The Prodigies: The Return of Equinox

Chapter Eighteen - Feeling the Hopelessness

"Ha, this is just about as difficult as I thought it might be." Seilan was sweating nearly profusely. He stood still, a few yards away from the Shade. The Shade stood still as well, and though the creature had no lungs it was heaving and panting. Core stood by the entrance as he had been, both granting Seilan energy from his vast reserves and providing defense against the shade. He had been paying lots of attention to the creature. More than he probably should have.

Ze was getting tired, and scared. The longer ze looked at the shade the more frightening it became. The geometry of its body turned into itself and spit out odder and more impossible shapes continuously. Growing faster and faster as the process continued. The points on its appendages became finer, sharper. Nearing the point of vanishing from view all the while never changing shape. The sharp edges becoming sharper. And with every swipe it neared cutting through the reality that struggled to house it. With every second Core understood more and more that whatever this thing was it did not belong in this world and it scared every fiber of zis being.

"What is your name creature?" Croaked the Zorfec. The Shade looked towards Core. The thing relaxed and stood tall. It's newfound pupils centered towards the creature of earth and magma, scanning its entire body.

"My name is Qatall." It made a gesture that was similar to bowing except its head never looked away from Core, no matter how impossibly its body bent. "I am a Shade."

"Purt," came a whisper that no one heard. "Punel baf."

"And what is a Shade?" Said Seilan.

"A thing not of gods, nor devils. But of man."

"Impossible!" Said Core. "None but the Great Forces can create life!"

"Apparently you think that I am a thing that lives." Chuckled the Shade. "While I am alive I do not live, and while you can kill me I will not experience death."

"I don't understand." Seilan was growing frustrated with the thing.

"You don't need to child. All you need to know is the small boy over there is the one that made me. The one that killed me while I was human, the one who removed the spine from my body and used it to create me. He gave me knowledge of what I am and what my purpose was, and now he betrays that purpose."

"What was that purpose exactly?" Asked Core

"To kill all the Prodigies, even the summoner himself." And with that final word the shade clawed at the air with an impossibly sharp claw and cut right through the day. It cut through the reality of the world and Qatall quickly plunged its arm right into the wound of reality. Before Seilan could react the arm appeared from the ground behind him and stabbed right through his leg.

Seilan couldn't respond with anything close to intelligent other than a grunt. When he looked down he saw the white long fingers of the Shade piercing through his leg. Two fingers went through his calf right between the Tibia and the Fibula, the two bones in the calf. One went through his knee, right in the gap between the bones. Two more went through his thigh, one through just the flesh and the other through the bone.

"I'd like to see you do all your fancy moves now with your leg like that." Not long after he said those words the tear on reality closed on it's arm. Severing it right then and there. A sharp vibration came from the creature as the flesh grew back slowly with its porcelain skin following suite. Thinking fast Seilan reached for the quiver at his hip, and felt only three arrows left. He nocked one, pulled, and released aiming straight for the exposed flesh of the creature. With the shade staying still the shot should have been easier than child's play, but with the intense pain of the punctures he missed. He shot another and hit the Shade on the chest cracking its skin.
"Do not dare interu-"

The last arrow met its mark. It sunk deep into the arm of the shade. The vibrations grew sharper still. The ground below the shade started to crack and wear rapidly. And before long the vibration stopped all together. The Shade had stopped moving all together. Nano slowly walked down the stairs, leaning on the railing supporting himself.

"Do not waste time!" He panted.

"What?" Asked Seilan. Who still couldn't concentrate with the Shade's hand in his leg.

"Kill the Shade before it gets out of the trap." Nano walked down the final step before falling and curling into ball. Everything hurt. His eyes stung, every breath felt like sandpaper in his lungs, his skin was on fire. And this was after he had healed himself a bit. "That spell won't hold for long. Kill it before it escapes."

"How?" Croaked the Zorfec.

"The center of its being. Where its heart is. And do it fast!" Hearing these words Seilan began to tug at the hand in his leg. After a few pulls he managed to get the hand out of his leg. He tried concentrating enough to change his body and heal it in the process like in his fight with Svetra, but it was to no avail. He was losing blood fast, and he needed to act faster still.

As he crawled and kicked to the Shade he could hear buzzing. With the vibration gone Voleria could move again, and sent bugs to eat away the chest of the Shade. Its was harder than it had to be considering the bugs had to work against Nano's spell. As he dragged himself closer he could see the shade move by fractions of an inch, and he willed himself to move faster. He got within a few feet of the Shade and stood upright as much as he could. Seilan pointed a sword straight for the very core of the Shade, and right before he could drive the sword into the heart of the monster he collapsed. The loss of blood had exhausted him and he neared death.

Core stood in disbelief. He watched as Voleria tried to attack the core of the Shade but to no avail. The bugs grew more and more independent as they kept in contact with the Shade and the bugs soon all refused to get near the Shade. The Shade started to fidget and and shutter out of the spell. Overpowering the source of energy for the spell. Core was all that was left, and ze was very scared. Core hardened zis skin, getting ready to fight the Shade. Ze was more scared than ze had ever been in zis life. But Core remembered the word of the elders.

-To always acknowledge my fear. If you fear, then you can see the danger something poses. Without fear, we may as well walk into certain death.-

"And the only way to be brave is to be be afraid." Core stood ready even though in zis heart of hearts Ze was terrified. The Shade soon broke free of the spell, and returned to its ever increasing frequency of vibrating.

"I guess now it's your turn to feel the wrath of a shade."