The dark shadow slid in through the doorway and over the old walls of the tower, circling Max and Anita. It shifted its shape from vaguely human form to a surging cloud. It moved slowly, then with a sudden rush forward. It clung to the walls. Max looked for what was casting this shadow, but nothing else moved in the tower. He wondered if he was asleep. His hand went to his sword, and he slowly climbed to his feet, moving cautiously so as not to startle or threaten this dark shadow. He checked to see if the shadow had any stats.
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> Name: Dark Shade
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> Status: Hostile
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> Attack: Shocking Shadows
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> Threat level: Relentless
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The dark shade stopped. Max was sure it was looking at him. A dark shape on the wall, growing taller, writhing as if it were a shadow cast by a dancing flame. Then it darted forward, away from the wall, a dark flash of lightning. It leapt at Max and slammed into him, hitting him hard. In those fractions of a second, Max knew this was no shadow. The dark shade enveloped him.
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> Dark Shade attacks Max.
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His body was wracked by jolting waves of pain. Dark lightning flickering over his skin, shooting through his bones. He could taste the dark power. Then the dark shade left him and darted off, pressing itself back to the stones.
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> Max takes minor Shocking damage.
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Max crumpled to his knees. He let out a moan of pain and confusion. Anita woke, her spear in hand, up and on her feet in an instant.
“What is it?”
Max pointed with his sword at the dark shape on the wall. “A dark shade.”
Anita kicked embers from the small fire into the dark corners of the tower. “I knew it was a bad idea to rest here. Not that I’ve had any rest.”
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> Max casts Strength.
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> Spell failed.
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He shook his head. “No, I still haven’t rested enough to activate my spells either.” Max backed away to the door. Suddenly the wind and rain didn’t seem so bad. Surely it wasn’t that far to the nearest town. His stash of gold coins could buy a lot of ale and meat pies, a nice room for him and Anita, and a lot of rest in a soft bed.
“Look out,” Anita shouted.
The dark shade came racing towards Max.
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> Dark shade attacks Max.
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> Max takes minor Shocking damage.
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The dark cloud enveloped him again. All around was darkness, but he saw flashes of white and silver across his eyes. He felt flashes of lightning over the saliva on his tongue. The dark shade moved off, and Max fell to his knees.
“It’s coming too fast,” Max said.
“I can sense its intentions,” Anita said. “It’s disturbing the atmosphere as it moves. Look out, here it comes again!”
Max looked at the shadow on the wall. He couldn’t see any movement. The darkness would be on him any moment. Max readied his Shortsword of Cold. He drew the blade back, ready to strike the moment he saw the dark shade move, ready to deliver a slashing blow on a hair trigger. The shadow on the wall grew deeper and darker. Max felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
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> Max attacks Dark Shade.
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Max brought the blade around as the dark shade leapt off the wall. He saw the shadow take on a human form, a dark, open toothless mouth and lifeless eyes screaming rage. Max’s sword and forearm passed through the shadow.
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> Dark Shade immune to physical damage.
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> Bonus Cold damage.
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> Dark Shade takes minor damage.
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Anita jabbed with her spear from the hip into the dark shadow as it swerved away from Max’s Shortsword of Cold. Pain in the dark eyes, sadness in those eyes. Flames flickered over the edges of the dark shade as Anita’s spear struck.
“It’s immune to physical damage,” Anita said. “Only elemental damage can defeat it.”
Max readied himself again. He felt the hairs on his neck stand up. He scanned the walls for the shadow and found a patch of darkness. Or was it just a patch of damp? The darkness on the wall before him remained still. The attack came from behind.
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> Dark Shade attacks Max.
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Max was plunged into darkness yet again. His body wracked with tingling pulses that rippled and flowed over his body in narrow lines. He shut his eyes to the pain. With his eyes clenched tightly shut, he saw white-and-silver jagged lines flickering over his closed eyelids. His teeth tingled, and then the dark shade left him.
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> Max takes minor Shocking damage.
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> Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
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Max gasped for air and collapsed to his hands and knees. “It’s no good, Anita. I can’t attack what I can’t see. How can we defeat this dark shade?” Max started to get up to his feet, about to call out to Anita that it was time to flee.
“Look out, Max,” Anita called.
Max swung his sword wildly, a lucky strike his only hope. He was unlucky.
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> Dark Shade attacks Max.
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> Max takes Shocking damage.
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Max fell to his knees again. Although he was only taking minor damage, the Shocking Shadow attack was having a powerful effect on him. He checked his Health stats quickly.
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> Max moderately injured.
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He had only lost 25 percent of his Health, but it felt like a lot more. The Shocking Shadow attack was not just robbing his Health but his will to fight too. The wind and the rain howled around outside the tower, sheets of rain lashing against the broken door. He wanted to flee, pull the door away, and run out into the night. He felt the dark movement growing as he felt the need to be away from this tower in an instant. As the dark movement energy grew, Max felt the darkness pulling him away from the door and up the tower.
Max stopped the growth of the dark movement. He strengthened his resolve to stand and face the dark shade, took a deep breath, and looked up. He followed the spiral stairs, but they were lost to the dark of night after one full turn around the tower wall.
“It’s up there,” Max said to Anita. He pointed up.
“I don’t think so,” Anita said. She stood lightly on her feet, turning slowly, spear leveled, waiting for a hint of the next attack. “The dark shades are always bound to the ground. It’s the tortured soul, one that is cursed.”
Dark Shade attacks Max.
Max takes minor Shocking damage.
Max gasped for air but felt like he was breathing in burned lightning. He writhed in the darkness that enveloped him. The dark shade vanished and left Max as a bolt of lightning struck the tower.
The lightning rippled through the joins between the stones. It lit up the shadows, and there in a corner stood a dark shape framed by the lightning, the form of a woman with her head tipped back in an anguished scream. She screamed into the darkness and the lightning and the rain.
“There’s definitely something up there.” Max could see the lightning linger high on the tower. He felt the tug and recognized it. “There’s a dark shard up there.”
The dark shade melted back into the shadows as the lightning faded.
“The dark shard is holding the dark shade here. This is no elven curse.” Max ran to the spiral stairway running up the tower. He climbed as the lightning struck the thick forests beyond the tower. Rain dripping down from the broken roof high above. Max ran on, the lightning showing him the stairs running around the edge of the tower. He went leaping up from one step to the next. He heard Anita call out from below.
“Look out, Max.”
He stopped himself just in time and saw the missing steps. Several of the huge stones that formed the steps had fallen away long ago and left a huge gap in the stairway and a long drop to the bottom of the tower. Max carefully inched to the edge. He couldn’t climb the stairs any further. He felt the dark shade moving over the walls on the far side of the tower.
“I’m trying to help you,” Max shouted at the shade. The shadow floated over the far side of the tower, drifting back and forth. Max looked again at the missing steps. Where one stone had fallen away, it had pulled stones from the tower itself, leaving a hole in the wall. Just enough for Max to get a toehold. He stuck his toe on the hold and searched for a fingerhold between the heavy stones. He found a grip, even though the stones were polished and smooth and the rain dripping down the wall made them even more slippery. He moved out, clinging to the wall and moving around the curve, crossing the gap left by the missing steps.
“Look out, Max,” Anita shouted from below. Max turned to look and saw a Murder Crow racing towards him, its harsh cry making his hair stand on edge.
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> Murder Crows attack Max.
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> Max takes minor damage.
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The murder crows scratched at his arms. The damage was so minor, but the greatest danger was that he would lose his grip and fall. He climbed on as the murder crows swept in again.
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> Murder Crow attacks Max.
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Max released his grip with one hand and twisted out of the way of the attack, the murder crows swooping past.
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> Attack dodged; no damage done.
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He then took hold again with both hands and made the last few climbing moves before he dropped to the wet stones of the stairway on the other side of the gap. The murder crow spiraled overhead, shrieking its frustration at failing to land its attack. Max ran up the spiral stairs. He drew his sword as a murder crow swept in.
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> Max attacks Murder Crow.
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> Murder Crow takes moderate damage.
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> Bonus Cold damage.
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> Murder Crow defeated.
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Max ran on a full turn of the tower, and then he finally ran out of steps. These steps hadn’t fallen; they had never been placed. Max looked at the tower walls. He could climb, but he couldn’t wield his sword. He wished he kept that poison-tipped dagger now. He could have held that in his teeth and climbed. He sheathed his sword.
“Cover me, Anita,” Max shouted from the tower. “Keep these murder crows off of me.”
Max started climbing the wet stones. He just found enough purchase with his fingertips in between the crumbling mortar. He went up as swiftly as he could. He knew better than to look down, but the tug of gravity promised nothing but a long drop and a sudden stop. He heard the murder crow shrieking behind him and then the sound of a bullet from Anita’s slingshot expertly aimed and snatching a murder crow out of the air.
The top of the tower was simply a ring of loose stones where it had once been roofed with timber and tiles. There in the middle, perched on what was left of the last remaining roof beam, was the dark shard, glittering slightly in the rain. Max reached out, but it was out of reach. He balanced on the loose stones. If he slipped, he would no doubt take a loose stone with him. Not only would the fall be his end, but the falling stone could be fatal for Anita standing in the tower below.
Max judged the distance across the top of the tower. It was an easy distance for him to leap across. It was sticking the landing that would be the tricky bit. He needed to put the right amount of energy into the jump. Jump, catch the dark shard, and land on the other side. Easy.
Max swung his arms and jumped. The stone under his feet was pushed back as he leapt forward and fell down the outside of the tower. Max had lost forward momentum from pushing the loose stone back off the tower. He wasn’t going to make it. He grabbed for the shard and snatched it out of the air.
Max grabbed for the far side of the tower. He landed with his arms hooked over the loose stones. They shifted with his weight. He scrabbled with his toes, searching for a hold. He found purchase and pushed himself up. He sat on the top of the crumbling tower and looked at the dark shard in his hand.
As Max held it in one hand, the dark shard evaporated, erupting softly like a pillow of black feathers stirred up by a strong wind. They drifted upwards, tiny flecks of utter blackness in the dark rain-filled sky, and finally, the dark shard was gone.
“Max, get down here,” Anita was calling up.
Max climbed down the inside of the tower, his fingers cold and slippery. He found the spiral of stone steps, and the feeling of them beneath his feet let him relax. He was a good climber, but steps were much safer. He ran down into the bottom of the tower and found Anita facing a young woman dressed in a white glow, lightning flickering off the hem of her short skirt and the tips of her hair.
“Adventurer, you have saved me from the darkness. Let me reward you for your effort and finally lift the curse from my family.”
The white figure faded and became a faint voice of distant echoes.
“Go to the south corner of the great hall. There you will find the vault hatch and a stairway leading you beneath the fortress. In the great cellar, you will find my family treasure. The most precious of all is the Shortsword of Lightning. This I give to you, adventurer.” And with that, her voice faded entirely.
A flash of lightning and a rumble of thunder brought fresh waves of rain.
“If there is a great cellar beneath this ancient fortress, then I’d rather be down there and out of this rain,” Max said as he gathered his things and stepped out of the tower. The great hall was much more of a ruin than the tower, but he could just make out the southern corner from the tumble of stones that had once formed the walls. Max ran through the rain, and he searched the southern corner. There he found the hidden entrance, and down he went along a steep stairway. Once out of the rain, he lit his Torch. Anita stepped in behind him and held up her glowing moss. They went down into a vast empty cellar. At one end stood a large wooden chest. The lock long since rusted. It gave way with one blow from Max’s sword.
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> Max attacks Rusty Lock.
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> Rusty Lock had been defeated.
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Sitting inside the chest was a sword. Max picked it up.
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> Max gains Shortsword of Lightning.
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“I don’t like it in here, Max,” Anita said, “There’s something not right. I feel something nearby.” Max saw the flickering shadows on the stairway. The trio of Dark Mages entered into the great cellar, blocking their retreat. Burning torches in one hand, longswords in the other.