Paper Mario Corrupted

Chapter 4: Unleashing Your Fury

Upon the light's return, Sharky was at one end of the room, while both Mario, the Shadow King, and Peach, the Shadow Queen, stood at the other. The battle was beginning.

"Two on one. That's hardly fair," Sharky pointed out.

"No one ever said this test was going to be fair," Mario said. "If it was, it wouldn't be a test now, would it! But don't worry, you get the preemptive strike."

"But first, let me explain the purpose of this battle," Peach interjected. "You two need to adjust to your new found powers. Each of us has some sort of special skill set. Sharky, lets see what you can do."

"How?"

"Well, what do you normally do?" asked Peach.

"Throw eggs at people."

"Well, try that. You will have some powers utilizing your eggs."

Sharky grabbed a blue egg and was about to hurl it at Mario when, "WAIT! Before you throw it, you may be able to shadow enchant your egg. All you have to do is gather the darkness around you and apply it to your egg." Somehow, Sharky knew how to do this. And it worked! The blue spots turned black, then Sharky hurled it at Mario, who fell under a cloak of darkness.

Suddenly, an omniscient voice said, "IMMOBILIZED!Movement will be impossible for the next turn!"

"YES!" cheered Sharky.

It came to Mario's turn, but instead of Mario attacking, the omniscient voice said, "The Shadow King cannot move," and the turn was passed to Peach.

Peach raised her left arm and pointed at Mario. A black cloud swirled around Peach up over her head and disappeared then did the same to Mario.

"Shadow King's defense is boosted," said the voice.

"Now, Sharky, let's discover your special skill," said Peach. "Close your eyes and look deep inside yourself. Do you see something?"

"Yes, I see me, I think."

"That means one thing. You can make shadow copies of yourself to confuse your enemy."

"AWESOME!"

"And that's not all. These copies count as members of your party for that battle only. To be able to use it, all you need to do is simply think of creating the copies and the number of copies, maximum of three, and they will materialize. Try it now!"

Sharky closed his eyes and began to glow. His glow became brighter and brighter then suddenly switched off. Standing next to Sharky were three other Sharkys.

It came to Mario's turn, who was no longer immobilized. "I suppose I should look deep inside myself, too." Mario did so but he saw weapons flying past, weapons of all kinds; hammers, whips, shuriken, swords, and many others. "I see weapons! What does that mean Peach?"

"Well, my King, that means you are what we call a Shadowsmith; the same thing as a blacksmith but instead of crafting with metal, you craft with shadow. You can create new weapons instantly this way, as opposed to blacksmithing. Unfortunately, these shadow weapons only last for a few turns before returning to shadow," replied Peach. "Crafting your weapon does not count as your turn, you can still attack after crafting a weapon.

Mario swirled his hands before him; shadow gathering in his hands, flitting around like smoke. A samurai sword materialized in Mario's hands. He studied the blade then pointed his gaze at Sharky and charged. The blade passed swiftly through one of the clones. Sharky began to laugh mockingly.

"You missed!" Sharky said.

"Enough! This battle is over. If you want to find new powers, just look inside yourself, and you will find what you are looking for." The Sharky clones disappeared in a puff of smoke, as did Mario's sword. "We have more important matters to take care of above."

Mario and Sharky followed the Shadow Queen up the staircase into the Palace of Shadow, heading for the Mushroom Kingdom.