Chapter 465: The fight with the shadow
There was one word for the empire knights at the moment, and that was "Unorganised." Knights were currently running around the whole empire at the moment and heading everywhere but the arena. This was because several reports from up high, which were received from below of attacks happening in different areas were being reported.
With a big army, the longer it took to mobilise it correctly. Still, they would have small units placed in each area for circumstances such as these. The knights that were stationed in these areas would go to the closest reports first. This was to keep them busy, and at the moment, no one knew what was going on at the arena.
The broadcast was paused after the remaining contestants forfeited. To them, all the fights that were meant to happen had already taken place and thought it was quite normal for it to stop. They never saw that one of the contestants was meant to fight the beast, nor the shadow beast entering the arena.
All of this was because of the parties involved at the top. Some were against the empire and somehow had a grudge with what Sera had done to them, and they saw this as an opportunity. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, so they would use the shadow to get rid of both of them.
The only knights that were engaged with the True Infected were those that were at the arena. Each one of them was a person who had come from the strange facility. About a hundred of them were surrounding the area, while there were two hundred or so knights.
The empire knights were skilful, more so than your average knight. They were stronger then the regular knight's other kingdoms had, and one could see that with how little people they had lost so far to the true infected. The main problem was, the enemies number wasn't getting any smaller.
Each time they struck their bodies, the shadow would morph and move covering where they just hit. Even if they weren't getting hurt due to their skill, they were tiring themselves out attacking and defending all the time seeing no result. It was not just physically but a tremendous mental toll not seeing the opponent in front of you wearing down.
"Sir, not one of these monsters have been defeated yet." A knight said huffing and panting.
"I know." He said as he Deflected another attack, not sure how much longer he could keep this up for.
Just then, while the infected hand was lifted from the parry, he saw a blonde-haired young warrior rush passed with his longsword. He was committing fully to the blow and had gone slightly right of the target instead of left. It looked like he was aming for the heart at first but then for some reason altered his attack.
The sword had implied the true infected, and soon the shadow surrounding the person had fallen, revealing a middle-aged woman with a mouth full of blood.
"Thank you." She mouthed as she fell to the floor.
"May you rest in peace."
Not just there, but in all different directions, the all kingdom fighters had come to help and turn the tides. They who had experience fighting the shadow.
"The shadow is mostly an illusion, it will shift it in places to make you assume the body is in one place. Even if you do cause a cut, it will make it look like you haven't." The young boy shouted. "The shadow will continue to force the user to fight, no matter how torn its body is using the shadows' strange properties. Stabitsin it's heart, to kill and get rid of the shadow. To find the real body, those that can use Ki, focus it in your eyes and hopefully you will be able to pinpoint where the heart is. It is important that you are fully committed to kill with each strike. The longer the fight goes on, the more chance you have of losing."
If the young blonde haired boy had just come out and spouted these facts, there wouldn't have been many that listened to him, but because he did so after defeating one so easily. The other knights took his word.
The squad leader of the empire couldn't help but think this had to be planned. These were the best warriors of the other kingdoms', and they had experienced war themselves. Perhaps the kingdoms weren't as weak as the empire perceived them to be.
Still the true infected were strong, and those from the all Kingdom tournament weren't many. They could only help so much at a time as they went around.
Inside the arena itself, Slyvia was reacting a little differently to the others. Her eyes were now completely black. With her sword and shield, she started to swing them at Martha and Harry, who were closest.
It was strange, the swings were wild, and her voice slightly distorted. While her body was completely fine. To them, it meant they had hope, she was stronger than others and fighting it. Or perhaps it was because she hadn't been infected with the shadow for too long, there was still a chance to save her.
Harry tried to hit her sword away, in a skilful way that would de arm her, but when he made contact, the strength in her swing was harder then he had thought. It was almost equal to his own. Yes her attacks were sloppy but powerful. If he wanted to, he could hurt and attack her, but that wasn't what they were trying to do right now.
They needed to knock her out somehow without getting hurt themselves, which at the moment was a hard thing to do.
Slyvia with her black filled pupils looked at all of them as if they were her prey, but suddenly, out from behind something had latched onto her back. His legs wrapped around her waist and holding her arms up while keeping him locked together behind her neck.
"Kyle!" Martha said.
"Stop saying my name, and do something." Kyle blurted out.
It was taking all his strength, including using his Ki just to keep her in that position. Sylvia shook and shook as if she was trying to get a monkey off her back.
"Tackle her to the ground!" Roy shouted.
Borth Martha and Harry looked at him, confused.
"Just do it, trust me," Roy said, as both of his hands were starting to glow slightly.
Not using their swords was ideal for them, so they listened, and started running forward with their shoulder out front. They knew Slyvia now had crazy strength so they would both have to slightly transform into their beast forms to give them that extra power.
Kyle, who was still held on top, could see them coming towards her, and in his head, he could picture what was going to happen to him as well.
The two banged straight into her, and then when she was in the air, they slammed her into the ground pinning her down. The blow was strong, and the seats where they were sitting were utterly destroyed as the body hit the floor.
However, Kyle had never let go, and he had taken most of the impact. Luckily he had a feeling that his so-called friends wouldn't be out for his concern, so just before everything happened, he too transformed and hardened his back just in time.
Now with all three of them pinning her down. Roy quickly hopped on top of her.
"Whatever you do, don't let go," Roy said as he placed both hands on top of her chest piece.
It started to glow slightly and the chest piece heated up, in turn heating up her body as well. At the same time, an almighty scream from the top of Slyvia's lungs had come out.
"You're hurting her. You're going to kill her!" Martha shouted.
Harry wasn't too sure this was the right thing to do either. The heat was extreme, because he could even feel it radiating on his face and he wasn't as close as Sylvia was.
"This won't get rid of the shadow, but it will temporarily halt it from taking over any more of her body. As long as her mind is active, it gives the shadow, that ant thing or whatever a chance to take over. The shadow is what's keeping her from passing out right now. Do you think any normal person could take this amount of pain?"
Then slowly, it looked as if the shadow was retreating from one of the eyes.
"Who are you?" Harry asked.
"Don't you remember, I'm a tower mage of Roland academy."
"Ex." Kyle managed to blurt out, still being crushed by the others' pressure as they continued to pin her down.
*****
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