I have reached that conclusion before and after what I just did, it cemented and then dried said conclusion into my brain, making it close to impossible to get out of mind. I will have to ask this to Miranda but until then, moving on, I have another four of them right in front of me and now that I said that, I don’t need to do anything… Why, one might ask? Quite simple, as the one that is preparing the Shadow Ball is right behind them or in another perspective, these four Shadows are right in front of him. Since they don’t have an inkling to the same battle intelligence as the Crystal Knights, I think anyone can deduct what will happen next, right? Yep, they will be hit by the Shadow Ball as they are in front of it.
Blast! Dark Magic noises!
Who could have foreseen it? I wouldn’t… The Shadow Ball hit only one of them, the one that was in the middle and consequently right in front of me. That one of course was the one that suffered the most damage as not only it got hit directly by it, it also suffered the explosion that followed it. However, the other three didn’t come out unscathed at all, two of them were basically shoulder to shoulder, hitting each other as they run up towards me with a vicious look on their face, these two got pulverized into hundreds of pieces while the other one that was just a few short centimetres from the trio, the blast radius was more than big enough to hit him, getting half of his body blasted away, leaving his core exposed to the public. This one didn’t get defeated in that instant but, nothing that I can deal with, with a simple magic spell aimed at his core. As anyone can guess, since that Shadow powered up by quite a bit to send off the strongest Shadow Ball he could, he's now suffering the recoil from such action; however, it actually reached B- rank and that is why those three got instantly destroyed.
“Firebolt.”
Fire noises!
I’m as cold as I can be as I say this, as I end his miserable life with this simple spell, but one that is strong enough to defeat him. I pointed at him with my right index finger, aiming at the exposed core of the struggling Shadow. I have no clue what’s going through its head but, I do know that, we would've survived if I let him alone. His core has more than enough magic energy on it to fully recover to its glory form. This is also one of the reasons Shadows are such dangerous and feared entities. Fail to fully annihilate them and they will recover like nothing happened. One of the many reasons that anyone who fights a Shadow needs to make sure they are truly dead. Enough of this, with my index finger pointing at him, a small magic circle is formed in front of it, mere moments later I shoot towards his core a Firebolt, small as a marble but as deadly as a stab wound in the heart. As much as the spell allows it, not only did I reduced its size to the same as a marble, I also compressed as much magic as I could making this spell something quite deadly if I say so myself. The speed of it was comparable to my earlier Martial Arts skill and in a sense, as strong as the skill Tiger Paw but with only a fraction of a fraction of the dimension of it. It easily destroyed the core and it even left a hole in the ground exactly the same size as it had enough power behind it to force its way through the ground itself, leaving a small crater behind. With this, another four are down and if we count the previous ones, eight were defeated in a spam of exactly 20 seconds, just another seven to go.
“Hmm, are you coming or, do I have to go to you?”
And once again they are behaving completely differently than normal. They have no regard for life, throwing their desires to consume magic to top priority, even if they are walking towards death itself. Yet in this moment, what is supposed to be a normal situation for them, they are hesitant to act. They are not moving a single centimetre, snarling at me while some are simply growling instead. There is something stopping them from recklessly chasing behind their primal desires almost as if they have something more important than those desires. That’s impossible though, Shadows are extremely low intelligent beings and since The Demon Lord is nowhere to be seen, they are literally a walking disaster without any type of rational thought whatsoever. Moving only based on their desires, whims and instincts. There really is no logic behind their movements nor actions.
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“Once again I will have to leave this question to Miranda.”
Alright, moving on them. Since they are not coming to me, I will do the honour then. The one that threw the Shadow Ball “at me” is right in front of me and this time with a clear vision to me and path but, he’s not close enough for me to engage with him, at least physically. Then, the rest of them are neatly and equally divided in half, but only if I use the one in front of me as the middle point. I could end each side with a decent sized magic spell while the last one I would simply do the same as I did earlier, dash towards him and end it with a Martial Arts skill. The only problem that I’m having now is damage. Not to them of course but to the environment around them. I didn’t mention but, I have damaged this place with my previous A+ rank spells. I don’t know if it is because I used spells of that strength or if this area is not as protected as the first one that I was way back before. The Crystal Fortress used spells in the A rank realm and yet, no damage to the environment at all. This can be because the spells he used are not “effective” against everything that was created by the Crystal Whale or, it can be that anything lower than A rank won’t damage anything. Either way, I don’t want to cause too much unnecessary damage as I have no clue what can happen. Will the damage disappear over time? Or will it be permanent? Will it have any type of side effects in the areas that I will be in? Will it weaken the area because it, making it focus on recovering itself from the damage? Allowing for the Shadows to do more damage because of it? I might be stretching with these endless possibilities but they still are there. I’m more than unfamiliar with this place, I have to act and move carefully because of that-And they are moving towards me… They really are annoying me, you know?
“Welp, it seems I won’t be making a decision by myself then.”
In union, almost as if they planned of all the things, the seven Shadows run up to me and in a matter of a few seconds they get close enough to strike me. Or they would, if I wasn’t that much faster than any of them could ever hope to be.
“Martial Arts – Sonic Punch!”
Swiish! Bam!
Just like the first one was, this one is also close to the speed of sound, having that characteristic acute and loud sound to it as it brute forces through the resistance that the air creates towards moving objects. The one that I hit was another one that looked like a bear, it seems they don’t have much diversity around these parts, maybe they should do something about it? Whatever, I couldn’t care less if they all look the same or not, a Shadow is still a Shadow whatever they might look like and so, I have to defeat them just because of it. But just as I was doing my usual but quick yapping, one of them jumps towards me and this one does look differently…
Roar!
He looks something akin to a gorilla, a big one at that, easily double the size of one although its strength, it’s easily above two times. I could easily tank his attempt of stomping me down however, I will dodge him as once he hits the ground, a smoke cloud will follow it, covering both of us with it. I hope that is… Since there is a good chance that he won’t have enough strength to destroy the ground, I’m not so sure if dust will lift up once he hits it. Oh well, we will see.
Step! Ground noises!
It seems the goddess of luck is carefully watching this battle, taking my side at the same time as said dust was indeed lifted up, covering him and myself in the process, exactly what I wanted.
