Chapter 29

"Good luck! Try not to become charcoal during the fight!" Shadow cheered.

"I won't!" He left and Shadow joined Solaris by the window.

"I see you've made a new friend." he said after a moment.

"I guess you could say that."

"Looking forward to the fight?"

"More than anything."

"Me too." Silence. They didn't speak another word and silently watched the fight. Eclipse was fighting Scaldris in a volcanic type arena. The fight, like most of the others, was over before long. Eclipse didn't stand a chance. He came back, charred to the bone. Shadow ran over to greet him.

"I thought you weren't going to be charcoal?" he teased.

"Oh, shut up. She was tougher than she looked." Despite his angry tone, he wore a smile on his face.

"Ha! And you wanted to fight Solaris instead." Shadow giggled.

"What are you laughing about? Aren't all the squad captains about the same level?" Eclipse retorted.

"You mean you can't tell?" Shadow looked surprised. "Don't you feel how vastly different their magic levels are? Solaris' magic power is so strong I can't feel anyone else's magic but my own."

"You can do that?"

"The more magic you possess, the more sensitive to magic you are." Eclipse closed his eyes for a moment.

"So how many pairs do you need to accurately tell magic levels apart from one another?"

"Three pairs, I think."

"That's not as many as I expected."

"You aren't going to ask how I know?"

"I'm not stupid."

"I guess I shouldn't have compared you to the... lesser minds around here." Shadow glanced at Emperion and Silver. "Some people just can't figure it out until they're told and it seems I've surrounded myself with too many of them." he explained, lowering his voice. Eclipse chuckled.

"Are you saying bad things about me?" Emperion called from the glass window.

"You don't know what you're talking about." Shadow called back. Emperion just gave a weird face and turned back to the current match. Shadow pointed at Emperion with his thumb. "See?" Eclipse nodded in agreement. The remaining people before Shadow finished their matches, and soon, it was his turn. He took a deep breath and started towards the door when he saw Emperion cast him a worried glance. Shadow gave him a reassuring smile in return before leaving for the arena. It was a desert setting. Broken buildings and ruins littered the huge room along with strange towers. Sand covered the floor and a fake wind blew through the houses.

"These are the rules of the match." Silver's voice sounded over a speaker. "It's a one on one match against two demons of varying rank. All kinds of attacks and spells are permitted as long as they won't kill your opponent and the match ends when either person admits defeat or is knocked unconscious. Nothing you do will be called cheating or foul play, so fight as you wish as much as you want." Once he finished, the buzzer sounded. The moment he could, Shadow unfolded two pairs of wings and teleported himself to the top of the nearest pillar. It was square shaped and just wide enough for him to crouch on top of. He closed his eyes and focused on the immense amount of magical energy flowing off Solaris when it was suddenly cut off. Confused, he continued to search but to no avail. Curious, he focused on his own magical energy. It was seeping out of his body all over the place. He tried forcing it to stay inside his body, but he couldn't maintain it. He eventually gave up and started to survey the area. Solaris was nowhere to be found. Shadow jumped down from his post, sticking close to the side of the pillar, and landed softly in the sand beneath him with a small pwoof of dust. He looked back and forth. There were houses with broken roofs and walls with windowless frames. No sign of Solaris. His absence made Shadow nervous but he kept himself calm. He remained sharp as he slowly slid across the floor and slid next to the building on his right. He slowly crept along the wall, keeping his back flat against the tan stone. He looked around, sniffed the air, listened for the sound of anything besides his racing heart beat. A shiver ran down his spine and he instantly jumped away from the wall, just barely avoiding Solaris' daggers.

"You have good instincts." Solaris raised his dagger. Its hilt was simple, wrapped in dark magenta ribbons. The tip of the hilt looked like a spherical yellow spear head. The guard was wavey and colored deep magenta lined in gold. A bronze sun symbol connected the guard to the blade. The blade itself had an upward curve to it and was well worn down. It had aesthetic holes cut out of the edges of the blade, one on each side of the blade, that made it look like it could shred anything.

"You went straight for the neck, no hesitation. You sure aren't afraid to seriously hurt me." Shadow observed. He smiled nervously, rubbing his neck over his scar. Solaris took a step forward and Shadow dashed off. He looked back, Solaris wasn't following. He hopped inside another building to catch his breath.

"Ok, he has lots of battle experience, definitely skilled with daggers and can erase himself from all six senses." Shadow muttered to himself. "He didn't hesitate to attack my vitals and probably won't in the future. So I have to be extra careful. He's pretty fast and his swings are pretty powerful. It would be best if I had a weapon of my own." A whiz sounded out of nowhere and Shadow threw his head back in an instant. A throwing needle pierced the wall right behind his head leaving no cracks around it. Shadow quickly ran back out of the building. When he looked back, Solaris was hot on his tail.

"Ok, he can throw needles too." Shadow created a long staff and spun in a tight circle. He used it to block the next needle that came his way and then tried to sweep the ground underneath Solaris. He jumped above it and Shadow turned to use the other end to attack again. Solaris ducked under it and kicked it out of Shadow's hands.

"Do you really know how to use a staff?"

"Nope." Solaris pulled out his second dagger and swiped at Shadow. Shadow pulled his sword out of his void storage and blocked the attack.

"A sword. Do you actually know how to use this one?" Solaris inquired.

"I know enough to keep me alive in a fight." Shadow smiled. They hopped away and held still. Shadow let go of his sword and threw his hands to the ground, activating a quicksand spell in a split second. Solaris' feet begin to sink into the ground as Shadow caught his sword mid air and charged at him. Instantly, Solaris fell knees deep in sand as Shadow lunged forward, aiming his sword for Solaris' heart. Solaris sheathed his daggers and used his wings to jump out of the sand and above the sword, doing the splits in mid-air and pushing Shadow's sword down to throw off the trajectory.

"You don't hesitate either! What if you had actually killed me?" Solaris whined sarcastically.

"Strange. I never took you for the talkative type." Solaris landed at the tip of the sword. He then grabbed it and pulled. Shadow used the motion from the pull to swing his left hand forward and attack with a dagger of his own, also taken out of his void storage. He slashed down on Solaris' face, leaving a scratch in the silver mask before Solaris dodged. Shadow followed the attack by slipping his sword out of Solaris' hand and hopping away. Solaris took out his daggers again and held them ready. They held still, as if frozen in time. Suddenly, they charged at each other, attacking, blocking and dodging each other's attacks. Shadow's smile widened and a glimmer of joy sparkled in Solaris' eyes.

"How does he... how do they move like that? It's insane!" Emperion exclaimed as he watched with Eclipse, who was just as awe struck.

"I've never seen anything like this either. It's like they're monsters." He suddenly felt a chill down his spine. He swallowed hard and put on a nervous smile. "And I was one word away from fighting one of those monsters" he shivered.

"Yeah, you almost messed up big time. Solaris won't hesitate to kill anyone who doesn't live up to his standards. We lose a candidate for the DAF squads every year, thanks to him." Silver joined in. He had a wicked yet concerned look on his face as he watched the fight. "I think Shadow has a good chance of winning and keeping his life. Although, Solaris has a reputation of always killing his victims, so I don't know if he'll make it. His honor will be shattered to pieces if he loses, since he's the Candidate Crusher, as we like to call him sometimes, so he has even more of a reason to- woah, what's wrong with your faces!" Eclipse had a horrified look of astonishment on his face while Emperion was straining to keep a calm impression on.

"I-It's nothing!" Emperion insisted through gritted teeth.

"Dude! You just said that Solaris was probably going to kill Shadow! How are we supposed to react?" Eclipse burst, throwing his hands down to display his alarm and confusion. Silver opened his mouth to retort when he paused. Eclipse raised an eyebrow.

"That's actually a good point." Eclipse facepalmed before turning back to the fight. The dust around Shadow and Solaris began to build up and block their view. Back on the battlefield, Shadow was in a rush of adrenaline. His heart was pounding and his whole body screamed for rest but he was too excited to stop. His hands moved like lightning against Solaris' own quick movements. Amidst the dust built up from the sand, he could make out Solaris' amber eyes. He could sense the disturbance in the dust and predict his movements. Even if he erased his scent, his sound, his entire essence, he can't erase the prints he puts on the ground as he walks or the shifts in the air as he breathes. With his heightened senses in his battle state, Shadow could detect the slightest difference in the air, the ground, the flow of magic that surrounded them. After a series of continuous blows, Solaris retreated into the dust cloud around them. Shadow quickly swapped his sword with his dagger just as Solaris came charging from behind. Shadow turned swiftly around and brought his sword up with his left hand, catching Solaris off guard. The blade caught the bottom of his mask, nicking the bottom. The swing missed his chin but managed to throw Solaris' mask off his face. They both froze. Solaris had his daggers ready and Shadow still had his sword raised. The dust still swirled around them like a storm. Shadow finally got a good look at Solaris' face. It was covered in scars left and right. The most distinct were the three crossing vertically over his left eye and the one on his right cheek. His eyes were a bright yellow and his pupils were red. His silver hair was messy, drawn back into a tight ponytail. The mane he had seen before came from the mask. After a pause that seemed to last an eternity, Solaris straightened up and picked up his fallen mask, putting it back on as if it was never gone. Through the mask, the yellow and red of his eyes mixed together to create a beautiful amber. Shadow lowered his sword and loosened his stance, his adrenaline dissipating. Solaris' face was a sad sight to see and Shadow felt like he had an understanding with him. Solaris turned back to Shadow and saw the compassion filling his gaze. He was not scared or horrified but simply sad. But through his sad look, he smiled. It was a sad smile, but a sympathetic one full of courage. Solaris blinked his appreciation and got back into a ready stance with his daggers. Shadow slapped his cheeks to bring himself back to the present and got his sword and dagger ready. No words were spoken during their brief exchange, but strangely enough, everything needed was said, and without a word, they continued.