Hero’s Shadow

'Smashhhhhh!!!'

The terrifying punch of the Hero 'Levian' landed on the bleeding magma drake.

The drake was immobilised by Arvin, as he struck the drake's wing with a huge stalactite that was hanging above them inside the cave.

He enchanted the stalactite with dragon slayer's magic and used his telekinesis ability to strike that sharp stone stalactite into the drake's wing.

The drake was unable to move, the damaged wing greatly affected it's mobility and balance. It tried to regain it's balance desperately as the hero's party was dead set on killing it.

More than half of the hero's party was already dead. Some died as they advanced through the dungeon and the rest died during this exhausting battle against the drake.

Levian, the kingdom's rising hero is an overconfident man. Character wise, he was neither kind nor diabolical. As a legendary talented individual with high potential, he had his own strength and support of the nobles to back him up. He arrogantly led his party into this newly discovered dungeon without giving it a second thought. And the result was the death of more than half his party.

Even after Arvin ingeniously immobilised the drake, the battle was far from over. The reason why the rest of them where alive was because of Arvin's tactics and the hero's strength.

The drake let out a terrifying cry as it bled profusely. As a last attempt to destroy the hero's party, the drake lifted its head high up and started to concentrate it's mana inside its throat for a full on magma blast.

Its neck started to glow as the brightness increased by each passing second. Arvin knew what it was and screamed

'Group up!! It's the magma blast, but this time it's several times powerful! We won't survive if we don't strategise with all our might!!'

The rest of the hero's party grouped instantly. Marcus, the Guardian Knight placed his diamond shield infront and started casting his divine barrier. Levian joined in as he reinforced Marcus's shield with his light magic.

Arvin, being an enchanter with his telekinetic abilities, started to double task as he gathered boulders to defend and enchanted the surrounding and the shield with anti-dragon magic.

The barrier glowed in all colours as the magic layer protecting it got thicker and thicker. The time was running out quick, despite the anxiety, the party had to soldier through.

The clock ran out as the drake completed its prerequisites for the magma blast. It lowered its head as it opened its enormous jaw and pointed it at the party.

A ray of golden red magma flew out of its mouth at sonic speed as it crashed into the party's shield with overwhelming force.

Marcus's feet burrowed into the ground as he took up on the entire force of the blast. It was never ending. The shield began to deteriorate rapidly as the blast corroded it inch by inch.

As certain amount of the shield was etched away, it lost it's durability and instantly shattered with a terrifying loud blow.

The party members were sent flying away due to the force of the explosion. They all got knocked out instantly.

Arvin regaining his consciousness, instinctively placed his palms behind him for support and sat up straight. He looked ahead and saw the weary Levian kneeling with his knees on the ground, grasping the hilt of the sword firmly lodged in the earth for support. Beside him from a distance was Marcus. He was lying with his back facing the ceiling. He had not regained his consciousness yet.

On the other side, the drake was still breathing, but hardly.

'Are you up Arvin?' Shouted Levian as he wanted to know what remained of his party.

'Yes, but I can barely stand up' replied Arvin.

'Good, let finish this son of a bitch now. Use your remaining mana and cast the beserk spell on me.' Ordered Levian.

Levian knew very well that the possibility of Arvin dying while casting such a strong spell is very high especially in his current condition. Despite that he ordered him to cast it.

Arvin couldn't decline a direct order from his leader, so he started to enchant Levian using his life force as a medium. The Beserk spell was always supposed to be the last resort. It was the ultimate survival spell that significantly increased one's power but in exchange for life force.

Arvin at the final stage of the enchantment, started to lose his consciousness.

As Arvin casted it, levian's body started emitting red aura as hot blood coarsed through his blood vessels. He stood up, holding his sword in his right hand. He took his offensive stance by holding the sword with both hands and the left foot forward. He pressed his right foot hard into the ground. In a moment he sprinted straight towards the drake as he aimed for its neck that was barely above ground.

The drake was too exhausted to move as it just spent almost all its strength into the humongous blast. Levian's light aura shone brightly on his sword. He took a huge leap as he flew towards the drake. Taking his sword behind his head, he maximised the potential of the attack power and swinged it all the way to front with terrifying force. The overwhelming slash sliced through the drakes magma layered skin and then it came in contact with the flesh. The sword didn't just stop there. It kept going in, slicing the neck as it came out on the other side, beheading the colossal drake. All of this happened in a fraction of a second.

The sword hit the ground as the hero landed after the successful slash.

He turned around and looked at the dead drake's head as the blood splashed.

The exhaustion which was the result of the Beserk spell finally hit him hard. He instantly felt his strength to stand, fade away as he fell on the ground with a loud crash.

The drake was finally dead and so was Arvin as he drained out his life force to support the hero.

Arvin was a talented individual whose skills were recognised by higher magicians of the kingdom. His mastery and talent for magic as an enchanter was as rare as a legendary phoenix that was said to be a myth. Despite his achievements and honours, his prowess was often ridiculed by the nobles. He was denied the opportunity to be recognised as higher officer in any field.The sole reason for this was because of his origin. He is the son of a relatively new baron, Lord Wildheart.

Lord Raveen Wildheart was a commoner who served in the military decades ago. Despite being a commoner, Lord Wildheart was a guardian sorcerer. His valiant battles were too many to count. But they were never made public because of his commoner origin. To silence the protests by Lord wildheart's allies, to grant him more honorifics, the king gave him the title of a baron. A poor landscape with nonexistent resources was given to him to govern.

Due to this, Arvin was never recognised as a true noble. But his talents spoke louder. As a compromise, he was made to join the hero's party without his approval. Being in a hero's party was considered honourable, but there was no freedom. Everyone in the party had to obey the orders of the higher authority and the hero Levian himself.

Arvin is an emphatic person who had always lend a helping hand to whoever in need. But being in the Hero's party felt like an imprisonment. He didn't have the right to pursue what he wanted and was always subjected to ridicule. As days passed, he became a shadow under the hero. He pretty much accepted his life as a side character who would never be recognised for his contributions.

Levian was still breathing but unconscious due to the exhaustion.

After a few moments as the drake's body ran dry of blood, golden sand particles rushed in from every corner of the dungeon and covered over the laying dead and alive beings.

Despite being dead, Arvin's soul remained intact as a special occurrence of this dungeon. The entire placed was filled with golden sand.

Arvin opened his eyes and sat up. He looked around and found no one beside him. The realisation hit him,

'Wasn't I supposed to dead?'

He looked at his body inorder to ascertain what was happening. He felt a ghostly sense as if he was both alive and dead at the same time. He looked around to assess the surrounding area. A scenery where a plethora of damaged machines, torn off enormous robot mechanisms and other severely defective advanced technologies emerged. It resembled a graveyard of a lost mechina race. The resemblance of the whole area was undoubtedly a battle field.

Out of blue, infront of him appeared a huge floating head of a warrior made of golden sand.

Adorning the noble gladiator's head was a resplendent helmet, gleaming with regal insignias that speak of both prowess and honor, a symbol of their majestic journey through the arena's trials.

It started moving its lips as it said

'Ready to reap your rewards?'