Nichole appeared behind Seventeen, shadow energy trailing like smoke from her body. She swung her polearm and the blade went for his neck.
But before it could connect, Seventeen spun around and kicked her in the stomach.
She doubled over and almost dropped her polearm, her boots made small trenches as she slid from the blow.
Seventeen appeared before her, his fist enveloped in magia. Nichole gritted her teeth and just before his fist connected to her stomach, she summoned a shadow doppelganger and switched places with it.
She appeared behind Seventeen just as his fist ripped apart the doppelganger into swirling shadows.
"Interesting.", he said and turned around to face her. Blue lines glowed on his glove and a sword materialized in his hand.
It was unlike any sword she had ever seen. It had a single-edged and slightly curved blade of the purest black. She couldn't help but shiver at the sight of the blade.
Seventeen removed a small chain attached to the handle of the sword and the temperature dropped. She felt an icy presence from the sword. She instinctively knew. One strike from that blade and she will be in deep trouble.
"Let's do this properly now.", he casually swung the sword, releasing a gust of wind. His eyes glowed.
"Don't hold back."
*******
(She's a tough one.)
'If by tough you mean annoying? Then yeah. She is bloody tough.', Seventeen grumbled internally as he slashed another shadow doppelganger into oblivion.
The Fallen had switched with her doppelganger again.
She does it every time Nyx's blade almost touches her body.
(Her mastery over the Shadow attribute is very high.)
'She is also playing it safe. To her, I guess I am a threat on the level of a Fallen Lord.'
(Aren't you kind of overestimating yourself?)
'Hey. I got this arrogance from you so shut it.'
As he exchanged strikes with the Fallen, he felt another presence coming at him from the woods. It was the Fallen with the Beast attribute.
With a roar she went for his neck, ready to rip his head off. Seventeen frowned at the interruption.
Another smack and she was back into the woods.
But that was enough of an opening for his opponent.
The red-eyed Fallen unleashed a barrage of thrusts enhanced with black magia using her polearm.
A wall of pointy blade tips appeared in Seventeen's vision.
'This will be tricky.', Seventeen thought and his eyes glowed. He saw the paths of every single attack and parried them all with frightening speed and precision.
The thrusts were heavy and powerful, so much so that the trees behind Seventeen were shredded to splinters and bits of leaves when he parried them.
The black blade of Nyx was smoking when he finished parrying. Just as he was finished with that, the Fallen appeared in front of him and swung her polearm at his neck.
Seventeen quickly blocked the attack and the impact released an explosion as magia and Black magia clashed ferociously.
The Fallen gritted her teeth and looked at Seventeen's calm face as they pushed their weapons against each other. Waves of magia and black magia spread out from the stalemate.
She narrowed her eyes and released her presence.
The entire mountain shook and the immense weight of her presence pressed a recovered Clara to the ground.
The boulders around them were pulverized and trees snapped like twigs under her presence. The ground beneath Seventeen cracked and started to crumble.
Yet Seventeen was unaffected by this presence that was on the level of a Captain.
"That tickles. Very impressive.", he smirked.
(Hey. If you are releasing your presence. Don't go all out. Even the barrier you set up earlier would collapse and the entire island would disappear.)
'I know. I'll use ten percent.'
(Oh boy.)
"Brace.", Seventeen told the Fallen and released about ten percent of his presence.
The next second, the Fallen was flat on the ground, her entire body pressed into the ground as Seventeen's monstrous presence overpowered her own.
She cried out in pain and tried to lift her body but failed miserably.
The entire mountain shook violently. Boulders exploded and the pieces were further pulverized into dust, trees instantly snapped at the same time and the ones that were able to resist were pushed into the ground.
Cracks appeared above them as the barrier struggled to contain his presence. Everyone on the island felt the ground tremble but were unable to figure out the cause.
*******
A good distance away from the mountain, Ruth was observing a battle between two students as she sat on a high tree branch, away from sight.
Suddenly her ears perked up and the part of her back where the curse mark used to be started tingling. It happens every time Seventeen uses magia near her.
She never told anyone about it and she becomes flustered every time she thinks about it. It is just a slight tingle, so faint that it is almost negligible.
This time, it is stronger than before. Ruth shuddered and almost yelped as the ground trembled. She almost lost her balance and fell from the tree.
Ruth looked down at the battle and then around her.
Her eyes fell on the mountain and she saw a faint pulsing of blue light on the sky above it.
"What the heck?"
*******
Nichole struggled to breathe as the immense presence pressed her down into the ground. She was already an inch deep into the soil when suddenly the presence stopped.
Her whole body ached and the black magia inside her proceeded to heal her. Unlike with magia, healing done by black magia is faster but painful.
She grunted in pain as the black magia fixed her body.
Nichole got up and her eyes widened in horror at what she saw.
Seventeen was holding a struggling Jaimi by the neck and he kept a foot on Clara who transformed into her true Fallen form.
Clara looked quite fearsome. Her indigo hair had grown longer and wilder, her eyes had become completely black, and black veins pulsed on her ashen skin.
Her hands had turned into beastly claws with black fur and two horns curled out from her wild hair. Her two tails, one that looked like a big cat and another that looked like a wyvern's flailed about, trying to strike the instructor's legs.
She struggled under his feet and roared, showing her huge canines and sharp teeth.
Jaimi grunted as she kicked the air, trying to land one on Seventeen. But despite the struggle from the two Fallen, the instructor was unfazed.
He quickly knocked Jaimi down and threw her to the ground. His attention then went to Clara who was pinned under his foot.
Nichole shakily got to her feet and retrieved her polearm.
"Oh. You're up.", Seventeen looked at her.
He looked down at Clara and then at Nichole, "I'm sorry.", he said.
Nichole's eyes widened when she realized what he was about to do.
"NO!", the shadows morphed around her as she enhanced her body with her attribute and black magia.
But before she could take a single step, Seventeen pressed his foot down and it went through Clara's body.
A powerful shockwave of magia pushed Nichole back.
With a strangled sound, Clara's life slipped away as her heart got crushed by Seventeen's foot.
The monster looked at Nichole with purple eyes that were now devoid of emotion. Her entire being shook under his gaze.
"Two down. Two to go."
***
Message from the author.
Heyo folks! It's justafox!
Very sorry for the rather extended hiatus. Things are getting quite busy for me. I'm getting a lot of assignments and my main exams are getting quite close.
I'm afraid I'll find it difficult to update new chapters until next month. I'll try to find time to release new chapters during this rather busy period but I will not be able to update regularly.
Again I apologise for the funny rate of releases.
Oh, I'm also working on another book. It's coming on slowly and I hope it will entertain you when it releases, dear readers.
Thanks for reading the work of this rather weird fox!