Chapter 2: A Shadow

Jackson woke up with a splitting headache, the smell of blood filled his nose and one of his eyes was swollen and sensitive. Jackson went to push himself off the ground when pain shot through his right arm. Jackson couldn't really see much in the dark space, he could only just make out his hands when suddenly two torches at the end of the room burst into flames. The light dim and unwelcoming. Jackson looked down at himself as he stood up slowly. He was head to toe covered in dust. His head had a mix of blood and dust on one side with a massive knot where he hit his head. Jackson could feel warm blood running down his arm still. Jackson looked around and saw the wolf had been impaled by a shard of wood. It laid lifeless to one side of the rubble pile. The two torch's burned but no sound came from them nor did it fill the room with the smell of smoke, between the two torch's sat a large stone throne. Jackson walked closer, his eyes still Blurry from the head injury. The throne was made of one single piece of dark black stone, it felt as if it was pulling Jackson closer as he walked towards it. When Jackson was close enough he could see a skeleton sitting on the throne, its hollow eyes staring into Jackson. Jackson felt as if the skeleton was looking into his own soul, the gaze was piercing and made Jackson uncomfortable. Jackson blinked and swore he saw a flash of blue light in the sockets but the skeleton remained still and daunting. Jackson shook physically and walked forward placing his hand on the throne for support. Jackson looked up at the torches but felt no heat from them, suddenly Jackson felt something slide onto his hand. Jackson slowly looked down at the hand resting on the throne. A snake that was no bigger then a finger slithered onto his hand and stared at him. The snake was entirely silver, it's eyes stared at the stunned Jackson. It's silver tong flicked out of its mouth before it moved towards Jackson's fingers. Suddenly the snake shrank down and wrapped around Jackson's finger slowly turning into a ring. Jackson's heart was pounding, his heartbeat deafening in his ears. Jackson didn't dare to move, staring at the snake like ring wondering if it would bite him if he moved. The sound of clattering armor broke Jackson's stillness. Jackson turned and looked back at the room, nothing seemed to have moved at first, everything was still a blurry mess. Jackson noticed a flickering movement near him like a flame. Jackson took a step forward, and reached for the movement when he felt a warm sensation shoot through his entire body. The sensation slowly started to grow, Jackson noticed his vision was slowly coming back. The pain in his arm started to dull away. Kneeling in front of Jackson was a suit of armor. The armor was beautifully designed, with detailed work on both the helmet and chest, a insignia Jackson had never seen before was born on the shoulder plate. Jackson stared at the pitch black darkness of the helmet eye slits when suddenly blue flames that acted similar to eyes exploded from the darkness. The armor stood up and turned to face Jackson.

A cold voice filled Jackson's head.

"You have taken the King's inheritance. I was trusted with helping you. I am your first soul beast. A shadow knight."

Jackson stared at the night completely dumbfounded.

"That shouldn't be possible, a shadow knight is a tier four creature, most adventures would avoid fighting one. I don't even have a soul strength above ten, let alone four hundred, how is that even possible." Jackson said aloud not really expecting an answer.

"I sealed most of my strength but it's done because I chose to become your soul beast, a mutual contract allows casters to bind with higher level creatures. You are indeed weak but that is because your body is different than most. Summoning and shadow together are extremely rare attributes but the biggest thing is the change to one's body, you only get stronger if you are in combat. Your soul doesn't gain strength like normal people do from just using their abilities or attributes."

Jackson sat down on the steps below the throne trying to process the information that he was getting.

"If you still have trouble, check within your soul yourself." The knight said as he placed sword into the stone at his feet.

Jackson closed his eyes and searched his own soul. He found the dark flame floating around in his soul sea just like his father had told him it would be like. Suddenly skills filled his head, three separate skills. Jackson inhaled sharply and was forced back to reality from the overload of information.

"The three skills, I'll teach them to you over time. In reality you have closer to six skills but three of them belong to me. The first skill I'll teach you is Soul shadows." The knight walked over to the dead wolf and pointed above its head. Suddenly a light green flame appeared above its head.

"This is the creatures beast soul, most people would use this to form contracts and you will as well later but skill has a different ability, it allows you to use the creatures form as a shadow soldier. Meaning I can ether appear before you as a knight or as this wolf after

You use the skill."

Jackson walked over and stared at the green flame.

"How do I even do that."

"Simply extend your hand but instead of drawing the flame in, extend the shadow out from within you."

Jackson stared at the knight not sure if it knew that what it said didn't actually sound that easy.

Jackson shrugged and stuck his hand out. He felt a pull in his gut as a black smoke extended from his hands and enveloppe the green flame, after a few minutes the flame black. Jackson started to pull back the shadows when the flame followed and vanished with them.

"What happened?"

The knight stood silently, Jackson stared at him waiting for a response.

"Good, you did well. Your skill is to corrupt souls in a way. You replace the attributes of the soul with shadows but it doesn't create a new soul creature. It merely allows your current shadow creature to take the form of the corrupted. It's more like copying then destroying." The knight said as a dark column of shadows enveloped him.

A large black wolf stepped out of the column ans stood still.

"See now I'm able to take the form of a knight or a wolf. I also gain shadow variants of its abilities but this wolf didn't have any." Jackson stared at the wolf before nodding slowly. This was happening to fast to process.

"You should collect the materials from the wolf. Something might be of use."

Jackson nodded and butchered the dead wolf, collecting is monster core and pelt. Jackson looked around the room for a way out when the shadow wolf sat promplety near some roots.

" the way out is through here." The cold knight's voice echoed through his head.

Jackson walked over and pushed some roots out of the way to see some night sky at the end of a tunnel. Jackson began to crawl out into the night sky.