Taurou thanked Nhieling for his intervention while rubbing his forearms. I can easily take care of those traps, he tapped his cat ears. Just make a noise from the direction you want to check, and I'll be able to tell you if there is anything foreign there. He gave a small smile and his ears twitched as he heard banging on the door. He gave out a sigh and pulled out the figurine of his spear and said: Was hoping it would be easier than this... 成長.

I don't know what happen to you, but the one that attacked me were a lot too much organized. There is something fishy about it, it's too easy... It's like... They're letting us out.
I agree. there is no way they would let 3 mage with their weapon in a cell guarded by a fool.

As they were progressing into the dungeon, they encountered no one. Like the building was abandoned. Empty cell after empty cell. No one were on the guarding post either.

It's like... It's a ghost dungeon.



Nhieling was looking around, unease. The hallway was gloomy. Poorly lit.

I think we should be careful.

They were now standing in front of a big metal door, with two blade carved on.
We must get through it.

[I make it so you can go with your idea, if you have one. If you have none, then just crush the door I'll develop the next part to be really interesting ^^ Up to you]

Taurou was quite concerned with the empty cells. Weren't there supposed to be a large number of mages here if they were capturing all who use dark magic..? He thought to himself. As he finished his thought, he saw a small wisp appear in one of the cells. He pointed his spear towards its direction and it took the form of a decaying corpse. Taurou took a step back and looked around looking at all the other cells in the hallways, to see that all of them were filled with the same creatures. Nhieling, Erzihk.. We have company, the door will have to wait. He took a fighting stance and lunged thrusting this spear through the chest of one of the corpses only to see it explode in a multitude of wisps. The wisps all went straight for Taurou and no matter how much he dodged he couldn't escape them. He was struck in the chest and it didn't hurt him, but left him feeling considerably weaker than before. The hell..?

Undead?? ! It seem one of the other dark mage have already start to eliminate the concurent...

Nhieling draw a lighter, and set his puppet ablazed.

I know an only way to deal with undead, and it's fire. We must be really carefull, it seem that some of the other jailed feel like fighting.
Then Nhieling launch his puppet on the closer corpse.

Fire... Taurou said with a serious expression on his face. He knocked away two more of the corpses and blew one to bits with an Exarmatio spell. The wisps again entered his chest and he felt more of the exhausting pain. Nhieling, be careful... These things turn to wisps when killed, and they seem to like me and sap my energy everytime they die. He kicked one of the slow paced bastards in the face and backfisted another one, trying not to kill them so he wouldn't have to deal with the wisps.

This thing are eating the darkness power into your body. Erzihk touched Taurou shoulder, a dark aura start embuing him.
This isn't really strong, but it will hide your aura, the wisp will stop on the aura instead of getting to you.

The undead didn't seemed to be endless, as Nhieling killed through them, their number start reducing. Suddenly, all the standing one stop mooving, and then fell to the ground. Inanimate. the wisp in their body start flowing out, and gathered into a big mass of power. Then the big thing strarted absorbind the flesh of the near corpse, mergind it into a new body. a thing with 2 leg,4 arm, about 2meter tall with claw instead of hand.

The monster get on his 4 lower member, and yell, then at an incredible speed it jump into the group, sending Nhieling flying into the wall.

%*@!! Taurou exclaimed staring at the monster as Nhieling went flying. This isn't good. He took the spear in both hands and ran towards the beast as it recovered from its attack. He slid under its belly and stabbed at the underside with his spear. The dark magic imbued inside of it flared and a darkness overtook Taurou's vision. As he slid past the beast, his vision was gone. He stood up and tried wiping his eyes but the darkness stayed. He spun towards the way he came and called out: Poen a dioddefaint, 5 spiritus fulgoris coentes sagittet inimicum. Sagicca Magica Serius Fulgoris! And a stream of 5 arrows of lightning flew forth from his hand and were engulfed in darkness gaining speed and power. After the spell had been released Taurou recoiled and his hand was struck with immense pain and he went to one knee, hoping that the monster would be hit by his spell.

Nhieling was nearly KO. It had been a long time since he last have been knocked this strong.
There was blood on him. At first ie touch his head, fearing an heavy injury, but he noticed the blood were black. The beast was bleeding from the spell of Taurou/
Wondering how much this beast was intelligent, he cast his Phantasmagoria curse on it, in a try to disturb it. But it seemed to be inefficient on the beast. His curse was working on the brain to disturb the vision part, but this thing seemed not to rely of the sight.
This... Monster his blind. Yelled Nhieling painfully.
The beast turned to Nhieling side, all claw out. Then Erzhik hit it from behind with full strengh.

Taurou staggered after his spell dissipated, not sure if he hit or not. He was blinded, and hearing Nhieling saying the monster was blind, made some sort of sense. Guess it wanted to fight on equal grounds... He said to himself. Nhieling are you alright!?

Nhieling was nearly KO, still unable to move. I won't be of any help for a few moment, try holding him without me.

The monster was moving randomly, slashing the air around him.
Erzhik through : The lack of place could both help them, and play against them. It would be hard to dodge in this confined place, but the movement of the creature will be limitated.

Without any second of hesitation, he give his dark power the form of two sword, and start rushing over the creature, yelling strong enough to draw the attention of the beast : Follow me Taurou !

Nhieling I've been blinded by the creature. Be my eyes whilst I use my hearing to dodge. He heard Erzhik yell out to him and he complied not knowing where he was. He felt the heat of Erzhik's body so he knew he was close and he stopped and realized, why attack with fists when he would smash his allies in the face? He remembered the dark void he was trapped in a while ago and tried the same tactic. He focused on the magic trapped in his eyes and tried siphoning it for his own use, which worked--but he still couldn't see. Alright then... He chanted out the incantation for Fulgoratio Ablicans as quickly as he could without screwing it up and reached out with his mind's eye and found the magic aura of this beast and Erzhik's. Erzhik, watch out!

Taurou launched the spell and it was engulfed with the black magic he siphoned from his eyes. The spell was so quick, he hoped Erzhik had enough time to get outta the way.

Nhieling land his puppet over Taurou shoulder. I'll guide you : Erzhik have dodged your attack by an hair thin and has his back against the wall now. Your spell have blow up a part of the ground under the beast, and it have its leg blocked in the hole, but is such a poor state that it will probably be tears appart in no time, but the beast don't seem to be bothered with pain.

Try to shot right in front of you, but a little higher, if you can draw his attention enough Erzhik will be able to get him.

Right. Taurou raised his hand and said Poen a dioddefaint-- He was in mid-incantation when the creature sprung towards him without him seeing it. He heard it though and cursed as he dodged left. The monster missed and jumped towards him again, this time he didn't have enough time to dodge. He spun just in time for a claw to appear infront of his face.

There was a sense of extreme pain, then numbness, then he could see again. But only out of his right eye. His left eye had a large claw lodged in it that was owned by the wisp-made monster. The monster backpedaled, licking the warm liquid off his claw that was Taurou's blood. Taurou stared forwards with his good eye before realization hit him. He dropped to his knees covering his eye-socket with the missing eye and screamed in pain. He was on the ground, bleeding and screaming as Erzhik held the beat off.

Seconds later that felt like hours to Taurou, he stopped screaming and stood slowly. He let his hands drop to his sides, leaving the empty eye socket to pour blood out. He looked at his hands with a blank expression. They were still covered with the shadows, but now also covered in gore. he saw his reflection in the puddle of blood on the ground and his face was also covered in gore. He staggered forwards, nearly tripping and gave up trying to move as he fell to his knees once more. He stayed there for a few more seconds before his body convulsed.

The darkness on his arms started to shake and move. The darkness consumed the whole of his arms and he felt like he was going to vomit. He put his arms on the ground to steady himself, and the darkness didn't stop at his arms, his body was now covered in darkness as if to ward off any more pain. It shook and the black lightning sporadically arced larger than ever. Taurou started to scream in pain once more as his body started to change with the darkness. His arms and legs became those of a panther, and his body was that of a lean feline. His whole body was changed into the form of a panther.

Taurou was now a one eyed panther with black lightning arcing from his body randomly at all times. He had his blade in his mouth and he bared his fangs at the creature and charged forwards. He was much faster than he was before and he zipped across the room right behind the creature. He raised his blade and swung downwards, digging the blade in its back. He jumped backwards and was going to cast a spell when realized what he was. He stopped moving and looked at himself in surprise. What the hell!? he thought. He looked at Nhieling, giving him a quizzical look as if to say: What did you do to me!?

Nhieling was astonished. It was... A surprise, really. This kind of magic Taurou used unconsciously was an ooooold one.
Really, it recalled him the old day, not his own, but his master's one.
There were some difference too, but it was really close to the old shamanism. Today, druid were playing with the shape shifting magic by getting closer to nature.
Original shamanism were a spiritual magic, were the user user his magic to get his spirit form, the one of his totem. This way, the ancient shaman were able to become astral wolf, or anything that fit their personality.
But this magic was a ritualistic one, that got lost through time since it was only offered from master to disciple. With the discovery of transcending spell, the new so called "religion" started hunting the pagans, leading this old magic to be forgotten.

It was different in Taurou case, it was like a manifestation of his inner spirit and inner energy combined.

Interesting... I can't explain it to you right now, but really interesting. You may have unconsciously unlocked a way to resurrect an old kind of magic. If I were you, I would test my power against this enemy, since it have already been weakened

The beast only have a leg and half an arm after Taurou and Erzhik combined assault.

Hearing Nhieling's words, Taurou acted right away. He used his new enhanced speed and power to fly by and cut through the creature's arm with his claws. His black lightning arced from his claws into the monster and the cuts he left were charged with the element and it slightly paralyzed the monster. He turned around and skidded on his claws and roared. His roar was the equivalent of an incantation and fired off five black lightning arrows. They spun into one large spell and slammed into the side of its head.

Nhieling was now back to his sense. The creature was now dead, or at least he wasn't moving and it was enough from Nhieling point of view. He started looking at his two mate : Erzhik seemed to use basic magic skill, but to an high level of mastery. He must have been through a lot of battlefield to reach such a level. magic empowering magic wasn't something weak, even through being basic, in Erzhik case, he used it to enhance his natural brawling ability, getting both powerful and extremely deadly.
Now was Taurou case :

The magic you're using now is called spiritual form. It's a ritualistic and shamanic magic, that is now long forgotten. It seem you discover it the same way the first shaman in the history of mankind have done : Through an extreme situation. Your form and way of use it is still very rough, be once we'll be out of here i'll help you with it, if you don't mind.
Be very prudent while using it, for what I know the main principle of this magic is to draw out your inner magic, and to cloak your body into it, and to shape it under your spiritual form, but everything that imply inner energy can also caused you to wake up your instinct, and the human brain isn't able to support the original instinct to his fullest. You would probably loose yourself, and become a beast. And even if you were able to come back to your sense, it would mean huge memory loss, and change of personality. You'll have to go gradually when using it of the damage could be permanent.
But it also mean that once you'll be trained enough you'll be able to have at the same time the human intelligence, and the beast 6th sense.

Taurou looked at Nhieling with his feline eyes. Not being able to turn back... That would be horrible. He shook his head. This was all too much. He was now a panther made out of shadows and lightning magic. Trying to process his thoughts, Taurou climbed the corpse of the beat he, Erzihk, and Nhieling slew. He plucked his sword from its hide and placed is in a sheath that was tied to his side. He hopped down and sudden pain struck him. He hissed as he shook his head trying to relieve the pain. His empty eye socket had started bleeding again. The reason? His magic formed a sphere of shadows, the same size as an eyeball, and fitted itself in his socket. He now had one eye, and one shadow sphere. He pawed the eye socket with the sphere in it and the pain stopped once it was fitted.

Now that that obstacle was cleared, Taurou walked over to the door and roared. His roar was like a fulgoratio ablicans and the lighting struck the door, blowing it open. He sniffed and walked in the darkness that awaited his group beyond the door.

Nhieling was worried, could Taurou get back to his normal form? He didn't know anything about this magic. Sure he could study it and compare it with theoretical result, but he didn't know if he could help Taurou in time, it seemed he already start to act more and more best like at every second.

Be it for now. They had more pressing matter right now. Behind this door was the arena Nhieling had spoken off, and he have a bad presentiment about it.
At the second the three of them get into the dark room, the door behind them closed, and the light was turned on.

in front of them, sating over three pillar were three person, all of them were cloaked into large clothe, making it impossible for them to see what they could look like.

After a few second of silence, the three of them jumped down. Each one of them were distant from around 15meter each. Their aura were the one of dark mage, there wasn't any doubt about it.

Erzhik wasn't moving an inch from his position. Nhieling was relaxed, but it was only an appearance.

This three are probably the one playing the game of our jailer, and the one that have killed all of the other aspirants for this battle game.

True, you're right, and the one here are the three stronger of all of the mage that were here.
Answered the one in the middle.
The rule of this game are simple : The three better out of all of us will be free from this place, and will get special reward such as a job in the organization that kidnap us. I still dunno why they're offering us it after sending us in such a mess, but I'll take over this little organization once I'll be done with you.


Looking at his two ally, he added : Or maybe some of you will be able to defeat this two and I'll take you under my commandment.

And none of "this two" are going to protest against the statement eh? Dark mage are not well know for their sense of cooperation you know.

Since none of them even flinched at Nhieling provocation, Nhieling add, to his two ally : He's probably a hell stronger than this two one, or they're just letting him be for the moment, anyway, each of you, pick one, this will be 1vs1 battle.

Taurou, still in his magical feral form, emitted a low growl from deep within his throat. He eyed each one of them, and suddenly his right eye (the good eye) started glowing purple suddenly. He looked at his allies and everyone had a feint black glow around them. Taurou turned his attention to his opponents and the middle on had such an immense aura, it was flaring almost as if one of the poles behind him was alight with black fire. The two adjacent to him though had about as much dark aura as one of the bugs flying through the stadium.

The glow ended and the aura's disappeared from his sight. He blinked in surprise and then hissed. He charged at the one on the right, using his newly heightened speed as a catalyst for a strong spell. The friction of his paws on the ground created more static than was necessary as he ran and he charged himself with magic. Once behind his target he roared and seven arrows of lightning sprung forth from his fur and into his target's back. The lightning must have at least hurt a little to this guy, even if he had an absolute defensive mechanism under his robes, for the lightning was super charged with shadow magic.

The fight began.

[Hey, try to do something interresting at least, I'll let you design your own opponent, you can choose everything about him but at least come up with a decent fight :p]

Taurou attack get through him, without causing any harm.

Aha, what a wild one, but currently they aren't here, all you can see is their image. To keep the 1vs1 rule, the master of this place have put a dimension split here. Meaning that each of you can only fight on opponent, and then get in the next room.

True, Nhieling hand pass through Erzhik without hitting anything solid.

When he started concentrating, he suddenly felt like only on of them had an aura, the left one.
Erzhik?

I can only feel the right one, meaning he must be my opponent.

Okay, good luck. Kitty ! The middle one is the one you should eat nomnomnom to get to the net room. Just think as him as a big croquette.

Nhieling turned to his opponent : it seem you're mine. If you don't mind I will kill you...

Surprise was evident in his eye. He stepped through his target, testing it with his paw. He stepped back and looked at the middle one. The only one that had the strong aura. Gods Damnit... He thought to himself. He growled at the man and the man flinched in mock terror. The man laughed and raised his hand. There was a something shiny in the palm of his hand, and Taurou's feline instincts told him to take it.

He went to grab it but there was a trembling under Taurou's feet and he jumped sideways as a large rock golem appeared. It was about 10m high with stones for a body. It had a large spear made out of stone, and a shield made out of stone as well. It swung at him and Taurou easily dodged it. It was slow, but the strike that he doged broke apart the ground. This was strong.

Any animal would have done combat with the golem and tired themselves out, or killed themselves... But seeing as how Taurou still had some consciousness of his human self, he went for the goelm's controller. His body posture showed that he wasn't surprised at this and he raised his other hand. A wall of stone appeared right infront of Taurou and he smacked into it. He shook his head and looked at the golem. He had to kill this guy first...

Jumping off of the wall, he pounced on the golem's face, scratching the indents on it that seemed to be his eyes. The golem just flung him off and Taurou went skidding across the arena. He slowly circled the golem at this point, assessing his opponent and hoping to find a weakness.

Nhieling could only see Taurou fight, but he hoped he would be fine. Try not dying or I'll use you for making fur boot ehe.

Then his own opponent, he let his cloak go, reveling a skinny guy, whiter than an aspirin pill, with long black hair going wild all over his shoulder.

It seem you're overestimating yourself... Even saying this, his expression stay neutral not showing any sign of emotion, be it anger fear or anything else...
Oh? So I should be afraid of someone even thinner than me? It's some scary magic power you must have here ehehe...

He lifted his hand, and just said : Contempt the power of the dead realm.

Then three spirit appear out of nowhere. Each of them was faceless. Then he opened a little box, and some powder started flying, surrounding the spirit. After a few second, three beast, like the one they've fought before, were standing here. They were smaller, but at the same time seemed more agile.

On Erzhik side, the two opponents were staring at each others, silently. Erzhik draw out his shadow sword, and get on guard. Then his opponent bent down.
Erzhik was wondering why, and the second after the cloak fell to the ground, and his opponent get in front of him. Erzhik blocked the attack in extremis, and them jump back. His opponent were... Everything but not human. He had definitely mix his body with demon part. He had scale instead of skin, no eyes, a mouth full of sharp teeth, and other dangerous thing all over his body.

After a few moments of assessing each other, the golem sprung. He swung down with his large stone blade and tried to strike Taurou once more. Again Taurou easily dodged the attack. This time however, the golem followed through with the attack and broke the ground apart, leaving a large rift in the middle. Rocks flew everywhere and nearly crushed Taurou with one of the larger ones. He and the golem stared each other down for a few seconds before the golem fell apart.

Taurou's eyes widened in surprise as the golem died and the wall fell. His opponent sat there smiling, not moving. Taurou took this as a chance to strike. He sped towards the man and clawed at his chest. The man stepped backwards and only his robe, and his tunic, were ripped. His hood fell back and Taurou realized something.

...Boing? BOING? He realized what he was fighting was not a man, but a woman. Her chest exposed and her flawless pale face smiling a sadistic smile. She took out a dagger that slightly protruded from her robe's sleeve. She swung and Taurou drew his blade from his sheath and deflected. They traded blows, Taurou taking a few hits on his back 'cos of his new body. He landed two solid hits on her. One on the shoulder that didn't seem to stop her in the slightest, and one that left open a shallow cut on her cheek. They disengaged and both took a fighting stance. The woman licked her lips clean of blood, and Taurou stared at her, growling.

The woman smiled and mouthed the words, "Smushie." Taurou was confused by the words and the woman tackled him and shoved her exposed chest in his face. SMUSHIE! she yelled and whilst Taurou was distracted, she stabbed at his side, only to have her dagger stuck in the darkness that was his fur. He bit her and they both disengaged once more and backed off. The woman held the bite wound and summoned the golem once more, knocking Taurou off his paws and into one of the columns. He fell and landed on his paws, dazed- As the golem came upon him ready to strike him down.

The first creature jump wildly over Nhieling, charging straight. They were indeed a lot faster than their bigger version, but Nhieling was ready this time. He instantly summon his puppet scythe and cut through the first undead being.
Ahah... Do you think a attak of this level could beat me? Really... Undead aren't so easy to kill you know.

Nhieling look at the beast, that was still not moving and answered : I think it's you who is misunderstanding an important point : Do you know what a living being is made off? The list of the composant is easy to get, but no matter how many time you try, it's impossible to create a living being by using them. Because you can't recreate the soul. Meaning your little thing here would only be alive if you were to control them directly, or to seal a soul into them. Since you seal three of them right in front of me, I just had to severe the tie you've created between the body and the soul to send this thing back to the void.
And sadly, you're really underestimating my power. You think of me as a mere puppeter? I've fed from the soul of my victim for so long that severing a soul like this is a child game for me now.

Back to Erzhik side : Both opponent were fighting evenly, trading blow at an insane speed, but Erzhik couldn't hold the chimera for too long. This extreme rythm was tiring him up too fast.
Erzhik jump back and slap his hand against each others, then an orb of shadow surrounded them.

Summoned battlefield, in this place, there is nothing : No sound, no light... Meaning you can only fight relying on your 6th sense.


[I've made something a little short, but at least you'll be able to answer]

The blade swung down with uncanny speed. Taurou dodged to the side but the speed of the attack struck Taurou's hind legs and sent him sprawling. He hopped back up, his legs throbbing and he growled. The golem hurled a rock at him and he roared. The roar sent a fulgoratio ablicans spell at it and blew apart the rock. The golem was about to strike but Taurou roared again, this time it was an Exarmatio spell and it blew a hole in the wall behind him. The golem came charging after him and he backed up into the hole only to have the golem break through and have the woman exposed.

Seeing her golem break through her wall, she dispelled him so he fell into a pile of rock. Bastard! The woman yelled in a smooth voice. She had no weapon to defend herself with seeing how the knife she fought with was lodged in Pyoh's side. He swung a claw at her and she deflected with a rock that somehow appeared in her hand. She tapped the rock with a shiny stone and it turned into a stone sword, much more deadly than a rock. Taurou and the woman traded blows once more with the weapons, only to be interrupted by a sudden tremor in the battle field. Wisps started to flow out of the ground like mad and the two looked on with terror.

As the wisps appeared, the woman touched Taurou's ear and he looked at her. She said, Even though we were told to kill one another, no reason both of us should die at the hands of something other than each other, no? Taurou nodded in agreement and they both took a fighting stance facing the wisps.

Minutes later, which felt like days, the two of them were still fighting the wisps when the woman collapsed. Taurou saw this and immediately picked her up and hid behind the broken wall she had made. The golem was re-animated so it fought on with vigor, but the woman was badly hurt. Taurou wasn't sure what to do, so he licked her wounds, and everytime he licked one, his magic drained ever so slightly, but they were healing! So once he licked the more serious wounds away, she awoke, covered in sweat. She patted Taurou's nose, Good kitty... She did a kip up and drew her stone sword again, now turned into diamond. When they both emerged from behind the wall, the golem was crushing the last of the wisps. There were many wisps that were now just bright stones on the ground, and only a few remained floating in the air. The woman finished it off and Taurou was ready for the woman to attack him again, knowing that their truce would last only so long.



The woman didn't attack him, but healed his wounds. He nodded his gratitude, still sensing the violence still within the woman's aura. Thank you for helping me, feline. She said after healing her small wounds. Well then. She looked at him. It's time to finish. She swung her diamond sword at Taurou's head and he reacted almost instantly. He was slightly too slow and took the hit on his shoulder. The diamond's purity burned the darkness that was his fur and he roared. The roar took the power of an exarmatio spell and blew her backwards, turning her clothes into flower petals. That pushed her away. She was self conscious now and squealed like a schoolgirl who just fell, exposing her panties.

Taurou didn't stop the attack and pushed forwards, swinging his blade at her. She was totally exposed and he slashed through her left shoulder. She kicked Taurou away and she clutched her shoulder in pain. The golem kicked Taurou away as well as the woman started to cast a spell. Taurou was also casting a spell in his own, magical feline way. He was ready to match her spell with his.