Chapter 526: The truth behind the shadow (1/2)

Behind the shadow man, Ray could see that Van was in great pain and the portal above him was almost opened. At the same time, he had noticed the magic circle underneath.

'That shadow man, he must be standing in front of Van because he needs to protect the magic circle.' Ray thought.

Looking at the ground and the tower that they stood on, Ray formulated a plan. If he brought the whole tower down and saved Van, then whatever the Shadow man had planned wouldn't be a problem at all, everything would be resolved.

Gathering the power in his fists, Ray lifted them in the air and was ready to slam them down on the ground, destroying the tower in one hit. He had gathered all of his power so that this seemingly impossible task would be easy for him.

When his fists hit the ground however, shadows rose up from the floor and his plan appeared to be thwarted before it had even begun. The castle walls didn't shake, the tower wasn't destroyed, the impact did nothing. It was as if his entire attack had been cancelled out by another force.

'The black shadow on the ground, that wasn't here before.' Ray noticed. When he looked up from the ground, he could see that the shadow man had both hands on the floor and had spread the shadow to cover the whole of the tower's ground, including where the magic circle was. When he looked over to Van, his energy was still being used to open up the portal.

”You could punch this tower a thousand times and it would never break.” The shadow man said.

However Ray wasn't startled, he remained calm.

”Then the answer was simple from the very beginning. All I have to do is get rid of you!” Ray shouted, as large circular fireballs formed in each of his hands. The fireballs weren't the ordinary ones that Ray had created in the past, they burned an intense red colour.

Throwing them at the shadow man, he stood there fearless. The shadow from the man's body started to move and created a barrier and shadows appeared directly behind Ray as well. When the attacks hit the walls of shadow that were created, they had been redirected towards Ray.

He caught the attacks, creating flames on his hands, but the force was stronger than expected and it took a lot of magical ability to contain them. Eventually Ray hit them away towards the fortress. When they hit the castle walls that were unprotected by the shadow, it exploded and caused the whole place to burst and turn into flames.

”Sen, I always looked up to you because of your strength, and I thought you really would achieve your wish, but it looks like I have become strong enough to achieve it myself.” The shadow man shouted over the noise of war and the burning fortress.

”Who are you!” Ray said, running forward with his dragon sword held in his hand. If magic wouldn't work, then he would just have to hurt him the old fashioned way.

Ray swung down his sword which was avoided by the shadow man, then Ray proceeded with a punch soon after. Once again a shadow wall had been raised and when Ray's hand touched the shadow, it started to slow him down as if it had been sunken into the shadow. Ray attempted to pull it away but before he could, he had been hit in the stomach and then soon after kicked by a giant foot.

The power was great and Ray was thrown through the air but before he could land, his body had gone through another shadow and now he was falling from the sky towards the shadow man.

”Maybe this will jog your memory.” The shadow man said. Suddenly a tail made from shadows wrapped around Ray's body and held him in place and soon after the man's body started to change and shift, it was as if it was morphing into something else.

As the man grew in size, he leapt on top of another part of the castle and took Ray with him who was still being held by the tail. Finally his gigantic true form was revealed and everyone fighting beasts down below could see it as well.

”It's a..a..a dragon!” Those from the Redwings started to shout and panic.

”A dragon?” Martha thought as she looked up. She wondered if the portal had been successfully opened but it still seemed like it had a while to go. Seeing the dragon, she could see it was black in colour and certain areas of its body had shadow surrounding it. It's tail and the spikes on its back were all covered in the shadow.

”Is that the Shadow's true form, is that what we have been fighting against this whole time, an ancient dragon?” Thinking about this, she was now concerned for Ray as well.