I groaned as I finally felt myself return back to consciousness as it felt like I got a tree slammed into my face at high speeds well that seems pretty close to what happened to me. Speaking of what happened, whoever attacked us was either some hero who saw us escaping the police or another member of the underground who decided to wait and hide instead of joining their friend.

I was leaning more on an underground member since they were definitely going for the kill there. If I wasn't as durable as I am, I would probably have an amazing headless horseman costume next year. Well I definitely got knocked out but I don’t know for how long. I don't think it was as long as when I got my face beaten in by that behemoth, it was still very lucky we survived that.

Well I should probably open my eyes and figure out what the hell is going on, and kick some ass. I opened my eyes slowly as it was still pitch black as I finally noticed a heavy weight on my body. I also was hearing some muffled voices from somewhere as I used my x-ray vision to see that Leo and Mia were talking to each other while pulling at something.

Ah I get what was going I was trapped under the remains of the car and maybe some rubble welp not for long at least. I took a deep breath as I felt my hands turn to steel and the claws form and with a quick burst I rip through the metal like butter. It took some effort as I was still not at full strength but in a matter of seconds was free.

“Oh fuck!” I heard from my dear companions as I slowly lifted myself from what was a police cruiser. “How the fuck are you still alive” I turn to Mia had a look of shock plastered on her face. “I’m durable but the real question is how are your two not dead?”.

“We got knocked out of the car when whatever that was hit us well more like I got knocked out and I accidentally grabbed onto him” Mia points at Leo. “Yeah speaking of what hit us either you get a good look i was too busy getting knocked out” they both shrugged as I sighed. “Well we should get moving whoever attacked us is probably close by” I hopped off the car as I started walking towards a couple buildings. “You sure even if you're super durable you still look pretty beat up and your right arm seems broken and the left side your face is still heavily bruised hell even your left eye is bloodshot”.

Leo was right I still haven't fully recovered yet but that doesn’t mean I have the time to. “I’ll heal so don’t worry and we still got a threat nearby so let's find somewhere to hide for a bit” that might work. “Ok oh great leader will follow your command!” Leo said as Mia snickered a bit “good” was all I said as I started walking.

We seemed to be in the lower district as the buildings that we were walking to were old, decrepit and abandoned, I made sure of that. The area was dusty and silent, the only noise being from the cars on the highway and our own footsteps. It was silent but that didn’t mean that we were alone, invisibility and cloaking tech existed, welp if my time in the jungle taught me anything we're gonna need mud, a chopper and a very buff Austrian governor .

At the moment we were in between what seemed to be an old factory building and a warehouse both pretty ominous. “So you too have any energy left?” Mia and Logan give worried looks. “Yeah why?” Leo seemed to be getting nervous “oh well we're probably gonna get into a fight soon”.

“What” I turned to Mia “well do you think the person who attacked us is just gonna let us walk away?” They were both silent. “Yeah now that we are on the same page, be on guard since we can be attacked by whoever that was at any moment”. One of the main reasons I was having us just walk instead of hauling ass to Mia house was pretty simple. I wanted to draw out our attacker instead of having them get another sneak attack when we were running.

The thing was our attacker had some sort of stealth ability, maybe there was a controller or a shifter that involved shadows. My bet is on the former since It didn’t seem like the shadows were alive just growing in size.

As I was trying to figure out what type of power we were dealing with there was a loud THUD then another then another. As thuds became more rapid they seemed to be getting louder, someone was getting closer. “Fuck fuck fuck fuck” Mia was starting to panic as Leo tried to keep a cool face but he was already sweating.

I felt my body tensing as whatever was coming towards us was big and that meant it was probably pretty strong. Well I had a solution for that as I summoned chaos into my hand and switched it to sticky shot. “Hey we're gonna be fine as long as we keep a cool head so both you take deep breaths and get ready to fire”. “You suck at motivational speeches” Leo was correct but still seemed to work as both were already aiming to see where the sound was coming from as it seemed to be nearly on top of us.

As whatever was making the noise was about to run into us I felt something cold gently wrap around my neck. “Nah ah ah we can’t have you messing up our plans” the voice was wispy like rushing wind on a fall day. I wanted to turn around but I quickly felt myself start to fall as one second I was in an alley in between the two buildings the next I was in pitch darkness.

I felt like I closed my eyes but someone glued them shut as no matter how many times I opened and closed my eyes it was the same sight. I couldn’t hear or smell anything either. It felt like I was in a place where you would go if you got erased. After several seconds which felt like hours I was returned to reality again, that was actually kinda peaceful, agreed.

After a couple seconds I realized my eyes were closed as I mentally slapped myself, opened my eyes and looked around. I was in some old warehouse. Everything seemed to be covered in rust or dust and most of the windows were completely shattered. This was probably the warehouse near the factory so Mia and Leo are still nearby.

I quickly used my enhanced hearing to pick up on them as I could hear screams, roars and what sounded like several walls being destroyed. “Just fucking leave us alone you big gorilia fuck!” I could Leo yelling. Guess they are having trouble with some overgrown monkey yay, actually it's a overgrown ape.

I started walking towards the exit ready to save those too again but I felt that same cold feeling from earlier on my shoulder. I quickly spun around as I slammed my fist into nothing but empty air, great I’m crazy, nah you got a couple more months until that. I sighed as I went to leave but there was something, no someone standing in front of the door this time.

They were at a pretty average height, about almost a foot shorter than me and were pretty thin. I couldn’t tell their gender since they had no curves or muscles. Their skin was pitch black as if they were dipped in oil, matching well with their bright white sundress. Their hair was just as black but didn’t look like it had the consistency of normal hair more like bubbling tar as it was continually flowing and reaching past there waist. Their eyes were guess what black except for a set of white irises with no pupils, huh kinda like that death hand guy maybe they were related. Finally they had no mouth, just smooth skin, well, I think it’s skin.

“Well now that you're done checking me out we can get to tal” I shot a fireball at them interrupting them covering them in an explosion of flames “sorry I don’t like talking”. “Now you're just plain rude interrupting me like that now as I was s” I spun around and rushed towards them as My fist slammed into the concrete floor, shattering a large chunk of it.

I turned to see the shadow person appear out of a nearby shadow “well I was trying to be nice you just had to be rude well time to beat you to a bloody pulp” Finally I’ve been waiting for that. I went to rush towards them again but I immediately stopped and stepped back as there shadow quickly started to grow and cover the floor of room, yeah no fuck that.

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I fired a blast of lighting as it sped towards them in only a second but before it could reach them a solid black wall shot up and blocked it. Huh, that's definitely gonna be an issue welp time to do the old game of trying to figure out my opponent's power while I try to die. I took a deep breath as the wall fell back into the inky black ground as I got ready for what I felt like was going to be an annoying fight.

I tried to rush at them again but before I could even take a second step the inky black ground shifted and over a dozen pitch black spears shot out of the ground. I was barely able to react as I had to jump backwards to avoid getting turned into swiss cheese. As I was midway in the air the ends of the spears shifted as the ends became more like daggers and rocketed towards me.

I quickly turned my hands into steel and swiped away several of the shadowy daggers but a few still were able to stab into my left shoulder, left arm and my right thigh. When I landed the daggers quickly faded away completely disappearing as if they never existed. The shadowmancer was simply standing there face shifting as if they were trying to grin. Once again the inky ground started to shift as large black square shaped pillars shot towards me.

The second they appeared I leaped into the air digging my claws into the ceiling as the pillars slammed into each other spreading black dust everywhere that quickly fades away. Before the black dust disappeared another square pillar this time with spikes shot up towards me. I swung forward barely dodging the pillar as more kept shooting towards me not giving me a second to breath as I was forced to keep swinging forward.

I jumped off the ceiling stabbing my claws into a wall after the 5th pillar but that pillar quickly shifted as a hail of daggers shot towards me. I took a deep breath and fired a blast of pressured air and when the air collided with the daggers they quickly faded away. Several more pillars appeared and once again tried to crush me as I leaped off the wall.

I landed on one of the pillars and quickly leaped off it as I summoned chaos and switched it to the yellow ammo type and fired it. The shadowmancer quickly summoned another black wall “really this trick again? Are you a idio bang fuck!” Half way through their speech the yellow swerved to the left of the wall and pierced through their arm.

Their blood suprise suprise was also pitch black had started pouring from the hole in their arm. Little threads appeared from the ground near them as needles formed on the end and stabbed into their arm and started sowing the injury shut. Yeah no, the first rule in a fight is never give your enemy a chance to breathe.

When I landed I fired chaos several more times as the shadowmancer instead of summoning a wall they summoned what looked like a solid black shipping container. The bullet shattered against it as what damage was left by the bullets quickly repaired itself. I rubbed chaos against my head and stored it away as I summoned a railgun into my hand and used my x-ray vision to see through the container. Sadly I couldn't see through the container so I quickly shifted to thermal and fired.

A large hole was punched through the container as it quickly sunk into the ground but all I could see was a mannequin? “Gotcha” I felt something stab through my side as I looked down and saw a black spear was halfway through me. I turned to see the shadowmancer grinning at me as they fell back onto the ground and appeared several feet in front of me.

I felt some blood pour from my mouth as the spear quickly disappeared as the blood started to pour from the newly formed hole in my body, this is what happens when we forget that are enemies aren’t stupid. Hemostasis already kicked in as the blood flow stopped and the wound started to slowly close.

“Hey now that you're busy healing I can finally speak!” they sighed as they shot their arms up. “Please just go back to trying to kill me” I needed to buy time to heal but I still don’t like talking. “You know I don’t understand why some people are scared of evolved we are such marvelous creatures even we don’t look like humans” this better not be a fucking sails pitch. “Are abilities are so vast and powerful even the simple ones like mine can become something more” wait a minute. “My ability originally let me hide in my shadows, in other people's shadows. I learned I could hide items and people in my shadow I could even eventually teleport thought them but when I mastered it something Happened, my power evolved” oh come on, not this shit again.

“And I gained my little shadow garden where whenever I store something in my shadow and whenever I spread out my shadow I can create and control whatever I stored inside it, example” a large black wall appeared behind them as it shifted and several sets of shadowy guns popped out of it. “Before I shred you to pieces I’ll tell you my name” she bowed “I am shadow garden and it has been an experience” she snapped her fingers as bullets started flying.

I jump out of the way as the wall started to turn as I ran for my fucking life, RUN BITCH RUN! I was barely weaving through the storm of bullets as my body started to get littered in cuts from being constantly grasped by bullets. I summoned a set of explosive ball bearings as I launched them into a nearby wall as the yellow aura surrounds it. It quickly bounces around the room as it starts to build momentum until I make the ball bearings slam into the wall behind shadow garden.

As soon as the ball bearings impacted with the wall exploded launching shadow garden forward. I felt my feet turn to steel as I launched forward at high speeds and quickly turned my hands into the steel claws. I went for a swipe but the ground below shadow garden shot up as I struck a newly formed pillar. The pillar shifted as a large buzzsaw quickly appeared and slash me across the chest as I was jumping back. Blood started to pour down my chest as once again I had to realize I still wasn't at hundred percent.

I took a deep breath as I tried to fire another blast of electricity but a pillar slammed into my side. I felt a couple of my ribs crack as I flew through the air as another pillar slammed into my gut as this pillar kept moving. I slammed both my arms into the pillar but I winced in pain as I felt pain run through the broken bones in my right arm.

Wall formed behind me as a pillar slammed through it and then into another pillar and another as I was finally slammed into a normal wall as the air was knocked out of my lungs. I nearly fell to my knees as I caught my breath, you're getting beat by someone who is named after their ability you can do better than this.

I heard the bullets already flying through the air as when I took another breath I felt the cold fill my lungs. I unleash a large blast of freezing stopping the bullets mid air and painting half the room in ice. Shadow garden was caught in the blast as the ice kept them in place. I turned my left arm up to past my elbow into steel as I rushed forward at full speed ignoring the burning pain in my legs.

Several walls appeared in front of shadow garden as I pulled my fist and punched with all my might. The walls took most of the force as they shattered but I finally landed a solid punch into shadow garden face sending them flying. A large pile of black pillows appeared catching their fall as I turned my left arm back to normal.

I held my left as I already felt it start to ache. I could already see my knuckles starting to bruise. I went to go after the shadow garden but I stopped as I heard the entrance of the warehouse shatter. I turned to see Leo covered in cuts and cruises laying on the ground. I walked over as he looked up at “you look like shit” we both said at the same time as I quickly sat him up on a wall.

“So a giant gorilla?” Leo looked at me “yeah well it grew armor when we hit enough but yeah”. “I’m guessing it flung you not long after that” he nodded as I heard shadow garden getting up. “Fuck what the boss said I’m gonna kill this fuck” kinda figured they were holding back.

“Hey Leo” he looked at me “yeah?”. “You think you got enough energy to help take down this living shadow? I’m pretty beat up myself and they're going for the kill so your help would be nice”. He shook his head “I’m too beat up to fight and I’m out of energy too” fuck. “But I can help you” I raised an eyebrow “I can boost you, make you stronger, tougher and all round more of a tank might be a bit slower though”. “What's the catch?” he sighed “well I’ll be knocked out after using it and I’ve never used it on a human before used on animals though but it seems pretty painful”.

“Just do it, we don't have the time I can handle it” he nodded as he put a hand on my chest and blackish purple slowly started to glow from his hand. The aura grew brighter and brighter as I could see the sweat forming on his brow as he seemed more strain by the second. Eventually the light stopped growing in intensity and slowly flowed into me. At first It kinda felt warm but that feeling got more intense as it felt like melted metal was being poured into my bloodstream as the feeling got worse as it spread. The pain only got worse as once it covered my whole body it started to feel like every cell that made up my being started to be crushed. The pain made me nearly vomit as I dug my fingers into the ground as after what felt like an eternity it disappeared.

I wanted to take some time to recover from this But I could see from the corner of my eye several pillars were rapidly approaching. I stood up as I felt a lot heavier and swung my right arm just as the pillars were about to hit me. What is the best description of what the concrete felt like as it shattered to dust against my fist hmmm ah it felt like I was punching air.

The pillars were destroyed in an instant as I looked at my hand not a single scratch on it. Actually I noticed something. I was different, my skin looked thicker, my knuckles looked like rocks, I was skinnier but my muscles were a lot more compressed hell I was even shorter. I felt amazing too; it felt like I never even got hurt during my fight with the commander. It felt like my skin could stop bullets, it felt like I could knock down a building. I took a step forward as the ground cracked beneath my new weight, kinda suck I was slower but I could work with this.

I turned to the now unconscious Leo “thanks” was all I said as I started walking towards shadow garden. “Hey did you get shorter you know what that doesn't matter you’ll fit in a casket either way” They seemed calm but I could see the rage in their eyes. Speaking of their eyes one of their eyes ad black blood pouring from it and another thing a mouth had finally formed on their face.

Shadow garden lifted up their hand as over a dozen spike pillars formed behind them and several walls with many different weapons sprouted next to them. I slowly took off my now baggy hoodie and wrapped it around my waist as I took a deep breath and everything started to slow down. I felt my heart beat faster as adrenaline rushed through my veins. I felt my fist turn to steel as I started to walk forward and I smiled. I smiled because for the first time in my life I started to feel truly alive.