Plot armor

Different or still the same me?

Two days passed while Sheyken was bed-redden. Zararloch had given him that much time to get himself back up to health.

"The Undead don't need rest and are never sick. No disciple of mine needs to stay in bed. Since you are still a human, I'll give you two days to pull yourself together. After that, if you don't come to the training room, I will let my shadow clone give you a good beating every hour I don't see you."

Leaving Sheyken with those comforting words, he disappeared and the ever so present shadow clone was standing there just waiting for him to let his guard down not even waiting for the two days to pass.

Shaking his head, he at least now had time to check his storage ring and estimate how much food he had left. After finishing checking it out, he estimated that he had food that would still last him well above a year.

'Maybe the old man thought I would starve in the streets of whichever city I was supposed to find myself in when I left the forest. Can you believe it Apophis, I am a mortal leaving amongst the Undead, I bet you never even seen it coming?'

The two days passed and just like every other training day, Zararloch was waiting for him. Something was different about himself but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"Your walk and nature have become more solid than when I saw you 9 days ago. No one has ever survived Sanguis's Death stare, even if it was just a stare coursed by his shock and not an attack. Let's face it, if you were not practicing the advanced technique of meditation to develop your telekinesis you would have died. I am not used to shielding mortals from such attacks and I let a little of his aura pass through. Hi is of a different nature and you need a different combination of defenses to protect against it."

'Yep, that is my master alright, never apologizing. If my mediation technique is so advanced in this world, then maybe I should sell it and make a killing on the market. Being rich is never a bad thing. Thinking about Sanguis, if that was not even an attack and I could feel every death like it was real, then how is the real attack?'

Not wanting to think further of what would have been, he stood in front of Zararloch waiting for the day's instructions. Zararloch's clones were ready and as he backed out of the middle of the room to let all five of them train with Sheyken, he had to come back again within a minute while nodding his head.

Sheyken had defeated all of them in just under a minute. Choosing not to comment at that time, he brought out his clones again and transformed them into different monsters. They had been doing this for months now, exchanging between monsters and human clones for Sheyken to train against. Sheyken had to say, he would never have hoped for a better diverse master who knew what he was doing.

Zararloch stepped away again and this time had to come back in even less time than when Sheyken was facing the human clones. Sheyken was holding the heavy sword like he had been out for a stroll. When he was going against the clones, his Sword blaze was as sharp and precise as Fluid sword but still powerful and ruthless and his Fluid sword and Sword wave were now powerful and ruthless as Sword blaze but still sharp and precise. You almost could not tell the difference, thinking it was all one technique.

"I did not think you would reach the stage you are in now within two years. What you have just displayed is what warriors archive through many battles and hardships. Something I could not teach you but had to be developed by you. Sheyken, no matter what anyone thinks, even if you look like a child, you are not one anymore. Surviving Sanguis's Death stare has molded you into a prime individual for the battlefield."

'This was the feeling I couldn't get a hold on when I woke up. It feels like something clicked inside of me. I don't feel like a man trapped in a kid's body anymore. I just feel like... like... nothing. I feel like I'm just me.'

After those thoughts, Sheyken continued to listen to Zararloch as it seemed he was not finished talking.

"Through that exchange right now I see you have become one of use. You seem to have forgone any empathy and other thoughts except one when you facing an enemy, which is to kill without hesitation. I really think we should turn you."

When he heard those words he did not start to panic like he used to and think about so many things and scenarios, but within seconds he had calmly analyzed them. By this time, he knew his master would joke about turning him even if it did not feel or at the very least looked like he knew what a joke was.

'He says I don't have empathy anymore, I will have to access that for myself when I face living things. We cannot conclude that right now, even though I am in the process of understanding myself. Let's hope experiencing all those deaths hasn't turned me into a sycophantic killer like these bustards. Wait, they say sycophants have a way of sensing each other...SHIT... I just might.....'

Zararloch looked at Sheyken while he was holding his anger back. He still wanted to kill all five of those bustards. Since Sheyken was unconscious for the aftermath of his big revile of what lurks on his back, he should be grateful because he wouldn't be able to think or even come closer to the monster training him as a good diligent master.

Going back nine days during Sheyken's blackout. When he hit the ground in a seizure because of Sanguis's being shocked and all five of them letting out a killing intent aimed at the Dragon that looked like it was mocking them all on Sheyken's back, Zararloch almost lost his mind.

It wasn't because Sheyken was on the verge of death, no.... he couldn't care less about him. If the Dragons came, he would find a way to escape with his master. He was only training him as diligently as he was because of his master's orders and his master had given him another order that night. He was to negotiate with Sheyken for the oil as they still did not want him as an enemy or to kill him.

He was interested in Tenebris's offer of desperation to the child because if he was stupid enough to agree, then that means they might get it for free, but alas, this was his disciple after all and even though treating him as his one and only disciple was an act, he could only be proud by the rejection which also gave him some form of retaliation to Tenebris's taunts.

Seeing him almost die without him completing his mission for his one and only master made him snap. Within a millisecond a vicious, almost tangible, and dark red with a tinge of black lightning murderous aura came out from his body, pushing the other's aura like it was eating it.

Time stopped, but the other five's minds were racing. They knew what was coming and dying here would be a disgrace. They would rather die gloriously in the hands of a dragon or any other apex species than dying in the hands of their elder because they could not keep their cool. Even though in their minds it was like they saw a real Dragon even as small as it was on the kid's back, to them, just like their master before them, it was a real Dragon.

With all of them choosing a defensive spell as they knew an attack was coming, between them and Zararloch was now a wall with five layers. First was a black one that was twirling around in a circular motion almost like a tornado and was drawing Zararloch's aura in it like it was sucking it in. Next was a wall of an exoskeleton, then a wall of transparent energy, flowed by a wall of some kind of blue and greenish gangrene that looked horrible, and lastly a wall of red mist.

On the other side, Zararloch was starting to turn, his muscles were bulging and tearing apart, each tier producing black viscus energy that took a form of an attack, either slashing at the surrounding wall or their defensive wall. His eyes stating to turn red while his muscles were being replaced by an exoskeleton, signaling the start of a transformation that comes in five parts.

"Sang!!! go over there and calm him down, you the one who is responsible for this."

Tenebris yelled out.

"Are you crazy, you know very well no one can come close to him when he's transforming."

Sanguis said with his feelers flaring around.

"Cumfu, you would be the best one for the job. Just keep on that silky thing you wearing and change to a beautiful skeleton like master and shake your booty at him a little, that would calm him down."

A burst of grand laughter sounded out next to her.

"Tenebris, I see you will keep me entertained till the very end, but the place is shaking, If we really don't stop him, the formation might get ruined again and the Trial Forest would choose something even more dangerous than the Neritetus for master."

Violentiam said with concern.

At that very moment, the black wall disintegrated, making everyone even tenser. Zararloch was still in his early transformation stage but now having five seconds being in existence and another five out of existence. The energy around him was becoming more violent.

"Zararloch."

A voice sounded out almost like that of a whispered but everyone could hear it. Everything stopped for a second and the energy around him disappeared. He started to regress back to his old self while the exoskeleton that was already a part of him fell off like it was weightless and disappeared like smoke.

Arloch appeared next to him and like a mother, she grabbed his head and brought it where her breasts would have been if she wasn't all bones. Caressing his head with her bony fingers, she spoke softly.

"It is alright Zararloch, you haven't failed me yet. He is not dead and you know that. Go put him to bed and wait for him to wake up and resume your orders thereafter."

She let go of him and Zararloch bowed down.

"Yes, master."

He then took Sheyken who had no scratch on him and was oblivious to all that had happened, putting him on his shoulders like a sack of potatoes, and then left.

All the other five except Fusobacter were kneeling at that point.

"Go check the formation and when you finish return."

She said to them while looking at the room.

"Yes, master."

They said and disappeared.

'Lucky busted, did you just throw a tantrum just to get a pat on the head?'

Tenebris thought while disappearing. She would keep it in mind for when they met.

Arloch sighed. She had kept an eye on them out of concern for this very thing happening. They would always end up in a fight when all of them assemble, but it was rare for it to be Zararloch to be the one to throw a fit.

Back to the present day, Zararloch was getting ready to execute his orders. Waiting for Sheyken to come back from his run, he took two chairs out and set them in the shade of a large tree, and waited. Since Sheyken was now taking around an hour to go up the mountain and come down, he would let him go back up again while trying not to fight but to flee from his shadow clone. This would make his disciple the master of 'tagging your tail between your legs and running from your opponents'

Sheyken was not excelling like he usually would this time around. He just wanted to stand his ground and kill all the annoying clones then run away, but it was not the point of the exercise. This slowed him down. It looked like having the heart of an Undead was not filled with advantages, but he was still human and young.

Fighting his impulses, he was getting a grip of himself when they were now coming down the mountain but it still would take time to adjust his newfound dark spirit of wanting to kill everything that stands in his way.

Coming up on where Zararloch was sitting and seeing the two chairs, he knew right then that his master wanted to talk about something imported. He assumed that the day would come when they asked for more of the oil since the two years was about to be up, but since he was going to leave in a few months they would just want to talk about the offer he made in the beginning since he did promise to provide them with information after all. Sheyken shook his head. He did not let his mind trail off. His master would just want to give him some life advice, after all, they both had a kinship of the stigma they died with.

"We know you have even more of that oil of yours than you were letting on. We want as much as you can give us."

Zararloch said.