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Joe had walked past the guard line and into the field, the carcasses of the massive number of beasts strewn across the field making it very difficult for him to walk. Above him, dozens of attacks of various magical types streaked towards the creature on the other side and Joe grumbled as he manually climbed the corpse mountain as others flew over his head. The mountain of the line of dead bodies looked much higher from the ground, and Joe paused a bit before finding a steady path to climb over the corpses to the other side. When he reached the top, he watched the elites of the city sending magical attacks while they whirled around him. Still the others behind sent another wave of magic over his head. He stopped to take in the fight for a bit, then raised his eyebrows high when he noticed that the magical attacks hit it and bounced back. Mirrored attacks? Or… reflecting the attacks back? Joe watched the magical attacks bounce off and unerringly find their way back to the attackers.
A cry of alarm was raised as the attack fell apart, the fighters desperately attempting to dodge or defend against the strikes. The second strikes hit, and Joe noticed that they were not exactly reflected. Some bounced off at odd angles, striking out at other defenders. So… a chaotic random reflection of attacks? They are going every which way, but it has enough control to kind of aim it. That’s… pretty nuts. The creature still hadn’t moved, simply looking around. Well… let’s get down there. Joe cautiously climbed down the wall of corpses.
The creature of some kind was still standing at the field’s edge under the branches of the trees right at the edge of the forest and field. With the others retreating, its gaze was arrested upon him, staring. He wasn’t sure how he knew, but he knew that he was being watched by the creature. Joe stared for a moment, allowing the gaze to hold before striding across the field. Luckily, once past the pile, the corpses became rarer and soon cleared out, although the field was a muddy mess of sludge and blood. The field almost felt a bit like a swamp as he walked through it, the thundering of feet and blood having pounded the dirt into mud. It was an outright mess, but Joe found his path, still, decently enough and walked on towards the forest, heading to the creature, now easily able to keep his gaze on it for the most part, only looking down infrequently for footing.
As he continued walking out towards the middle of the field, the creature continued gazing at him before seeming to make a decision, and began walking towards him. When it walked out from under the shadows of the tree branches, Joe felt his eyebrows rise into his hair. Huh! Some kind of human… humanoid? Anthropomorphic? Definitely not… well… is it a werewolf… thing? Or…
Joe quickly assessed it and found the creature was not so much creature as it appeared to be a human shaped one. Joe almost thought it could be similar to Kilniara or Gwenvair and her family as the creature appeared human with some animalistic characteristics. Despite this observation, Joe felt a certainty that he couldn’t shake the utter feeling of danger. It was not a danger sheathed. It was danger immediately imminent. He wasn’t looking at a respectful fighter who restrained themselves and thus could easily interact with the general public. What he felt and saw was an immediate danger that Joe knew would lead to violence with little provocation, and most terrifyingly, without purpose. Random violence… unreasonable violence. But… why?
They continued walking towards one another for a bit when the creature froze, not moving and Joe paused as well, attempting to find the reason for its recalcitrance. He watched it carefully before glancing around quickly. After a bit, he noticed someone coming up on his rear rapidly. A young woman was swooping towards him through the air more like natural flight, and Joe had to stifle a grin. Flying! That’s… ooh… OK… really want to look at magic!
She collapsed by his side gasping, sprawled into the mud on hands in knees in obvious and total exhaustion. OK… maybe not? That tired after that quick of a flight? Maybe not worth it?
The woman quickly stood, but kept her eyes fearfully on the creature. Joe nodded to her, offering a simple greeting before also turning his gaze back on the creature.
“Hello?”
“Greetings eccentric. I bring a message from the Matriarch.”
“Yes?”
“She wishes to warn you that the tide master is Shadow.”
Joe paused then looked back at the being, “Shadow? What is shadow?”
The woman paused, surprised. Joe glanced at her and noticed her surprise before quickly looking back at the tide master.
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“I am not from this plane. Please explain what shadow means.”
She breathed heavily as she gasped, still exhausted but began to speak, “It is an element.”
Joe blinked, then realization hit. Magic? An element? So… fire, earth, air, water… type thing?
“Magic.”
She nodded, “A little… yes?”
“Why is it important for me to know this?”
She looked at him then spoke, “They are very dangerous to fight.”
Joe sighed, “Give me specifics. What exactly can they do?”
“They use shadows.”
Joe clenched his teeth in frustration and started to interrogate her with more specifics while trying to calm himself. Remember, lots of assumptions and knowledge I should know… calm down and help her identify the knowledge I need!
“How does shadow attack?”
She glanced at him and shrugged, “It attacks with shadows.”
“Spikes? Spears? Range? Does shadow harm you if it touches you? Poison? What?”
“Ah… uh… I have heard of spikes and spears. And… some darts. Shadow does not poison, but it can blind and distract, causing a lot of fear.”
“Anything for defense?”
Having answered his question on attacks, her response on defense proved a bit more detailed, “Shadow can defend with some shield, but the main defense is being hidden and difficult to find.”
“Invisibility?”
“Maybe? I do not know. I only know they are difficult to see and find. They are good assassins.”
“Teleportation?”
She fell silent at that, then replied, “I don’t know.”
“Any rumors of it?”
She nodded, “Yes. Some claim they are able to appear and move to anywhere they wish.”
“How does the clan protect against shadow assassins in the clan?”
She blinked then nodded, “The gates are protected and well lighted.”
“Hmm.. OK, thanks.” So… probably not teleportation… or it’s something related to actual shadows… lighted means shadows would be bad…so, don’t wanna be in the forest… that would be a bad idea.
Joe’s mind whirled with ideas, going over what he knew of shadow scientifically, which ultimately made him wonder if it would actually hinder him from considering how magic and a magical society would perceive how shadows functioned, especially if shadow was considered an element. He also dragged up any novels, cartoons, and anime he could bring to mind. What he remembered that came from the mind of authors made him quite concerned. And if the tide master could hide himself or turn invisible, Joe grew quite a bit concerned. So… I need to keep myself aware all around… how am I going to… Ooh..
Joe began setting his points up to cover his side and rear, placing them in an array about two or three meters from him and had them all emit mana at him in a narrow, very thin but high pressure beam. The mana from the points slammed into his back, and he rearranged them so that the points that were at a higher height hit his upper back while those that were near the ground hit him at his lower back and rear. He then glanced behind him, straining his neck and saw that the points were placed relatively evenly, then locked them in place relative to his body. He now had a poor back sight, with the mana streams letting him know when something was behind him.
He glanced at the woman who’d come to help him, then began emitting his mana from his points towards himself, a distinct line of mana struck his back across his shoulders and lower waist. He then turned so that the young woman was in the way of his mana streams and he immediately noticed the lack of the mana streams. Swinging back and forth left a distinct hole in the line of mana across his back and Joe nodded, a bit more certain of protection, at least from the rear. He turned to the woman and nodded.
“Thank you. I will do what I can. Is there any other detail that you think is vital for me to know?”
She paused and then shook her head, “Please, be careful.”
Joe smiled and nodded, “As careful as I can.”
She bowed to him and turned away, blasting off from the ground to fly back. Huh… more explosion than flight… so… not really… hmm…
Joe turned back to the creature standing before him. It stood waiting for him, staring closely. Joe sighed and then began walking towards it once again. It stared at him for a bit before returning to its walk as well, a smile forming on his lips. Right… smiles… is that… Joe hid his shudder and came to a stop a comfortable distance away from them, cautious of getting closer. It also stopped, staring. The creature was definitely a humanoid of some kind, but Joe couldn’t really see much of it at all. It was covered in shadows that covered it in shifting black motion that left the body hidden and almost impossible to actually see very well. Only the face was readily available, and even that left Joe uncertain of anything except that it had a humanoid face.
The shadows shifted around everywhere else on its body, covering everything of its body, including even the hair and ears. It was a bit eerie to see only a floating face in a black shifting amoeba like humanoid body. When its arms and legs were separated, the shadows split enough for the limbs to be seen individually covered by shadows, but when the arms draped close to the body or if the legs were close to each other, the shadows melded into a single large mass. So… hidden limbs… weapons maybe? Can’t see exactly where arms, legs, and weapons are… yeah… that’s going to be… not fun!
“Who are you?”
Its grin grew, a maliciousness added to the creatures face, but it said nothing. Joe remained stoic, hiding his emotions.
“I’m Joe. What is your name.”
It said nothing, staring.
“Do you mind leaving?”
It barked, a mocking laugh. OK… so… it can understand me, but… why isn’t talking back?
“Nothing to say?”
It remained silent.
“Really rather not fight you. Why don’t you just run back to where you’re from?”
That seemed to anger it. It opened its mouth but then froze, rage visibly coming over it. Its scowl grew and the eyes actually narrowed so far that they became slits of rage and little more. The mouth had transformed, turning into a beast like snarl that crunched the nose up so much that it looked more like the snarling face of a wolf or dog than that of an angry humanoid. It shook its head few times, rage instilling it before it snapped its gaze at him and leapt straight for Joe. Fast!