Shattered Dusk Arc: Vision of Shadows

Assault of the Shadow Dragon
Waiting atop the ridge overlooking the valley of the compound were the forces of the Toveri Alliance. Each guild has it's four-man team waiting patiently for Samarra Inari's signal to converge on the location and rescue the test subjects being used for a dark guild's experiments on creating Second Generation Dragon Slayers. Samarra was busy talking with the Ambush Unit through the communication lacrima around her neck. The Ambush Unit was there to serve as a distraction for the forces guarding the experimentation compound, so that the Alliance Units could sneak into the compound unnoticed.

"''Alright, Ambush Unit begin your assult. Warrior Angel Unit, converge on the compound and take out the generator powering the compounds outdoor security. All other Units stand by." ''Samarra says over the lacrima. After a few moments, lights could be seen flickering off and on, followed by a puff of smoke from what looked to be security measures at the compounds entrance.

"Samarra to Tristan. I don't what you did but the defense system is down, the power flickered when it did but its still running do you know what happened." Samarra said through the lacrima, with a quizzical look on her face. She got a quick reply from the Warrior Angel guild's leader, then sent a message to all the Alliance Units.

"All Unit's converge on the compound. Proceed with caution, the map from our sources was inaccurate, so the location's layout is a mystery. Do your best to rescue as many people as you can, only use extreme force if necessary." Samarra commands. With that all guild forces rush on the large experimentation site.

A single Mage enter's the compound but as he does, he's puzzled by the sheer number of rooms present. Being indecisive, he quickly puts his index finger on the his temple and then asks, "Which way?" as if he were talking to himself. Upon being told to enter the second room, the young mage proceeds to walk to the room but as he enters it, the room automatically changes its internal environment upon sensing the presence of a new "magic power" inside it. "God this is huge!" exclaims the Mage as he notices the giant, apparently abandoned "playground" but just as he thinks of exiting, he turns back to notice that the door has indeed vanished.

"I need your help, he said. I cannot believe I said yes to this! Tsk, what's with people and their obsession with Dragon Slayer Magic?" said a tall, young, well dressed, red haired male Mage with heterochromic eyes as he almost complained and sighed. With a gasp of simultaneous boredom and discomfort, the young Mage proceeded to walk by the dark woods evidently searching for something. "Now, where was I supposed to meet this apparent teammate of mine? Large Map-umm, ... there! Large red maple!" he exclaimed as he continued his stroll down the dirt path, which was now further covered with the fallen August leaves. At no other time other than "this", did the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell that is in no way inferior to the smell of the sea, bitter where it bordered on taste, and more honey-sweet where one feels it touching the first sounds. Containing depth within itself, darkness, something of the grave almost.

It wasn't a great afternoon, with noon being the derivative of temperature is the greatest due to the positioning of the sun and earth's crust itself radiating heat. The young man sat under the tree as he was shading himself from the sun's rays to prevent intense dehydration. "Why am I stuck with people who are late for occassions? Why do villains have to hide in positions like this? Tsk, Second generation slayers shouldn't be a big deal, after all, they are fake as shit!" he further added while grabbing his bottle since he was clearly thirsty or at least dehydrated slightly from walking for three hours straight.

A mysterious figure appeared several yards away from the young male who was resting as it almost stalked its "prey". Placing herself perfect on the top most branch of a tree and remaining hidden by suppressing her magic, the figure appeared to be a woman with sharp incisors as she clearly planned on attacking the man on the ground. Her gothic look and dark purple hair clearly set a gloomy aura around her but before she could make her move, she was taken off her feet; though not quite literally.

"Even if you suppress your magic, my nose can sense you, woman!" said the man resting under the red maple tree as he stood up and looked above; directly looking her in the eyes. "Seraph, Seraph Kinmichi and who'd you be, creepy stalker?"

The young woman appeared to be surprised after hearing that she has been discovered but quickly snapped out of it as she instantly created a large scythe made of shadows in her left hand and with great strength wielded it, attempting to cut Seraph in half but unfortunately for her, her large weapon was too slow to catch up to Seraph who barely moved a few steps and easily avoided the strike. However, the attack caused two giant trees to be cut in halves, with the force of the blow behind her strike being strong enough to crush and break branches of other trees; which were in the path of her attack as they were growing in the same direction as her swing. The woman blushed as she straight jumped down and landed softly while she thought to herself, "This is new. I wonder if he can fight". She then proceded to cup her hands together as she created a small orb composed of shadows and announced, "Melanie Sullivan. Prepare yourself, here it comes--- Shadow Orb! " Suddenly the orb was launched as it propelled itself towards Seraph with mesmerizing speed.

Seraph despite just witnessing the mysterious girl creating a scythe out of nothingness and slice trees with a single swing as if it were nothing but he barely flinched, surprisingly he instead chose to reply to Melanie's comments. "I am always prepared, girl." On the completion of his sentence Seraph reacted quickly performing a flawless quadruple-back flip which easily allowed him to avoid the incoming attack and show-case his agility; as he was still landing, he suddenly disappeared from Melanie's line of sight only to appear behind her, tapping her shoulder. "You should never let your guard down, miss. So are you one of those wanna be Dragon Slayers?" he questioned.

Melanie turned her head only to express sheer disgust through her facial expressions as she suddenly de-materialized as she quickly transformed her body into nothing a shadow like form and while this surprised Seraph for a fraction of a second, he did not let it get the best of him and began looking for her. To his surprise, she quickly appeared above him with her feet covered in shadows and attempting to kick Seraph with all of her might. " Shadow Dragon's Claw! " she exclaimed, only to have her shadow enhanced kick intercepted and blocked by Seraph's right forearm. Seraph smirked as he commented, "I sense him, he's near!"

"Melanie Sullivan, seventeen year old second generation Dragon Slayer, wanted alive," echoed a voice. Saveli Kir made his appearance quite showy out of thin air, "Sorry for being late, I was called here on minutes notice by Miriam oh and you must be Seraph who was supposed to be here waiting for me."

"One second dear..." Seraph said to Melanie, as he moved quickly appearing by Saveli's side within a blink of an eye. "Yeah, I am Seraph. You must be Saveli, you have a godawful smell by the way. Its not bad, it just smells like barren wastelands, smoke and loneliness; kidding, I can't smell loneliness but what's with the unfair advantage you have? Like when you know about an enemy, don't you think you should share it with---I don't know--- your TEAMMATE!" he added as he looked at Saveli.

"I've had enough of this nonsense!" shouted Melanie as she thrusted her left palm towards the duo who were apparently a team while supporting her left palm with her right hand. This caused a giant creature entirely composed of shadow to appear before them. " Shadow Golem! " she added; announcing the name of her spell with pride as the golem charged towards the duo with the intention of beating them to an inch of their lives.

"A man isn't noted for his smell, I unlike you live a rough life wandering around, as a Shadow Slayer, we are in the wrong to fight her here in a place full of shadows, can you please clear this place for me ?" Saveli ordered his teammate, while restraining the golem before it had a chance to deal a blow to himself or Seraph. "One thing I hate about you dragon slayers is your capability to absorb the element you are cursed with."

As Saveli proceded to restrain the golem, the golem grew bigger and began rampaging as it tried to kill Saveli. "Uh, you sure you want me to do that and not help you? I am not sure if I can destroy this forest, I mean... it doesn't even exist! We are in one of those stupid environment changing rooms. Is this even real?" commented Seraph as he hurled several paper-shurikens at both the golem and Melanie. "I don't think we need to do anything about the area, its fake anyways, there! Hit there!" he said as he sent several magic paper shurikens high up at the sky and soon, to the duo's surprise actually made an impact with the sky causing it to collapse. Soon, the environment once again changed as pieces of Lacrima from the ceiling. "Bye, bye advantage! How did I tell it was up there? You know Lacrima's emit magic right? I can sense magic? Yeah, that's how and plus the goth chick looking at it wasn't really helping! Also--" before he could complete his sentence Seraph was suddenly blasted at point blank range by one of Melanie's shadow orbs.

"Yeah, nice try! For your kind information, up till now, I was using only thirty percent of my real power!" exclaimed Melanie as she created more golems and they merged with her original golem to create what she refereed to as the "super golem". The Super Golem took the form of a tall humanoid creature with a large set of horns on its head and blade like outgrowth on its shoulders with claws for nails and a distinctive mouth with several solidified shards of shadow magic for teeth. The creature had gone from originally being no big than fifteen feet to being exactly seventy five feet large. Melanie jumped on top of the golem as she declared, "Time to show you fools what true power is!" as the golem attempted to crush Saveli beneath its feet while several shadow hands appeared behind Saveli attempting to incapacitate him.

Suddenly seemingly out of the darkness a hand stops the massive golem's foot from crushing. Beneath the hand was a man who was wearing a jacket with a black t shirt underneath. "Hmph Seraph please do pay attention more often I hate saving you someone who is strong" says the newcomer whose Name is Mareko. "Now to deal with this golem". Mareko then with ease throws the Golem with one hand at the nearest wall. " By the Way hello the names Marekō" Marekō says bowing.

Saveli Kir jumped behind the other two alliance mages, quickly starting his Archive contacting Miriam Cade he spoke with the elder, "We have another Mage to fight a little girl ? What is the meaning of this ? Do we have a change of plans ? Well I knows its a Dragon Slayer and I know she is using 30% of her power or so she claims, but its not like we are using much of our abilities as well know. It was odd sending two people to do the job, now this as got even weirder. Is there something you are hiding ?"Kir sent the message hopefully to be received by the higher ups.

Suddenly a blue flash entered the room, burning the ground. When the light faded, Aether Cade was standing in its place. "We got your message. Be on guard. There's another Dragon Slayer around."

"Get your own opponent!" exclaimed Seraph as he appeared perfectly fine. "Now, to deal with the golem! I'll make you regret it! The increased kinetic force from my very magic circlet should be able to deliver the desirable impact required to put the Law of Mass to test! Law of mass dictates that the mass of an object dramatically increases the force of impact when said object collides with the ground! And with your size, you'll make an extensively large impact upon your inevitable defeat!" he added looking the golem in the eye while he pointed his ring towards the golem's face as he released a large volume of foam-like bubbles through the use of his ring magic, which covered the ground and reduced its friction, considerably limiting the opponent movements and causing them to fall. The bubbles are released with violent force that is capable of washing away most attacks, such as oil and fire.

"The what now?" questioned Melanie as both she and the golem she was on looked confused by Seraph's sentence. "Wait--- what? Ah, We don't have time for this!," said Aether. "We need to find Kalina." The only thing on Aether's mind was helping Samarra. "Lightning Flame Dragon's Electron Cannon!" He blasted the golem with a large beam of super heated fire and lightning.

The combined attack was more than enough to destroy the golem and send Melanie flying away but before she could crash against the ground, she transformed her body into shadows and disappeared from the guild member's line of sight. "Allow me to dumb it down for you guys, what I said was, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall!" " added Seraph.

Sky Dragon's Arrival
"You people are too loud!" exclaimed a voice as suddenly several swords made of wind attempted to impale the Dragon Gunfire members. The voice made its presence clear by exerting its Magical Aura which sent tremors throughout the room. "What's with you Mel? Fighting these nitwits?" the voice asked Melanie as the number of wind blades increased.

"Aaaaand, now there is entertainment" Marekō Said as a darkness barrier instantly come up to block all of the wind blades around his allies. "Sorry, I just felt that there was two nearby ds slayers here so I came plus WHO DECIDED YA'LL GET TO FACE THE SHADOW SLAYER I'm the darkness phoenix let me deal with things that are close to the Darkness by the way have I just showed up five seconds so i had no idea on the plan." Marekō then glared at the wind user, and thought to himself. '' 'I can't decide why i just hate this bird brain for some reason'. ''

"Just when I thought I had issues. Ugh, dude. Calm down. Who do you wanna fight? The cute chick or this douchebag I smell? If you wanna fight him then, face the North-east direction. He is about umm, I don't know for sure but at least two hundred meters away from our current location!" replied Seraph as he using his sensing skills to guide Marekō. "Hey, Mar! You wanna switch with Mr. Kir here? I think Darkness and Shadow is a nifty match up. Kir is pretty much useless here. Go and fight that a-hole, Saveli! Take Aether. Poor guy needs to get some action, that is, considering he is not getting "some" from Samarra Inari" added Seraph.

"oh you mean the the Cute chick that you let run away? personally she is too snoppy for cute and oh im trialing again" Marekō said as two shurikens made out of darkness appeared in his hands which he threw with great behind him cutting two Shadow orbs behind Seraph. "thank me Later and yes I'd rather fight the being that isn't a bird brain Ughhhh I hate bird brained idiots and thats not just because I'm a phoenix". "Hey bird-y! Guess what? Those two shadow orbs? Yeah, I created them via my magic paper! You just destroyed my plan of attack, thanks!" replied Seraph. "Also, I don't get anything get away!" said Seraph as he hurled his sword in a certain direction resulting him in pinning Melanie against the wall of the room.

However, Melanie once again transformed into shadows and escaped after which she emerged behind Marekō. "Stop wasting my time!!" shouted Melanie as her magic power increased two folds; easily dwarfing that of her partner's with relative ease. Several slashing waves of condensed shadows appeared before Marekō and Seraph, taking them by surprise. These slashing waves took the shape of crescent waves. "The Shadow Wave absorbs and condenses my magic power before being released with crushing force. It can even slice through mountains! What good are you two jokers?" explained Melanie.

Marekō simply on instinct Makes an Iron hard Wall of Darkness to block the Shadow Wave. He just encase this wasn't enough to stop the Shadow Wave he would jump and tackle Seraph out of the way, "Seraph if flood this place with Darkness can i effectively remove all the damn shadows in here?" Marekō asked Seraph as he tackled him.

"Yes, Captain Obvious! Do that!" replied Seraph as he sat down on the ground, almost as if he were meditating.

Marekō then covered the whole room in a darkness this was a black darkness being unable to see in causing there to be no shadows or anything. "Now find her before i start sending Chains randomly out there into the room which yes i can do" Marekō says calmly.

"Do you know what shadows in a dark room smell like? Nothing. Basically, unless she materializes, I can't smell her but what I can do is, hear her--- the sound of her annoying movement in her shadow form--- Its just like gushing water. There! Your 4 O'clock!" exclaimed Seraph as he closed his eyes while trying to focus on the sound of Melanie's movements; with the later traversing in her shadow form. "Don't worry, you should be able to hear her steps soon. Her shadow form is slowly running out" he added.

"First I get to fight with the mother and now with her son," Saveli Kir grinned signoring the remarks of Seraph, "Too bad our meeting was such a short one," he said to Seraph. Kir looked towards Aether, "Lets begin," he said instantly teleported towards the direction of the voice and appeared in front of the controller of wind.

Knowing that he is now mentally linked with Kir due to the later's telepathy, he mentally communicated with Saveli. "Bad idea. Mr. Marekō just covered the entire field in absolute darkness which means, besides Aether and I, none of you can see anything or sense anything around us, let alone see each other. This darkness saps one of their awareness, be careful. Do not move or give away your location. Make sure to stop where you are, Saveli. A Dragon Slayer isn't to be taken lightly. I'll take care of the girl quickly and then, you can go on about fighting the idiot."

"Hmph thanks" Marekō says waiting till Melaine's shadow form to run out. "By the way those chains are strong enough to peirce mountains and Since i have enhanced them by making them come from my Darkness Slayer magic they are strong enough to hold phoenixes" Marekō said outloud right before he sends out a giant wave of Chains in the 4 O'clock direction and having all the chains to explode either on impact with Melanie or on impact of hitting the wall into Darkness.

"My turn!" replied Seraph as he gathered a huge amount of fire in his fingers and then released it as a condensed beam of heat and fire striking Melanie with great accuracy and since, she was incapacitated by Marekō's chains, she was hit and was knocked out cold. However, the damage caused by the flaming beam was more than enough to melt most of her clothes to melt, leaving her in her lingerie. The attack also left Melanie with a second degree burn, mostly around her lower torso and abdomen. "Marekō undo the darkness environment thingy. Its' over! Man, I really went overboard with the Flaming Fang spell."