"Beskumm Hushkkkk!"
"Shit..."
Turning on a dime, the young man ran full sprint back to where he came from. He didn't know how strong these things were or what they were capable of, hell he didn't even really know what they were...
Heavy breathing and loud footsteps followed him through the corridor. A couple small duller lighting rocks sending some light into his vision. He could see the path that he followed in front of him.
Curiosity got the better of him though, looking behind him he could see what was chasing him. Two humanoid monsters clawed at the ground like beasts, pulling themselves forward into the light.
Their bodies were covered in purple pustules that beat with the rhythm of their hearts. Purple goo flowed out of their bodies and slowly gathered on their arms. Their limbs looked frail and weak but struck against the ground like cannon fire.
More and more purple goop gathered on their shoulders and glowed brighter and brighter until they screamed a horrible screech. The young man didn't have the confidence nor the strength to fight those things so he kept on running.
"Wait, why did they stop?" Turning his head to look behind him, he could see the two's scraggly bodies in a face down sitting position. The goop started bubbling and they started screaming more.
"What the hell?" Suddenly, four large balls of goop launched at him from their backs aiming at him with deadly precision.
"Shit," Turning back around he ran to the left, back down the corridor from where he came from. He sprinted through the gates to the town and ran past the house that they grey man floated into.
"HEY MAN! Get out of there. There are two skeletal monsters running on all fours and shooting purple globs everywhere." He heard a mug slamming down as footsteps walked towards the door.
The door opened without a sound, "What is it now? Oh, you survived... ugh," The young man grabbed the grey man's arm and pulled him towards the opposite gate.
"HEY! Don't touch me. Seriously, let go now!" The grey man threatened, trying to pull himself away from the newcomer. "No, there are monsters coming. We need to go now!"
The two monsters finally turned the corner and ran at a full sprint towards the gate. "Let go of me you imbecile! It's not too late-" The grey man stuttered the last words out as his pupils went small. "You idiot, get ready for a lot of pain,"
The two fell together on the ground, the grey man looked as if he was dissipating. All that was left of the grey man was some floating particles that soon entered the young mans body.
It was as if he was absorbing the grey man into his body, but he didn't feel full... actually he didn't feel hungry at all, just empty. The grey man had said that he would be in pain, but he felt fine. Actually, better than fine, he felt like there was something inside of him for once, instead of feeling like nothing.
"Shit, where are those monsters," The young man shot up from the floor and looked around. There at the gate were the monsters, clawing against some sort of green barrier that was stopping them from coming in.
"Ah, alright then, some sort of forcefield,"
Their claws scratched and clawed at the barrier, but they didn't leave a mark.
"It's called a gate,"
"Wha..." Looking around him frantically, the young man tried to find where the voice was coming from. "I'm in your head, stop looking around like an idiot."
Concern and shock were covering his face as he sat down on one of the nearby benches. "Well, it's your fault for absorbing me into your soul, I was trying to warn you about it. You gave me a strange feeling every time you got near me."
"What do you mean I absorbed you into my soul... who are you?"
"Are you kidding me? Ugh, do you have short term memory loss or something like that? Wait a minute, I forgot you lost your memories..."
The young man laid down on the cold metal of the bench, which was just long enough to not let him lay down fully and tried to slow his breathing.
"It's me, the spirit who's arm you grabbed. Did you not realize that once a mortal's physical body touches a wandering spirit that the spirit would start attaching to it like a magnet?"
"What the hell does that mean?" The young man asked, wanting to get some answers.
"Huhhh, right, so I can't leave your soul. Well, I can, but it's complicated. For some reason your soul is weird, so I connected to it no problem. Usually. we have to 'bond' or acclimate your soul to mine, but I just fit in here without having to do any of that."
"After all of that you are able to summon me either as I was, in my spiritual form, or as my unique form."
The young man tried to stretch his shoulders. "So basically, you're like a summon with a couple different forms... and I can't get rid of you, at least not right now."
"I guess that summarizes it. Although I don't think you understand most of what I said..."
The young man pushed himself into a sitting position and picked up what remained of his cloak. The four purple goop balls had destroyed most of it. His leg was also caught by one of them, but it was healing nicely.
His arm had started to heal again, but it was still going to take a while to fully heal.
"Interesting, you don't need mana to heal, I can sense that your body and soul are completely empty of it."
"Sorry, mana?"
"We can get to that later, what's more important is deciding what unique form I take."
"Again, sorry? I don't understand,"
"Huhhhh, alright, a spirit is a dead person, I think you know that much. Said spirit, is able to keep their 'form' as long as they have a strong attachment to something. For me it is this town. Otherwise, they would dissipate into nothingness."
"Okay," The young man was glad for the simple explanations for once.
"However, when a spirit and a human bond, the spirit changes the humans to become a union. That union allows both the spirit and human to grow stronger using mana,"
"Since the spirit changes the human's spiritual body, the human is able to chance the 'physical' body of the spirit, often being a weapon or armor. So, the spirit has their own spirit body and a unique form."
"A bow,"
"Excuse me?"
"Thats the unique form I want you in. A bow is long range, quiet, and can deal a massive advantage to an unassuming opponent."
"Well then, it seems you've put a lot of thinking into this,"
"Plus, you will grow along with me, so the stronger I get the stronger you will get."
"Alright then, well stop talking and change me then. You need to mentally design what you want. And please don't stretch my body too much, I don't want to become mindless."
"Got it,"
Closing his eyes, the young man focused on the strange feeling that he felt inside his body. It was like a dull glow inside a thick fog. Pulling on the sensation, he could feel it moving around his body. Something inside of him moved as he pulled on it.
"Hey, was I the first thing that you've absorbed inside your soul? Something else is moving inside of here."
"I lost my memory, remember?"
The something started following wherever the young man pushed the spirit. When he stopped, it stopped. "Like a shadow,"
"Hmm?"
"Just create the unique form already, I'm not used to being inside of a soul yet."
Nodding, he started pulling the soul in two different directions. The something followed suit and started moving in two different directions. Pulling it along into the shape of a bow. It slowly curved into different designs, creating a unique design along the way.
The handle got slightly bigger, and the ends slowly curved in on themselves. The shaft had a watery pattern flowing from the middle of it. The string slowly moved down from the top to the bottom like a snake, slowly slithering its way across the ground.
Wrapping around the bottom of the bow's shaft, the snake like string wrapped around itself and bit into its own flesh. Finally, the bow was done.
Looking at the shadowy copy, the young man and the spirit gazed at the exact copy. "Is that normal? Or is it another weird part you've never seen before?"
"I don't know. In my adventuring days I heard all sorts of rumors, but most of those that I traveled with are long gone."
"Spirits can travel?"
"..."
"I wasn't always a spirit smartass."