Chapter 27. Shadow Battle
There was three of us, Shen a girl named Akali and me. We all waited for night to fall before attacking Zed. At some point while I recovered Shen retrieved my belongings from the inn and stored them back in the dark room. We all sat there in the darkness of the forest. The clan grounds were half empty, people were either finishing up in their training or talking to someone who was.
"Remember were here for the scroll and Zed, there's no need for any more bloodshed" Shen said to the two of us. I pulled my dagger from it's sheath and held it close to my face as I waited for Shen. We sat there waiting, I wasn't quite sure what but then I could see Zed and three other ninjas exit the building in the grounds. The three ninja had pitch black armour from head to toe, he said something to the three and they disappeared into the forest. "We will handle Zed you will get the scroll" Akali said to me as they moved towards the grounds. I quietly sighed as I moved to copy their moves. We slowly approached Zed and eventually Shen looked at me and pointed down a hallway. My guess was that was where I was going. I looked to make sure no one else was around and dashed down the hall stopping to check the other connecting halls and rooms. Slowly I went down the long hall making sure I wasn't making noise and stopping if I did. Any time a ninja would appear I would jump onto the ceiling rafters and wait for them to pass. I couldn't use the rafters to get to where I was going since once I reached a certain door they stopped. I couldn't hear any fighting and I also couldn't see any other ninja rushing to anywhere. I pushed the doors open to see a pitch black room with a light in the back. My guess was that room was trapped and the scroll was on the other end of the room. My best bet would be to take everything slow but I had a better Idea. I closed the door as I pulled my sword out and calmed down. I did my best to focus as I put my energy into my legs and hand. Slowly I let my breaths and heartbeat slow. In my times in noxus I also did my best to train with what little I had and found that I could get a slightly better attack of heartbeat. Eventually I felt my body get weightless as I readied myself to dash forwards through the traps. Then in one moment my energy spiked from bottling it up like I just did and I dashed through the room. Just after I hit the ground I could hear various noises from behind me from darts being shot to the crashing of weights. However none of that hit me as I found myself in front of another door, I took a moment to breath as I pushed the door open. With a loud creak the door opened showing a large room with the scroll sitting in the middle of it. I looked around for traps before moving forwards and grabbing the scroll. I opened the red and black scroll to see red writing on black paper. The writing told of skills used by one of the first Living Shadow hosts. It told me about my skill heartbeat how I had actually moved so fast that time seemed to slow around me. It told me about my shadow daggers how they would harm anyone else who would touch them. It told me of how I could use the same skill to clone myself and hide in the shadows. It told me of a skill used to escape battle how it would knock me unconscious but would teleport me to safety. The last thing it told me was a skill he the host himself has only seen the Living Shadow do. A skill called Unholy Silence, where the user would cast a attack much like heartbeat only the weapons themselves would fill the area around the user with slashes. All of this sounded powerful and I thought there was more only to finally notice the walls around me closing in. I had read to much and failed to realize the scroll was keeping a trap off I tried to place the scroll back where it was originally but it didn't stop the trap in fact the scroll was pulled into a box that sealed itself and descended into the floor. The walls were getting close enough that I didn't have any more room to move then I remembered the skill of how I could warp somewhere safe. If I was hurt it would knock me out but I wonder if I was healthy. I did my best to copy what the scroll said to do and found myself suddenly falling into what seemed like a black misty puddle. It wasn't wet but I felt something all around me as all I could see was black. Then above me I could see a hole, a area where the blackness around me spilled out leaving a black fog to hide the hole. I grabbed the edges and climbed out and found myself in the courtyard of the clan. The area wasn't full but I could still see three figures. Two where on the floor however and one was looking towards me.
"So you were only here to distract me while he got to the scroll" Zed said.
"Looks like our mission was a failure" Shen said looking up towards me. He was hurt but not dead. Most likely going to die if no one helped him soon. I shifted my gaze to Zed as I drew my sword and dagger.
"Come Zed, Let's see who is fake and who is real" I taunted. Zed stood there and began to laugh "Very well, I shall show you true shadow" he said as he readied his blades. We both stood there ready to attack in the slightest moment. Then I grinned and chuckled a little. I felt my body part from the one in front of me as my body took a misty black fog. From what the scroll said, I was invisible to everyone but myself. I moved forwards a little and made the clone of me that Zed was seeing make a false move. Zed jumped on the opportunity as he full out attacked the clone. I got a view of all his skills. He first made a clone made of shadow appear in front of me as both him and the close threw those shuriken at the clone. Then both he and the shadow spun around after he swapped places with the shadow.
"Your a fool for betraying me Blade" He said as the thrusted one of his arm blades into the closes chest. I could hear Shen give a shocked gasp to my attack but groan as he put his hand over a wound on his midsection. However I was completely fine.
"And your a fool for exposing yourself Zed" I said as I appeared from the misty form and attack him. Since he was wide open he couldn't block the first attack as I slashed across his back with my sword. As I did this he turned and almost blocked my dagger as it moved to stab him. However he disappeared in front of me as him and three other figures seemingly slashed me. I didn't feel any pain as Zed moved away from me. I approached him for a moment and was about to throw shadow daggers but then a large amount of pain pulsed through my body as I spat up blood. This caused me to fall to one knee as Zed moved in to attack again. This time he moved to attack the real me not a clone. I couldn't muster the energy of creating another so I prepared myself for his attack. He threw his shuriken again and I countered it with my dagger as they both clashed and fell to the floor only to disappear. He rushed forwards and swung to attack me and I did the same. For now this was a game of countering. He would move to attack from the right and I would counter by blocking with my sword and then attempt to stab him with my dagger only for it to be blocked. He warp behind me with his shadow and both of them would spin but I would use heartbeat and dash away. He would attack with his shurikens and I would counter with my daggers. We were rather even however even was not what I needed. The whole fight my adrenaline was running but not as high as it could be. In fact I felt a new height could be reached from the amount of power hidden inside me.
"Alright lets get serious" I said out loud "Living Shadow I know you can hear me, If you wish to prove yourself now is the time". At first I didn't hear any response and neither did Zed.
He began to laugh "The living shadow does not take orders, you should know this as host". He was mostly right, but the Living Shadow had to take my orders thanks to Sona and her seal. Then all in one moment the power hidden away in me was released. I could feel the power pulsing across me, It felt like my body was stiff with it and black sparks flew off my body. I dropped my sword and dagger as the power charged higher and higher. Zed spoke up "The Living Shadow no longer wants you as host" he said as he charged with three other figures again. He struck me with all three figures and attacked me multiple times. This time I felt no pain afterwards, The wounds quickly sealed up and now I started shaking. Then I lost control of my body and the Living Shadow took control. I could still feel my body but I couldn't move it anymore. I saw and felt strange black blades appear on my skin as they stuck out from my arms, legs and back. Then somehow the black sparks flying off me were throw off as the Living Shadow spread my arms wide flinging them off.
"W-What is this" Zed said as he stepped back.
Then in the dark growling voice of the Living Shadow I responded "The Living Shadows power".
My arms crossed in front of me as I leaned forwards and a surge of energy started to pool in my back. Slowly from the corner of my eyes I could see Black blades creating what looked like wings around me. Then all in one moment the energy surged and blasted out. But not before The Living Shadow spoke two more words "Unholy silence". With the sound of wind and metal the wings made of blades bursted and started whurling around me slashing the area around me along with anyone in it. Zed was close enough to me to be attacked and I could see he was looking around for me. I must be hidden in all the black bladed slashes. He was looking to much as the blades cut him all across his body. Armour flew of as he was eventually pushed away. Then just as he was about to get out of the area filled with slashes the blades stopped in mid air made a small explosion of black mist sending Zed to the floor. I wasn't sure if he was alive or not, because just after that I had regained control of my body and passed out.
