Shadow Hybrid Part 2

         I swung at him when I got close enough, he ducked it and another sword similar to the one I ‘stole' from him appeared in his hand. He blocked as I swung down on him and pushed me off. I jumped back as he tried to slice my gut. He stood back up.
"How the hell are you still fighting?" he asked me.
"How did you stick around after I won the first one?" I responded.
"Ah, I see," he charged at me.
         I pushed his sword to the side as he tried to hit me, it threw him off balance. He fell onto his stomach and rolled onto his back, I prepared to run the same sword that went through my gut through his. I noticed something then, Drake looked like me. Albeit he was darker with red eyes that seemed to glow slightly, but otherwise it was like looking in a mirror. This caused me to hesitate; he took advantage of this and kicked my feet out from under me. Just as I fell on my back he quickly stood up and our positions were reversed. He held his sword at my neck.
"Looks like I win again," he said smiling at me.
"Why is it that you look like me?" I asked him.
"I do? I always have this appearance in this area," he looked down at himself then looked at me. "Well now that's interesting." He pulled his sword away and it vanished. He started to walk away.
"Aren't you going to finish it!?" I yelled at his back.
"I don't feel like it," he turned back towards me and smiled, but it was different then the other times he smiled somehow. "Besides, I kind of like you, you remind me of myself."
         He turned away and disappeared into a cloud of darkness, suddenly everything went bright again. I awoke on the forest floor; the sun was shinning in my eyes. I moved my hand to block it and looked around. I stood up and stretched, it felt rather awkward with my dead weight of a left arm hanging limply.
"So, he's always looked like that?" I said to myself.
"Hey, you're awake again," said a voice from behind me.
"Wah!" I jumped, I looked behind me, it was John. "Damn you scared the shit out of me."
"Oh, sorry. Well you're looking better," he smiled.
"What do you mean?" I asked
"Well, last night your whole body was as dark as your arm," he looked at it. "What did you mean by ‘I'm not Davis'?"
"Oh, well, I can't really explain it," I grabbed my arm. "Something just seems to take over me at night, ever since this happened to my arm."
"Like a demonic possession?"
"I suppose you could call it that."
"Hey, I'm no demon!" Drake said through me, shaking my left fist.
"What the, what's up with your voice?" John asked looking confused.
"Isn't it obvious?" Drake said. "It's different because Davis isn't the one speaking." I touched my throat, I'm never going to get used to that.
"Then who is speaking?" John asked sounding more curious than anything else.
"My name is Drake, and I saved your life last night."
"Not without incentive," I thought to him, I didn't think it would be a good idea to say it aloud.
"Oh, thanks for that, I guess you saved us both then. Wait, are you from here Drake?"
"Not this area, but I'm from this world."
"So you know where we are?"
"Yeah, you're in Felarya."
"Felarya huh?" I thought to myself. "Sounds fairytaleish to me."
"Speaking of which there are fairies in Felarya." Drake thought to me.
"Really?" I asked him.
"Yep, oh speak of the devil," I saw one fly from behind one tree to another. "Davis."
"What?"
"Run."
"What, why?" I asked him.
"Trust me on this, you don't want to stick around if a fairy's nearby," he responded.
"John!" I said aloud as I began to run in the opposite direction I saw the fairy. "We've got to run!"
"Why?" he started running alongside me. "What's the problem?"
"No idea," I answered truthfully. "I saw a fairy, Drake says it's dangerous. I figure better safe than sorry."
"Yeah, I've seen enough of this place to know not to take chances."
"So, what's the deal with fairies anyway?" I asked Drake in my head.
"They are dangerous and mischievous creatures with magical abilities, the most notable of which is their ability to change their own and their prey's size at will," he answered.
"What!?"
"Don't worry, thanks to me your body is resistant to magic. It can't shrink us."
"What about John?"
"Well, we're just going to need to take care of the fairy before she can catch him."
"You actually care?" I felt an odd tingling sensation for a second. "What was that?"
"That was her trying to shrink us, since that was unsuccessful she's probably going to grow."
"How big can she get?" The sun was blocked by something above us, I looked up. "Oh, that big, shit." "John," I said aloud. "We need to get some cover!"
"Huh, why?" he asked. He looked up, "Oh, holy shit what the hell is up with this place and giant creatures bent on catching us!?"
"Welcome to Felarya," Drake said through me. "There! There's a cave just over there!" he pointed with my arm.
         John and I ran as fast as we could towards the opening. The cave itself was inside of a natural rock wall, which meant she couldn't dig her way inside. As we got close I looked up at our pursuer, she was reaching for us! I grabbed John by the arm and threw him into the cave just before I dived inside myself. The fairy only managed to get the dirt we were standing on moments before. I realized something; John was on my left side when I threw him.
         I didn't have much time to think about this as the fairy started to reach inside the cave. We both got up and started running deeper in, a difficult task when it's nearly pitch black inside. The cave lit up a bit; she must have pulled her hand out. I looked behind us, she was shrinking! Damn, does she intend to follow us into the cave? We kept running in till it was impossible to see the cave walls, and even then we kept going in till we both tripped over a large rock. We sat against it and tried to catch our breath.
"Damn it, Drake what can we do to stop her?" I thought to him.
"Well, I know of a couple of ways to save us from a fairy," he responded.
"What are they?"
"Well, first there's option A: We kill her, then there's option B: We befriend her, which would greatly help in the long run, option C: We get away from her, and finally option D: We give her a sacrifice."
"Well option D is out of the question, and option C is proving to be difficult."
"So that leaves A and B."
"Well, how would we go about A?"
"My power resides in darkness, not night. So I'm ready whenever you are."
"You're actually asking first?"
"Well, the first two times, you kind of needed me for sure."
"You promise not to hurt John?"
"You promise not to hold me back?"
"Ok, go for it," the familiar numbing sensation spread over my body, this time in less than five seconds.
         I was able to see the cave perfectly now, there was someone else in the area with me and John! He was wearing a device on his eyes, presumably for seeing, and he had a net of sorts. A light in the distance was getting closer, the fairy was glowing. The man seemed to have the intent to catch her, as she got close he looked at me and put his finger to his lips. He was telling me to be quiet. When she got close enough to see me/Drake she got excited and zipped towards us, just as she passed where the man was he swung down with his odd looking net. Her light vanished, he actually got her!
"Maph fhe!?" I heard the fairies muffled voice yell.
"Yes! Got her," he said triumphantly.
"Isn't she just going to magic her way out?" Drake asked him.
"Nope," he pointed to the top of the net, which had closed around the fairy, I could see her struggles. "It's made out of special magic resistant material, she can't get out."
"Hey Davis, this is a good opportunity to get a very useful friend," Drake said inside my head.
"Option B then?" I asked him.
"Option B."
         Drake ran at the man with arm sword... thing at the ready. As he tried to stab the man his arm was blocked by what looked like a combat knife to me.
"Heh, thought you could get a surprise attack in didn't you?" the man asked. "You didn't think I noticed what you were?"
"What I am?" Drake said sounding puzzled.
"Yeah, you one of those damned residents of the darkness. You thought I wouldn't know you'd attack?"
"Whatever," Drake jumped back about ten feet and started charging at the man again.
         As we ran I noticed the man fiddling with a bag he had, he pulled what looked like a small spotlight out.
"Drake!" I thought to him
"I know!" he responded.
         Just as the man got the light on, Drake jumped up over him, grabbing the device on his eyes along the way. The man cursed and turned around, shining his light towards us. Drake was fast, we had sunk into the shadows again. This time, however, we stayed in the shadows instead of coming out of another one. My view kind of resembled looking at the surface of water when you're under it. We moved underneath the guy as he franticly shined his light around the cave unable to see without it now. I saw Drake reach up and pull the guy into wherever the hell we were, dropping the net and light on the surface on the way down. He screamed when his head went under, it was muffled. I had no idea Drake could do stuff like this. He threw the fairy hunter down deeper into the darkness, he faded from view. We resurfaced near the net.
"What the hell did you just do to him?" I asked Drake mentally.
"Sent him into a dark oblivion, why?" he responded as if it was something normal.
"Drake, you really scare me. You know that?"
"Whatever," the felling returned to my body, it was so sudden that I almost fell over.
"What the...?"
"What? Don't you want control back?"
"I didn't realize that you could give it back," I picked the still active light off the ground and walked over to the net. "Do you think she'll still try to eat us?"
"Only one way to find out, and if worst comes to worst there's always option D."
"Drake..."
"I'm kidding, kind of."
"Just be quiet," I opened the net, the fairy quickly flew out and hovered about six feet off the ground making her level with my face. "Hey you okay miss?"
"A little shaken up, but otherwise I'm fine," she flew around me in circles. "Why did you rescue me?"
"Well, I can't stand to see a lady in distress," I responded trying to keep my eyes on her as she flew.
"Aw, that's nice," she stopped in front of me.
"Now if you don't mind I have a favor to ask of you."
"Well, you can ask, but I promise nothing," she flew a little closer.
"Well," I backed up a little bit. "Could you please not eat me or my friend?"
"Your friend?" she looked around the cave.
"He's talking about me," John got up from behind the rock and walked towards us.
"You know John, it might have been wise to hide in till she gave an answer," I told him.
"It doesn't matter, if I wanted to I could have found him easy," she winked. "Anyway, I suppose I could find something else to eat, under a condition."
"A condition?" great, it's probably going to be something difficult. "What's the condition?" I asked.
"You have to let me adventure with you guys," she said with a smile.
"That's it?" I looked at John. "That sound ok to you?"
"Um, do we have a choice?" he asked me.
"Well, I guess we agree to your terms, but we're not really adventures."
"Being in this area of Felarya pretty much makes you adventures," she said as-a-matter-of-factly.
"Well then, now that that's settled, could you tell us your name?" I asked her.
"Sure, it's Sokia."
"So...kia?" What a weird name. "Well Sokia my name is Davis, and this is John," John waved.
"Oh, and I'm Drake," he waved with my left hand.
"Ah, a shadow dweller, I've never met one before, cool!" she said visibly excited.
"Shadow dweller huh?" I asked Drake in my head.
"I guess so," he replied.
"Okay, should we get going?" John asked.
"One problem with that John," Drake said to him.
"What's that?" he asked
"Which way is out?" I looked around with the light, there were 8 different tunnels going in different directions.
"Uh-oh."
"So, anybody have any idea which way is out?" I asked the group.
"I lost my sense of direction when I was caught, so I can't remember," Sokia said with a hint of sadness.
"Well, while we were busy trying to get away from Sokia here, all I thought about was running," John answered.
"Don't look at me. You know what I mean," Drake thought to me.
"Ok," I sighed. I turned my light to the rock we sat against. "Alright, lets go with opposite from that rock for now."
"Sounds like the most likely way we came," John agreed, Sokia didn't say anything but looked concerned.
"What's wrong?" I asked her.
"I don't know, something doesn't feel right," she responded.
"Yeah, I'm getting that feeling too," Drake said to me.
"Well, let us know if you figure it out. In till then, I say we try leaving," I said walking towards the tunnel opposite the rock.
"That may be a good idea," she said. I looked back at her, she hadn't moved yet. She glanced at us and quickly flew to catch up. "Hey, wait for me!"
         As we walked through the cave we came across several rooms similar to the one we were in, each with many different exits. It was like a maze. Since we didn't really ever turn I kept leading the group in a strait line, walking around the large rocks in the ‘rooms'. Wait every single ‘room' had a rock like the one we hid against, was it decretive, or something else? Having had this kind of thing happen before I did something to test it. The next ‘room' we entered I looked at the ground near the rock and stopped dead in my tracks.
"Well this isn't good," I said aloud.
"Yeah, this is bad," Drake said in my head.
"What is it?" John asked me.
"Look at this," I shinned the light at the ground near the rock.
"What the?" he looked at the ground.
"What's that?" Sokia asked hovering over John's shoulder.
"Your last name is also Davis?" he asked me.
"Yeah unfortunately," I responded.
"Ok, if we've never been in this room before, how did this get here?" he asked.
"And that my friend, is where the trouble lies," I picked my ID off the ground and returned it to my pocket.
"What, what's going on? I don't get it," Sokia said sounding upset.
"Well, I left that in the last one of these ‘rooms' we passed, since it's here and we never turned around it can only mean something is up," I explained.
"You mean this entire time we've been going nowhere?" she asked.
"Pretty much," John said before chucking a rock down one of the tunnels, it landed behind us.
"Now, the question is: Is it someone or something trying to achieve something, or is it just the properties of this cave?" I said.
"What does it matter?" John asked.
"Well, if it's the latter than there's a high chance there's a way out, if it's the former, well chances are they won't have left an escape route," I said to him.
"Well, how can we find this way out, I hate small spaces!" Sokia started flying fast in a strait line, leaving through one tunnel and coming out the other. As I watched this it gave me an idea.
"Well, if there is an exit, it will be the way that doesn't lead to this exact ‘room'," I said to them, Sokia stopped. "So if we have somebody walk into or throw something into each tunnel the one that doesn't lead back here should be the way out. We need at least one person to stay in here because there's a chance that even a ‘room' that's actually different may look the same."
"Sounds like a plan," John said before he picked the same rock up and threw it down a random tunnel, it didn't come back. "That was fast. I'll check it out," he walked though the tunnel. "Looks the same, but you guys aren't here, that's a start!" he called back.
         Sokia and I went through the tunnel, John was throwing the rock in random tunnels, and it kept coming back. When he threw it into the tunnel strait across from where we came from it came out of a random other tunnel instead of behind us.
"Now that's different, why did it-," he stopped when he looked at us. "Davis look behind you."
"What is it?" I looked behind me, the tunnel was gone! In its place was a wall with the roman numeral VIII on it. "Now that was unexpected."
"I guess every time we go through the right one, it seals up," he said. He chucked the rock at another tunnel; it didn't come out another one. "There we go." He walked through it. "Hey Davis, Sokia, you need to see this!"
         We walked through the tunnel; I was surprised to find a ‘room' different from the previous ones. It was covered with various leaves and vines; the ‘roof' was made up of branches that let the sunlight through illuminating the room. Instead of the rock there was a tree stump. I turned the light off, and checked the two doors we had been through, the first was sealed still and the last was as well; marked VIII and VII respectively.
"You think you could fly up through there?" I asked Sokia pointing to the braches.
"I don't know," she zipped up and tried ramming through the branches, it seemed to be the equivalent of hitting a wall as the branches didn't even so much as shake. Sokia clutched her head. "Ow! That hurt!!"
"Well so much for that idea," John threw the rock again, it didn't come back. "Next."
"Wait," I said to him.
"What is it?" he stopped.
"Let me check something," I looked around for something to throw, finding nothing I dug into my pockets looking for change. I pulled a quarter out and walked up to a different tunnel. Tossed it into the entrance, it didn't come back either.
"Well, they're probably not both the right way," John said.
"So, what does it mean?" Sokia asked.
"It means that there's a new rule in this room, and we don't know the consequence of a wrong choice," I explained.
"So, anybody got any ideas?" John asked with a hint of depression in his voice.
"Nope," we both responded in unison.
         All of us were sitting on the stump, it felt like hours had past since we entered this portion of the cave. It seemed like the light source wasn't the sun but something stationary, either that or it really hasn't been long. We decided to take a break and try to come up with an idea as to determine which way was correct. With only two of the doors passed through successfully I couldn't come up with a pattern that was trustworthy.
"Man, I'm getting hungry," John whined.
"Yeah, me too," Sokia said in response.
"Uh, Davis," Drake said to me privately.
"It's too confined here for her to grow to a reasonably threatening size, besides I think something is keeping her from growing," I thought to him.
"What makes you think that?"
"Well, don't you think she would have tried growing and smashing the walls already?"
"Still, being off-guard just because of that? Just because you helped her out doesn't mean you've earned her friendship already. If and when we get out of here she may turn on us."
"I don't think she would."
"What's your reasoning behind that?"
"Just a feeling."
"You're going to get us killed, you know that?"
"Regardless, we first need a way out of here, then we can worry about loyalty."
"I've got an idea! Although I don't think we have the supplies necessary..." John suddenly blurted out.
"Well, it's better than nothing. So what were you thinking of?" I asked.
"Well, I was thinking we could check each of the doors by throwing something attached to a string or something long that we could pull back from this room. Then we could decide what to do next biased on what happens to the thing," he explained.
"Not a bad idea, though what could we use?" I looked around; there were plenty of small branches, but nothing that could be used to pull them back. Wait, maybe I still had something on me that could be used! I fished through my pockets and actually found a roll of string. Oh yeah, we were doing something in science that day of school that required this. The convenient coincidence kind of made me feel uneasy. "Hey we could tie some branches to this and try your idea."
"You happened to have string?" John asked.
"Yeah, by lucky chance."
"There is no such thing as coincidence in this world," Drake suddenly said to me.
"What do you mean?" I thought back.
"I'm not sure, that sentence just popped into my head when I was thinking about the string you just happened to have in your pocket."
"Well, regardless," I got a couple branches and tied them together with the string, unraveling a decent length for throwing. "Well, let's see what happens." I chucked the bundle into one of the openings and felt the vibration of it landing through the string. I waited a bit and then pulled the string back. It flew back due to me pulling too hard, as there was nothing on the other end of the string.
"Did the knot become undone?" Sokia asked.
"No," I examined the end of the string, "it's burnt at the end."
"Well that can't be good," John said.
"Well let's try a different door and see if we get anything different," I said while gathering more branches. The next door was the same, as was the door after that. Then finally, on the fourth try, nothing happened to the branches. "Looks promising, but just in case," I tried the remaining two doors, both returned the burnt string end.
"Well, it looks like it's the fourth door we tried," John stated while walking into the opening. Shrugging I followed him, Sokia hovering just behind me. The next room was the same, and once again the door behind us sealed off, this time with VI on it. Using the same strategy we managed to find the next door, this time the room was different. It consisted of a center platform suspended on chains from the surrounding walls with bridges to each door, including the sealed ones. Below it seemed to be a pit leading into darkness, while in contrast above it lead into light which illuminated the room. What really caught my attention was the raised part of the center platform that replaced the stump.
"Oh, well what do you know, some company," said a guy sitting there looking at us.
         He was dressed all in black from what I could see; most of his body was covered by a trench coat. His hair was also black, jet black, too black to be normal, and his face was covered by most of it. I couldn't even see his eyes, but still I could tell he was examining us. He stood up suddenly and approached us.
"I'm...," he paused, "Tsubasa Hikari." He then extended a hand.
"Wow, that has got to be the most unconvincing alias I've ever heard," Drake said mentally to me.
"I'm Davis," ignoring the obvious that was stated by Drake, I introduced myself and shook Tsubasa's hand. "Pleased to meet you."
"I'm John," he also shook hands with him.
"Name's Sokia," she just waved, from about 12 meters away. Probably didn't trust the guy, it's not like he looked very trustworthy, if anything he looked kind of creepy.
"Well now that the formalities are over," Tsubasa walked back towards the center, "you can join me in sitting here for eternity. Unless you can actually figure this place out, and get through the last four rooms."
"How long have you actually been here?" I asked.
"Don't know, no real way of keeping track here, but I'd say at least a month," he replied as if it wasn't a big deal.
"What, a whole month!?" John asked sounding surprised, "I take it you had some supplies for a bit?"
"You could say that," I could just barely see a smile go across his mostly hidden face for a second.
"Anyway," I wanted to get back to the more pressing issue at hand, "we've got no supplies, so it's better if we get out quickly."
"Yeah, you're right," John agreed before talking to Tsubasa again, "So, what have you tried so far?"
"Originally there were more people with me, once we got this far a couple wanted to throw caution to the wind and just try doors."
"What was the result?" I asked.
"All four doors lead to another of this type of room, and, unlike the first set of rooms, these seem to just go on forever into repeating but different rooms. The open doors also randomize each room, so if you just go wandering through doors separately you'll probably never meet each other again. If I had to guess, I'd say you have to go through the correct doors from the starting room. It is difficult at best, impossible at worst, to start over after a failed attempt. At least, this is what I've gathered based on my experiences with this area," he said as if he rehearsed it.
"Say," I decided to check something, "how many different groups have tried to go through here while you've been stuck here?"
"I'd say about 12, not counting the group I was with, and yours. So far, nobody who's been through here has come up with an idea that convinced me enough to risk going through a door. Who knows? Maybe one of those 12 found the right way by chance, but I'm not taking that risk."
"If all of that is accurate, then determining the correct path is damn near impossible," I pointed out.
"Oh yeah, this might be relevant," Tsubasa pointed at the floor in the center.
         I walked over to see what he was pointing at, there was a design on the floor. An 8-pointed star, each point facing a door, it didn't stand out much.
"It could just be decorative," I looked at the already sealed doors, "or not."
"What is it?" John asked.
"Hold on, I'm checking something." Let's see, if the door marked VIII is there and VII is there and if VI is that one and V is... yeah, it works. "Well, I at least have a theory."
"Something to do with the star?" Tsubasa asked.
"Yeah, with the way the doors have been ordered up in till now, I'd say the next door is across from the one marked VIII."
"Ah, I see, so you think it could be ordered in the way you would connect eight evenly spaced out dots to make a star?" he asked.
"Yeah, that's my guess anyway." Assuming this cave is fair enough to give a chance to anyone wandering it, that's all I can come up with.
"It's the best idea I've heard so far," Tsubasa stood up, "I say we go for it."
"Anything's better than just sitting around doing nothing," John started walking towards the door opposite VIII.
"Well if everybody else is going," Sokia caught up with John, I shrugged and followed.
         We went through the next two rooms and arrived in the last room, all the doors had sealed except for one. The past two were the same as the one before it, but the last room was different. Unlike all the other rooms this one was not the same size, it was much larger, the distance to the door was pretty far. Thinking nothing of it, we just proceeded towards the door.
"You know something's going to happen before we get to that door right?" Drake asked me.
"Well, I can always hope nothing happens, after all this is reality. Unlike in forms of entertainment like stories and video games something doesn't have to happen. We could just make it to the door without a problem," I replied.
         As if on cue, the door sealed off suddenly before we were two thirds of the way there.
"Don't say a word Drake." Just then a rather loud and unsettling roar echoed through the room, that's when I noticed I couldn't see the ceiling.
"It couldn't be that easy could it?" Tsubasa asked rhetorically.
         Just then something large dropped from above, pretty damn close to us! Whatever it was it kicked up a lot of dust so I couldn't see properly. As I was trying to make out what had landed, something large came flying towards me through the dust cloud! I closed my eyes and braced for an impact, but nothing happened. I nervously reopened my eyes, the dust happened to be clearing up.
         First thing I saw was a large beast standing less than 4 meters away, and one of it's arms just above my head. That's probably what I saw coming at me, but what stopped it? I looked down and saw that Tsubasa was holding the meter thick arm back with just his right hand! He looked at me, and for the first time I saw his eyes, they were a deep crimson with vertical slit pupils.
"I'll take care of this one; I'll have to ask the other you to deal with that one." He pointed over across the room, where another giant beast was making its way over towards us!
         I quickly looked around, the room was illuminated by torches on the walls.
"Hey Sokia, think you could do something about those lights!?" I yelled to her.
"I'll try," she flew over to the nearest one and used the wind from her wings to blow it out, but after a second it relit. She tried a few more times, same result. "It looks like they're lit by magic; I can't seem to put it out!"
"Watch yourself Davis!" John yelled to me. When I looked over in the direction the thing was coming from I noticed it was already close enough and swinging at me!
"Damn it!" I rolled to the left and my arm quickly pushed off the ground, sending me up just out of the giant arms path.
"That's one more I owe you Drake." I thought to him.
"Hey, this is now my body too, don't think too much of it," he replied.
"Regardless, we have to figure out a way to change, I can't possibly beat this thing using only an arm I have no control of." During this private conversation we had dodged a few more attacks.
"Damn it, we can't keep this up forever!" I yelled aloud.
"Yo Davis!" I heard Tsubasa yell. When I looked over he was in mid air just before landing a drop kick to the things skull. He balanced on the beasts head, "Catch!" He threw something just before jumping off and dodging a swipe.
"What's that!?" Whatever he threw was flying towards me, and I could only make out that it was black. Just before it hit me my left arm caught it, "A stone?"
"It looks kind of familiar," Drake said to me.
"Break it with your left hand, just crush it!" Tsubasa yelled between dealing blows.
"Whatever," Drake responded before starting to squeeze.
         A crack appeared on the stone, just before it completely shattered into dust! Suddenly I lost all feeling in my body. Once again I became a spectator.
"Pay attention!" John yelled, my head looked over and I could see as if through a red window that beast swinging down at me. But this time my own arm stopped it.
"Heh, not as strong as you look eh?" Drake said with my mouth.
         He threw the arm away from us, with enough force that the thing started to lose it's footing! Just as it was falling back Drake had jumped into the air, I could see out of the corner of my vision that he had changed the shape of my arm again. This time though, it was a blade larger than the one he had used in our ‘battles'. The beast below had just regained it's balance and was starting to straiten up.
"This is the end!" Drake yelled just as we came down on it's neck. Despite not actually doing anything, I still felt a little cool.
"Nice one Drake," I thought to him.
"A little too nice, I've got nothing left," suddenly I regained control of my body and almost lost my balance. My left arm hung even more limp than usual.
"Not bad, not bad at all," Tsubasa was walking over; I could see the other thing dead behind him. "So, that's the power of a human shadow hybrid."
"You knew he was in me?" I asked.
"I could tell when I saw your left arm for the first time," he smiled.
"Well, if you don't mind me asking, what exactly are you?"
"That's a story for another time, right now lets leave while we can," he pointed over to the door. Fortunately it had reopened.
"What's the deal with that stone anyway?"
"Well, that was a..." suddenly a circle with strange symbols on it appeared around us! "Crap, it's a teleportation spell!"
"What!?" I managed to yell before the whole thing lit up and the room disappeared.
         Everything around us was replaced with a white void, aside from the circle below us. If it wasn't for the occasional flash of what looked like lightning and the feeling of rapid movement, it would seem as if nothing was happening.
"What the hell is going on!?" John yelled.
"It's a spell for moving solid objects from one point to another, which of course includes living things," Tsubasa explained. "I can tell it was set to activate after those things died, but I can't say where we'll end up."
"Hey," I noticed something, "Sokia isn't here!"
"She must have not been caught in the spell; regardless if she cares enough she has the ability to follow us. Right now I think we should worry about ourselves, and I don't think it's the best of ideas to end up where this spell was intended to put us." Tsubasa put his hand on the circle below us, "Brace yourselves, it's about to get unstable in here."
         Extending from the center point of Tsubasa's hand and quickly covering the original circle, a new one appeared. This one glowed red and looked almost nothing like the other one. He pushed his hand down a bit and the entire thing lit up a bright crimson. He started to mumble words so quickly that even if I could hear him I wouldn't be able to determine what he was saying.
"Try not to loose your balance," he said just before things went crazy.
         Suddenly the white around us turned into crimson, and the feeling of rapid movement was accompanied by sudden quakes. It felt like the entire thing was tearing itself apart, needless to say, keeping ones balance was immensely difficult. John was having just as much trouble by the looks of it, however Tsubasa just stood in the middle as if nothing was happening! Just who or what the hell is that guy?
"Just a little longer, it should break down soon," Tsubasa said to us, still standing there without a problem.
         Just as I was thinking I couldn't take much more of this, I heard a cracking noise. I looked around and saw a black crack running through a part of the red surroundings, I couldn't tell how big it was because I couldn't even tell how far away it was. Then more cracks appeared rapidly, spreading all around us, before long the entire thing shattered. Darkness enveloped the entire area and I lost sight of everybody else, the shaking around was also replaced by the feeling of skydiving without a parachute. Suddenly, I hit solid ground, and pretty hard too. The sound of a thud and a curse told me John had landed nearby. The darkness around me dispersed as if smoke blown away by the wind, and I was able to see. First thing I noticed was we were in a forest again, and it was night. The scenery was rather surreal, and for the first time I really got the feeling of not being on Earth anymore.
         Taking up a chunk of the sky a blood red moon shone eerily, bathing the entire place in a red light that gave the illusion of a forest stained in endless blood. Adding to the unsettling affect, other than the sounds we were making by moving, it was completely and utterly silent. Not one sound of anything living at all, and the air was still.
"Hey Drake, you there?" I tried to speak with him, but no response.
"Damn, that was a rough landing. Whoa, where the hell are we now?" John asked noticing the surroundings.
"Don't ask me," I replied. Looking around I noticed Tsubasa standing nearby, while me and John had only sat up. He probably landed perfectly. "Hey, do you have any idea where this place is?"
"No, I've never even heard of a place like this. I wonder, are we even in Felarya?" he looked around, "Hey, take a look at that," he pointed over the trees.
"Now that's something you don't see everyday," John said looking over, wouldn't everything we've seen over the past couple day's fit that? Regardless I took a look too.
"Huh, well that is interesting," over in the distance was a rather large looking castle covering the entire top of a mountain. How did I miss that? Well, it doesn't really matter, "So, who thinks it would be a good idea to go over there?"
"Well, I wouldn't say it was a ‘good' idea, but having a destination is always nice," Tsubasa stated his opinion.
"Better than just sitting around here," John said with a lesser of two evils tone.
"If that's the plan then let's get going, staying in the same place out in the open for long is never a wise choice," Tsubasa said before he started in the direction of the base of the mountain. John stood up and begun following him. Not wanting to be left behind, I quickly got on my feet and was about to follow when I saw a shadow move just within my field of vision. My left arm twitched a little.
"Huh, what was that?" I said under my breath as I turned to look at where I saw it.
"What's wrong?" John and Tsubasa had stopped and were looking at me.
"Oh?" I looked at them, then back towards where I was looking, "nothing." It must have been my imagination.
"I doubt that," suddenly Drakes voice entered my head.
"Ah, so your back," I thought quietly to him as I started walking. "That was a rather quick recovery."
"It's because of the lighting here, more importantly I think we should scan the area for what moved earlier."
"How exactly do we ‘scan' this area, while we can see pretty far out above the trees, among them visibility is limited."
"I would normally take complete control, but I still am weak from using up too much energy. It takes a lot to take control in a well lit area, let alone fight. I do have enough to lend you my eyes though."
         I suddenly closed my eyes by reflex, like if something was flying at my face. After a bit I opened them again to be greeted by the scenery looking even more red, and brighter. I noticed again something move just within my view, it still was a shadow, but this time I could tell it was literally a shadow itself. Watching it dart around outside my normal view I noticed it seemed to be circling us. Then, it seemed to notice that I was watching it and it stopped. After sitting still for a short while it darted straight at me!
"No you don't!" Drake yelled in my head just before my left hand came up and held the thing off.
"Oh, so the left arm's taken?" A new voice entered my head. The thing backed off, shot around to the right and behind me. As I turned around to keep track of it, it flew at my right arm.
"Damn it!" I yelled aloud as I jumped back in an attempt to avoid it, but it still hit my arm.
"If you don't mind I'll take right one."
         A familiar sensation filled my right arm, great now I probably have no control over either. Speaking of which, my left arm was viciously tearing at the thing.
"Go away damn it!" Drake yelled at the thing.
"Leave me alone, fine I'll just go where you can't pull me off." Suddenly it jumped from my arm to somewhere behind me. I felt something pierce just between my shoulder blades, well, at least I get to keep my arm.
"Damn, if he gets in it's going to be near impossible to expel him," Drake pointed out.
"I'm aware of that, after all I do have experience with this kind of thing," I reminded him.
"Oh, right."
"Not that I want to interrupt this interesting conversation but it's too late," the new voice suddenly stated.
         I blacked out all of a sudden. When my eyes opened again I was greeted by a familiar white area, this time though Drake stood beside me and the one opposite us was new. I couldn't quite make out his face, not that that really mattered at the moment.
"Well now, two against one? A little unfair don't you think?" he asked us.
"That's what you get for coming uninvited!" Drake yelled at him. Look who's talk..., eh, oh well.
"Whatever, let's just get this over and done with, I never enjoy it here," I said as I got my weapon of choice, a katana, out.
"Yeah, it's best if it's quickly," Drake pulled out his anything but practical sword.
"So, you intend to try and drive me out?" he started laughing, in a rather disturbing way.
"Let's go," Drake charged at him, I wasn't too far behind.
         He swung down at the still laughing creep, who managed to avoid it while moving as little as possible. He had stopped laughing at this point, and quickly dodged a few more swings before I caught up. I tried to swing at him horizontally since it would be harder to avoid, but all I hit was Drake's weapon which just hit the ‘ground'. The other guy had jumped out of the way; when both me and Drake looked up we discovered something a little startling.
         The guy had sprouted wings.
"Well, that was a little too close," he said hovering above us.
"And you were the one complaining about unfair advantages!" Drake yelled up to him.
"Well, they're ok if I'm using them." Not wanting to waste anymore time I tried jumping with all of my will to see how close I could get to him, I was a little surprised when I managed to get within striking distance.
         I took a swing at one of his wings, he let out a startled noise and just barely dodged it. Before he could get farther away I was able to grab one of his legs. He tried to kick me off with his free one, but I was swiping at it with my weapon.
"Let go damn it!" he yelled as he tried to shake me off.
"You'd like that wouldn't you? Fine then," I used his leg to fling myself closer to him. "Happy?" I used both of my legs to kick him right in his ribs, sending him towards the ‘ground'.
"Thanks for the pitch!" Drake had positioned himself where the guy was flying to, sword at the ready.
"Son of a...!" Drake swung right through his mid section just as I had also hit the ‘ground'. The now two pieces of the guy's body landed shortly thereafter.
"Well, that's pleasant," I said looking at it.
"Eh, what must be done, must be done," he lifted his sword onto his shoulder, "So, now what?"
         I was about to make a witty response, I think anyway, when I noticed the thing was coming back together.
"Uh, Drake, this could be a problem," I pointed at it.
"Not done yet?" he looked at it.
"You think it would be that easy?" he said getting up looking as if nothing had happened to him!
"It never is," both me and Drake sighed and said simultaneously.
"I was just playing before, but now I'm pissed," he suddenly moved right next to Drake and punched him in the face. It was too fast for Drake to even notice, let alone react, before he was flying back.
"God damn, bastard can hit hard." Drake slowly got up rubbing his face. Before he could even regain his bearings the guy had moved up to him almost instantly and hit him hard in the stomach. Drake dropped his sword and his head hung low.
"You think you can beat me at only half your strength?" He let Drake fall to the ‘ground', and then looked towards me. Shit.
"Damn it I can take you on by myself!" I yelled with no confidence whatsoever.
"Heh, too slow," he was already right next to me.