Omniversal Tournament: Just a Little Darker

"Welcome! Gods, Goddesses, deities, and other omnipotent beings, sup truck-Kun, car-Kun, Train-Sama, how you guys doing?" A man in a golden cape sold to an audience of powerful beings.

It was time for the first annual Omniversal tournament, one where 12 of these beings would get a chance to promote their status.

They did this by picking a champion and granting them a power, before throwing them in a random world of their choosing.

"First, everyone, please check under your chairs, the twelve with the golden stamp have been given this chance!"

12 beings walked forward to the giant pillar after confirming that they had the golden stamp under their chair.

"Ok now... please pick your poison... good luck and enjoy the show for those who weren't picked!" The man vanished as the beings looked at the 12 enormous screens that showed 12 different people…

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"Where am I?" I quickly shifted my body upwards, immediately looking at my surroundings to find the answer to my question.

A forest... a forest was the first thing that came to sight upon looking around.

Did I get kidnapped? If so, why am in the forest? And why is there no one around?

So many questions... and so many answers to find out.

Wait a minute... these trees felt awfully tall for someone of my size.

I looked down at my body and... "Shit." I was smaller and much possibly younger than my previous self.

I was 18 in my 'previous life' and right before I was here... I was... in the car with both Kai and Nathan.

Kai crashed the car and... shit, where were they?!

I scanned the area looking for any clue that would lead to finding them.

They weren't here... I'll find them later. Right now I need a way to get the hell out of here.

I found a tree I could lean on and took the time to brainstorm.

Just after a few seconds, wind started blowing, ruffling the tree's and smothering my face.

Not long after, an envelope fell from a tree, landing smackdown right in front of me.

I swiftly got up, looking above me for any hints to what could've left behind the envelope.

Finding nothing, I bent down, picking up the envelope. It was a black one, with words that printed 'Erebus.'

I opened the envelope and suddenly the envelope withered, and my surroundings were covered by black.

Words popped up in front of me reading...

'Hello Clayton Hall,

I wish you congratulations on being chosen by the God Erebus, you are to represent him in the upcoming Omniversal Tournament in which you will be fighting against other champions. You have been gifted the power "Shadow Manipulation" to help you in your conquest to the top. Please get stronger if you wish to survive and win these events.

From Hermes, Messenger of the Gods'

The black enclosed space this had previously been begun withering back into the forest.

And something felt different, he didn't know exactly what it was, but something had definitely changed.

When he looked down to the floor, he saw a shadow. Yes, shadows were normal, but this one was different, it had a human body shape with no distinct features. No hair outline and no clothing outline. And this shadow was vastly bigger than his body size.

When he moved his hand, the shadow followed, when he walked around a bit that shadow also followed. It was like he was one with the shadow. It was like... he was the shadow.

And just like that, he disappeared. He was his shadow, and right now his shadow was under a tree; a part of the tree's shadow.

Did this mean that as long as an object had a shadow, he could move along with it?

Testing his theory, he looked directly at another tree's shadow and in just one moment, he was at the other tree.

Huh, this makes it easier for me to leave this place. All I have to do is move from shadows to shadows until I find a way out of here.

I prepared myself to move to another tree's shadow... I looked to the tree's shadow, and then I was in that tree's shadow.

Speed run it is... I took a deep breath and began zipping through the shadows.

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I had been moving through the trees for a bout 2 minutes, and yet I hadn't seen any exit to leave this forest. It also looked like the sun was about to set.

'Hold on, what was that?' I stopped at my place, going back to the previous tree I was at.

It was a cave. I turned my head to a tree facing the cave and began moving towards it. In probably less than 20 seconds, I was at the cave.

In order to leave this shadow form, I just needed to step out of the dark and into the sun.

I crept towards the cave slowly before entering the cave. Not seeing anything, I moved deeper into the small cave before I felt something under my foot.

"Shit." I looked down and saw a bear. Then I heard a groan, "Angh." The bear shot up and reached its claws for me, in which I moved, barely dodging it.

'What bad luck.' I ran out of the cave quickly with the bear following me.

My little body tripped over a tree root and the bear was quite literally on top of me.

One with the shadow...

Just before the bear could strike, my shadow became part of the tree.

I sighed in relief as I looked at the bear, who looked around in confusion at the strange occurrence.

Though I disappeared, the bear stayed still, deciding to wait for me to come out.

Fuck. What could I do with this 'power?' And suddenly I had gotten an idea. This'll work.

I looked around for trees and surprisingly, there were trees around the bear which formed a circle.

Let's do this... I moved from tree to tree, moving in a circle.

1 round...

5 rounds...

10 rounds...

As I was moving, the wind also began moving in a circular motion. It became sharp enough to cut actual things.

Setting my eyes on the bear who was looking around in confusion, I jumped out of the shadow form with the wind following me before I continued the circular motion.

The wind which had followed me cut through the bear, leaving a big bleeding scar on its face. Just one more cut was needed to end it. I was getting tired and needed to finish this quickly.

The bear, now a bit more cautious, followed my movements... after my 10th round, I stepped out from the shadows. I tried to go back into the shadow, but it didn't work, I was too tired and weak, so my body went flying directly into the tree.

'Fuck!' The wind cut the bear, but the bear seemed to be fine even with all those wounds. It made its way towards me and reached its paws toward my face.

'Shit, shit, shit, shit.' I closed my eyes, unprepared for my doom, but nothing happened.

I opened my eyes to see the bear frozen in place. What I saw was entirely new, though.

My shadow wrapped around the bear, freezing it in place. Thinking fast, I took the nearest rock to me and hit the bear on the head, successfully killing it.

As the bear fell to the ground, my shadow then went back to its place.

I scoffed, amused, before I got up weakly, dragging the bear behind me to the cave.

As I got into the cave, I dropped the bear on the stone floor and leaned against the wall, falling into a deep rest.