After calling out its name in unison, the shadow dragon emerged. The mere sight of it stunned all that witnessed it. It had been over a hundred years since any of Tsubaki’s attacks had been seen, especially this one. Everyone was mesmerized, including Heracles. “It’s beautiful,” he said under his breath.

Then the dragon roared. Its booming voice shook the entire auditorium, rattling the bones of everyone in its vicinity. Its red eyes shined brightly. It looked majestic, even though it was made of nothing but shadows.

Then the beast did what it was summoned to do: it took off towards its target, Heracles, with blinding speed. Seeing this, the mighty man snapped back to attention. Once again focused, he was ready as the dragon neared him.

It opened its mouth, the shadow beast let out a hiss as it prepared to snap its jaws on its target, but Heracles stopped it. The man threw out his hands, gripping the dragon’s jaw before it could snap shut. Then he held the beast back, using every last ounce of his own strength.

My god, Angus, the beastmen said while in the viewing room, entranced by the fight. The shadow dragon was impressive, he knew that, but the strength of Heracles was currently eclipsing how great the power of Tsubaki was. “Is the man even human?” he asked as he and all others watched as Heracles began pushing the dragon back.

“His strength pales in comparison to ours now, boy. Put more into it,” Jake registered what she said. He was reminded once more that unlike Heracles, he wasn’t fighting alone. He was fighting as a team with Tsubaki. He gripped her hilt tighter than before, a vein popped in his forehead as he let out his own roar.

When he did, a change was seen with the dragon. When it first appeared, the dragon looked more like the silhouette of a dragon, but as Jake screamed, he was putting more into the attack, and by extension, putting more into the dragon itself. Before everyone’s very eyes, the dragon became more detailed. Black scales could be seen, its claws and teeth were more defined. It was as if the dragon was shifting from 2D to 3D in front of everybody.

And as its appearance changed, so did its strength. Its jaws were closing, even though Heracles was doing his best to keep them from doing so. He began to struggle as bullets of sweat fell down his face. Then the inevitable happened: the dragon’s jaws snapped shut. The victor was chosen between the dragon and Heracles, and it was the shadow dragon.

Its jaws had closed around Heracles, its teeth pierced the man’s flesh as blood leaked from his wounds. The man let out a battle cry; he was not done yet. Then the dragon lifted its head with Heracles still trapped tightly in its jaws. Then it flicked its neck, tossing Heracles high into the sky and away from the ring.

Watching this, Zack screamed, “Did it toss him for a ring out?” But the spiky-haired young man was proven wrong as the dragon took off after the thrown man. A second later, the two crashed into the ceiling. Then the dragon began dragging Heracles across the ceiling as it had him in its mouth.

Light fixtures and chunks of the ceiling were falling, crashing to the ground below. As Heracles got one of his arms free, he gritted his teeth and began striking the dragon in the face over and over again. Each strike became more lethal as time went on. Heracles lifted his fist up high, then he punched the dragon in the eye. It winced in what must have been pain.

Then the dragon tossed Heracles again, this time up against a wall, then charged into the man. The wall cracked on the dragon’s impact. Heracles did his best to hold off the shadow dragon, but once again, it grabbed him and took off. The beast slithered in the sky with his target still in its mouth.

It was going to keep ragdolling Heracles until he was broken. The two kept flying around the auditorium till it came close to crashing into all the spectators watching. Seeing this, Biscuit loudly screamed, “Hit the deck!” As he and all the others from applicants to assistants got low to the ground.

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The dragon came close to crashing into them, but luckily, it pulled up at the last minute. “That was close,” said Biscuit, lifting his head up, his arms still around Zack and Gabby. As everyone proceeded to look up, they all caught a glimpse of something, that same something is what Jake caught a glimpse of as well. “What is that?” he asked as he looked up. He squinted his eyes, hoping to make out the thing, and he did.

Jake’s eyes went from squinting to wide open as he finally made out what the thing was: a sword. Heracles had a sword in his free hand. But how, Jake thought, “how did he get a sword?” Jake was questioning what was happening as the young beastman, Biscuit, said, “Hey, is that my sword?” He said, questioning both Gabby and Zack.

They looked up, along with the rest, then Biscuit exactly exclaimed, “It is! It’s my claymore!” When he shouted, he ended up squeezing the two in his arms tightly, nearly smothering them, but he didn’t notice. He kept looking up, wondering like Jake how Heracles got his sword.

Then it came to him, Biscuit’s rental weapon had been knocked out of his grasp and kicked out of the ring during Biscuit’s match with Lex. When it landed, it was plunged into the ground. Even after winning his match, Biscuit never retrieved the sword. It remained where it was until the dragon nearly crashed into the crowd of viewers.

It was at that moment Heracles grabbed the blade while still in the air. Heracles lifted the sword up high as he screamed, “Something as pitiful as this will not defeat me!” With pure ferocity, he slashed the sword down and chopped the shadow dragon’s head off. With its head detached, the dragon’s head began to dissipate. Heracles was free. He laughed as he put his feet on the beheaded dragon’s body, then took off down the serpent body, its tail leading all the way back down to the ring and to Jake.

Heracles laughed triumphantly, with bloody puncture wounds covering his body, but that didn’t matter to the man right now. All that mattered was victory as he ran full speed.

Tsubaki told Jake to get ready. He did. He held her hilt tight in his hand. When he did, the shadows covering her blade started to react. Then Jake slashed his sword, and when he did, a black energy slash came from the covered sword and headed right toward Heracles.

As Jake slashed, releasing the technique, Tsubaki called out its name, “Black Talon.” While still running, Heracles brought his newly acquired sword to block. Right after he did, the Black Talon collided with Heracles’s blade. The man tried to hold the technique off while continuing to run, but it was difficult for two reasons.

One, the attack Jake had just sent his way was nearly impossible to hold back with a sword that wasn’t on the same caliber as a mystic blade. He saw as the attack began cracking the claymore. And the second reason was Heracles’s footing.

He could feel that the shadow dragon’s body was dissipating, just like its head did when he chopped it off. He didn’t have time to waste. He had to make a move and make it fast. So, he did. So, Heracles ended up doing a front roll, flipping over the Black Talon attack.

The black energy slash continued flying forward until it connected with an auditorium wall, destroying a great deal of it. The assistant who thought Jake might lose turned back to see the damage and was mystified by Tsubaki’s power. “My god,” she said, a look of horror on her face.

After flipping, no longer needing to deal with the attack, Heracles continued to run down the body of the disappearing shadow dragon. Jake prepared to release another Black Talon attack, but Heracles saw this coming before Jake got the chance to do another attack.

The mighty man jumped, falling towards Jake. He had a devilish smile on his face as he was swinging the claymore down with both hands. Jake didn’t hesitate. He decided to meet Heracles’s attack boldly. So, he swung Tsubaki.

Then both blades clashed with each other. When this happened, a small shockwave splintered the ring. The force of the clash cracked the claymore even more than before. Heracles witnessed this, and it only made him marvel at Tsubaki. The katana had not a single chip or scratch on her.

Jake pushed forward, and his slash forced Heracles’s arms back. The man’s feet landed on the ring as he swung his blade at the same time Jake swung Tsubaki, and the two collided once more. But the winner was Jake.

He forced Heracles’s arms back once more. Jake pulled the katana back, preparing for another attack. As he did, he heard the voice of Tsubaki clear as day in his head. “Boy, we’re going to end this in one attack,” she said.

Jake took a single step closer to Heracles as he listened. “I want you to focus and command the shadows, absorb them into my blade, then attack.” Jake did as he was told. As he was in mid-swing, he focused, and all the shadows that covered Tsubaki seemed to get absorbed into her blade.

And it wasn’t just the shadows covering her but the shadows that covered Jake, the shadows that gave him a boost and allowed him to fight. As Jake focused, all Tsubaki’s shadows disappeared into her blade. When they were gone, Jake’s bloody injured body could be seen, his clothing soaked in blood, but the boy didn’t stop because he was so close. He also didn’t focus on it neither did he focus on the pain coming from his body. No, he continued to swing his sword.

Seeing this, Heracles brought the claymore in front of him to block the attack. But against what was coming for him, it was of no use.

Jake swiped Tsubaki at Heracles, then crouched to his knees. Nothing seemed to happen. Everyone was frozen in anticipation. While kneeled, Jake spoke in unison with Tsubaki.

Once again, the two called out the name of this attack. They said it almost in a whisper. “Bringer Of Darkness: Shadow Slash.”

The first thing to happen was the claymore Heracles used to block shattered into dust. The man was shocked, but he didn’t have time to register what had happened to the blade. Because after the claymore was destroyed, a small thin cut appeared on Heracles’ chest. Then it exploded.