Chapter 23 – The Shadow

The silent Shadow Forest was filled by loud footsteps from a large monster. Anyone can hear its heavy breathing, as well as the rustling of trees as this monster bumped to them without stopping. Dust of soils, small rocks, and tree barks, where flying everywhere as this monster rampage through the forest. Three quick shadows can be seen pursuing this large beast.

Bernard: “This fucking monster doesn’t know how to stop.”

Elous: “It’s because it sensed a dangerous monster.”

Bernard: “Well, sorry for my mistake, my Silent Step was not too silent enough.” *sigh*

Elous: “Sophia, I suggest we proceed to Formation O3.”

Sophia: “You know, I was thinking about that too, oh well, Squad Formation O3, Begin!!”

The 3 shadow vanished, and hid their presence.

***

Two years have passed, and they are now ready to take the Assassin Class Examination. They are the youngest in the history of the Shadow Village to ever have taken the test. Of course it’s because of their hellish training from the Legendary Ninja, Master Wyndram, the Head of the Shadow Village, and was the Enlightened One(The highest position one can have in the Shadow Village). The children’s growth was too promising, Master Wyndram let them take the Assassin Test (job quest), and a Thief class ranging from level 30 to 45 normally takes this quest. Compared to the 11 and 10 year old, which was: Bernard: Level 25, Sophia: Level 22, and Elous: in Level 17. The group was always training, and hunting different sorts of monsters in the forest, and with the boost of those “bracelet weights” their stats were more than the normal stats of thieves in the same level. Elous was also training inside the [Void], and he takes 36 hours of training (void time) an equivalent 3 hours in the real world. He doesn’t always do this training because Elous and his sibling sometimes spend their time at Master Wyndram’s private library, to learn a lot of the world, and also have advance knowledge of being a ninja. The kids were well known in the village because of their Strength, Agility, Tactics, and Determination, and the people call them S.P. (Short for Squad Poison), people don’t want to mess around with this kids, cause they know they will regret making them an enemy.

***

The King of the Forest. A beast that were 6 meter tall, a monster boar. Having 4 giant tusks like of an elephant, 2 tusks on both side of the mouth, the lower tusk were much bigger than the upper tusk has, a thick skin and, fur made out of iron. Every strands of the fur were much sharper than a blade, the fur was clad in black like a shadow making it hard to find, and has the most perfect defense of all monster in the Shadow Forest, claiming the title King of the Shadow forest. A good party will take a hard time slaying this beast, that’s why anyone shouldn’t let their guard down in front of this monster. The beast tusks and skin are a good source of material for weapons and armors, its meat is delicious and has the highest price in the market, being rare and hard to get, and its organs can also be a source of food or ingredients as medicine. This monster is a pure gold that any part of it is very useful. The monster’s name was the Wild Shadow Behemoth.

-oOo-

Being the King of the Forest and at the top of the food chain, means that it’s dangerous, but today, it’s rather different. All of the monsters in the forest always run in fear from this monster, but today The Shadow Behe. was the one running from danger, as the 3 shadows blend and became invisible cause of the skill [Shadow Blend], they hide their presence to trick the monster that they didn’t continue their pursuit. The monster noticing the changes of the surrounding, slowed its phase from running and became calmer, but it didn’t let its guard down.

As the wind blew by, and the S.P. prepared their Formation O3. As the monster was now munching to some grass herbs to recover some stamina, and was taking its sweet time to chew his meal, Elous in the shadows, positioned himself. He prepared his skill [Blazing Crusher],(a mix of lightning and shadow element, that causes the lightning to be black in color, then covers the body of the user giving the user boost of speed or can even be used as a shield and be use to tackling and attacking), a spark starts in his forehead and quickly covers his whole body, when Elous was ready, he starts to dash forward to the monster and within seconds, he was now in front of the monster and was holding its tusk. The Shadow Behe. was surprised about a “black kid” holding its tusk making it agitated and goes into frenzy and tries to charge at Elous, but the monster felt pain when it moves it’s legs, as the blood comes out of its wounds, some blood flows out in a different manner causing the thin steel strings to be seen. This string was used by Sophia (being a spider LOL) and was mastering the use of it. The beast was so mad its eyes became crimson red, and his shadow skin became much darker, it tried to run but Elous and Sophia’s string held the beast on its place. It was now crying in desperation; it knows that if it stays there longer he could get killed by this “monsters”. It was gaining strength through will and desperation, as it slowly moved Elous, Elous was now giving all his strength, while sustaining his skill [Blazing Crusher]. Having so much trouble, Elous charge up his skill making the black lightning bigger, and sends a lightning shock to the Shadow Behemoth. Taking the shock the Shadow Behemoth lose some strength, its feet was now becoming numb because the steel strings that Sophia used has poison. And it was right chance to finish the beast.

Sophia: *shouts* “NOW!!! ELOUS, BERNARD!!”

Analyzing its weak spot from the shadows, Bernard exited the shadows and he appeared beneath the monster, Bernard trusts a knife that was soaked in poison at its throat. Through Bernard’s analysis the throat was its weak spot, and it was covered in less fur and the only place with exposed skin, while Elous lets go of the tusks and jumps into the air, and from his item pouch he gets a kunai, and clad it with black lightning making it much sharper, then while in the air he strikes and force the kunai into the monster’s forehead. And with that final blow at the head and throat, the Shadow Forest was now quiet again.

-oOo-

Master Wyndram’s mansion was now lively because of the celebration for the S.P. becoming an assassin class. They were each given a dagger made from the tusk of the Boar Shadow Behemoth, and also chain mail that was forged from the iron fur. The meat and organ was sold at a low price at the market, and cannot be consumed because it was contaminated by strong poison. A lot of praise was given to S.P. but there will always be people jealous and hate them.

-oOo-

Elous.

It was late in the afternoon; we were at the secret base resting.

Bernard: “Hahaha, check out this Shadow Behe. Chain Mail, they look cool right, hahaha”

Sophia: “Well it’s a good protection, it was flexible enough like normal clothing, and has shock absorbent properties making it sufficient for taking a lot of force.”

Bernard: “It’s a good thing that it was also an enchanted armor, we wouldn’t have trouble about fitting it, and the magic enhancement will adjust to our body size.”

Sophia: “Hmmm, hey brother Elous, why so silent.”

Elous: “I’m just thinking of when they will be coming.”

Bernard: “Who’s coming? Are they friend of yours?”

Sophia: “Who are they?”

Elous: “Derek and his lackeys. They are the only one who was looking at us badly; it looks like they’re on to something.” In my thoughts *I’m not concern about myself, but I’m concerned to you guys*

Bernard: “hahaha, so you’re scared about them? Hahaha”

Sohpia: “We should be, they’re at the peak of Assassin class, and soon they will be Ninja. We should distance ourselves to them.”

ELous: “Sophia is right Bernard; we should not mess with them or even try to oppose them, even if were assassins now, we can’t go toe to toe with veterans. As long as we are at Master Wyndram’s protection, they will never lay a finger on us.”

Bernard: “So we should be prepared when that time comes.”

Sophia: “Nn*nod*”

Elous: “Yes, we should.” *Don’t worry, that time will never come.*

-oOo-

A light was dashing through the woods in the middle of the night; a man carrying a lamp with magic crystal inside of it was looking around while hurriedly running to the direction of a cave. As the mysterious man entered the cave, he was greeted by another man.

Man1: “Why were you sweating so much? Did something happen?”

Man2: “I felt that someone was following me on the way here, but I’m not really sure about it.”

Man1: “Tsss, you’re just way out of your head, I’m sure if someone was following you, you can easily felt their presence.”

Man2: “You’re right, maybe it was just my imagination, HA HA HA.” *panting*

Man1: “Let’s get inside, Master Derek is waiting.”

At the deepest part of the cave was the secret meeting place of Derek and his lackey. In here they plan most of their criminal acts; such as assassination, robbing and killing merchants, slave trading and many more.

Derek: “HAHAHA, JUST A FEW MORE HOURS WE’LL BE ABLE TO GET THE VILLAGE INTO OUR HANDS, AND I WILL FINALLY GET THAT LEGENDARY WEAPON. AND WITH THAT WEAPON I CAN KILL WHO EVEN I WANT, EVEN THAT OLD MAN WYNDRAM.”

Lackey1: “Boss, what type of weapon is that.”

Derek: “Idiot, it’s a Legendary Weapon that was on the Celestial Tier or even more, if I got this weapon, I can be a Celestial, or even be a God.”

Lackey2: “Hahaha, God Derek that sounds cool boss. So how do you plan to get this Legendary weapon?”

Derek: “We need the S.P., Sophia and Bernard, that Elous kid can be just fed to the monsters in the forest.”

Lackey3: “Why boss, why do we need those kids?”

Derek: “Because they were Wyndram’s weakness, HAHAHA. I need them as a hostage, and exchange them for the Legendary Weapon. If only I knew that those kids were very important to Wyndram, I should have made my move a long time ago, but as long the they’re just amateur assassins, it’s an easy task capturing them.”

As the group of Derek were making their plans, they didn’t notice that there was someone in the shadows, and was watching them.

Shadow: “So, are you done with your plans?” as the shadow cast a spell [Storm Shuriken]

Derek quickly turns his head to look at the source of the voice, as soon as he saw the shadow, hundreds of different sizes and shapes of shurikens were coming at his way. But this “shadow” was underestimating him; Derek quickly took his two daggers and parried all the incoming shurikens.

Derek: “You, how did you find… Tssss!!! You’re dead; MEN CAPTURE THIS KID, I WANT HIM ALIVE, I’LL BE SURE TO TAKE MY TIME, SKINNING YOU.”

But no one answered, when Derek looked back at his men, they were all dead and blood was everywhere, but what made him loose his mind was, the shurikens. He cannot find even a single shuriken, just a pile of dead bodies with deep cuts and wounds.

In Derek’s mind: *What the fuck, where are all that shurikens go?, and how come he has so many of those, shurikens should only be used and be mastered by a ninja…Wait..*

Derek: “HAHAHA YOU FUCKING KID, TRICKING ME BY SHOWING A LOT OF SHURIKEN, EVEN KILLING ALL OF MY MEN, I KNOW WHAT YOUR CLASS IS…. YOU’RE A FUCKING ILLUSIONIST, A LEVEL 30 MAGE WHO MANAGE TO CHANGE HIS CLASS TO AN ILLUSIONIST, THAT’S WHAT YOU REALLY FUCKING ARE. WELL DONE KILLING MY MEN, AND EXPERIMENTING YOUR SKILLS, BUT BE PREPARED TO FACE MY WRATH.”

Shadow: “Maybe you’re right,or maybe not! But I’m not letting you out of here alive.”

Derek: “FUCKING KID, YOU TALK BIG!! AHHHH”

Derek pounces on the kid, he was so fast the kid didn’t even make his move or react about it. The daggers blade quickly pierced the small body of this child, as the child slowly bowed forward, giving the sign of being dead.

In Derek’s head: *HAHAHA, I GOT YOU NOW KID, EVEN IF YOU’RE AN ILLUTIONIST MY SPEED IS MUCH FASTER THAN YOUR SPELLS.*

Derek saw that the edge of his dagger was coming out of the child’s backside, confirming his pray was dead.

Derek: “HAHAHA, FUCKING ARROGANT KID, YOU KILLED ALL MY SUBBORDINATES, BUT IT ONLY TAKES ONE MOVE TO KILL YOU.HAHAHA”

TO BE CONTINUED . . . .

Thank you for reading ::) Sorry i was busy and don't have enough time to write.