Shadow parasite

It was already past noon, and as always, the weather was what some would call perfect. Gorn appeared out of thin air under a small tree. Birds were chirping harmoniously, but they failed to impress their fellow inhabitant of the forest.

Gorn kneeled on the ground with one leg: “Shit! I almost strangled all of them to death.” The people he was referring to were none other than the ones that looked at him with hostility, no matter the level. For some reason, he felt like slaughtering every single one of them.

“What is happening to me?!” He felt a strong desire to beat someone or something. While he wasn’t a peaceful person, the current feelings were a little too strong even for him.

Strange, black lines emerged on his neck, and slowly creeped up on half of his face, stopping near his eye. Gorn suddenly thought about Lora: “That girl helped me quite a lot in the past. Now, she must be suffering somewhere inside the city, waiting for my help. I can’t let that happen anymore. I must immediately go and save her.”

These were just a very small part of his thoughts, the other vast majority were about how Norman’s men were going to try to stop him, and how he was going to rip them to shreds. Finding the perfect excuse, Gorn squatted slightly, then, like an arrow let loose, dashed towards the city.

“How dare they take something that’s mine?!” In his mind, Lora belonged to him, and only him. Running like a madman, he made sure to make noise, hoping something would try to stop him from his noble mission.

Quite a few reapers from the surrounding area were attracted by the commotion. Coming across a group of reapers, Gorn grinned: “Warm-up has arrived. Perfect!” Using his bare hands, he beat the creatures until they stopped moving. “Mmm, noice!”

The same scene happened a few more times. The closer he got to the city, the fewer the monsters. Gorn decreased his speed considerably. His desire for battle grew more and more with each passing second. With great difficulty, he held it in, and walked slowly towards the city gates, which were not that far away from his current position.

After what seemed to be a long time, the city gate, with its guards, could finally be seen into the distance.

“Another lunatic…” sighed one of the two people that stood guard. They were among Norman’s people and their power level was roughly around one thousand. Spending time in the wilderness was too much for a part of people, and some of them returned to the city in a broken state of mind.

“What a weird tattoo. Like, who the fuck gets a tattoo on his face?” laughed the guard, jumping down from the city walls. “This one is mine.” Slowly, he walked towards the intruder.

Gorn had an odd grin plastered across his face, giving off the impression that he had lost it. Something that wasn’t that far away from the truth. Seeing his condition, the guard didn’t even bother to check his device for his opponent’s strength. From the moment Norman took over the city, not even a half decent fighter dared to return.

Just like that, with his guard down, the man came closer and closer towards Gorn until only a dozen or so meters were between them. He wanted to mock Gorn, but his vision suddenly shifted. His head was now bent at a weird angle, facing the sky.

“What just happened?” were the last thoughts of that person. Twitching for a few more seconds, his body stopped moving.

The tattoo from Gorn’s face extended further, taking over his eye, and transforming his pupil into some kind of strange symbol that expanded slightly over his iris.

“Am I good or Am I good?!” Gorn slightly lifted his arms, looked towards the sky and started to laugh like a maniac. His laughter was becoming louder and louder, startling the remaining guard.

“The hell?!” The scene before him was just too peculiar to make any sense. “What happened? How did he suddenly appear in another place? Was it speed, a special ability, or what?” Thoughts of retreating started to take over. “I don’t think I can defeat him on my own…” The fact that the opponent managed to effortlessly kill his partner was a clear sign that his prowess was no joke. “I’ll must retreat!”

Once fear took over, the guard decided to run away. The moment he turned his back towards his opponent was the moment his head flew through the air, rolling away from his body. “How…?!” seeing his headless corpse, and the trespasser next to it with a bloody sword in hand, the guard could not comprehend how all of that happened. Regrettably for him, he was in Gorn’s range of attack. At this moment, Gorn’s ability to teleport was put on full display. If it was used for slaughter, its efficacy was dreadful.

The difference in raw power between Gorn and the two guards was minimal. What made a huge difference was the attitude, and the special skills. Gorn stood there with a blank expression, his thoughts unknown. His shadow started to move on its own, extending unnaturally. Its target was the headless corpse a few meters away. After coming in contact with the shadow, the body started to visibly dry out. It only took a few second for the corpse to become all shriveled up. Gorn’s unusual smile returned to his face, and he headed further inside the city.

The streets were devoided of people, giving off the impression of a ghost city. After several minutes, Gorn came across another group of guards. Noticing his presence, and that something seemed off, the guards came towards him. “You there! What are you doing?” it wasn’t hard to deduce that he wasn’t part of their group.

Gorn had different clothes, no special devices, and looked different from the people that should have been in that part of the city. “Me?” asked Gorn with a mocking tone while pointing at himself with a finger.

His action and expression were a blatant provocation. The man wanted to attack, but Gorn disappeared from his line of sight. In the same instant he appeared at the guard’s side. Grabbing the poor individual by the hair, Gorn slammed his head deep into the ground.

The events were too sudden for any logical thinking to be done. The rest of the group instinctively attacked him. Sadly for them, their power level was only around five hundred, being no match for their opponent. Gorn used one of the many black swords that he still got in his inventory, and with a few moves, turned everyone into multiple pieces.

A few moments later, the guard whose head was buried into the ground managed to gain a hold of himself and break free. What greeted him was an unsightly scene. Gorn’s shadow was split into different parts, each one of them absorbing his friends corpses; or more exactly, whatever remained out of them.

Fear took over, and the guard turned around to run. He managed to put only a couple of steps between him and what seemed to be a scene brought forward from hell, when he felt one of his legs being grabbed. Turning around, he saw Gorn’s distorted face, and an eerie symbol instead of a normal pupil.

“Please don’t leave, I won’t do anything to you,” said Gorn, his expression switching to one of innocence, and care.

The guard shuddered, and struggle even more to run away. Apart from disappearing from that place, the man had no other thoughts.

Gorn’s innocent look turned twisted again. He started to punch the guard in the face repeatedly. “You little shit! Why the fuck are you trying to run away?!” The punches continued until the guard’s face caved in, and he didn’t move anymore.

Gorn brought his hands to his head, arranging his messy hair. He was no longer angry. In fact, his face looked rather serene. Just like before, his shadow extended to absorb the new cadaver. This time, Gorn noticed this bizarre occurrence. For some reason, this action seemed natural and not strange at all in his eyes. He even waited for the shadow to finish up before he started to walk yet again, deeper into the city.