Fallen Fate Online

"What... it talks...?" Some of the students muttered with their eyes wide open.

The teachers looked at each other, nodded, and quickly stood in front of the split rock, trying to protect the students. They had critically low mana as well as they were exhausted, but it was their duty.

Byron\'s ring sparkled, he drank a blue potion and prepared for battle. From joyful, the atmosphere instantly became tense, as the mere aura of the monster was enough to instill fear in the students.

"Rea... Step aside, stand beside Byron." Solomon uttered, staring intently at the monster.

"Agh...? Father, I can help! I can probably do something!" Rea said excitedly with a wave of his hand.

"GET OUT!" Solomon shouted, which made Rea freeze for a moment, then she gulped and ran toward Byron. There was dismay on her face, for her father very rarely lost his temper and raised his voice.

The monster finished licking the blood from its claws as it glanced at Solomon. Its blue eyes were not human, it was a real monster, but with consciousness.

"Who are you?" Solomon asked with a deadly serious expression.

"Does it make any difference...? Until now, I\'m not even sure how long I\'ve been asleep..." The monster muttered in a hoarse voice, "Let\'s just say I\'m a shadow."

"Shadow?" Byron frowned, "What do you want? There are better targets in this forest than our academy students. Leave right now, and we\'ll forget about what you did."

Shadow glanced at the students, then at Solomon, and grinned widely, revealing his blood-red fangs.

"I have no reason to leave... Each of these students may become a follower of Fate in the future... so... I\'d better get rid of you right now..." Shadow muttered, stepping forward.

Solomon and Byron understood what Shadow was talking about, but, the rest of the teachers and especially the students were completely baffled. They didn\'t yet know that Fate was not an absolutely good thing, everything had its flaws.

"This is stupid." Solomon struck his staff to the ground, "Even if you have several Rings and your power is at Terror Grade, you don\'t stand a chance against us."

Rea\'s eyes went wide when she heard that.

\'Father is experienced enough to determine an opponent\'s power by his aura moreover he knows how to see the Rings of others... Shit... Now I understand why he acted that way...\' Rea shuddered as a chill went down her back. In that moment she realized that if she were in front of Shadow, her life would be over in a second.

Shadow smirked, he turned his head several times as if stretching his shoulders, and making a loud crunching sound coming from his bones.

"Hehehe... That\'s funny..." Shadow exhaled cold steam as he tilted his body forward slightly.

"What? You didn\'t like being exposed?" Solomon said coldly.

Shadow shook his head, "No... It doesn\'t bother me... I was talking about you not understanding one thing... You Mages, too focused on numbers, but... can you show everything with it?"

"If it were a Knight in your place... it would already be in a defensive stance..." Shadow muttered as his silhouette blurred.

At the same moment, a creepy shadow appeared beside Kaira, drawing its claws over her.

Whoooooooooooosh.

Before Shadow could do anything about it, a hail of ice crystals exploded on him, hurtling toward him.

Shadow created a lump of the darkness beside him, exploding it and thus throwing himself aside.

"You think that\'s supposed to impress me?" Solomon appeared beside Shadow when his feet just touched the ground, "You should have left when Byron gave you that opportunity."

Crackle. Crackle. Crackle.

Electric discharges appeared on Solomon\'s fingertips, his hand quickly approaching Shadow. This attack didn\'t look dangerous, but all Shadow\'s instincts screamed that he shouldn\'t let Solomon\'s hand reach its target.

Shadow\'s silhouette blurred as he took a step to the side like a phantom, quickly bringing his claws down on Solomon.

However, as soon as the claws touched Solomon\'s mantle, it was covered in multiple runes, forming a protective barrier. It threw Shadow aside, causing him to bleed from the powerful recoil.

"Tsk." Solomon frowned, he had to undo the spell he had spent so much mana on.

"Good job!" Byron exclaimed, pointing his hand at Shadow. At the same moment, next to Shadow, who was still in flight, several magical circles appeared from which came out long, icy spikes.

"\'Useless...!!!" Shadow exclaimed furiously, thick darkness beginning to emanate from his claws as he made several turns at great speed, slicing the spikes into small shards.

\'Well, that was to be expected.\' Byron shrugged, preparing to attack again, he directed mana toward his hand.

Whooooooooooooosh.

Shadow touched the ground as he vanished, his body disintegrating into tiny particles. For a moment, everyone was puzzled, then Shadow appeared right in front of Byron, already attacking.

Byron\'s pupils narrowed as he instinctively swung his hand down, forming a thin ice barrier in front of him, it was the best he could do in such a short time.

Shadow\'s foot pierced through the ice barrier like a piece of paper, stabbing into Byron\'s stomach, causing his face to grimace at the vivid pain that ran through his body.

"Argh!!!" Byron vomited a mouthful of blood as the impact tossed him aside, he rolled over the ground raising dust until he stopped by hitting a tree.

Shadow turned to Solomon, but, a massive lightning bolt was already flying at him, it was right in his face. Shadow\'s mind completely shut down, he acted purely reflexively. 

His body twisted at a strange angle, a human would have broken his spine, but for Shadow, it was possible, so the lightning bolt flew right over him.

"Not bad... You\'re strong... Very strong... I need to get rid of you first..." Shadow muttered, turning back into clots of darkness.

...

Step. Step. Step.

The man in the black cloak approached the cracked mountain with a slight smile on his face.

"Well, well, looks like we came in time like real heroes. Didn\'t we?" Klaus turned, to the young man whose eyes shone brightly like stars.