The fight

A/N: Ok, so, I'm gonna work on 3 chapters, one after the other, and post the first on Monday, then Fiday, and then Monday again, so, thanks for the wait.

Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with SVTFOE, just my OC's and this particular story. Enjoy

Marco PoV

He had my sword. Or well, it's not mine mine, it's more like, the sword I took from a kingslayer, from the corpse of said king, and then ran from the dimension it was in with it. Look, the point is, he has my sword, still wrapped in the sheets and blankets. And he pretty much pulled it out of nowhere.

"Look," he said, "I can't fight this battle for you, I mean, I can, but I kind of don't want to. So, you're going to take this sword, and your gonna defend yourself. And be quick about it, we're surrounded." I looked up to see more of these creatures popping up. They seemed to materialize from the depths of some shadows on the ground, a few fizzling into existence from out of nowhere. "Marco," he said, prompting me to look at him. He unwrapped the sword, and handed it out to me, holding it gingerly from the blade, hilt towards me. "What are you afraid of? Take it, it's yours isn't it?"

Is it though? But, sensing the sense of urgency in his voice and the danger around us, I take the sword in hand, immediately feeling a wave of cold pass from the sword up through my arm, I take a stance, both hands on the handle, shifting my weight by widening my feet to about shoulder length, bringing the sword to a midgard, where the handle starts out near the left side of my waist, and the blade just towards my right shoulder.

"Hmm," I heard him say. "Your stance could use some work, but that's to be expected. Now, just follow my lead, stay close to me, and don't stab yourself, stab them, and you'll be golden." I glanced at him for a second, and see him take out a sword from a scabbard attached to one of his belt loops. That wasn't there a second ago. He hefts it in one hand, his right, and has it pointing up, slightly forwards, his feet shift slightly apart, and left arm slightly back, almost in a fencer's position. His weapon is a single edged sword, about 4 feet in lengths, almost looking like a traditional japanese samurai sword. "Get ready," he said, immediately bringing my eyes back to the strange creatures.

The attack first. The first one, or at least I think it's the first one, they all look literally alike, leaps at me, and in the blink of an eye the boy, Michael, is in front of me, spinning in a counter attack, in the process of his spin, his blade came within an inch of my face, and he struck the creature at the bottom of what looks like of it's ribs, cutting diagonally up through it's shoulder, effectively cutting it in half.

It barely got out a squeak before it burned away. He turned towards me, and said, "Behind you!" Without thinking I turned and stabbed forward, getting it in the middle of it's face as it was less than a foot from me, mouth outstretched wide and arms splayed wide as if it was gonna catch me in a bear hug and take a chunk out of me. It burned as well, pieces falling off, as it's head disintegrated to ash around my blade. The others, about 10 left in total, hesitated, then started to shift around, moving around us like wolves preparing for a final strike on a hunt.

"Thing to know about these guys," he said, shifting so that we're back to back. "These guys are baser creatures, they are ruled purely by instinct. So, stay on your feet, and you should be fine… unless they do that." I looked over his shoulder to see one of them, twitching more than usual, then it shifted, kind of like a werewolf, into this kind of hybrid dog-thing creature, growing bone like armor so that it resembled a second skin, kind of, the exposed bits of blackness forming something of actual skin, all purple, pulsing with powerful muscles, and thick veins. "Great, it turned into a Mutt. This makes things more dangerous."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because it's a creature of rage, and even more instinct. More unpredictable, just, wait for me, and- SHIT!"

He kind of booty bumped me, crashing the side of his hips into my, kind of bottom of my hip, where my leg joins it, but it was enough to knock me forwards. I barely had enough sense to fall into a roll and come up to slash horizontally, effectively cutting into two, killing one and wounding the other. I quickly rolled back and look up to see him chopping into a few others, while the Mutt, as he called it, got ready to pounce. When it did, I jumped up and ran to it, ducking under it's leap, Michael, dodged back so that he's about a foot from where it landed. By using quick thinking, I leap forward as well, and stab through in an open area from it's armor-skin, Michael did the same, our swords clinking together inside of it… and I know, in any other situation it might be errotic sounding, but really, this is just gruesome.

It burns, and disintegrates around our weapons, we pull it apart in a cloud of burning ash. Without pausing to think, we pull away and make quick work of the remaining 8. When we're done, we stand in the center of a ring of ash, panting heavily, well, I was. He was more like after a brief jog, not really winded, but enough to get his heart beating.

"What… the hell… were those things?" I said.

"Shadows," he replied. "In different cultures they go by different names, in different times, but the one thing that all the legends and lore have collectively is that their born from the collective hatred and emotion from the human race. In other words, their the darkness of mankind."

"Oh, is that what you think?" a voice said. We look up to the top of the steps to see a boy, of about 17-19, dressin all black, black trench coat, hood and combat boots. He has long hair, falling out from under the hood, and it seems to be an ash color as well. "The darkness of mankind? That's summing it up a little too much, don't you think, Head Captain?"

"Oh great, what do you want?" Michael said. "Didn't I kill you already?... about 50 times over?"

"Heh, yeah, I'm afraid to say that I have no idea who you are," the boy said smiling. "But I guess you've been doing this same song and dance for, what now? Close to 60 centuries?"

"Yeah," Michael said, then he muttered, "something like that."

"Well then, instead of bantering like old men, why don't we get this started, ya?"

The mystery guy then held up his hand, and this black dust started to fly from it in all directions. All around me walls of energy became visible, it looked like they were all around town, the dust attacking them like viruses, turning them from their digital blue color, and muting them. Michael looked around in surprise, then he said, "No!" But before he could move, the boy snapped his finger, and the walls exploded, making a gale of wind pick up.

I fell to my knees, and Michael stuck his sword into the ground, and fell to one knee, the wind ruffling our hair and clothes, and forcing us to close our eyes to the sting of it. Once it was over, we look up to see that he's smiling under his hood.

Michael quickly pulled out his sword, so fast that it ripped apart the concrete around it, and ran forward. "Heh heh," the one in dark clothing said, "same song and dance it is." Around his feet a pool of inky blackness erupted out of nowhere, engulfing him in this cocoon of darkness, and then when Michael did a running leap at him, exploded. The force knocked Michael back through the air, he landed next to me, and from the remanence of that cocoon, something came out of it. It formed like the other creatures, only this thing was huge, and I mean, bigger than the school building behind it, huge. It rose about two stories, on bent legs, arms that were too long for it's body, the head of a bull, and horns about half the length of a school bus. The darkness solidified around it as pulsing purple skin faded into existence, and the remanence of the darkness that it came from solidified into the bone like armor in places along it's skin.

Michael got up, rubbing his head with his free hand, somehow holding onto his sword, and said, "Oww…." then he took one look at the monster and his hand fell. "Oh shit," was all he said. He then got into a different stance, feet playing wide, body weight shifting low, sword up and pointed towards the monster, the blade parallel to the ground, his off hand held out, hand open. "Ok, ok… we might be fucked."

"Hey!" I say, getting into the stance that I had before.

"Royally fucked," he added. "But we'll be fine. Just…. keep away from the limbs. Minotaurs are strong, but slow… unless they charge at you, in which case we-FUCK!" I looked up to see a huge fist, about two times bigger than my body, steamrolling towards me. Michael tackles me out of the way, the fist crashes into the ground where I was standing a moment ago, but he doesn't stop. We roll a few times, but he manages to untangle himself from me, and comes up, skids on his feet, and then takes off running. Before the Minotaur could pull it's arm back, he jumped on it, and began running along it, slashing back and forth as he ran.

I got up, groaning a bit and rubbing my head, but when I saw what Michael was doing, he managed to get to it's head, and started to attack it, I let my hand drop, and sluggishly get to my feet. Once up I run at the monster's legs, and slash at its achilles tendon. It took a few tries, but I finally managed to cut through, making it fall on a knee. I ran back from it, and came up on a just landing Michael, having it fall down made him lose his balance and fell off of it, but he managed to stick the landing.

We looked at each other and nodded, both thinking pretty much the same thing. We ran forward, he took a running jump, and managed to cut a piece of it's snout off. It threw it's head back and howled, the piece bursting into flames as it fell. I took the opportunity while it didn't have a chance to retaliate, I jumped up, stuck my sword in a gap of it's armor on it's knee, hoisted myself up, managed to dislodge my sword on the first try, and ran up it's leg, somehow keeping my balance, and made it to it's stomach. Once there I began to swing the sword on it, hacking and slashing as much as I can, somehow cutting through the bone like armor on it's midriff. It tried to get up, failing because of the severed achilles tendon, and I jumped off, doing a backflip in the air and landing on my feet. Hey, fighting monsters with Star on an almost daily basis for the past few months taught me to always keep on my toes in a fight.

Michael came down next to me, hard, he stumbled a bit and grimaced. "Hey, are you alrigh-"

"No time, got to finish it!" he yelled. He put his sword in a reverse grip and thrusted out his off hand. A ball of energy formed, electricity crackling off of it. "Lightning, Destruction Blast!" He yelled out, and the ball exploded out, a supercharged bolt of lightning shooting towards the giant Minotaur, aimed for the heart, breaking through it's armor, and exploding out the back. The bolt then flew towards the school, blowing up the 'ol" in the "School" part of the sign.

The electricity faded, the air crispy, and tasting of ions, my hair an even bigger mess than what it was. The Minotaur fell back, and, not burning like the other creatures did, but bursting into live, very hot, flames. As it hit the ground, it burst apart, burning pieces and ashes flying everywhere, until it was all just ash, flying into the wind and disappearing from existence.

I then collapsed, letting my sword drop, and falling on my back, huffing and puffing. Michael dropped his sword too, and sat on his butt, also breathing very hard, though, not as much as me. He turn around so that his legs are pointing in the same direction my head is. "Well," he said, sweat dripping off his nose, and plastering some of his hair to his forehead. "You survived… I'm impressed." I lifted my head and gave him a look. "What? Not many normal, or, well, semi-normal humans could stand up to a bunch of Shadows, much less to a fully matured and evolved Minotaur Shadow either. So, really, I'm impressed. You did good kid."

Rolling my eyes, I sit up. And then I take a look at the top of the steps. "Hey, Michael?"

"Yeah buddy?"

"We beat him, right?"

"Yeah… he turned into ash."

"Oh… then who's that over there?"

He turns around to see what I'm seeing. Standing on the top of the steps, surrounded by a field of ash that hasn't yet disappeared, was the boy who exploded into the Minotaur. "Hello buddy!" he said, mocking us. "Oh right, shit," Michael said, picking up his sword and standing. "He wasn't the Minotaur. Forgot what he was."

"What!?" I say, whipping my head towards him

"That's right," the boy said. "I am legion, for we are-"

"A colossal pain in my ass," Michael interrupted him.

I picked up my sword, and got up too, Michael turned around to face him. I jugged the blade out towards him, but Michael placed a hand on my arm. I looked at him, and without looking at me shook his head.

"What? You actually think that I would turn myself into some, mindless beast?" The boy asked.

I lowered my sword, and said, "Well, yeah? Why else would you explode yourself?" I asked.

He just chuckled, Michael answered for him, "He didn't transform into it, he just took down the wards and used that darkness explosion to distract us while the Minotaur formed in our world. It wouldn't have been able to fight us unless he took them down."

"Ding ding ding!" The boy said. He then took off his hood, revealing the rest of his features. He had long ashen colored hair that reached the middle of his back, a sharp angular face, with a pointed nose, and his eyes…. His eyes were pale yellow, and there were no whites, just dark obsidian and the thick ring of his irises. "So, you are as good as they say, just, more than a bit out of practice." Michael shifted around, tencing up for a fight. "Oh, don't worry. This was just a test, one of many. And the next one will come on the day that all spirits are allowed to pass between the realms of life and death freely. I'll see you soon." With that, more of that inky blackness pooled around his feet, and cocooned him, but this time the cocoon fell apart and disappeared, and so did he.

We stood there for a full minute, me processing the events that just took place, Michael, staring at me, gauging my reaction. Taking a deep breath, mostly to keep myself from freaking out, I say, "Ok, what the hell just happened?"

Michael sighed, sounded like a relief sigh, and said, "Ok, I owe you an explanation. But not here, I don't trust that guy to just leave us alone until Halloween."

"Halloween?"

"Yeah, all hallows eve? It's the time where the veil between life and death are the thinnest. Though, he might also be referring to la dia del muertos, it's kind of hard to pinpoint sense we're not in the right part of the world for either, different ley lines and all."

"Oooookay," I said, not really getting what he was talking about. "Well, where can we talk?"

"How about your place," he said, turning around and starting to walk. "Besides, this is gonna involve Princess Butterfly too."

Thinking that nothing at this point is gonna dissuade him, and because he's already heading in the direction of my house, I follow him.

End chapter 16

A/N: So, this is done, the next one will come at Friday, maybe, and then the following monday. Then I'm gonna take a break to finish that 20,000 word chapter of my Rick and Morty Star Wars AU. So, thanks for all of your patients, 2 chapters are already up for Rick and Morty, it's called the Great escape, please check it out. Don't forget to review, favorite and follow, this has been Bigmike33321 signing off! *BOOP*