Oidche (25.10.9978 AS)

“You’re a nasty trickster kid. But you aren’t the only one that has tricks up his sleeves.”  Tristan closed his eyes as he expecting his death.

***STAB!***

Tristan felt a piercing pain as the monster’s sword stabbed directly into his heart. The pain was strong he couldn’t breathe.

‘Is this how it ends?’ Tristan asked himself, as he felt like drowning.

After a few moments that feeling finally disappeared, and a feeling of weightlessness overtook him. Finally, he gathered the courage to open his eyes. Just to find two big red eyes right in front of his face causing him to shrug.

“Don’t get me wrong kid. I would have killed ya, but… It’s a shame to kill someone as talented as you with the sword. Though, you still have a lot of training to do.” The monster was holding Tristan in the air, his sword nowhere to be found.

 “Also, I kind of promised Dunkler to serve whoever he deems to be worthy of being his successor as long as I feel like he is good enough.” The monster stepped back and sat once again on his throne.

Tristan looked at it flabbergasted, while feeling out his chest. But he couldn’t find a wound. He looked down; through the blurriness of his eyes, he couldn’t find any signs of blood. “What?” He looked confused towards the monster. “I’m sure you stabbed me with your sword. I felt the pain!”

The confused Tristan seemed like he was about to go mad. “What have you done with me?” He asked once again. He searched his body with his eyes, while having his passive active, but he couldn’t find any signs of foreign magic on him.

“It can’t be!” Tristan who had gone through two near death experiences in less than half a week couldn’t help but feel exhausted. All the stress and frustration he felt since being completely helpless against extremely strong opponents finally surfaced.

“You, what did you do to me?” He looked around.

“I’m sure you did something to me” He whispered.

“I have the right to know!” He screamed at the monster, who was just smiling at Tristan.

“Please, please tell me oh great one!!” Tristan knelt down in front of it as it was his new master.

“HAHAHAH”

The monster just laughed seeing Tristan almost go mad. “I always get the same reaction. If I remember correctly Dunkler also cried when I did that to him.”  He smiled brightly once again as his body slowly vanished into the shadows.

“You don’t seem to listen boy. I already told you, I promised Dunkler to serve his successor. So why would I harm you?” A soft voice could be heard asking.

Tristan stood up while still shakin and looked around. But he couldn’t find the source of the voice. Not even with his passive. ‘Where is he?’ He tripped as he walked towards the throne. His whole body felt heavy. Every step did hurt, but he still pulled himself towards the throne.

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“You sure have fighting spirit kid” The soft voice said once again. “But you don’t need to, force yourself for now. I won’t harm you. Just relax and rest for now, once you feel better we will talk properly.”

After a few minutes Tristan finally reached the throne. He sat down on it and fell completely exhausted a sleep.

Oidche (28.10.9978 AS)

Tristan slept for three days straight. ‘Where am I? Oh… Yeah… Now I remember.  I fought and lost to that monster.’ Tristan paled as he suddenly realized. “Am I dead?!” As he shook his head to deny this possibility he felt like someone just hit his head with a pickaxe.

“Awww…”  He couldn’t help but hold his head in his hands. Slowly the memories of what had happened after the fight with the monster came back to his mind. “What did he do to me?” He mumbled to himself.

“I just connected our souls.” A warm, soft voice said. Tristan who was still sitting on the throne looked around alarmed. “What do you mean by that?” He asked bewildered. He had never heard of something of people connecting their souls with each other.

“It’s simple; you and I are now one.”  The soft voice said, as Tristan’s shadow started to move on its own. It slowly grew out of the soil. Soon two red eyes were visible and a big red mouth became visible.  The monster had grown out of Tristan’s shadow.

Tristan blinked a few times, he couldn’t believe the creepy spectacle he just had witnessed. “What was that?” He asked.

*Sigh*

“Do you have something with your ears? I said you and I are one now. From now on I’m your shadow. Your weapon and your sword master.”  The monster crossed his arms in front of his chest as he said so, trying to look as superior as possible.

Tristan tilted his head.  “Why? I clearly lost the fight.”  

“You might have lost, but you fought quite outstandingly for a kid your age. And as I already told you yesterday: I promised Dunkler to serve his successor. After almost nine thousand years he finally sent someone, and youngling no less. So I had to test you a little and I’m not sorry for that.” The monster said before starting to laugh maniacally.

‘Can this be? Is he Dunkler’s legacy? It must be so. That’s what Dunkler meant when he said something that would help me achieve extraordinary strength. So all I have to do is learn all I can from this monster and all will be ok.’

Tristan tried to smile towards the monster. It was still hard for him to do so, since his head felt like it was about to explode. “May I know your name?” He asked, trying to sound as nice as possible.

The monster walked towards Tristan. “My name is ‘Schattenklinge’” He said with a nice smile on his face and took Tristan’s hands just to turn into a black ‘Zweihänder’ sword. ‘Nice to meet you’ He added telepathically while being in the form of a sword.

“Schattenklinge?!” Tristan couldn’t believe it. “That’s why he knew the other one was a replica; Tristan was reminded of Dunkler’s words. ‘Yes the one and only. Although, there might be quite a few swords imitating me, none of them come even close to the real deal, just look at that garbage you used to fight me. Breaking in the middle of a fight, how irresponsible.’

Tristan nodded. If this had been a real fight, he would have died for sure.  “So you’ll be teaching me how to fight” Tristan, whose face was gaining color again asked.

Schattenklinge coiled his way down to Tristan’s feed and turned back to a humanoid monster once he touched Tristan’s shadow. “I promised Dunkler to help his successor to grow as much as I can.”

Tristan once again nodded happily as he heard Schattenklinge’s words. “So you’ll follow me home?” Tristan looked at the humanoid shadow. “Of course, I’ll follow you home. But I’ll just allow you to go home, once you have defeated every single shadow beast in this forest.”

Tristan looked at Schattenklinge, like he was mad. “Sounds like fun.” He said sarcastically. “Of course it will be fun!” Schattenklinge said, curling his mouth into a sadistic smile. He created a short bastard sword out of his body and gave it to Tristan. “You can use this sword as a weapon. And now go and enjoy your battle, I will be watching you.”

Tristan looked disappointed. He didn’t expect his kind of training; he wanted to be thought cool and flashy techniques and not to slay dozens of brainless monsters. ‘I guess it can’t be helped he thought as he grabbed the bastard sword and walked back towards the forest.  

Schattenklinge sat down on his thrones and smiled happily as he remembered his past with Dunkler. “Even his eyes are similar to yours” He said as he created small birds out of shadows.  He ordered them to follow Tristan. And once again, he created something out of shadows.  It was a display, showing every of Tristan’s movements.