The Shadow of All Worlds

by Shane Porteous

  Chapter 35

  Sampson, Crimson Claw, and Ryder at last found themselves facing their true enemies-Heroes United. Though Sampson and Ryder were ready to battle and finally defeat Asantra and Heroes United, Crimson Claw lacked his usual battle hunger.

  “How did you track me here?” Sampson asked Asantra. It didn’t really matter to him how she did it, he knew they would eventually meet but Sampson needed the distraction talking would give him. Having spotted a giant shadow approaching in the distance he knew his best strategy was to wait for its powers before fighting.

  “It wasn’t hard,” Asantra growled in response to Sampson’s question.

  Seeing she wasn’t in the mood for conversation, only fighting, Sampson decided to try another tactic. Remembering Asantra’s love of power when she was younger he thought maybe she would be curious about how this world had affected him. “You know, the wands I stole have been very useful here. By combining their magic with the power available in this world I have been able to invent a whole new range of powers,” he bragged.

  Asantra remained unimpressed. “If that’s true than don’t stand there talking, show me these powers,” she challenged.

  Sampson decided he might as well oblige her as he only needed a few more seconds. Instantly Asantra saw what looked like tiny black water droplets with sharp teeth heading her way. Asantra swiped at them with her paw and to her surprise the droplets splattered harmlessly against it. “Is that the best you can do?” she scoffed. She didn’t know Sampson’s attack hadn’t been meant to hurt her.

  “Of course not,” Sampson replied as the shadow began consuming the battlefield. Sampson watched with delight as every Ulnath seemed to posses thirty shadows, each of which took form and continued to multiply. Shortly the villain army seemed to outnumber the Ebulon forces and refugees ten to one. “You haven’t yet begun to see what I can do!”

  While Sampson had been busy distracting Asantra, Ryder had a much different conversation with the Heroes United members that were still on the ground. “Ryder, you look more like a werewolf now then you ever did before,” Trixie had laughed upon seeing him.

  “If it helps me finally defeat you then it’s worth it to look like this,” Ryder retorted.

  “How well can you possibly fight without your powers, Where Wolf,” Wonder Wolf mocked.

  Ryder knew Wonder Wolf had called him Where Wolf as in where’s the wolf, a joke she had made when Ryder’s powers were taken away from him. Back when he had his powers he had joined Heroes United where he had taken the name of Werewolf. Now, more than ever Ryder wanted to eliminate the source of his problems but held back as Sampson asked him to earlier. On their way to Ebulon Sampson had promised to help Ryder become a wolf again but only if he did everything he said when they inevitably met up with their enemies. Though he hadn’t know Asantra and Heroes United would all be in Ebulon, his plan had involved getting them all together so for Sampson the fact that they all were here now was a very good thing.

  When the shadow arrived Ryder looked at Heroes United then back at Sampson wondering if he should launch an attack against the heroes now as they were waiting for the villains to make the first move before attacking. Sampson and Asantra appeared to be locked in some sort of staring contest. Watching him carefully Ryder noticed that Sampson was slowly taking a second wand out of his pocket, all the while keeping Asantra’s focus elsewhere. Shortly Sampson had a wand in each hand. “You are now about to see what I can do,” he gloated raising one of the wands. Asantra lunged for him attempting to grab the wand in her teeth. Sampson jumped easily out of the way. As the battle between Asantra and Sampson began, the members of Heroes United, that were still on the ground and not in the air fighting dragons, rushed at Sampson. “Ryder!” Sampson said noticing the young villain appeared to be waiting for a command from him, “What are you waiting for, attack Heroes United!” Ryder did as Sampson commanded and blocked the way to Sampson the best he could, realizing the Shadow of the Shadow Stone had increased his reflexes considerably. “Crimson Claw, I could use some help here!” he called as he quickly found himself surrounded.

  “All right,” Crimson Claw responded dejectedly, “I’m coming.” The cat flew up and began launching air attacks at the heroes with half hearted swipes from his claws. Though more of an annoyance than a threat at the moment, with Crimson Claw’s help the two villains managed to keep Heroes United from getting free to attack Sampson.

  As the fight between Asantra and Sampson went on, Asantra noticed that none of her enemies’ attacks were true attacks and most of the time Sampson just dodged hers without returning with an attack of his own though he was clearly attempting to do something as he led her towards Heroes United. Shortly their fight took them right to the other fight.

  “What are you doing? I thought we were supposed to keep Heroes United away.” Ryder said attempting to claw the enemy nearest to him. Unfortunately the closest enemy was Wonder Wolf who was invulnerable to physical attacks.

  “No,” Sampson answered pushing Asantra off of him with a strong wind spell. “You just need to keep them distracted until I am ready.”

  “Keep them distracted for what?” Asantra asked pausing for a moment.

  “For this,” Sampson said. He quickly put both wands into the same hand and shortly after Asantra stood frozen in place. Asantra’s pause had left him the perfect opportunity to finally unleash this spell on her.

  “Ryder,” Sampson commanded. “I need you to stop fighting and get out of the way,”

  “Okay,” Ryder replied backing away from the heroes to stand behind Sampson.

  Using one of the wands Sampson surrounded Heroes United in a bright light which would hold them in place, leaving them unable to move until Sampson released them. Unlike with Asantra who Sampson just needed out of his way for a while, he needed Heroes United to stay immobilized for a much longer period of time. Knowing Asantra would be able to break the spell he placed on her he commanded Crimson Claw to watch and keep Asantra busy if this happened while he was making his attack on the other heroes. Normally Crimson Claw would have been unwilling to accept orders from anyone but instead of refusing, he obediently did as Sampson commanded.

  While Sampson held Heroes United captive with one wand then with the other, one at a time he focused on removing the shape shifting abilities of the heroes with this power. First he took Grizzly Girl’s power to become a grizzly bear. As the bear spirit came out of her Sampson directed it into Ryder’s body. He then did the same with Wonder Wolf’s recently acquired ability to become a wolf. Next he focused on Trixie. The Ultimate Shifter’s power came out very differently. As she had the ability to become any animal, or look like any human, her power came out as a ball of light. The bright glowing ball of light was obviously full of power. Sampson couldn’t wait to have these powers for himself, however for now, he placed them into Ryder. Ryder now had the ability to become anything he wanted though thanks to the extra powers of Grizzly Girl and Wonder Wolf, the grizzly bear and wolf would be Ryder’s most powerful form. The heroes could only watch as their powers were removed from them and given to Ryder.

  Ryder felt the power flowing through him. He had never felt so powerful before and he loved it but he was most eager to become a wolf again, however he knew there was one more shape shifter to take powers from. Ryder didn’t know why Sampson separated Asantra from the Heroes United or why he didn’t take her wolf ability at the same time, but as long as he got her powers Ryder didn’t particularly care.

  Asantra finally broke free of the spell and found herself facing a flying black cat. Asantra snapped at the cat. “Get out of the way Crimson Claw,” she growled. “I am only after Sampson.”

  “Okay,” Crimson Claw said flying out of the way. “You don’t have to fight me if you don’t want to.”

  Though Asantra was confused by the way Crimson Claw didn’t seem to care about fighting her when back home he was known as one of the most r
uthless villains around, she was more concerned with defeating Sampson. Seeing her coming, Sampson signaled Ryder with a look. When Ryder saw Asantra he knew he would be needed to fight Heroes United again. Seeing Crimson Claw aimlessly floating around Ryder grabbed the cat by his cape. “You’re helping again,” he said.

  “If you say so,” Crimson Claw replied.

  As Ryder pulled Crimson Claw along with him towards the heroes, Sampson released Heroes United from the spell that held them just in time to face Asantra once again. As he fought Asantra Sampson said, “Why do you only fight as a wolf? You would be more powerful and effective in your human form.”

  “I don’t need magic to defeat you,” Asantra replied.

  “You’re doing a great job of that so far,” Sampson responded sarcastically. Sampson kept pushing her until finally he succeeded in his plan. Standing before him now was a young woman with white hair and black hair tips, glowing yellow eyes, and fangs. Asantra was finally in her human form. Thanks to her magic, in her wolf form Asantra would have been immune to Sampson’s plan, but in her human form things were much different.

  Asantra tried to fight it but it was useless, Sampson was succeeding in taking away her wolf ability. Soon standing between Asantra and Sampson was a white wolf. It was see through as it was Asantra’s wolf spirit. Sampson knew that normally a shape shifter’s animal spirit needed a living host as it couldn’t normally be destroyed, however, Sampson had magic and using magic he turned the wolf spirit solid. Then, because magic from his world doesn’t work for killing directly, Sampson conjured up a knife which he then drove into the now solid wolf’s heart. Asantra watched as her wolf spirit died. For a few moments everything was silent. Heroes United, Ryder and Crimson Claw stopped fighting.

  “You killed it!” Ryder exclaimed angrily.

  “It was necessary,” Sampson replied calmly.

  “It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” He said angrily, “You were supposed to give me her powers!”

  Sampson smiled knowing his plan was working. “You’ll see, things will work out for the best now.”

  Ryder looked at him disbelievingly.

  “Trust me,” Sampson said. “We need her angry.”

  “Why do we want her angry at us?”

  “She won’t be angry at us for long,” Sampson answered giving Heroes United a look.

  Ryder looked over at Asantra and the dead wolf spirit. For a moment she looked at him and he was shocked to see that she no longer had fangs and while her eyes were still glowing they weren’t yellow but a fierce green. Asantra quickly turned her attention away from Ryder and onto Sampson.

  “Why did you kill it?” Asantra asked.

  “You know why,” Sampson answered. Asantra did know at least partially. Sampson had done it out of revenge for her figuring out how to defeat a revenge spell he placed on the Mortal Realm many years ago when she was a teenage witch. “Besides you need to be in your most powerful form right now.”

  “Why?” Asantra asked.

  “Because I am not your true enemy here. We both know eventually you will defeat me but are you powerful enough to defeat Heroes United?”

  “Why would I want to defeat Heroes United?”

  “Ryder, why don’t you tell her.” Sampson said.

  Ryder began explaining how he came to lose his powers, making it sound as if he had been trying to do a good thing and Heroes United stopped him. Asantra being especially impulsive and often illogical when angry listened, growing angrier by the second. By the time Ryder concluded Asantra was glowing with angry energy. She was completely surrounded in a very powerful looking bright light. Deciding to get revenge on Sampson later, Asantra turned her attention to Heroes United, unleashing a powerful blast of energy in their direction. Sampson watched proudly as the blast caught all the heroes unaware sending them backwards. The battle in Sampson’s mind had officially began and ended. Feeling proud of his successful plan, Sampson, joined Asantra in fighting Heroes United. Shortly after he was joined by Ryder who was finally in the form of a wolf, and Crimson Claw who half heartedly flew around occasionally swiping at one of the heroes. “We are an unstoppable force,” Sampson said. “We are Villains United and we will defeat you.”

  When did we agree to being called Villains United? Ryder wondered. And when did we even agree to be a team? For now, Ryder decided to ignore these questions as if they won, which it looked like they would, he wouldn’t even care.

  Spy Girl wanted to respond to Sampson but decided against it as she didn’t feel too confident about their chances of winning. “We need more backup,” she said as she threw pea sized and shaped smoke bombs at the villains. She figured if she couldn’t fight their attacks at least she could help prevent the villains from hitting their targets. But how long would it be until she ran out of bombs and the heroes were left practically defenseless?