I am... Your end.

Carson had once again spent his time between fights doing battle with his clone. Recently he had somewhat managed to combine his attack and defensive maneuvers to provide more of an equalized fighting style rather than the either solely defensive or solely offensive.

When he had finished the battle, and ranked at the top of the unblessed, they had given him an option. Would he be willing to fight in the blessed rank or would he not.

Carson, had obviously chosen yes, and now he was forced to go into training before he could fight them.

He headed out of his room with the guards escorting him, and after a long time of wandering, seemingly at random, they entered a large plaza. It was lit only by sunlight and had an open roof, since of course there were no lightbulbs or electricity in this primitive world.

There were series of weights and weapons lining the walls, and were many fighting rings in the center. Carson walked to the nearest weapon rack, and grabbed a spear off of it. He then proceeded to slam the head on the hard stone floor until it broke off.

"What are you doing, prisoner!" The guard shouted while approaching him, trying to rip the 'spear' out of his hands. Carson just shrugged the man off, he had improved by leaps and bounds while he had trained, and it made dealing with such small fries easy. He stepped up to the nearest platform for duels. The young man had started his 'shadow boxing' with his clone, impressing every other gladiator and warrior in the training facility, even the blessed ones.

Several had challenged him during this time, most had been crushed in seconds without even landing a hit, but even so, many kept on trying.

The room went silent as Carson heard loud footsteps entering from the door opposite the one he came in. Grimlock was just as tall and muscular in stature as he had been when the young man had seen him on the battlefield, but this time, he wasn't dragging along his massive mace. Instead, the terrifying weapon that had impaled him was about the size of a golf ball on a string, and yet looked just as heavy.

The giant's training was scary just to be in the vicinity of, he had been throwing the heaviest weights in the plaza around like they were nothing for the last couple hours, and seemed like he wouldn't stop anytime soon. Carson had wanted to challenge the man again once he saw the centurion, but with the display he had just shown, the young man had quickly dispelled that thought from his mind.

There was the occasional individual to try and strike up a conversation with the young man, but most were quickly shoo-ed away by his blunt and stark replies. He was trying to get into perfect condition for the fight of his life, and it wouldn't be long before- "Hey kid! Your time for training is up, you fight in 10 minuets."

Carson looked at the guard with suspicion as he saw the dark sky above. "But it's dark out... "

The guard didn't answer him only saying that he was in the blessed ranks now, and he'd have a lot of situations like that, before dragging the young man away from the training area

----------

Carson walked himself into the darkened arena, it was the opposite of how it had been during his first couple fights, and it was quite uncomfortable. He wasn't in the unblessed tournament anymore so he was now fighting in a larger, much sturdier-seeming coliseum. There were countless people watching the fight, and their cheering and screams reverberated throughout the stadium as he walked in.

"On the challenger side we have our unblessed champ, The Butcher!" The announcer introduced him with a name that Carson had never heard before, but he had an idea as to why he got it with how many animals he had been forced to kill. "And his opponent - the last ranked - Shade! Let the battle begin!"

The iron gate behind him slammed shut as the young warrior searched for his opponent, but it was fruitless. The deep black arena was seemingly empty except for him, and the silent bubble that was erected around the coliseum only made things more unsettling-

Carson felt the air pressure next to his face change slightly, and he dodged. "No fucking way! Is this fucker invisible?" The metal dagger that was next to his face retracted and he got a look at the holder of it.

The man - Shade - was as dark as the arena around them, and was covered in a veil of shadows. He disappeared into the black once again, and Carson looked out in horror as he lost track of the man once more. This time, he felt a sharp pain in his back, and saw the blade of a sword sticking out of the armor on his front. The blade pulled out and left blood gushing out of Carson.

"You can't win, boy. In this domain I'm invincible!" He felt a voice whisper from around him. Carson closed his eyes and focused on his hearing. A blade clinked to his left - dodge. Behind him - dodge. From below - parry.

'If he is the last place, there has to be a reason. I cant see anyone being able to win against this if not...' The young man dodged more strikes, splitting his mind to think of the solution. 'Oh Yeah!'

Carson ran, sliding along the hard ground trying to bait another overhead attack. It worked, and the young man rolled out of the way. 'If he's strong enough to pierce two layers of my armor then the ground should be...'

Crack!

The shadow pulled his mace out of the ground as Carson wondered where he got so many weapons from. He pulled a rock and some sand into his palm and started running in circles.

The shadow looked at his opponent in confusion, appearing before him with another attack while he was distracted. It connected and the young man looked at him in pain as a deep gash was cut in his arm. It didn't seem to faze him however as he kept running around on his hands and knees.

The boy seemed to have given up from the shadow's perspective, and was now scurrying around in fear. He crawled into the pit that Shade had carved into the ground, and the shadow decided to stop playing with the boy and to just end him. 

Carson saw the mace appear out of thin air and smiled in satisfaction. He rolled onto his back, throwing the sand that he had held in his hand. The rock was slammed onto the ground soon after, a spark lit the area as light from the now glowing rock reflected around the countless particles in the air.

"Ahhhhh!" inaudible screams resounded from the stands as the light stabbed into their eyes. But Carson still heard them, all from the man before him. He fell on his back, and the shadows that had covered him seemed to wilt under the intense light.

Carson swung out in an attempt to end the fight there. His staff sped down at Shades head, but it never collided. 

The shadow rolled to the side and left Carson defenseless in his attack. The man pulled his longsword out of the many loops on his belt, it was still dripping with the young man's blood.

The warrior saw the incoming attack and tried to dodge, but it cut a deep gash cut on his cheek. It was a fair fight now that his opponent didn't have his Echo, and Carson was going to take full advantage of it.

He swung out - Crack. Another - Crack. Another - Crack.

His opponent was bloodied, the weapons he had held now fell out of his broken hands, and the expression of confidence he once wore was now crippled in a fit of unbridled fear. "What... What are you!" the collapsed figure croaked out.

"I am..." Carson swung down at the crippled figure below him, his staff moving so fast that one could swear they heard its sonic boom. The body's head disappeared into a fine mist, even the bones turning to dust upon impact. "Your end." 

A deep crimson tome appeared in the victor's hands and a black whisp drifted out of the corpse's now shattered soul and into Carson's. The young man felt stronger, and his broken body started to repair itself upon the introduction of his first Echo. It felt quite like when he had to absorb the crystal to resuscitate from his death, only to a drastically lesser degree.

The wounds that had littered his body from the fight closed slowly, only leaving shallow red marks where there were previously life threatening injuries.

He felt himself bend into the shadows as the surrounding light began to dim. The world becoming viewable as if he was in a fourth dimension. He moved - and any shadow around him heeded his command. The world bent through the extra dimension, and he moved instantaneously between the two shadows. Any that touched him heeded his will, morphing and peeling off of the ground to come to his aide.

He felt the name of the Echo burn itself into his mind.

Shadow Bending.

He looked at the magnificent crimson tome, its ornamented surface somehow glittering in the dark. The outside of the thin pages plastered with a layering of gold leaf, and he felt the tome want to pull its knowledge directly into his mind.

He felt what was on it's cover imprint into his soul.

Blood weaponry.