My Shadow Monarch's System
Chapter 43: A Strangers Request.

Chapter 43: A Strangers Request.

The man who stood before Shadow backed up by a few meters, he reached for his blade and drew it, leveling it at Shadow.

"How did you find me?" He asked calmly.

Shadow shrugged, although he doubted the man would be able to see his facial expression in the dark of the night.

"How else, I can’t be spied upon. And you made it a bit too obvious" he lied.

"Impossible. I made sure to hide myself from yours or anyone’s detection abilities" he cried out, taking a few steps back.

He’s that good huh? Shadow sighed.

"Alright I’m tired, out with it. What do you want?" Shadow asked the young man tiredly, although he couldn’t see the man’s face, he knew the man was quite powerful. He was a head taller than Shadow, which was actually pretty tall for a human being.

The man side stepped, walking in a half circle, trying to gauge Shadow who still rested on the wall he had appeared from.

"Alright. You’ve been following me for quite a while. You know just how tired I am, I need to sleep. So let’s get this over with and you can stop stalking me. How does that sound huh?" Shadow pulled himself up from the wall and looked around him.

Other adventures hadn’t noticed what was going on and honestly he preferred it that way.

"I challenge you to a Duel!" The man cried out.

Shadow was stumped. He looked at the bulky man and cocked his head.

"Are you mad?" He asked genuinely and out of concern.

"Do I look like some kind of glorious knight with honor?" Shadow spat on the ground, he reached to his side and brought out his daggers.

"I beg you to Indulge me to a battle. I ask this of you" he called out then stood at a place. "My name is Dian." The man called out once more before attacking.

He used a broadsword and had the strength to match it. He made a downward swing, but Shadow sidestepped the attack to his right side and ducked as Dian made a followup swing to his left.

Shadow rolled the ground and stood up jumping, Dian was already on him again, not giving him a chance to catch his breath or watch his moves. But in the face of Dian’s overwhelming strength, Shadow smiled.

He seemed to be a match for him. If he didn’t use his shadow magic to fight, which would be a major drawback.

Dian made another powerful swing but missed as the sword clanged to the ground leaving a web of cracks.

Fast!

Shadow lunged at him, shooting out his right hand with his dagger but Dian moved quickly, using the hilt of his blade to block the attack and head butted Shadow leaving him momentarily stunned. With that Dian matched Shadow square in the chest sending him flying back a few meters.

Shadow coughed, half surprised, half in pain, he could taste his own blood, and he might have broken a rib from that attack. ’I have to be careful’ he thought to himself only taking Dian seriously now.

"My name is Shadow" he called out. With that he melted into the darkness.

Dian looked around in a hurry, in a rush he stabbed his sword into the ground and muttered a few words. A ghostly aura could be seen coming out from the outline of his body, the aura grew more visual, stronger and adaptive. Following the movements of Dian himself.

Shadow paused for a bit. Why am I doing this again? Hell this guy is way stronger than any one I’ve faced up till now. Which isn’t a lot.

He had to move anyway, he dashed forward and aimed for Dian’s joints, that would be the weakest parts of whatever it was that he summoned around himself, but his dagger simply bounced off.

Immediately it did, Dian moved with light speed, lashing out at Shadow but only met the clash of steel on steel. Dian stumbled back a bit surprised but regained himself faster.

He jumped back, maintaining a distance between the weird shadows and himself. He studied the shadows and how they moved, something or someone seemed to move along with it, as though the shadows themselves were alive.

Dian tried dashing forward again, but couldn’t.

He looked down at his feet and saw that his right foot was frozen solid. He tried pulling his feet out but it was of no use. If he tried any harder, his skin would peel off.

He saw a flash from the corner of his eyes and immediately blocked. But nothing came. What he felt instead was a gut renching punch to his stomach, breaking the barrier he had summoned around his body, he dropped his weapon and crumpled to the ground, holding his sides tightly.

"Aah. That took longer than expected, seems you’re better than you look..." Shadow rested his daggers on his shoulder and looked about, some people had gathered around and were looking at him but that was about it.

"I... Admit defeat" Dian took his deep breaths of air as he tried to stabilize himself.

"Well no shit!" Shadow laughed. He sheathed back his dagger and squatted in front of Dian holding his hair tightly.

" So tell me Dian, what is it you want?".

Dian looked up stubbornly but didn’t resist. "You seemed suspicious so I wanted to know if you were amongst them" he gritted his teeth.

"Who? Among who?" Shadow asked, he thought he had hidden himself well enough for people to not ask such Mundane questions.

"The cult, the one that kills women and children, kidnaps villagers and disappears without a trace" he replied.

Shadow let go of his hair, he could hear the hurt and hatred in his voice, he stood up and dusted himself clean.

"Perhaps we can talk about this at a later date. Maybe on the morrow" Shadow said.

"Wait..." Dian called out but Shadow was no more, he had simply disappeared, just as he had come. The shadows around Dian moved about slightly as if reacting to the absence of their Lord.