Shadowhunter in the Apocalypse

Reed allowed her to go first, this wasn't a fight were he would attack much, this was just for him to tell how she fought.

To her credit she didn't take the shadow beast form, he would have been tempted to finish the fight early if she had made that mistake. Instead, the beautiful blonde decided he deserved a spear in the face.

He wrapped his hands in shadow and slapped it aside easily but still, it hurt a little that she would go after his handsome face.

He twisted and kicked the back of her legs launching her to the ground in one smooth motion, she didn't hit it though, instead she sunk into the ground turning into a shadow to nullify to potential damage then she moved quickly behind him through the ground before she sprung up and attacking him in one swift movement, he manifested a sword with a lazy, almost casual, flick of his wrist, before he shoved her back with a pulse of shadow blast, she moved to close the distance again and the shadow manipulation battle quickly turned into a clash of blades.

He studied her form and watched her footwork, she seemed to favour her right foot for offensive and left for defence, no doubt from constant years of repetition, it was an acceptable form, some would call it standard with the way she fought and to be fair it WAS house of black standard, but he needed to break that particular habit, it was predictable, and many times being predictable almost got him killed.

He capitalized on this new information and kicked her right leg right as she was about to attack, the sharp pain made her yelp and temporarily stay in that spot for a second longer than necessary.

How could he let that go as her mentor?

She found herself restrained with a blade on her throat.

"Your file said you were an adaptive fighter, I'll take that to mean you are good with following instructions and change accordingly, So let me give you this advice, when you fight try to notice the little quirks you repeat and change them, shadow magic isn't just about bending shadows it's about taking some of their features yourself."

She nodded and he let go of her, he ignored how red her face was, she was probably pushing herself hard which he liked.

She charged in again for the next round.

This time he saw visible change, he smiled at that, but then she went further and did another thing by using his momentum to push herself backwards and still managed to turn her shadow blade to an arrow and bow before she slid to a halt.

Reed smiled but barely shifted, a ripple of shadow surged from his feet, snapping up to form a wall, he had a dozen methods on his mind that could drop her instantly, but this exercise was to get to know her not bully her.

All her arrows broke apart as it hit his wall before absorbing it and making the wall stronger.

He noted mentally that her shadow manipulation needed more work, it wasn't as strong as it should be for a talent like hers.

He broke down the wall when she finished shooting, instantly turning it into 50 plus arrows, he made sure to make them a blunt and fragile before sending them off.

She took a page from his notebook and used the surrounding shadow to also make a wall.

He watched carefully as the arrows hit her wall, she survived a little bit until the shadows collapsed before her.

She dodged out of the way, but he had already halted his attacks.

"Your Constructs…." Reed said, "Let's stop for a while and talk about it"

He dissolved his attacks back into shadows and sat on the floor, tapping the ground beside him for her to sit.

She did, she was sweating bad, and he was embarrassed to say how nice she smelled close to him.

But he slapped himself mentally reminding himself to get a grip and stop acting like he was just going through puberty.

Forcing himself not to take a whiff, he began "Do you know the origins of shadow magic?"

"Shadow magic originated long ago," She answered automatically as expected "in ancient times angels and demons still walked among the other supernatural races on earth, it was said that humanity needed a way to equalize the power level between them and the other races, so some people came up with methods to take power using the blood of Angels and demons."

He nodded in approval "Yes, you see Angels and demons were biologically enemies, their natures just couldn't stand one another and they couldn't also invade each others realms and so their wars were fought on earth, millions of people died like ants, but angels and demons also fell, the shadow hunter history like to twist the history books a bit but the first ever Shadowhunters were people who were angry enough to take power for themselves,"

"You see before this it was already a thing were angels gave humans powers through their blood, hence the reason Apostles exist, but we already know the cost of that power, they used the same method but mixing both demon blood originally know to blow up any human who consumed it, and angel blood, mixing both of them and consuming it to perform a secret ritual since lost to time, that was how shadow magic was made, a combination of demonic magic and angelic magic"

Reed then asked, "Now how do we make a shadow stronger? what do we shadow hunters do to make a shadow more tangible?"

"uhh we use shadow magic to force our will on the shadows to do out bidding?" She gave the classic textbook definition.

"That's good, yes a shadows nature is to be connected to something in the presence of both light and darkness, shadow magic involves removing that connection temporarily which requires a strong will, an unshakeable will" He said looking at her pointedly, she could already tell where he was going with this.

"So what are you afraid off?"

There it was. She buried her face in her knees not knowing what to tell him.

"You don't have to talk about it you know," He confessed amicably "I know we just met so it's understandable if you don't trust me that much".

"But as your mentor I will ask you to find a way to push passed whatever is stopping your shadows from becoming as strong as steel, for your sake in the field"

She nodded, her head still buried between her legs.