Hello everyone! Welcome to Chapter 7 of "Persona Academy"! Well, here we go people! The first Shadow battle of the story! I hope I manage to make the fight interesting to read while still keeping the Persona feel. If you really wanna get the proper feel, I say play your favorite Persona boss theme during the chapter! XD Without further a due enjoy! :)

Persona Academy

Chapter 7: Shadow

With a roar, the alpha male seemed to accept Keita's challenged as it reared up and snarled, prepared to fight. Keita gripped his sword tightly, prepared to fight as well. This was it. It was time to make this giant pain in the neck pay for the trouble it has dealt tonight.

The monster wasted no time as it charged straight at Keita with its mouth open. Keita rolled out of the way. Icarus retaliated, opening his wings wide and flapping them forward, causing green energy to charge under the creature, shooting up as a geyser of wind. The attack tore through bits of the creature's stomach, causing it to yelp.

"Nice hit!" Marina cheered, dividing her attention between looking over Keita and fighting the creatures in front of her.

The beast let out an ear splitting shriek, causing Keita to cover his ears in pain. Without being noticed, while Keita was down it charged up a fireball and fired it at him, sending him flying a few feet back. As Keita slammed to the ground, Icarus disappeared and reappeared as his shadow on the ground.

"Watch out Saeki-kun! That Shadow is proficient in fire based skills! That seems to be your Persona's weakness, so try not to get hit!" Marina advised him.

"Good to know… and Shadow…? You mean the monster right?" Keita croaked, pushing himself up.

"Exactly, all of these monsters are known as Shadows!" She informed, nearly getting hit by one of the smaller Shadow's attacks.

"And how're you…?"

"My Persona's ability!" She answered before he could finish.

"H-hey, where's Icarus?" Keita asked, panicking.

"The Shadow broke your focus, but you can summon Icarus again as long as your mind and body can take it" Kaz yelled to him.

"I think I've got plenty of fight left in me" He groaned. He reached his hand forward and focused. Same as before his crystal returned, but the actual process was much easier now. "Persona!" Keita shouted, crushing the crystal once more with the blue energy ring beneath him. His shadow left his body again and Icarus reformed in front of him.

The Shadow raised its head up to prepare another shriek. "Icarus!" Keita commanded, glaring fiercely at his opponent. Icarus shot right towards the Shadow with blade in hand as Keita followed him. Like a green comet, Icarus slashed across the Shadow's face, causing one of its masks to shatter, revealing a solid glowing yellow eye beneath it. It fell down with its revealed eye facing the sky. While the beast was down, Keita ran onto its neck and then its head. He reared his sword up and stabbed it savagely in the eye. The Shadow let out a horrified shriek as it scrambled up, swatting Keita off of its head with a clawed paw. He regained footing shortly after.

"Good work Saeki-kun!" Marina cheered. She swung her spear at the nearest Shadow and with that the mob from before was taken care of, though she was obviously exhausted. Kaz and Marina ran to Keita quickly to assist.

"Marina-senpai, you back us up, okay?" Kaz asked.

"H-Huh…?" She replied, startled.

"You've taken a lot of injuries. Keita and I will take on the Shadow. You give us any useful information you can on the enemy, okay?"

"I understand. Alright, I'll do whatever I can" Marina said, complying with the plan. She didn't want to admit it, but she didn't think she would be able to handle anymore fighting in her current state.

Kaz lined up next to Keita, his fists held up in a fighting position. "The more, the merrier right?" Keita joked, desperately trying to lighten the mood and raise morale. "You guys ready?" He asked, whipping his sword back up.

"Ready when you are!" Marina replied.

"Roger that…" Kaz said quickly.

"Cause here it comes!" As Keita spoke, the Shadow charged right towards him and Kaz. Its claws glowed red with energy as it leapt at them, preparing to attack as it came down.

"Kaz, now!" Marina signaled.

"Understood…" Kaz raised his hand skyward as the same blue ring of energy as Keita appeared beneath him. An orange crystal appeared above his hand and went to his palm.

"Odysseus!" He hailed as he crushed it in his hand. Kaz's shadow wisped off his body as a very tall figure appeared in front of him.

In front of Kaz was a gigantic robotic being, clad in a suit of red and white armor with features of similar to gladiator armor in it. Its hands were equipped with large spiked knuckles and its face was shadowed, only showing a pair of glowing blue eyes.

Kaz's Persona, Odysseus, prepared itself as the massive Shadow descended. As the massive creature came down, he reached up, grabbing the creature by the throat and threw it to the ground with minimal effort.

"Pretty impressive Big Guy!" Keita complimented. But quickly the creature got up and lunged at them.

"Guys, look out!" Marina warned them. Quickly, Odysseus stopped the Shadow, grappling with it to keep it from attacking them.

"Saeki-kun! Attack its stomach again!" Marina ordered.

"Gotcha!" Keita called his crystal forward. "Come forth!" He commanded, crushing the crystal to beckon Icarus to appear.

Icarus charged his hand and launched a ball of green wind energy into the creature's stomach which detonated into a small cyclone, shredding more black slime from its stomach.

"Odysseus! Bash!" He commanded. Odysseus reared his left fist back, charging it with red energy. He swung his arm upwards and dealt a crushing uppercut to the Shadow's face that sent it flying into the air.

"Now's your chance Saeki-kun! Have Icarus break the last mask from the Shadow's eye!" She yelled.

"Got it! Kaz, have Odysseus give him a lift!" Keita requested.

Keita's plan clicked in Kaz's head. "Good idea!" He replied. Odysseus took a hold of Icarus with his massive hand and sent him careening towards the Shadow, wings flapping to supply him with more speed.

"Agi!" Kaz commanded. A fireball conjured in front Odysseus's face before firing upwards. It hit the Shadow in the back legs, aligning it with Icarus.

Icarus carved his blade across the Shadow's skull, shattering the last eye mask as well as causing massive damage to it. Icarus descended gracefully as the Shadow slammed back down to Earth.

"Alright Keita, finish it off!" She cheered.

Keita ran towards the Shadow as fast as he could. With a jump, he got onto its head and reared his blade up right over its gleaming yellow eye that looked up at him in horror.

"Lights out, you son of a bitch!" Keita screamed as he stabbed downward into the Shadow's eye. He twisted the blade before pulling it out and running a distance away.

The Shadow shrieked and screamed in agony as it convulsed and scrambled on its side, trying desperately to fight back, with fury and hunger seeming to be its only fuel. However, its struggling was futile, as the Shadow stopped moving and its damaged eye dimmed. Like its pack before it, the Shadow faded into a cloud of red and black smoke.

With the Shadow's defeat, everything seemed to grow calmer as the moonlight changed to its normal color and the clouds slowed to their normal pace of motion. The white mist was gone as well, leaving their breath invisible to them in the chilly night. The morose grip that the night held on them was gone. With the battle over, Keita and Kaz's Personas faded away and returned to their sides as their shadows.

"We did it! You guys were awesome!" Marina squealed, hugging the two of them.

"I-It was nothing, really!" Keita said, feeling his face turn red.

"I'm just doing my job" Kaz replied.

The red lights from the lampposts changed back and the metal barriers from the lockdown folded away. As soon as that happened, a mob of students burst out of each of them and ran towards the three.

"Holy crap that was awesome!"

"You two were soooooooooooooooo cool!"

"Nice work with the directions Marina-senpai!"

"You showed that Shadow who's boss!"

One by one, the students complimented and commended the three for a job well done. They were all blown away by how well the three worked together.

"It's no problem everyone, really" Kaz insisted, feeling himself sweat with embarrassment.

"It's no problem at all" Keita said.

"I'm just glad you all are safe" Marina sighed contently.

During the commotion, the impact of the night hit Keita full force. He felt exhausted, but satisfied as he wobbled back and forth.

"Saeki-kun, are you alright?" Marina asked urgently.

"Yeah…just a bit sleepy" He said with a yawn.

"Let's take him to the clinic for the night" Kaz offered.

"Good idea, just so they can fix up any injuries you may still have" Marina spoke to Keita, trying to keep him awake.

"Okay…lead the way" Keita mumbled groggily. Marina and Kaz held him up by their shoulders. During this, Keita fell asleep on the way to the clinic. It wouldn't be too much of a problem, he figured. Slowly, his mind drifted off as he felt himself leave his body.

As his eyes opened, a familiar aria filled his ears.

"Welcome back to the Velvet Room" Igor said seeming glad that Keita was there.

"H-Hey, why am I here again?" Keita asked.

"Do not worry. You are merely asleep right now because you used a lot of energy during your battle. I took this opportunity so that I could speak with you again" Igor explained. "Just relax…"

Keita inhaled deeply before letting out a long breath. "Okay…"

"I see you have awakened to your power" Igor praised him.

"I guess so…yeah" Keita nodded.

A long grin formed on Igor's face. "I also see that it was Icarus who heeded your calling."

"That's what he called himself…" Keita murmured.

"That power is called a Persona. It is a manifestation of your psyche"

"My…psyche…?" Keita asked.

"It will take some time for you to fully understand" Igor assured. "A Persona can be described as a facet of your personality that surfaces as you react to external stimuli, a mask of sorts, as I described before, a mask that protects you so that you may face the hardships ahead of you."

Keita scratched his head, trying to comprehend what Igor was saying.

"That being said, your power is still weak right now" Igor said.

"W-wait, THAT was still weak" Keita asked, referring to the power that Icarus displayed during the fight.

"Your Persona is fueled by the bonds you hold between others, your Social Links" Igor said. "And as these grow, you will become stronger because of them"

"I'll remember that…" Keita replied.

"You and your friends are destined for great things" Igor's smile became more earnest with those words. "Now then, I shall return you to your own world now. Until then, farewell"

The Velvet Room faded away. Keita took the knowledge he had newly received and felt himself slowly slip back into reality.