Chapter 2 Part 5: Dagger's Escape

As I come to, I find a giant burnt hole where the wall to my room is. It's roughly 2 or 3 in the morning, guessing from the moon's position and just as dark it is. I have an intense ringing in my ear from the explosion I caused.

The first thing to come to mind was the shadowy figure that I saw, and immediately before I could question if what I saw was actually there, I heard a loud projecting voice yelling *PIRATE ATTACK* *PIRATE ATTACK AT THE COVE* over and over again.

I slowly picked myself up and saw the lady friend from a while ago. Honestly, I can't remember her name off the top of my head, but she's running over to me frantically and picking me up, asking if I'm okay before noticing a trail of blood running down the corner of my head. She yells loudly how am I bleeding and yet finds no wounds anywhere.

I tried to explain someone attacked me before. Saying it's not mine! It's— and before I finish my statement, I see the shadowy figure emerge from the ground floor like a shadowy plasma forming a humanoid figure right behind the lady.

I scream to watch out as he brings the dagger back down, but his entire right arm is burned, and the cloak he had is gone. If it wasn't pitch black, I might be able to get a better view of who it was. She tries to turn around quickly but braces for the worst.

As the blade inches from her black, I heard Cliff in the distance scream, "Holy Teleportation Watergate," and in an instant, what seemed faster than light, we were enveloped in a sphere of water and popped out about 30 feet away from the hooded figure. The fire to the house made it just bright enough, along with the glowing Soul Incantation, to see Cliff had swapped places with us and had met the blade of the mysterious figure with his own Lance.

Cliff: Alek was right to ask me to stay behind and watch over the house. Leave it to pirates to hire scum to attack a child! I thrush my spear sending him flying back into the shadows as the fire continues to burn lightly along the back of the cobbled brick house, slowly going out on its own due to the water surrounding it.

Thinking to myself, how did this stranger even slip in? All the doors were closed and locked. Not to mention when I clashed with him, it felt weightless. Don't say this is a shadow user?!

In that instant, my thoughts were interrupted as the fire went out completely, and it was instead pitch black aside from the lights far in the distance. At that moment, as if the ground turning to liquid, multiple blades shot out of the ground toward me.

Dodging with inch-to-inch precision leaving my clothes tattered with sliced-up marks.

The voice speaks out, and 3 shadowy figures emerge from the ground wielding shadowy daggers with purple tips. It's not wise to interview in matters that do not concern you, Cliff! Leave now, and I won't have to leave you in a pool of your own blood.

Well, now that does sound like a conflict-of-interest stranger. I can't just allow you to start killing children now. Thinking to myself, what kind of spirit element could allow such an ability to exist.

Two shadowy figures dash towards me while the third one loudly yells. " Darkness Prison!" and in an instant, a glass-like dome of pure black surrounds us. Articius and Modesta are together, so they should be fine. I just need to handle these (2), and I will be able to assist them.

I yell out, " Holy Lance of light," Embodying my Spear in a gold water glow helping predict where they will strike as they both come from both angles, im able to slightly predict each attack and counter.

Im slowly running out of Energy and need to end this quickly with these two. In an instant, I lose my footing creating an opening, and both the shadows converge, ready to split me in half.

Smirking slightly, I quickly grab my Spear and split it in half as if duel wielding two swords, using one to throw myself into the air by plunging it into the soft ground, and before the two shadows can hide again,

I slash their torsos at the same time with the second half of my Spear before it reforms back into its full version. To my surprise, after slashing them, they slowly started to turn into dust before smiling, and they both exploded, releasing hundreds of spikes.

I go to dodge and parry them, but 2-3 stab me in the shoulder, and before I can react, the 3rd shadow reappears and puts a yellow talisman on my back. I create a water sphere around me to avoid being stabbed, and in an instant, im shocked with what feels like hundreds of volts of electricity.

My Spear drops to the ground and shatters into a sheet of light before becoming nothing, and I drop along with it as the pain almost knocks me out. The last shadowy figure stands over me with a long dagger cloaked in a purply shadow.

I warned you to stay out of my way, Cliff; I must submit to the grand priest and eliminate any threats! As he goes to plunge the knife into me, a fireball streaks across, forcing the shadow to back up. More interference! Showing visible anger, he rushes Modesta and Articius, and at that moment, She releases an Ice / Lighting attack from her book that seems to just phase through him.

As she tries to launch another attack that appears to be from all five elements, another shadowy figure surfaces from the ground, stabbing her in the leg and throwing her to the side.

Finally, the shadowy figure surrounds Articius, and they all form one solid character who picks him up by the shirt. Holding a blade to his neck, suddenly I scream out, now Articius, and just like I expected, he claps his hands together, surrounds himself in water, and disappears in the blink of an eye.