I frowned, disappointed as I looked down at the severed cannibal head and the construct that surrounded it. It made for a decent distraction, but covering the head with a construct is just a waste of Spirit Energy. I need to do better. Go for the joints? That sounds like it should be more effective.

Well, my real thought process took place in a half second and went more like this, ‘Stupid waste! Joints.’ before I started moving again as the body of the cannibal giant dissolved into sand and blew into the air on a nonexistent wind. Then the others caught up and I could see three large figures in the gloom, their outlines clear but that's about all I could see with the lights so dim out here and thick dark clouds blotting out the moon and this cursed fog…

Eh, who cared?

I bared my teeth as I stretched my arms out with my twin daggers, forged by my own hands and bathed in the blood of monsters several times over in defiance to the giant figures that came closer at a bounding run that shook the ground just a bit with each footfall. My bared teeth twisted into a large wicked grin unconsciously as I watched, adjusting my blades and body just little bits with the feedback I gained passively from Dagger Skills accepting it as easily as any thought of my own. It just felt right. I was in a wide stance, with my body close to the ground in opposition to the much larger monsters with my daggers ready to arc through the air and find their marks.

Then… there. My evasion and deflection passive activated, and I could sense three sets of flying hands and fists coming closer from in front of me. But unlike the easiest path of evasion of backing away to the side, or even the advice of deflection to move my body past the fists coming towards me and guiding it into one of their friends, I slashed my blades in a crescent arc right in front of me, throwing them into the brain of the closest monster and pushing my control over my Spirit Energy to the max as I created curved walls to deflect the blows of the other two sets of hands.

With my passive throwing ability and the long seconds that their charge afforded me to feel how to throw my daggers and where, they both hit their marks with a thunk and leaving the monster reeling. The strong Spirit Energy constructs also did their jobs well as they were spawned from nothing as I called out in a whisper to my ring ‘Solidify’ and deflecting the body’s of the monsters around behind me and to the ground with their own momentum.

Everything seemed to happen so slow, yet so fast as my body moved without any conscious instruction from my inflamed brain at all. I could feel everything around me, and I could feel the weight of every force pressing down on my passives. I was in the zone in a way that I had never been ever before in my life, and I was living. My grin was heartfelt. That should have been concerning. But I don't think I cared.

Following up with my initial attack, I pushed myself into the air with a shout and I hit the sturdy body of the giant man-eater with a thump, retrieving my daggers as I clung onto the handle and pulled them down his head carving open his forehead before they fell out and I landed on the ground. I spun, slashing the daggers in a wide arc that let me put my full body behind the swing, carving into its legs before kicking off of it and withdrawing, bringing the body of the monster to the ground with a thud. It collapsed into sand. One down, two to go.

It seems that the heads of monsters are the most vulnerable. The chest seems to heal quickly, but I suppose the heart or lungs or maybe even kidneys if monsters have those would be secondary weak points. Just like in a human. I learned that all a while ago. I got to test those weaknesses on myself and some bad guys in my past life… without awake Ardika knowing of course. It was all a dream and he has such a terrible memory, after all. Oh how things change…

Sounds were dull, but I could hear roars and shouts that shook the air. Shouts of pain, anger, and violence. Words too, but they were so incoherent and I didnt care to listen as I whipped my body around faster than I probably should have to face the other two threats.

They were stumbling to their feet, facing away from me. Their mistake.

I ran tall with sure footing as I watched my surroundings but concentrated on the prone figure that I was aiming myself at. Its position wasn't ideal… but it would have to do. I pushed myself into the air with as good a jumping form as I could have with all the practice I got with my basketball, my two daggers out in front of me aimed to push the whole weight of my tiny body into the thrust to stab deep where I landed. And so I landed, both of my arms landing on the back of the monster with a thump as the rest of my body fell heavily, but the pain wasn't all that important. What was important was the thrashing of the monster below me and the deep red lined lines of blood that surrounded where the hilt of my daggers met the bare back of the cannibal.

I pulled my legs underneath me and then around to hook into its armpits and while keeping a firm grip on my daggers, twisting them to angle in just the right way, I pushed backwards. My daggers carved two deep lines into its back, and I could hear a pop from the giant's arms as I pushed hard enough to dislocate at least one of its arms. But again it was too late for that to be important as I withdrew my daggers and before it could heal up its large lacerations I stabbed its lower back repeatedly, until I connected with something hard and with a crack its body started dissolving under me forcing me to stand and get a grip on the concrete parking lot before I fell on my butt.

I turned unerringly and jerkily as I moved my body guided by the multiple senses that pointed me in the remaining monsters' location. It was faltering as it tried to rise to its feet, but it managed it quickly and it started running fast in the opposite direction of me.

“No you dont~” I said in a sing-song voice as I cackled before starting to jog. It looked back, and I was upon it somehow despite the massive difference in size. I was fast as hell as my small frame packed on with my muscles pushed me forwards. I heard a scream of panic and a few shouts of more monsters a little ways away as their outlines became visible in the darkness. But by then I had pushed my Spirit Energy out through the Constructor and coiling the resulting energy around its knees and completely covering its joints even as I pushed myself to keep pace with it.

“Solidify!” I shouted out, and the monster stiffened as it reacted with a flinch to my voice. Then the glowing material appeared wrapping around its legs and sending it to the ground with its own momentum as its legs couldn't keep him upright.

‘You know? Enchanted rings are useful at times. But… Using the ones I have in combat doesn't sit quite right with me. Like they are unwieldy when I use them in this way. Like they don't want to be used like this? That's weird.’ I thought to myself internally, glancing at the bands of gold on my hand. The red markings were glowing a bit, and I could feel that strange resistance grow a bit in most of them. The Constructor however didn't, and I could even feel a hint of satisfaction rise up as it was acknowledged. Weird. I needed to think about that later… This was just too weird. I have no clue how this is happening or why.

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The Laistrygonian twisted its body as it fell, landing on its back with its large muscled back cushioning the fall as it faced me with its arms outstretched in front of its face. I didn't need the push of the Dagger Skills passive to notice the huge weaknesses in its position and I thrust myself towards its undefended and immobilized lower body and then like a blender throwing my arms into arcs of power that bit deep into its thighs as the monster tried to desperately shove me away. But I managed to cut off one leg before I was forced into retreat.

It was clutching its stump of a leg, trying to sit up. I took advantage of its weakness once again. My twin daggers arced into the air as they were released and found their place inside the eye sockets of the Laistrygonian. Its body crumbled into ash, my blades falling to the ground not a step away.

But while I was slightly off balance and before I could react any farther, I could hear the blare of an alarm going off in my head and I tried to push myself out of the way before a sledge hammer of a fist came at my head from the side. Here are the other four monsters coming. Too late to help, but just one time to get me while I recovered from the last kill.

I tried to roll out of the way of the fist, but it adjusted at the last second to slam the side of my head. A flash of pain and light lit up on my eyes and I gasped as I felt something pop in my face. Not good. I was sent flying by the much bigger monster and ended up tumbling on the concrete a distance away, slamming and battering my body while knocking the breath out of me.

I nearly succumbed to my instincts to curl up in a ball and give up right then. I had never been hit like that in my life. Not even Mike Tyson hit like that. It was like getting hit by a freight train, where your entire body couldn't do anything against the overwhelming force you were up against and your entire body tells you that a thousand times a second as you feel every nerve light on fire. Then everything dulled as I steeled myself with an actually blood covered grin as I raised a hand and snapped my nose back into its proper place without a second thought as the pain dulled. ‘My skin is cold stone, and my mind was like a fire.’ I repeated the mantra of my teacher that had followed me in the back of my mind for years, beat into me like dust being beaten from a carpet. My grin widened.

The four remaining monsters that stood between me and my blades stood still, and I could make out their faces. Their huge muscle bound forms didn't hide the contortions of fear and disgust on their faces and the shaking. The biggest guy of the bunch, that I knew to be the leader of the bunch, took a heavy step forward as he cracked his knuckles to try to appear tough despite his wide eyes and sweating form that glistened under the dull light.

“What- What are you, kid?” He asked, trying to sound menacing but his voice gave him out with a break and a bit of a stutter. I tilted my head, my mind running through strategies and techniques every millisecond and passing them by and refining them by the second as I stalled.

“I am Volcronic, Ruler of Dark Skies and The Night Breaker.” I said in a low voice that nonetheless carried across like a booming growl that it became as I said my name. It was the name that I had used for myself for years, both in and outside the ring when awake Ardika fell away. But tonight… Something stirred as I said that. Something in my body, but also in the energy that makes up my soul. Something… strangely unfamiliar and starkly new, yet natural. Like an old friend coming home. Something in my blood.

Then it wrapped around my mind and I felt something in my mind solidifying in a way that I had never felt before. I screamed, and so did Ardika in our mind. I clutched my head and fell to my knees, barely noticing the monsters stumbling away in mild panic at the sudden change.

“I… I am ME NOW! I…. I am REAL!” I realized with a laugh as I looked around through my eyes, the darkness retreating a bit to my eyes. I… don't know what I am… I am not Ardika. I was a part of him… and he held me within his mind, holding me in his mind and holding me back without even knowing I existed. The blackness that clouded my vision retreated just a bit until I saw the world for what it was. I wasn't part of Ardika anymore then he was a part of me now. I tilted my head curiously with my grin on my face as I reveled in the feeling. It was invigorating. Something I didn't even know was there, burdening my very soul, was gone now.

I felt the power resting in my mind curiously, and I could feel the darkness come alive in the world around me. This… was new. I loved it. It felt right to me. It was the shadows… the darkness of the world below. And it was mine to control, because it was a part of my very soul and body.

I felt the power ooze with a thick viscous power that felt like a snake coiling around my being and striping away just a little bit at a time as I controlled it. I smirked at how it snapped, and spread my arms out in a claw shape slowly towards the four huge monsters that were watching with expressions of horror, unable to do anything as their body’s revolted against them with fear. Darkness curled around my body, and I could feel myself rise slowly up into the air even as it sapped my strength. Then it spread through my shadow in tendrils and then the ground seemed covered in them as they seeped from every shadow around me. I grinned, my bright bloody teeth the only part of my body not covered by the darkness.

One of the monsters in the back of the group broke free from their frozen panic first. They were the first to die, as I reached my hand out and a tendril of shadow from their own shadow grabbed hold of him and shoved him back. Then the other tendrils emerged as the others broke, trying to escape, only to find themselves surrounded by shadows in the darkness of the night that was mine to break. Then the walls of tendrils constricted into a tight circle, pressing down as stabbing into the body’s of the monsters. They were dead and disappearing back to tartarus before I dispelled the spiked shadow trap.

Blue screens lit up the blackness, and I looked up to find notification after notification. I blinked in annoyance and shoved them out of the way for later as my body sagged to the ground, exhausted while my mind started to fade. But I didn't let it take me yet as I watched the bodies of the Laistrygonians dissipate in the wind. It was time to head back to the dorms…

I turned around, then blinked in mild surprise as I saw flashlights cut into the dark parking lot and I could hear some low voices and some shouts between the group, all of them weilding guns and wearing dark body armour. Strange.

They came closer, and I watched them as they watched me and looked around seemingly in confusion.

“What happened?” I heard a friendly but tense voice call out, and I recognized it as the leader-man of the people I just rescued.

“I killed them.” Was my simple answer, and I didnt explain farther as I started to walk away in the direction of the school. “Now I haven't slept for ages and that took a lot out of me, so I am going to bed.” I called out to the people standing behind me without any care whatsoever as I let my mind go dull once again as I focused on nothing but walking back to the dorms through the streets and alleyways without caring about anything going on around me.

Some sleep sounds heavenly. Then I could let awake Ardika- No, I suppose it was just Ardika now that I was no longer Ardika as well- figure stuff out. That's what he was best at after all.