Shadow Slave | School Days

Staring at the Orion with a dumbfounded expression, Sunny opened his mouth and closed it multiple times, sound refusing to come out as his mind failed to concoct a lie. Meanwhile, Nephis blush continued to grow increasingly large as she cleared her throat awkwardly.

"I got hit by something hard." Before giving the crowd time to discover the true implications of her sentence, Sunny clapped his hands together, no sound being made from the gesture, yet the sudden movement was enough to gain all of their attention. Turning to Mordret with narrowed eyes, Sunny raised an eyebrow curiously at him.

"Why are you... standing so close to Effie? And why are you still here?" Mordret could only shrug his shoulders as he grabbed his sheathed sword from the wall which it rested on before pointing it at Orion. "She's funny, and I want to fight that...thing over there."

It took every bone in Orion's body not to lunge at Mordret right then and there, partly out of respect for Sunny and his own supreme self control, he simply shrugged his shoulders. "The dog wants to dance with me. You'll referee won't you Sunless?" Sunny stared at the two with a blank expression before sighing.

"Fine, just get me my knives." In a moment, two knives flew from Orion's pockets, large enough to count as Machete's into Sunny's fingers as he grabbed both of then by the tip. Inspecting them, Sunny smiled gratefully before using one arm to swing one of the blades, the other blade was balanced perfectly on his forearm as he swung it through the air.

"Diamond plated too. How nice of you." He commented mildly, Orion only shrugged as he made his way towards the door, Mordret following after as Sunny sheathed the two knives in his shorts, lifting Nephis up off her feet bridal style before turning to the remaining members of the house.

"You can come if you'd like, you won't be able to see much so I doubt it'll be very interesting." As he turned to leave, Effie quickly followed after him, with Kai taking Cassie gently by the arm to guide her out of the door. Eventually, all seven of them ended up in the empty colosseum.

Orion had removed his typical black shirt, instead replacing it with an identical one with golden hints across it's extremities. He had called it his battle armour despite the fact that it only was mundane clothing, yet nobody had the energy nor comfort to dispute him.

Meanwhile, Mordret stood across from him, having removed the outer layers of his tuxedo instead he only donned a pure buttoned up white shirt with blackened jeans as he swung his sword lazily through the air. A large smile settled itself across his face as Sunny stood between the two of them.

Nephis and the rest were currently sitting in the stands, watching the fight from a nearby camera as Effie turned to Nephis with curiosity riddled in her tone. "Who do you think will win? You're strong enough I know you guys have some feel of each other." Nephis could only shake her head as she turned back to Effie.

"All three of them could kill me, very quickly. So, I wouldn't be able to gauge them. But I'm certain Sunny is the strongest of the three." A teasing grin spread itself across Effie's face as she jabbed Nephis in the side playfully. "It didn't sound like Sunny was 'killing you' while you two were upstairs." A wide blush arrived on Nephis's face once more as she moved to speak but before she could a look of horror arrived on Effie's face.

"Have you two been using prote-" Kai's hand slapped itself over her mouth as he pointed back at the screen, it appeared like the fight was about to start at any moment. Sunny's voice rang out through the screen as he began explaining the rules for the battle.

"The battle will be capped at two minutes and will end at first blood, if no blood is drawn it will be considered a tie as well as if both opponents draw blood from one another. If you are injured and you heal in the middle of the fight, it will also count as first blood drawn. If any of you have disagreements, state them now!"

Silence was all he received in response, Orion reached behind his back and pulled out a thin piece of machinery which then split into a multitude of weapons, finally, its form settled as a large machete as Orion gave Mordret a wide smile. "Try not to die too quickly peon."

Sunny's disappearance marked the beginning of their bout as the two opponents rushed at each other with blinding speed. Steel flashed as Mordret's sword carved through the air, meeting Orion's machete in a burst of sparks. Orion's movements were eerily precise, each block and counter an exact replica of Mordret's attacks. Step for step, strike for strike he mirrored Mordret's movements with perfect accuracy.

Standing beside Nephis, Sunny let out a laugh as he watched the fight which appeared slightly visible as the screen had been slowed to accommodate the weaker members of the party. Nephis turned to him curiously as Sunny wiped a tear from his eye.

"Sorry it's just, he's always been like that. It's a talent that even I don't have, being able to copy people's movements perfectly, you need an almost perfect memory and the body to be able to do it. Before, he used to get injured all the time trying to copy my moves, but he might be able to copy one or two of them now."

Effie's curiosity had become piqued at this admission, wanting to know more as she finally asked. "What's so different about you that he can't copy your moves?" Sunny turned to her with a smile before pulling up his shirt, revealing his toned abs and defined physique before pulling it down again.

"It's awkward to say but, my body is perfect. Literally. It's reached the physical maximum for what any human can possibly achieve due to... experiments done on me. So, asking him to copy my body would be suicide, he'd be destroying his own body to do it."

Nephis's slight frown that Sunny had basically flashed the entire room went unnoticed as she grabbed Sunny by the arm and roughly pulled him close to her, sitting him down as she rested his head on her shoulder, allowing him to analyse the spectacle of a match perfectly.

"You're such a fucking monkey! And I'm not being racist, you know what I mean, right? Monkey see monkey do. Be fucking original!" Orion said nothing, his machete felt increasingly limiting against the refined techniques he now wielded, its weight and length ill-suited when he was replicating the fighting style of a man who wielded swords supremely.

With a push of a button, his machete began to morph in his hands, gears shifting as he weaved through the never-ending onslaught of attacks from Mordret with immense ease as an identical sword now remained in his hands. Instantly, the attitude of the fight shifted.

Steel whistled through the air as Mordret's sword slashed forward, a precise, lethal arc aimed for Orion's throat. Orion's sword snapped up at the perfect time, deflecting the strike with a sharp clash of metal. Testing Orion's skill more, Mordret feinted to the right, yet Orion didn't take the bait. As he shifted his stance slightly, Orion mirrored his movements perfectly.

"Ok, if I wasn't being racist before, now I'm going to be! Wait, we're both tanned, I think!" Mordret laughed as his sword blurred in a ruthless diagonal slash. Orion met it with the exact same strike, swords clashing mid-air, force against force as their muscles strained against one another.

Noticing that a clash of strength was unproductive in his goal of ending Orion's life, Mordret disengaged and pivoted, swinging a horizontal cut at Orion's ribs. Yet, Orion's blade was already there, deflecting before seamlessly transitioning into a thrust aimed at Mordret's shoulder.

Twisting aside, Mordret retaliated with an identical thrust—Orion had already moved the same way. Leaping backward, Mordret wiped some sweat off his brow as he frowned slightly. "Can you copy this?" Suddenly, Sunny blurred away from his position as he stood in front of the spectators booth.

Orion leapt to the side, a vacuum blade of air piercing through the ground leaving a wide gash as it barrelled towards Sunny's position. Unsheathing his two knives, Sunny's hand blurred in response as he slammed his knives against the blade, not giving an inch of ground as the vacuum blade dissipated into thin air.

"You fucker! Don't aim that where I'm sitting!" Sunny called in annoyance as he looked at a clock, it had only been thirty seconds. Blurring back to where he once sat, Nephis shot to her feet with shock riddled across her face as Sunny shook his arms to remove the numbness from them.

"What did he just hit you with? Nothing showed up on the screen!" Nephis exclaimed as she scanned Sunny's form with worry, Sunny sighed before sitting where she once had been as he continued to watch the fight. "The bastard can break the sound barrier, and because of that he can send vacuum blades at people which cut everything in their path. But you should get ready for me to leave now, the fight looks like it's almost over."

And Sunny was right.

Their movements were steadily escalating, flowing like water yet crashing against one another like thunder. Every attack Mordret unleashed, Orion answered with equal speed and precision. Their swords wove into a violent tapestry of steel and sparks, neither gaining an inch and neither receding in their position.

'Time to switch it up!' Mordret thought to himself, as his sword moved before he could think.

A sudden shift—his weight shifted onto his back foot as his sword feinted high before reversing direction into a low slash. Orion reacted instantly, blade lowering to parry the blow. But he had fallen victim to all those who predicted their opponents next move, he had been tricked.

Mordret's sword flicked upward at the last moment, slicing a thin, precise line across Orion's cheek. A single drop of blood rolled down. But as Mordret jumped back triumphantly, he felt a sting. Orion had mirrored his attack at the final hour, the edge of his blade tracing a shallow cut across Mordret's collarbone.

The two, unsatisfied blurred towards one another, their attacks piercing through the air before a black blur appeared between the two, deflecting both weapons and sending them skidding backward. Sunny had arrived, two knives in hand as he rolled his shoulders and studied Mordret and Orion's form.

"This match is a tie! The two bastards are perfect equals!" Sunny exclaimed, yet silence rang out through the colosseum. Raising his hands in defeat, Mordret stomped the floor childishly before staring at Sunny. "I'm sure I would have killed him eventually." Orion too mumbled the same sentiment as Sunny shrugged.

"You two can fight it out later. I... need to hire your services Orion." Mordret shrugged before blurring into the audience booth. Grabbing Effie by the arm, Mordret handed her his phone before leaning in. "Your contact information, just type it in." A wide grin arrived on Effie's face as she obliged, and in the next moment Mordret disappeared.

"What did he ask you to do?" Kai asked, a suspicious expression riddled on his face as Effie merely shrugged at him. "He wanted to learn more about the world outside the underworld." A lie that came as easy as she breathed came out. And soon enough, they found themselves back at Sunny's home.

Standing in front of Orion, Sunny took three syringes filled with a strange foreign liquid within them before turning to Nephis. "I'll see you all in two weeks. Orion has promised me to put you all through... special training to improve so I'm sure you'll be fine without me."

Before anyone had the chance to ask what he meant, Sunny stabbed the syringe into his arm, injecting the entire amount of liquid into his body as he repeated the process in quick succession. Pulling the final one from his arm, Sunny staggered on his feet, falling back into Nephis's arms as a sleepy expression arrived on his face.

The two shared one final kiss as Sunny was laid on the couch, his eyes closed as his entire body relaxed immensely. All of them stared at Orion with strange expressions riddled across their faces as she shrugged his shoulders at them indifferently.

"How does that even happen? You all are so weak you stressed him out so much he's been having panic attacks, and then to make it worse he's had so little time to rest that he needed three doses of sleeping fluid meant to force a blue whale asleep with one dose alone just to rest for a few weeks! This can't stand; you all will be brutalised until you become something new. Something better."

And so, their nightmares began.