Hector and Damon both oblige and grab onto Zerik’s arm. The three of them mirror jump into the glass like material that formed the ground of Eros. Hector feels a little chill along his spine as they jump, and a sudden surge of energy flows through him. Without a doubt, it was the same feeling he gets every time he ate a cube of Shadow Sugar. He realizes that there was barely any difference between shadow and mirror energy. In fact, the only thing that separated them was the source they came from.
When they emerge from the jump, Hector immediately senses the presence of various Void. Though one in particular stands out to him, and he was standing confidently next to a behemoth bigger than all of the buildings surrounding them.
“Great.” Damon says. “Valus is here.”
Zerik frowns. “That will cause some problems, but no matter. Valus knows that he’s outnumbered here. If anything, he’s probably just guarding the Void who is set to destroy the gates of Eros. I doubt he’s here to pick a fight.”
Hector rolls his eyes. “That’s no different than him being on the offensive! If our target is the thing he’s protecting, he’s gonna fight us without hesitation.”
Zerik looks down at the ground. “You’re right, Hector. How foolish of me.” He looks up and studies the giant monster on the street. “That behemoth must be the one that will break open the gates to Eros. I’ve never seen a Void like that before.”
“That’s definitely it.” Damon says. “From the spying and research I did after Valus took me back to the Void, I learned that the monster’s weak spot is his head”
“Just like anything else that’s alive.” Hector says. “What’s the catch?”
“The rest of it’s body is not so easy to damage. His outer layer of skin is basically a suit of armor.”
Hector prepares to fire back a snappy remark, but gets distracted as Valus of the Void swiftly raises his hand. The Void smiles and shakes his head. “Damon, how rude of you to use your Stitch against your very own brother. And then you stole away two of my most sought after targets. I might cry.”
Damon sneers. “Oh please, you’ve never shed a tear in your entire life.”
Zerik suddenly outstretches his hand, and a swirl of silver smoke appears around him. The smoke billows and moves towards one spot, forming a cloud of smoke. But Hector quickly realizes that the smoke wasn’t just condensing- it was forming something. Within a matter of seconds, the smoke has taken on the shape of a lion.
Zerik points at the behemoth Void. “Destroy the giant.”
Hector watches in awe as the lion takes off with impressive speed, leaving a thin trail of smoke in its path. A couple lesser Void appear in it’s way, but the lion just slashes them with it’s claws, turning them into clouds of purple dust.
“What is that?” Hector asks in awe. The lion’s strength was incredible for being a big cloud of smoke. Zerik unclenches his hand to reveal a silver orb resting on his palm.
“Animal Instinct- an Invert power. That lion is an extension of my soul, and has great destructive power. Want to try it out?”
Hector smiles and holds out his hands. “What do you think?”
Zerik tosses the silver stone towards Hector. But before he can catch it, the stone is blown away to his right- directly towards Valus.
“Ella, spread them apart.” Valus commands. Before Hector can process what Valus meant, his group is suddenly dispersed in different directions. Hector smacks against a building and lets out a yelp. Dazed from the impact, he tries to stand up and balance himself. Two more elite Void are suddenly in the plaza, one of them quickly walking towards Hector.
“Not so tough when you have no friends around, huh?” The Void women asks.
Hector bites the inside of his cheek as he realizes how the tables have turned. Zerik and Damon were busy fighting with another Void women yards away. Valus himself fights with the lion that Zerik summoned. Hector was alone, and the fear of facing an elite finally begins to sink in. So far he’s done nothing but be protected by people much stronger than him. He knew that the elite Void were strong, but he figured that Isaac would just protect them when things got too tough. He never imagined himself going head to head with an elite. Knowing that he’s outmatched, he does the only thing that he can think of- he goes invisible.
“So this is one of your Chains, huh?” The woman says. “You must be a tracker. But if that’s the case, then you probably don’t have any other way of fighting me. You’re just a coward who hides behind his friends.”
Hector flinches at the insult, but he doesn’t let it get to him. Unless the Void woman could sense his presence, he was safe. He tiptoes his way to the silver stone that Zerik tried to throw him. But as he reaches down and picks the stone off of the ground, a sudden forces hits him from his side and knocks him back down to the ground. He tightens his grip on the stone and ignores the pain from the mysterious blow, focusing only on turning the stone invisible as well.
The woman laughs. “It doesn’t matter if you turn the stone invisible- it doesn’t even matter if you hide from me. Everything is within my reach.”
Hector fights back the urge to taunt the woman and tries to focus on gathering mirror energy. He knew how to manifest shadow energy, so it couldn’t possibly be too different here in Eros. After a few seconds he feels a spark inside of his body- he was definitely pulling in mirror energy. The process was even easier than using his shadow energy due to the setup of Eros. Reflections were everywhere, feeding him power. But the second he feels control over the energy he’s suddenly being pulled directly towards the Void woman. He tries to fight the mysterious force but is unable to even move a finger. Her hand grips around Hector’s neck and she slams him onto the ground. The blow knocks the air out of his lungs, and he loses control of his shadow energy. He turns visible once again.
“What a weak boy you are. And you’re supposed to be some type of threat to us?” The woman says. She raises her hand in the air and looks at Hector with contempt. “Just die.” Her hand comes down and Hector braces for whatever type of impact was coming his way. But only inches from his face, his opponents arm is suddenly encased in a thick layer of ice.
Hector stares, confused, but he quickly comes to his senses. He kicks the Void woman off of her feet and scrambles to stand up. “Nick!” He shouts.
His teammate walks towards him with snowflakes swirling around his right hand. “You go on one adventure by yourself and you almost get killed. I’m supposed to be the no-skill rookie you know.”
Hector couldn’t help but smile. “Shut up, we’re both new when it comes to field work.”
The elite growls as the ice on her arm suddenly shatters and flies away from her. She stands up and holds the arm that was just frozen.“Nicholas Winters.” She says scowling. “I can’t kill you, otherwise Valus would get angry. However, I don’t think he’d be upset if I just broke a couple ribs.”
“Well Valus is a little busy, so by all means go all out against me. I know how your ability works, so you have no way of actually beating me.” Nick replies with confidence.
Hector was seriously loving his friends bravery. “Yeah lady, we’re going to kick your ass!”
Nick’s feet suddenly become encased in ice. “Hector, this girls name is Ella. She’s one of Valus’ lackeys.”
“Yeah I noticed that. Her and the other woman here are the same ones who had us trapped back on earth. So how do her powers work, Mr. Detective?”
Nick suddenly launches an orb of shadow energy from his hand. It flies towards Ella, and Hector watches as it is suddenly deflected to the side. Ella points a finger at Nick, then grunts. Nick breaks out in a small fit of laughter. “Sorry lady, that won’t work on me. Correct me if I’m wrong, but your Stitch has three parts to it, right?”
“Do you think that will help you out here?” Ella asks. “My Stitch lets me repel and attract whatever I see. I can pull you in or send you flying, or even hold you in place. But with a power like this, it doesn’t matter if you know how
it works. The only way to fight against it is if you can actually overpower my energy with a better ability. Weaklings like you two don’t have that type of power. In fact, you probably think that-” Ella lets out a shriek as a coating of ice suddenly spreads over her body, quickly covering up to her neck.
“You talk too much.” Nick says.
“Woah, Nick! How did you do that?” Hector says, amazed at his friends abilities.
Nick’s feet break out of the ice shell surrounding them, and as he steps away the ice disappears. Hector sees that there are two holes in the ground where Nick’s feet were. “I created a foothold with the ice so she couldn’t move me, and dug my ice through the ground so that it would reach her without me having to visibly attack her.”
“You tricked me.” Ella snares.
Hector smiles. “No lady, you were just too stupid to realize what was going on.”
Ella growls. “Why you cocky little punks. Do you two really think that you can just-” She becomes silent as the ice covers her entire head.
“She really did talk too much. And she had way too much confidence in her own strength.” Nick says as he walks towards Hector.
Hector holds up his hand for a high five. Nick smiles and follows through with it.
“We should go help Allison out with that other Void.” He suggests.
“Why are you guys here?” Hector asks. “I mean thank god you are, but what-”
“Isaac woke up.” Nick interrupts him. “Long story short, we heard that the Void attacked so we came out here to help. Thankfully we got here just in time to save your life. Now Isaac is fighting with Valus and Allison is helping out Damon and that Invert jerk.”
“Zerik.” Hector corrects. “And he’s actually not that bad.”
“He kidnapped us so that he had hostages to convince you to marry him.” Nick says with an eyebrow raised.
“Yeah, that part is kind of weird. But outside of that he-”
Hector suddenly feels a wave wash over him as the ice around Ella cracks and shatters apart. Nick and Hector are sent flying backwards, and Ella laughs.
“I told you that you two are too weak! Now come here, Winters!”
Nick yelps as his body is suddenly dragged along the ground towards Ella.
“Hector I can’t move!” Nick yells. “Help me out here!”
Hector’s heartbeat kicks up a few paces now that his friends life was suddenly in danger. He grips the silver stone even harder and tries his hardest to focus his energy. Ella grabs Nick by the leg and lifts him off of the ground, then tosses him onto the street, his body being pulled back in as soon as he lands. Hector feels the stone growing warm as he tries to focus his energy. As if to tell him that he’s done things correctly, a veil of smoke suddenly appears around Hector.
He didn’t have the slightest clue as to how the Invert powers worked, but the silver smoke was already forming some type of shape. The smoke takes the form of a four legged animal. Given its physical attributes, he can tell that it’s supposed to be some type of dog. Hector smiles at his first successful use of his Invert powers. “Go destroy that woman with purple hair.” He orders.
The dog quickly zips away in the same fashion of Zerik’s lion. Ella, who was too busy trying to torture Nick, is surprised when the dog tackles her to the ground. The dog tries to bite into her neck, but is blown away along with Nick. The silver smoke disappears in the wind. Hector runs over to Nick and pulls him onto his feet.
“Weak powers, boy.” Ella says. “I’m finishing this now, you two are getting desperate.”
“Do it again Hector!” Nick shouts.
“It won’t work! I don’t have enough experience with it yet to overpower her.”
“Just do it!” His teammate shouts. Hector looks at his friend’s face and sees a look of determination in his eyes. He then notices that Nick’s right hand, which was clasped onto Hector’s shoulder, was glowing red. Hector feels his body being pulled in along with Nick, but he does as his friend told him to. He focuses his mind on the stone just as he did before, but this time he feels much more power flowing through him. He didn’t know what was going on, but he knew that Nick was doing something to his body.
Quicker than before, a veil of silver smoke appears around Hector and Nick, but with much greater volume. The smoke quickly begins forming in multiple spots. Hector watches with a smile as nine figures are formed out of the smoke he summoned, this time in much more detail than before. Hector could actually tell what the animal was supposed to be now.
“What is this?” Ella says, her voice cracking from fear. It wasn’t until this very moment that Hector realized he and Nick were no longer being pulled in by Ella’s powers.
Hector looks at the nine creatures surrounding him and smiles at the cowering elite Void before him. “These are the wolves of the pit.” Hector declares before turning to the wolf to his left. “Dinner time.”
The pack of wolves launch off at a quick speed, leaving trails of smoke in their way. Ella’s face contorts to display a variety of emotions- ranging from anger to fear- as she realizes that her powers suddenly had no effect on Hector’s. She lets out a scream as the wolves dash past her, each one taking bites mid air and then phasing into a cloud of smoke, only to reform into a wolf on the other side of Ella to attack her from behind. The Void woman lets out a harsh screech.
Hector refocuses his attention to the giant Void attacking Eros’ gate. Isaac was too busy fighting Valus to completely take the monster down, but Hector couldn’t let the opportunity escape. He wills three of his wolves to attack the giant. The behemoth was already injured from some of Isaac’s attacks, as well as Zerik’s lion, but the wolves only sealed the deal on it’s life.
As the monster bangs on some invisible object in the air, the wolves dash into his body. Upon impact, each of the wolves explode, leaving behind a cloud of silver dust. There were now craters on the Void’s chest and back, which revealed a layer of raw pink flesh underneath it’s usual armor like skin. The third explosion, which was a direct hit to the monster's face, was enough to make the giant topple over. Nick seizes the opportunity and sends forth a burst of energy, creating a large spike of ice pointing up from the ground.
The giant lands onto it, the ice going straight into the raw flesh exposed on it’s back, and lets out a howl loud enough to make Hector cover his ears. But the whine is cut short, as the giant explodes into the biggest cloud of purple dust that Hector had ever seen. Hector and Nick exchange a smile and high five each other once again. The two of them had just taken down one of the four monsters that threatened the success of their mission. Hector was actually starting to feel like he was a part of a team.
But his pride in his victory is quickly thrown aside once he’s reminded of the women standing before him. “Valus!” Ella screams out in pain and anger. “Valus help me!” A wolf bites into her shoulder and she quickly punches it off of her, only for two more to bite into both of her arms, leaving her unable to defend herself.
A cloud of purple smoke suddenly appears next to Ella. A sword crosses though each of the wolves, one by one, making them fade away. Valus doesn’t pay any attention to Hector or Nick, and instead stands over Ella. A cloud of black appears before Hector, only to solidify into his captain, who now stood tall and healthy. There was no sign that he had ever received the bite.
Valus shakes his head as he looks down at his comrade.
“Valus, thank you.” Ella says with a smile. “These brats pulled some type of power out of nowhere. But with you here, we can kill them without any trouble. I’m going to enter stasis, can you cover me while I-”
Valus swings his sword down and impales Ella in the chest. The Void woman’s eyes grow wide, and Hector notices a single tear come from her left eye. It was an expression of pure betrayal. “Valus… I loved you more than-” Her body explodes into a cloud of purple dust. Valus lets out a sigh and turns to Hector’s group.
“What would I look like having such a weakling ru
nning around with me, being defeated by two rookie Walkers?” Valus says without a trace of sympathy. He smiles. “Good job Hector. And Nick, looks like you didn’t just get your mother’s powers. You must have inherited her cunning as well.”
“Give her back!” Nick shouts. “What could you possibly want with her? Why take her over any other regular human?”
Valus chuckles. “Your family and I go way back, boy. I guess I can spill the beans here, there really isn’t a point in keeping things secret anymore.” He turns his gaze to Nick, and the murderous gleam in his eyes reminds Hector why this man was so infamously feared. The other Void felt like challenges, monsters that posed a threat. Valus was a force of nature itself, something you couldn’t simply ‘defeat’.
And Hector was completely lost with what was going on. He didn’t know the extent of Valus’ connection to Nick and his family. “Nick, what’s he talking about?”
Valus keeps his eyes glued on Nick as he speaks. “Nicholas here has a mother named Maria Winters. She was a pureblood Shadow Walker that came from the Pit itself. Somewhere along the road, she fell in love with a man named Calum- and that man would become Nick’s father. I despised Maria more than anyone else in the world. After all, she was the only one who could stand up to my strength. I held a grudge against that woman since the day I first met her. When I found out that she was pregnant, I was both excited. Her powers, the only ones in the world that could defy me, would disappear. But at the same time I was disappointed, because my most elusive prey would no longer make for a fun hunt.”
“So you tried to kill me back on earth just out of hatred towards my mother? That’s pretty petty for a killing machine as strong as you.” Nick spits. Hector’s eyes widen in shock at the boy’s guts. Right there, Hector expected Valus to strike Nick down. But instead, he laughs.
“You even have her annoying attitude. Anyways, yes. I want to kill you out of a grudge, and also because you possess her powers. It could be troublesome for me if I don’t erase you from this world before your powers are fully awakened. So I have a proposition for you to consider right here and now.”
Shadow Walkers Page 18