Silhouette

James kept on throwing more and more tentacles at Karadok, Runar's right-hand man, all the while avoiding the frantic attacks of Glapissant, the abominable monster made by the Patcher. The towering orc's shining armor glowed with the green power of magic as his blade moved as little as possible while maximizing damage and his shield caught the few weak spells James threw his way, his footwork letting him better angle his weapon while also stomping and crushing all the appendages that rose from his shadow and tried to bind his legs by surprise, not the least bothered by the increase in attacks ever since he stepped out of the circle of glittering white runes on the ground. The knight, though not immune to his assault, was clearly the greater threat of the two, for Glapissant had trouble catching James. No matter how effective its claws and fangs were, they couldn't do a thing if James stayed out of range, and now that they weren't stuck in a hallway he had much more space to explore and spread through, currently looking more like the shadow of a bundle of thorny vines than a living thing. The beast growled as it clawed at the shadows on the ground only for them to pulse and form a circle where the attack would have landed, just as a black spike fell from the ceiling and onto Karadok's head, only for it to be cut in two vertically then in four horizontally by the blade of the knight.

James may have not been giving it his all, given Runar could be watching and preparing countermeasures, but the knight was still giving him more trouble than he thought he would. He hadn't expected the right-hand man of a comic book villain to be weak, but everything he knew pointed to Pierce Evil being the strongest of the Runarian Knights in a fight, and his only experience with another one of them so far had been his short encounter with Speareau where he had managed to destroy the man's spells before he fled. Karadok didn't have the overwhelming speed or magical water of his colleagues, there was no fancy trick to his fighting style, no power, no illusion, just skill and sheer strength, and yet he had to be the toughest opponent James had ever faced so far bar Pierce Evil, and even then he was confident he could handle the fast knight now that he knew what to expect and had trained for it.

A shadow rose from the ground in front of Karadok in the shape of Silouhette, and James ignored the pain of being cleaved in twain by the magical sword to control the now two distinct halves to catch the orc's arm, and though touching the metal burned him to the point white fumes emanated from the shadowy flesh of his body he powered through, forcing a contest of strength between himself and what he was certain was a beefy orc under the armor, all so he could take his sword.

The side effects of engaging in this contest of strength were that it took a lot of focus - doubly so when it hurt as much as it did - and that he had to stay in contact with the knight, and since to equal the orc's natural and boosted strength he had gathered most of himself back together to form a denser and stronger body of tentacles nothing was distracting Glapissant anymore, and when the beast realized the fleeting darkness of the prey it had been hunting had coalesced back into a single smaller thing it snarled before leaping.

Karadok's arm was lightly shaking as he fought against the mesh of dark tendrils covering it and trying to force his fingers apart, linked by a thin dark string to the other such thing on his arm holding the shield, stopping him from bashing the invasive presence with either of his weapons. He struggled to put his arms together, aiming to fuse the two spots of living shadows into a single larger one he could then force against his chest, where the additional enchanted metal covered in runes meant to weaken Silhouette would hopefully put the creature out of commission. Just as he managed to put his arms together with a powerful flex of his muscles that made his armor creak, leaving his blade pointing to the side, a pair of horrifying jaws closed on his limbs, and the magically strengthened ribs that made up the creature's fangs punctured the metal and he let out a scream as the abomination's teeth pierced through his green skin and drew blood.

"LET GO, MONSTER!"

Glapissant whined as it opened its mouth and let go of Karadok's arms, and the orc grimaced beneath his helm as he saw the wounds the attack had made, and how the dark tendrils already shifted to slip through the cracks in the armor to fester and corrupt the blood and flesh beneath, darkness already spreading on his green skin. He grunted as he changed his strategy and took a few steps back, still struggling against the force of the living shadows, and threw himself into the runic circle, rays of bright white light emerging from the floor as soon as his arms passed through, the magic reacting to his assailant. As soon as he was in the center of the contraption he flexed his muscles so hard his shoulder pads flew off to bash his dark slime-coated arms against his chest again and again, more and more fumes and steam emanating from Silhouette as his armor reacted to his presence.

At last, the slime fell off to the ground and the knight immediately retreated to exit the circle, his sword and his shield still in hand. He panted as he stared at the small dark puddle in the center of the circle rising back to form Silhouette once more, and beneath the metal, despite the burning pain coming from his arms, a smile formed on his tusked lips while Glapissant whined as it sat on its haunches in a corner of the room.

"You... I can see... I can see why Pierce Evil had some trouble with you."

The barely humanoid figure didn't respond and instead formed a tentacle that went to touch the wall of light surrounding him, only for the appendage to be disintegrated by the magic.

"See? No going out now."

This time Silhouette paid attention to him.

"You should probably visit a medic now."

Karadok looked down and grimaced once more. The armor on his forearms was so damaged it would be quicker to reforge it than to repair it, blood flowed profusely from the large holes left behind by the creature's fangs, and despite no longer being in contact with Silhouette the blackness on his skin slowly kept on spreading.

"The Transformation Aspect. Eh, what a nasty thing."

His prisoner didn't say a thing.

"Lord Runar figured it out a while back. It made perfect sense, in hindsight. I don't suppose it will stop on its own?"

Only silence answered him.

"Right. Let me tell you one thing, Silhouette. I will not be your puppet, the only man I serve is Lord Runar."

The orc then did something neither James nor Glapissant expected him to do, he removed his helmet, revealing his green squarish jaw, his large tusks, and the short fuzz of black hair on his skull, and brought his sword to his mouth, catching the handle between his teeth perfectly with the help of his tusks. He then removed the armor still attached to his forearms before, with a twist of the head, he cut both of them off slightly below the elbow with a single swing, releasing his hold on the handle midair to catch it again to let the sword move enough to reach the second limb. Strangely no blood flew from the cuts, for instead they were covered by a sheen of green magic.

He then bent to skewer the now detached members to keep them on his blade, just in case the corruption could give them life and make them mess with the runic circle. When he got back up, his eyes widened as he saw the crystal held by a newly formed shadowy hand emerging from Silhouette's torso, and he looked down in horror to see the belt of leather that usually was tightened around his waist was now gone, only to then see it at Silhouette's root.

"I assumed you would have one of those. It only made sense, why would Runar give one of them to Speareau and not his most trusted and important man?"

The emergency teleportation crystal. Karadok jumped into the circle without a care for his safety and when Glapissant saw the emergency of the situation it followed suit. As soon as both were close to Silhouette, the shapeshifter melted down into a puddle, still holding the crystal, and then he slithered to the side while forming tentacles to grab the knight and pull him, and without his arms to fight back the orc couldn't offer as much resistance as Silhouette's tendrils directed him like a puppet and pulled him to the ground, angling his head and closing his mouth tight to make sure the sword would skewer Glapissant head before going it went through the ground, pinning the creature's head to the floor and keeping it shut.

Glapissant hissed in pain and tried to free itself, but each movement of its head only brought more pain and it gave up, instead, its body began to stand back up and tried to approach James, and disturbingly it almost looked like a dog walking around the pole its leash was attached to, though it didn't have much luck mowing properly, its mind hazed by the pain. Meanwhile, James formed tendrils to try and infuse the knight's exposed head, and though dark spots appeared on the green skin as Karadok grunted they didn't spread, after a short while of nothing happening despite his best efforts James picked up the abandoned shield, ignoring the pain touching the enchanted metal brought him as he then lifted the orc's head to put his jaw against the top of Glapissant's head and traped his tusks against the sword with the handle of the shield while he pushed on the larger metal until a third of it was stuck the deformed flesh, making it so the only way to free him would be to lift the weapon back up.

Had he still had a respiratory system James would probably be panting at this point, the adrenaline of the fight no longer a lot of pain suddenly caught up to him, though it still paled compared to what he had experienced against the demon Sydakors. Both the orc and the beast were now out of commission, and he would be lying if he said he wasn't tempted to kill them to make sure they wouldn't make any more trouble, still, with how the abomination was effectively trapped it would be easy pickings for his people, and he doubted the orc would find a way to free himself from his sword, and even if he did the lack of arms drastically reduced what he could do now.

So, that's one Knight taken care of, as well as a surprise monster. Now, should I wait for the others to come here, or break this crystal and see where it brings me? Probably Runar's office or some kind of fallback location. Both should be guarded, and it wouldn't surprise me if they had stuff specifically made against me. But if I wait, the others will have to deal with the other floors and Knights alone...

And that was the point that worried him. The plan was for them to take out everyone on every floor so that Runar would have no choice but to surrender if he didn't want to stay trapped in his office until the end of his days, but there were still four Runarian Knights at large and though he trusted his employees and the infused to be able to handle some of them, he knew for a fact none of them could hope to match Pierce Evil. Techlord might get close, and if he fought smart and with some luck on his side he could beat the fast knight, but James was fairly sure his inventor would then have to spend quite a while resting after a visit to Doctor Drake's clinic.

It was his mind went on a tangent that James finally noticed something had changed about the room since he entered: there no longer was any opening. The doorway he had entered through had disappeared, replaced by a wall covered in twice the runes that all the others were throughout the building.

Ah. Well, that's a problem.

If the room was sealed, then there was no way for his people to come and join him and break the runic cell he was trapped in. As he twisted to the side to avoid a clumsy claw strike from Glapissant, James concluded that as risky as it was, breaking the crystal was his best option now. Still, before he went ahead with it he quickly looked through the rest of the items on Karadok's stolen belt, in case he could find something useful. To his surprise, the orc hadn't been carrying any key, but thinking about it further it made sense, Runar probably relied on magical locks instead of physical ones, and the keys to them were probably one or more of the runes on the knight's armor. Unless he was confident in his forces that he had no lock at all, but that was just silly.

In the end, the belt was a dead end, aside from the pouch containing the teleportation crystal there was nothing of interest to him. The most useful thing had been another pouch containing a few coins, but that wouldn't be of any help at the present, a small runic knife that didn't hurt him when he touched the blade, and the paintbrush the orc had been holding when James first arrived, its tip still covered with some glittering white paint. He still took the lot, just in case, placing it within his body for now.

James almost let out a sigh, holding himself back just in case the orc wasn't quite as unconscious as he thought or Glapissant was smarter than it let on. It wouldn't do for his enemy to know he wasn't as in control and confident as he pretended. Waiting and pondering any further was just wasting time at this point, he already felt back in shape with no side effects to his prolonged contact with the enchanted armor of the knight. He just hoped his men could handle themselves a little longer.

James gathered his spirit and crushed the crystal in his tentacle's grasp, disappearing in a flash of white light, and the runes of the circle on the ground stopped glowing and the prison of light holding him disappeared as soon as he was gone.