A Duel in the Dark

Remirg was dazing at the sunset when the notification finally appeared on the interface in front of him, marking an end to the countdown. Dusk had finally fallen over that little land of an island.

Remirg skipped a breath when he read it. The sun was finally reaching the meridian of the array of endless clouds stretching to infinity. It would not be long before the creatures started to appear.

Ensuring that the Prana rejuvenating potion was at its ready, easily accessible at any moment, Remirg took a deep breath, easing his heart rate, proliferating the flow of prana through and outside his body.

Killing all of his external momentum, he heightened his senses of vision and hearing by activating prana presence and removing any unnecessary sound coming from him. A complete defensive position.

He constantly kept reminding himself that this was not the Shadow dungeon and the creatures he had to fight had a very less likely chance to be Shadow entities, the formless, possessing no real body at all. Still, brainstorming wouldn't help him in this situation anyway. It was him and his guts. 

His flow of thoughts was abruptly interrupted by the advent of a very slight, though quite audible crack behind him. Following it was two other cracks, both on either direction of him. 

The situation had become shittier than expected. Fighting three opponents at once was something he was not used to at all. And as he swirled himself a hundred and eighty degrees to bring all three of the creatures into vision, the Simulator gave its final message before the fight.

[NIGHTLY CREATURES HAVE STARTED APPEARING! KILL FIVE OF THEM TO REGAIN ACCESS TO THE SECOND ROOM!

KILLING ALSO INCLUDES KNOCKING THEM OUT OF THE ISLAND!]

It was here where Mark Eisner played his very first card. The info was so subtle that it was undetectable that he had already helped the protagonist. The info regarding knocking the beings out of the island was unnecessary and need not to be sent.

Remirg had already grasped what he could from the notification. He got the last piece of information he needed confirmed. Falling from the island meant certain death.

But he had to care about that after he had cornered one of them. But it was he himself who was being cornered.

His mouth was already agape at the three gigantic figures which had apparated right on the furthest edges of the island. All three of them were gruesome humanoids about two meters in height. Their body was irregularly charred at places and possessed ten-inch horns arising from the base of the temple.

Though their physique was not very top notch, thanks to their zombified condition, their movements were somewhat agile, which Remirg could clearly notice as slight aberration in their feet. 

Remirg was already on his ready. 

Bending low on the ground, keeping the shifting, silent enemies into his vision, he let a stream of prana flow from his hands into the entirety of the surface area of the island. Thanks to his mage suit, which though looked awkward, amplified his weak prana to a magnitude such that he could easily perceive any movement within the confines of the island.

The simultaneous activation of prana presence, which had abruptly stopped due to the initial cracking sounds, showed him that the beings in front of him were undead after all. They had no magical core at all. Just an unorderly amassment of prana which just gave them the bare minimum energy to fight.

Their senses and emotions had already been chucked down the drain to the underworld. Looking at them, he felt the slightest sense of sympathy for then.

"Whoever endowed these deceased with prana shall pay. I will find him and kill him. In time."

Remirg was caught by surprise as one of them paced up its movement significantly. The three of them had noticed that there was an alive creature right on this island. Their target had already been set.

Remirg, prepared used the Basic possession spell Level 1, the only spell in his arsenal right now. 

"Shisu Kannas!" 

The speeding creature, which was already in the vicinity of a meter of him was greatly slowed down as Remirg pulled it down hard on the ground, effectively increasing the friction between it and the floor. 

Seeing the plight of its comrade, the other two rushed in. Their movements were becoming faster as time passed on. Remirg was having a hard time concentrating on their movements, as a good amount of prana was being used to simultaneously activate the spell and perceive prana in the ground.

It was becoming more and more laborious for him with each passing second. Sweat had started breaking out within fifteen minutes from the start of the fight. Remirg thought inwardly.

"This is bad. This is getting more and more complicated; I need to somehow knock them out of this island before they get any faster. Either they get killed or I get my ass kicked; and quite badly at that."

The creatures were closing in on him as he tried as hard as he could to push them back. They already had their clawed and mangled hands at ready, eager to pounce upon him and devour him.

His spell faltering, Remirg extracted the Prana rejuvenating potion from his inventory and chucked the contents right inside his throat. Though the vial vanished into thin air, the mystical liquid was already swirling down his esophagus.

The effect it provided was immediate.

Remirg could feel his life force surging again. His prana cap had been filled again up to the brim.

But he clearly knew this buff was also not going to last long. He had to take immediate actions, or all his advancements would be going down the toilet. If he ever had one.

Thinking of no other feasible way, Remirg Kryptos made his final decision. Though he felt remorse at not having mastered the Basic Possession Spell Level 2 by now, he somehow had to get out of this if he had to do that in the near future. He had to to this in order to get a future, at least.

Commanding the Simulator to do so, he summoned the Scythe from his inventory.

A loud "Boom" mysteriously echoed around the area even though there were no walls surrounding it. The scythe was now arising right through the very ground, emanating the same purple aura as before.

For some reason, the color of its prana looked legitimate and exclusive. It felt like the color really was depicting its power, even though the colors were not an innate capability of the user.

The loud sound sent an unusually strong shockwave around the island, knocking the creatures few feet in the air, sending them flying off. Disappointingly still, they were lying right on the island.

But what intrigued Remirg more was the reaction the scythe had given just now. It never did such a thing before. There really was something fishy going on here about which Remirg could ponder little about. The creatures had already gotten onto their feet.

Their expressions still blank and unfazed as if nothing of any particular importance had happened. Such was the plight of the undead. A stream of obnoxious liquid as thick as soy sauce was gushing right through their ruptured torsos.

The shockwave had given the creatures some very serious damage. Though it didn't to Remirg.

Nevertheless, grabbing the scythe right from its position, Remirg felt something he never felt before. A feeling of overpowering, of conquering.

His body involuntarily started glowing a bright purple as well, as the scythe's and his mana started to intertwine.

[CONGRATULATIONS! THE PLAYER HAS SUCCESSFULLY UNLOCKED THE INNATE CAPABILITY OF THE SCYTHE OF A SHADOW SOLDIER!]