I started to see people around the room shriek and point up to the glass window in the ceiling. I couldn't see what they were pointing at but they had terrified masks put on their faces. Then, everything seemed to happen in slow motion. A dark blade pierced through the glass and was soon quickly pulled out. Then, an entity went through the glass forcefully The glass broke, sending a million crystals reflecting in the air, as the vandalist finally showed himself by dropping himself into the auditorium with a surprisingly heavy impact. The enemy looked like a shadow inside a suit of hunky armor. The armor was old and creaky possibly from years of use. Elbows and knees were being protected by guards embedded with ancient gems lightly shining a dark purple. The darkness literally inside of him capturing light around him and rippling it. My gemstone in the bracelet shining like a freaking flare. I quickly covered my sign with the length of my sweatshirt. What could I do? There were too many people here. I couldn't transform right here. Someone would see me or recognize the clothes on my body if I transformed. My body started to convulse with weariness and sweat. In the middle of this hundreds were trying to sprint out of the auditorium with panicked faces and screams.
"Stop." the shadow declared firmy.
Suddenly the room was pure shadow. No light at all even though there were lights from the windows which were now obsolete. The shadow was the only one visible in the room even though barely.
"Where is the Lightbringer?" He must be talking about me. It's either that or a crazy coincidence. The screams finally subdued and the sounds of hurrying footsteps cut out. My body was actually shaking. Just when I thought I would start to sweat from the panic in my body, a voice inside my head told me to fight. I snapped out of my endless trance. I just couldn't sit here and do nothing. He was going to eventually find me even if he checked every last one of us in this room. I glanced around for something I could do. I then remembered I was right by the home of the Roman Raider. My brain finally thought of a quick idea. It probably wasn't the best idea I could of thought of but in this race against time I can't afford that time. I quickly darted into the Roman Colosseum off directly to the left of me where we held the costumes for the mighty and brilliant Roman Raider in all his bulkiness. In the darkness I fumbled for the costume as best as I could in this nocturnal atmosphere. My hands finally reached something familiar. Got it.
"Lightbringer show yourself now!" The voice boomed across the auditorium. Those words just made me go faster. After about a couple seconds of awkward fumbling, the costume was finally on me.
"Now Lightbringer I know for certain you are in this feeble room. I can sense your astral sign. Come out and we can merely skip all the hardships that could come. " Hopefully this works. My feet started to walk outside of the room. Soon enough I was in the center of the room. Looking directly at him. Time to pull off my trick. Though admittedly I am scared. I don't know what he can do. I haven't even seen him do anything other then shatter glass.
I focused my energy not into me but outside of my body. I wasn't in my light form but I knew I had enough energy to do this flashy act. Concentrate. Soon enough six flying suns appeared one by one around me to show the raider in all his bulky glory. I saw everyones faces shine up with the lights presence, including the shadow's voidless one, all turn to me in perfect synchronization. Time to give the watcher his show.
I energized myself readying for the show to begin. Finally, I pushed the gem on my braclet down. A familiar tingling body spread throughout by body as I changed into my other form. The transformation gleamed the whole room in a blue hue in arrival of my presence. My mask glowing with light out of the eyeholes giving my face an almost alien appearance. I slowly looked up with my eyes and looked at the shadow directly. My mind was starting to get confident with thoughts of battling the shadow. It seemed contradictory to what I was thinking about earlier and how I was panicked. I felt surprisingly calm now.
"Looking for me?" I exclaimed with a booming and confident voice.
"Lightbringer."
I pointed at him with my glorious hand. "Why are you doing this to all these innocent people?"
The shadow showed no expression "To please those who have sent me."
"Well I'm sorry shadow," I said bravely while lowering my hand "but you'll have to go back to your masters with some dire news." My eyes gleamed with a burning feeling staring at him. I could feel his darkness trying to envelop my light every second. But even all darkness will have some light in it.
"I am the flame that will keep on burning that will keep on trying even if it is drenched!" I exclaimed. "I am the one who strives on protecting those that cannot!" My voice declared. The shadow just kept on looking at my direction.
"I am the Lightbringer. I will protect all who are confronted with evil and bring evil into the light!" I slashed the air while forming my sword. I could hear the footsteps of students evacuating the room. The only things left in this room were the remnants of hundreds of backpacks many students left in a hurry. Good, my distraction hopefully bought them enough time.
The shadow dashed towards me at speeds of unthinkable levels. My body pulsed with unseen amounts of energy for the evil that was coming at me. The shadow impacted against my blade with blades of shadow. Pure darkness. Light against dark. How fitting and dramatic. The ground upon us shook with the clash of swords. My sword was sparking with his of the hits. My mind went into battle mode. I stroke furiously on all sides hoping that one would impact him. I quickly ducked the sword chop that would of chopped my head off and slashed at his feet. The only response was the clash against his rusty armor. My head shot up with pain so suddenly. I grunted as a response. I felt a deep slash along my head with a warm liquid coming out. It wasn't blood but something similar I was guessing. I lept back but the shadow quickly followed up by seemingly teleporting to where ever I was. A big overhead strike was imminent as soon as he caught up to me. I rolled to the left nimbly to avoid the deadly blow. As I slid off to the left I quickly turned and used the momentum to get a good chest attack to pierce his "chest of darkness" I lept forward with all my might and plunged the sword into his center. I quickly tried to pull it out but it stuck there.
"Foolish." the shadow mocked.
The center of his chest started to shrink and cover with armor. The sword quickly reverted to my arm from the pain. I kept on struggling to desperately get it out but the darkness was too strong. I screamed in agony as the armor cut deep into my skin. The orbs I once summoned long ago now disappearing from my lack of power. It felt as if someone was slowly chopping off my arm waiting for me to submit to them. My body was violently shaking from the pain that I almost thought I would pass out from the pain. I finally jerked my arm away after several desperate attempts with the armor scraping the length on my arm on the way out. His hole that I hit revealed a little light where I hit him that soon was covered up again by darkness. My arm looked like a mangled mess, even in my altered form. The now crippled arm had a deep gash with quite literally darkness coming out of it, trapping the light around it. The shadow quickly teleported me and grabbed me by my affected arm. He heaved my light form across the room with strength I couldn't even predict. Landing against the wall with a huge thump and crack, my back shot up with fire. I'd probably cry if I wasn't in this situation right now from the pure pain going on. I started to breathe heavily on my knees while holding my arm. It hurt like hell. All the shadow did was just watch me with that emotionless emptiness of a face. I started to grow furious thinking he maybe was just mocking me. Thoughts of rushing towards blindly was in my head. My brain just kept on telling me to calm down however as that would be a plan in vain. Concentrating, I summoned my orbs again to see around the room. My eyes finally focused again on the shadow whose mark of pain still was stricken throughout me.
The shadow was now holding one of the students by the arm. My eyes started to grow wide as I recognized him. Monty Aaron, my lab partner. His shoulder length copper hair flowing as he was pulled up towards the entity. Everyone else was gone but him. His freckled face full of fear and sweat. He was probably one of the last ones out. The tall body of his dangling from his arm like a kid hanging from a branch. I started to panic. What was he going to do with him? I tried to ease the shadow into a way out of this. I deformed my sword back to my regular arm.
"What do you want with this student shadow?" I tried to say as confidently as I could. My statement came out with a hint of shakiness in my voice though. The shadow just said nothing, observing the student's struggle to get out of his grasp. The shadow held him harder, resulting in cries of pain from the student. I didn't know what to do. If I went towards him, the shadow would most definitely do something horrific to him that I didn't even want to imagine in this situation. My only chance was to just keep on talking and hope something would happen to change the tides towards my favor.
"Griffin? Is that you?" He said in his shocked state. I didn't reply, in the state of fear that my reply would confirm his superstitions of me being what I was right now. Instead I started to walk towards the shadow slowly.
With the shadow still observing the adolescent's frail body, he formed his blade with his hand. The sickening blade started to slowly get closer to his head. He was starting to plead for his life. I knew that couldn't happen. I had to do something. In my quick realization, I started to form a blade of my own. My legs dashing as fast as they could to him while shouting my demands for the entity to stop. The gym floor echoing my fast approaching footsteps towards the entity. However, the shadow warped again with speeds of unimaginable levels. Before I could realize what happened, my back quickly got slashed by a sizzling blade. I collapsed to the ground and tried to feel my back. The slice went directly down my spine all the way. It was searing with a sizzling noise that felt like I was burning from the inside out. I tried not to make noises, to act tough, but whimpers started to come from my mouth. I couldn't take all this pain anymore. It was truly unbearable. I just wanted to go away and hide into a shell. Away from this.
I heard Monty's pleads cut short. I looked up at the shadow finally while supporting myself on one knee. My orbs of light highlighting every detail of it.
Monty's head came off clean with the blade slicing straight through like cheese. Blood started to violently spurt from his neck while his body viciously twitching. The unfamiliar liquid was spurting everywhere around his body. The corpse finally stopped twitching right when the head dropped hard to the ground and rolled around to stare directly at me. His terrified eyes still suspended in animation with his mouth wide open. My eyes went just as wide and terrified as Josh's now deceased life. My sound of shock and disbelief filled the auditorium walls with echoes. I looked away and started to back up. My head came back up to the shadow whose body was just observing me again. Thats all he did. Observe me.
Like it was just a game.
A range of emotions were spin wheeling within my body. They ranged from shock to disgust to heartbroken and even rage. I didn't even know him for that long but it just stuck in my mind. I've never seen anything, not even a pet, die in my life. It just felt like something I would only see dramatically in movies, not this harsh cut off. Rage started to boil up inside me like a flame flickering the air around it higher. I rushed towards the shadow with my blade held up high while screaming. I didn't care about my life. I just felt cheated, like something was taken away from me. My mind kept on demanding that I stop as it was just childish to charge right at him, but my body kept on bull rushing straight for him. When I finally caught up to him, I thrust my blade as fast as I could towards his chest again, ignoring the fact of what it did to my other arm previously. His body shifted as fast as he could to the left with that burst of speed. My mind grew angrier, I slashed my blade to the left but all he did was just dodge it again.
"STOP MOCKING ME!" I screamed out in the auditorium to him. My fangs were just growing larger as I slid backwards to stab him but all he did was form a visible barrier of darkness around itself. When my blade contacted the barrier, it shocked my arm hotter and worse than any electrical source I could think of. The shock spread throughout my arm with my signals of pain synced up with the current. The barrier then spread out and when it contacted me past my arm, my body crumpled to the ground with the pain. He sped across to the other side of the room, waiting for the next move.
My frail meat bag of a body was spread across the auditorium floor coldly with my head facing directly onto the floor. I didn't even try to move, the shadow didn't mind, and kept on thinking about Josh. His crimson red blood flowing out of his body with his body violently shaking was burned into my mind. The head rolling onto the floor and staring seemingly into my soul. It was as if his head was trying to talk to me as why I couldn't save him. I just couldn't handle it.
"Why!" I exclaimed as I started to punch the ground. The voice from before telling me to fight was now telling me to calm down. The pain that was already inside my left arm from repeated use growing with each punch. I kept on punching it harder and harder. My punching stopped as soon as it started when I came to the realization that it wasn't helping with anything. Why couldn't I save him? I had this amazing power within me and the first chance that someone is in turmoil I ruin it. I couldn't save him. "Why…" I whispered to myself to keep me sane. I wasn't fast enough. If only I had just enough power inside of me. His life was in my hands and I threw him out like a piece of rotten food. I barely even knew him but it just felt so surreal. His life was just ridden out of this world like a wind flowing in and out. He came in and just as easily came out of this world. My now alien-like eyes couldn't even cry for a person's innocent death.
The shadow quickly warped again to me without warning. In my state of anger and sadness, I quickly snapped out of it to see the blade quickly whooshing towards my neck. My body quickly moved on fury, ducking the blade a moment away from my neck becoming a mess. My legs pounced upon him to slash the shadow in the side right out of my duck. The blade left a satisfying sizzle with a mark of light blazing outside of his nocturnal body while I slid and ran away from him to get a better position on what to do. I quickly steadied my breath to clear up my thoughts of what to do. I just couldn't try to flee as he would chase me down with his teleportation. My arm was messed up. I couldn't kill him. My confident brave self from only a minute ago quickly vanished. I was now just the shy kid that I always was. I quickly tried to calm myself down, as my emotions would just get me killed if I kept thinking the way I was. With my head clear in the few seconds I had, I tried to come up with some type of plan.
Then as always, in moments of desperation, I think of something to save my sorry ass. The light from that last attack, while small, showed signs of a wound. It quickly got covered up though. So if I attack him fast enough it should theoretically bring him down. The one problem however is that I would need to be fast to hit him, while also being powerful. Both of those things were in need of a tune up. While my plan was admittedly not the best, it was the only one that I thought could make sense and save me.
I quickly tore off my costume, even the fancy cool looking cape, threw my sweat-filled torn sweatshirt on the floor and concentrated on what my mind wanted most. My spine started to tingle immensely with a growing power sensible within me. Soon enough I felt lighter. From the corner of my eye, I saw beautiful shimmery silver wings glossed in whiteness. My muscles flexed them and the wings reacted in response to it. It felt almost as natural as an arm. They felt so normal to me. The room lit up again in sight of my wings, bringing it up to a level of which the room was now illuminated to levels of absurdity. Since my other arm was still useless in its mangled bloody mess, I flicked my left arm and the blade that has become quite recognizable to me formed. Good. The shadow was doing nothing. It was like he was letting me prepare, as if this is a test to him.
I knelt down to the ground with one of my feet upwards, ready to pounce. Hopefully this last attack would end it because it's probably the best I can afford. The shadow was still there, granted with his swords now readied, just observing me. His stance ready to take the attack I was about to give him.
"Time to end this, shadow!" I exclaimed right when we were about to engage.
I pounced off the ground, using my newly formed wings to carry and speed up my momentum. The shadow reacted with a strengthening of his defense. I flew to the side of him in a barrel roll. My wings scratching his body with a bit of light left to show it. I started to fly faster towards the wall. Here comes the hard part I thought to myself. I got myself out of the barrel roll that I was in and flipped myself harshly. Wasn't a perfect ten flip but it would do. I braced my legs. The impact hurt like hell but nothing I could cry about. Not even stopping for a second I launched off as powerfully as I could and readied my sword. My sword cut through him like it was nothing, leaving a huge visible mark on his arm where darkness was.
Faster.
I pushed off the wall again twirling as I aimed for his neck. Acting like a furious whirlwind of blades, I cut his neck on the side. The impact left a satisfying mark around his neck where light was now shining. I couldn't help to feel good about my power. The shadow was trying to hit me at every interval but he couldn't catch up with my speed so he was left there just swinging aimlessly. I have the upper hand now. I could physically feel myself becoming faster with every passing moment. Both my wings and body were becoming stronger. The mark was shrinking with every passing moment. My mind was only thinking of one thing to seal this deal.
Faster!
I bounced off the opposite wall, leaving a small impact of my feet burning on the wall. I brought up my blade high and slashed him along the face with a angular mark. Light was literally bursting out of him now as he tried to grasp it with his dark hands. Light escaping from even the smallest cracks of his hands. I quickly slowed my momentum and landed. I stretched out my legs and skimmed the ground with my hand, sword still in air. Marks of my feet were embedded into the ground.
Now!
Using some of the speed I still had left, I flew through the air with humongous amounts of power. The shadow was now recovering from all the attacks I was giving it and forming a new defense. I could feel my wings straining to fly faster with all the power I have put into them recently. Just this one last strike. My legs felt like I've pulled all the muscles available in it. My blade slashed through the air with immense speed. The barrier of darkness from before that had mocked me came up once again in an effort to block my relentless attacks. I screamed as I pushed through its defense of darkness and penetrated through the core with unconsumed power now being all digested into my very hand. The shadow's core was now coming down upon me again, using the same trick from before to try to stop my assault. The armor clasped down painfully on my rage-driven hand. All I did was scream louder to signify I was not going to stop. I was going to push on until I die or he dies. Only one of us would exit this scarred battlefield alive. My blade was now shining with all the force I was putting into my attack.
I quickly aimed upwards towards the sky to pull both of us up. The force of the shadow was coming down with immense weight but the speed at which I was going at was counteracting it. I finally pushed off the ground leaving a dent in it and shooting up towards the sky. The sword left a sizzling sound throughout the air. The shadow finally showing expression with a bloodcurdling scream that went on for miles. My blade still pushing harder and harder on his core when we finally broke through the obsolete glass.. Higher and higher we would go. The sound of gasps coming from many unidentified sources escaping quickly behind me. My wings feeling as if they were screeching throughout the atmosphere, speeding up higher and higher with such speed of astronomical levels. The clouds were now moving aside for us as water was dumped upon us. Nothing would stop me. Not until I finished this fight. I finally pushed through one last time to finish him off. I shouted my battle cry of victory as loud as I could as I backed away from the fatal blow, barely keeping myself above air now. The shadow's marks soon grew bigger and bigger. I finally pushed him off of my blade into the endless atmosphere. The entity was now high up in the air above me and soon to be falling, smashing to the ground moments later.
Right as it was falling, however, it started to shimmer its form in and out. It looked as it was phasing in and out like a hologram. The light started to ripple around him again as the darkness was growing bigger and bigger around him. He wasn't falling. I had to act fast.
As on cue to my thoughts, the shadow started to dash towards me not with blades but with newly formed sharp claws. The presence of the claws scared me as I prepared to block his attack. The brute strength of his charge threw me off balance, especially with my newly added wings being another factor. How was he floating? My eyes quickly focused around his body and suddenly stopped on the wings on his back. Those weren't there before. They looked hard enough to cut someone with ease and almost taking on a demonish appearance. His armor and gems from before were now shattered, with purple-colored energy coming out of the cracks from them. His face was now bearing wolf-like predator teeth, ready to rip me apart. The pure white of his teeth heavily contrasting the darkness and obsidian colored body that he bore.
Its new form didn't hesitate a single moment to attack me, being even faster than before. The shadow's wings stretched out before it to fly through the air directly towards me. My eyes started to tingle, almost hurting but I kept my eyes focused on its form. Instead of the inhuman amount of speed that it had before, I could see his form shifting in and out. Its form was clearly visible this time, heading directly towards me in a somewhat laughable manner. Right when it was about to bombard me with slashes of its slickish blades, I calmly dashed to the right of the hurling object. The entity flew towards my previous position and right when it came before me, I quickly down slashed the demonish shadow in the back. It didn't react at all but looked me directly in the eyes. My muscles didn't flinch as I stared back at it in its empty space of a face.
We quickly broke out of our self improvised staring contest as it pounced on me like a cougar with its blades now replaced with claws. When that happened I couldn't figure out but they were definitely there. It grasped me with its claws impactful, sinking its claws into my shoulders. My shoulders felt horrible now as I grimaced with pain but not panicked. It started to embrace me with a bear hug as it was holding my entire body now with its arms. I felt ourselves falling now, which seemed impossible since we both had wings. I looked down to quickly see use descending with speed of incredible speed as clouds ascended past us with our forms. The pea sized structure of our school was now becoming bigger and bigger every second I looked at it. Looking back at the shadow I awkwardly tried to move my arm freely. The shadow just grasped me tighter as the air was escaping my lungs. My deformed arm becoming even more deformed and pain escaped it but I kept myself focused on the goal of getting out of the situation. I quickly deformed my sword that was still in his bear hug to make my hand smaller. After that happened, I formed the sword as fast as I could and pushed hard on his arm. His arm disappeared from his body without any signs of a wound as I then pushed off from him to gain distance. I flexed my muscles of the wings.
I didn't feel anything in my back anymore though. I tried once again to flex them and fly but yet again they weren't there. They disappeared. I was falling backwards and upside down when the shadow dug into my shoulder again with its one claw. Only the air that was pushing on my back was the feeling in my back. The wound that he just left becoming even more impactful and this time with signs of pain escaping my mouth with a deafening scream. I felt ourselves speeding up towards the ground because of the shadow's wings propelling him. His one arm imbalancing us caused us to start spinning slowly towards the ground. I had to think of something fast. I had a minute at most to do something otherwise I would become a meat bag squished on the Earth's crust.
Today was the day of life risking plans apparently. I calmly looked down as the shadow was emotionlessly forcing my body down with his claw still in my shoulder. I stopped thinking about the pain as I saw the school coming closer and closer to us. Our bodies starting to spin fast and faster with the force that was still being applied. My mind was starting to become extremely dizzy from the spinning but I had to keep focused. The school was now clearly visible and heading startlingly fast towards us. At most there was about ten seconds now. Hopefully my rough estimates were correct. The school was now visible with ant sized humans visible on one of the sides outside. The cars becoming distinguishable now. Several police cars and ambulance vans with their blazing lights on outside the school approaching the members of the school. It was now or never.
With five seconds left in my predictions and the school impacting my eyes with its size, I quickly gripped the shadow harder on the arm. The shadow didn't react to anything but simply kept on his goal of driving me through the ground. I started to hurtle towards the school's roof with as much force as I could while spinning. The spinning now crowded my head with overwhelming dizziness but I still had to perform my act. I aimed towards the border of the roof where it cut off into a three story drop towards the ground. This plan was crazy as hell and wouldn't keep me safe, but at least I wouldn't flat out die from it. I may fall down to the earth but it won't be by this shadow's hands that I die. The school was now clear in my line of sight as I had very little time to pull it off.
The shadow finally spoke again after what seemed like a endless silence in the air. "Why do you still continue to struggle?" The words hit me off guard like a runaway train. Why was I still fighting? The shadow clearly had the upper hand in this battle right now and my plan was crazy enough to pull off, let alone live from it. I couldn't do this, wasn't I only human?
No. I was something different. At least not human anymore. Even in this mysterious case of unraveled questions about myself, I knew I was something extraordinary. I pulled my back down so that instead of being vertical we would be at a horizontal angle. We were slightly vertical now while slowing down our spinning.
"Because even in the darkest of nights," I shouted into the shadow while executing my performance. "there will always be a light to shine!" Using all the strength I had left in my exhausted body, I gripped the shadow's arm with my bad arm. It still hurt like hell but it was now or never. I flipped the shadow as hard as I could against my back while spinning through the air and bracing my body for the worst to happen. His upper body hit the roof hard. I heard a crack in my arm as I let go of the shadow in extreme pain. The roof didn't make I felt the vibrations through the arm of the shadow. The entity screamed horrifically as both the shadow's and my body spun through the air flipping. I shouted in synergy with the shadow when the impact hit me. The impact made me skip off the roof upwards while the shadow made an impactful explosion against the earth, bringing up tons of concrete in the front yard of the school. Finally after flying through the air with immense backflips that made me want to hurl, I hit the ground with my back directly against it. The concrete cracked and shifted from the extreme velocity I came in at. The sounds of concrete breaking and cracking overlapping my ears.
My back felt as if someone shifted around everything to where it would unevenly be placed in all the wrong places. I laid there smiling with a feeling of satisfaction, almost outright laughing at the fact of what I just did in the past minutes. I completed the battle of a lifetime that I thought I would never even engage in. I processed the memories of what I just did moments ago. I felt exhausted and beaten down but alive. I looked over at my arms which one of them was still a mangled mess. My legs felt like I just ran miles and miles endlessly. My head still extremely dizzy and confused. My back smashed from multiple painful blows. The adrenaline was finally out of my body and I was feeling the true pain of what my body took. Everything hurt within me.
The noises of voices and sirens were slowly growing louder and louder. They were looking for that impact that just happened. Getting up slowly while holding my left arm in a slouched over state, I looked over at the shadow. His form slowly resting there in the distance. He quickly then evaporated into the air with specs of darkness flowing into the light. The cars in the road were now finally starting, with mouths wide open and quickly getting smartphones out to take pictures. Without hesitating, I tried to form my wings. I then remembered that I still couldn't form them for some reason unknown to me. I quietly cursed to myself as I looked for an alternative to escaping this situation. The only solution I found was running on the sidewalk and hopefully losing the people turning eyes to me.
I quickly sprinted right and kept on running. The sudden movement I made caused people to get back into their cars and try to catch up to me. Running definitely wasn't faster than flying but it was the only solution I had. I found a dark alleyway with two buildings cushioning it compactly. I ducked into the alleyway and put myself in as deep as I could. The light from my body was illuminating the alleyway brightly but not too much for anyone to notice.
"I have to get home." I weakly whispered to myself in the dark alleyway. I tried to get up on my feet again but couldn't muster the strength to do it. All the energy and adrenaline from before has now fully worn off. The true effects of that battle were starting to show. I flexed my wing muscles but nothing came up. With nothing else to do, I started to slowly drift away to sleep. Within mere minutes, I finally went into a deep sleep. The last thing I could remember was thinking about what I was going to do to get home.