Death was a fickle thing. It was easy enough to take a life. But the act of it was difficult. At least, it was for Izuku.
As he plunged his blade into the throat of the man who's name was currently growing in size, he froze. He saw the look of surprise and pain in the man's eyes appear when the blade pierced his throat.
Izuku heard a couple of the thugs cry out "RIKIYA!" when they saw his body hit the floor. Izuku was still frozen atop of him.
The sight of a hooded boy standing over the body of one of their strongest members was a terrifying sight. He took him down so easily it was scary. Just how strong was he?
Izuku stared at the lifeless corpse at his feet. In Front of him stood an option. The screen finally made the realization of the situation sink in.
[EXTRACT SHADOW SOLDIER?]
[YES NO]
As he stared at the lifeless corpse in front of him, the fight raged on around him. His soldiers easily ripping through the yakuza around him. He was starting to hyperventilate when he was suddenly grabbed by rough gauntlets, causing him to focus easily
" My liege, take deep breaths. In and out." The raspy voice was his anchor and he listened without question. "Death is a part of battle, Izuku. Don't let his death be in vain. Make him your soldier. Don't be afraid."
Izuku's eyes widened at Igris's command, but followed through reluctantly. " A-Arise." His shaky voice came out and a large shadow erupted from the downed man.
He didn't feel like a hero. He had just killed a man. Not a good man, but a man nonetheless. His death wasn't needed. He wasn't that much of a threat. He wasn't going to allow it to happen again.
"Don't go for the kill! Only disable them!" Despite the soldiers confusion at why he would spare the enemies, they still followed through with the order.
Passing the dead bodies and pushing further into the base to find Eri before his time expired. If he was going to die, then he would do it as a hero.
Eri was confused. She was currently being carried in a bundle of blankets in the arms of the shadow soldier while they were fighting off some members of the Shie Hassaikai.
Why were they saving her? How did they regenerate? Why didn't they speak? This was so weird.
" W-why are you s-saving me?" The knight looked down at her for a moment before returning his attention to the current task.
"Please l-leave me. I'm a curse." She didn't want these nice people to get hurt. They were some of the only people who helped her.
The knights shook their head when suddenly she was passed to another knight as the one holding her was crushed by the wall smashing together.
The death of the shadow carrying her caused her to go wide eyed in terror. Much to her surprise and confusion, however, the knight's shadow seemed to stitch itself together and reform.
"Y-y-your ok!" She started to cry in relief, they didn't die because of her. Maybe. . . maybe she could be saved?
The knight nodded back at her, but quickly turned back around, glaring at the walls. It turned to the robed figures before motioning with his hand a few times and received a couple nods from the two.
The robed figures seemed to concentrate before a diaphanous eye appeared above their head, highlighting a figure inside the walls. They quickly charged their fireballs before the figure could piece together what they were doing, and blew the wall open while the other 2 knights ran with the fireballs jumping into the smoking crater in the wall.
Silence prevailed for a few moments until she saw them walk back out. Carrying a short figure behind them. She recognized the figure as one of the men overhaul had accompanying him most of the time.
The original knight who was carrying her, walked towards her and picked her back up. He patted her on the head, before tilting his head towards the way they were originally running, and continuing down the path, his team following behind.
Izuku was struggling right now. On his way to the lower levels of the base, three people got in his way. They were necessarily strong, but they were annoying and strong enough to stall him.
He didn't have time for this. He needed to save Eri before his time ran out. He charged at the man who kept on stealing his dagger somehow, slipping below a punch, and returning his own to the man's chest.
The man quickly fell as the air left his lungs and Izuku kicked him into the wall. The man's teammate with the crystal quirk charged forward with crystals forming on his arm. Izuku scoffed and matched him with his own punch. The crystals shattering under the pressure, flying all over the place.
Using Dominator's Touch to stop the jagged chunks of crystal from dealing any damage to himself, he failed to realize the danger his opponent was also in.
Once he looked over at his opponent again, his eyes widened before he ran forward the help the man. " NOOO! Shit shit shit." He was fumbling around trying to get what he needed to help the man.
One of the specially sharp chunks of crystal flew into the man's neck, causing his blood to flow out in thick streams from the intrusion. Izuku was rapidly putting pressure on the wound, attempting to stop the blood from oozing out.
As his eyes were beginning to mist from guilt and self loathing, the man uttered something that shattered something from within. "P-please *cough* don't leave me." The man who he was just fighting, was asking him to not leave his side in his last moments.
That was the straw that broke the camel's back, causing his tears to start flowing down his cheek. "I-I'm sorry p-p-please don't die. I-I di-!" His incoherent apology was shut down when the man put his hand on his arm and smiled before the light left his eyes and his arm went limp.
His throat tightened as he felt Igris's arm on his shoulder. "Mourn after the battle, now is not the time." Izuku nodded without a word.
He wiped his eyes before looking down at the man one more time. His last words echoing in his head. The man was scared of dying alone. So he wasn't going to leave him alone. "Arise."
A shadow of the man appeared, except his appearance was heavily altered. His new body seemed to be made fully out of crystals. He stared for a moment before nodding and absorbing the man into his shadow.
The man's final teammate, who was frozen after the current events, was swiftly knocked out when Izuku used Dominator's Touch to slam the man into a wall, knocking him out.
He continued his trek forward. He has come too far to fail. He was going to save Eri.
Eri's saviors were in trouble. They had just ran into one of the people they were supposed to avoid during their escape. Overhaul.
He was standing there, menacingly blocking their current escape. His gloves off and his face seemed to be contorted into a frown behind his mask.
" Release the girl and I'll give you quick death." He wasn't playing around.
Eri tried to squirm free. She didn't want the nice people to get hurt again. Maybe if they let her go, Overhaul will let them live? She has to go, she can't let them suffer anymore.
The leader of the group of shadows holds Eri closer to his chest as she starts squirming, attempting to escape his grasp. His liege has ordered him to keep the girl safe, no matter the cost.
The Shadow looked over at his men, passing a message on to them. Buy time for him to escape with the girl.
Everyone stood still, waiting for each other to make the first move. The second overhaul reached down, everything sprang into action.
The mages shot forth their signature fire balls, the two knights tightened their grips on their swords, preparing for anything to happen as the one who held Eri ran. He ran without looking back as the sounds of earth shifting and explosions echoed behind him.
He wouldn't allow the crying little girl in his arms to get hurt anymore.
Izuku was empty right now. He had killed two men, something a villain would do. Heroes don't kill unless absolutely necessary. And this time it wasn't.
And now he was going to die because his stupid power was giving him an ultimatum. Kill or be killed. When fuck that, he's going to be a heroe in his last moments, even if it costs him his life.
Igris was by his side while some of his faster soldiers followed behind as he charged through the halls of the base. He had to stop and buy some mana potions from the shop to refill his reserves from regenerating his shadows.
The fighting has been beginning to slow down everywhere but one part of the compound, and that's exactly where he's heading. His forces were being spread thinner and thinner as they spread out in groups of 2 and 3 to deal with members of the yakuza group. He's down to about 9 of his total 40.
He doesn't have much longer to ponder because he finally encounters Eri and one of his soldiers sent to retrieve her. She peeks over and her eyes go wide with shook and recognition when they land on him.
"M-Mr. you ok! I t-thought he k-killed y-y-you." Eri managed to get out between her sobs.
" P-please help the ni-nice shadow people! T-They helped m-me and I don't want them to die."
She practically sobbed into his arms when she jumped out of the soldier's into his.
He could feel his heart shatter when looking at her, but forced it away. He would deal with it later, or probably never after the system kills him. Eri comes first.
He gave her a quick squeeze before putting her down on the floor. Meeting her distraught eyes with his, he put his hands on her shoulders and gave her his best smile. He wasn't sure how comforting it would be though. Being covered in blood with puffy eyes from crying isn't exactly comforting.
It didn't matter though. Eri nodded solemnly before asking in almost a whisper. " Ju-just come back alive. I don't want to be hurt again."
His throat tightens once again, leaving him to nod his response. Two knights split from his group to join the Knight carrying Eri. Their footsteps slowly fade as Izuku charges toward the sounds of yelling, explosions, and chaos.
He could only wonder if he was strong enough to win. Looking at his current stats, he wasn't sure if they were enough. He was damn well going to try anyways.
NAME: IZUKU MIDORIYA LVL: 63
JOB: MONARCH OF SHADOWS
TITLE: CONQUEROR OF ADVERSITY
HP: 13,704 MP: 1,972
FATIGUE: 0
STRENGTH: 127 HEALTH: 115
AGILITY: 130 INTELLIGENCE: 103
SENSE: 124 AP: 0
PHYSICAL DAMAGE REDUCTION: 46%
He was glad he at least leveled up intelligence quite a bit beforehand. It helped him be prepared to carry more soldiers on him. It allowed him to carry around 50 shadow soldiers within him. Useful for situations such as right now.
He closed his stat screen when he realized he reached a humongous cavern. Within he noticed 4 of his troops were fighting within. There was gore and clothing surrounding the thing, the monstrous man who his troops were combating.
The gore and clothing didn't add up to him. He lacked any obvious injuries and the amount of clothing strewn around his person didn't make sense. Were there other people here before? Did they become the glore that littered the ground?
He ordered his soldiers to distract the monstrous man while he recalled one of the knights that was previously fighting him. The knight talked about the man's capabilities with Igris while he was observing the battle.
His attention was changed when Igris put his hand on his shoulder. "My Liege, your knight says that this man is the one you know as Overhaul." His eyes widened at that tidbit of news. "He combined himself with some of his men and the stone to increase his power. His physical stats increased greatly whenever he added another person to himself."
Izuku stared at Overhaul with disgust and horror. He killed his own men and added them to himself to boost his abilities. Wait, that's kinda what he did.
Shaking his head he turned over to Igris. " Igris be ready to act on any openings, we'll try to take him in alive. If he's too powerful for us to take down . . . kill him."
Igris looked at him before nodding and grabbing the hilt of his sword while Izuku charged towards Overhaul. This wasn't going to be a fun fight.
Hello and thanks for reading my newest chapter. As usual, please leave any reviews and advise on how to improve my writing. Thank for the previous advise as well.
Addressing some previous worries, I'm not going to make Izuku exactly like Sung Jinwoo. I am trying to build up his character to were he understands that sometimes, killing an enemy is the only way to keep people safe. Also that accidents can happen too. Also about not showing his status screen, I kinda goofed. I had his stats calculated and everything but my dumbass somehow forgot to include them in the actual chapter. I have no excuse for that, so yeah, my bad.
Thanks once again for reading and peace.
