A Star in the Shadows

Star continued to fly upwards even when three more Scarlets. He looked around him as the other three began to move in to enclose him. He spread his wings to stop himself before turning towards the eye. He swiftly flew towards it, slashing at any of the Scarlets that got in his way.

Two of the Scarlet's would disappear with those slashes, and the other four would continue to pursue as Star dove at the eye. Said eye would widen as Star sudden began to dive at it, before darkening again to just a ball of shadow. Then a series of small spike formed along it's surface that rapidly elongated to meet the diving thestral.

Star stared at the eye as it widened. He smiled as he continued to dive towards it. When the ball of shadow formed spikes along it's surface he had to stop himself and fly back up a bit. He turned towards the Scarlets behind him and held his sword at the ready to defend against their attacks as he tried to unstrap his scabbard quickly. He let it fall down to the ball of shadow with spikes as he swung at the four Scarlets.

The Scarlet's would disperse with each swing, whether it be by Star's sword, or if they actually got close enough to land an attack, their daggers simply went through Star before they went poof. When the scabbard hit the ball of shadows, it went right through with no resistance, at least until it bounced off Scarlet's head, eliciting an 'OW' from her as he forehooves went to rub the latest injury. With that though, the little black orb dissipated away to nothing, leaving the last Scarlet, and apparently the real Scarlet if the cry of pain from her was anything to go by, sitting there on a tree branch and rubbing her now sore head.

Gritting her teeth, Scarlet looked up towards Star while continuing to try and soothe her headache and then her eyes began to glow again. Once more, the shadow beneath her solidified and rose up, but this time rather than turn into a ball, it began to take the form of a pegasus like figure. It however never gained any color, only the shape was there and once it was fully made, the illusion drew a sword in it's forehooves and began to fly at Star, the sword leveled horizontally and swung about as soon as Star got in range.

When Star hit the last of the illusions, he turned back to the ball of shadow as it dissipated to reveal the one true Scarlet. He smiled seeing that he caused some damage to her while he was playing with her little illusions. He narrowed his eyes at her when he saw her eyes glow once more. He flew closer to her as he held his sword defensibly. He stopped flying towards her when the pegasus figure flew at him. He raised his sword to block the sword when it swung at him.

It would prove to be a good thing that Star treated this illusion like it wasn't an illusion, because when the blade it swung made contact with Star's, it actually connected. The solid black blade that was the same shade as the being itself actually had some physical force to it. Enough that it's blade would be stopped by the guard, yet this illusion possessed a good deal of strength as the force of the blow threatened to push, if not outright throw Star backwards. Regardless of how far back Star was forced, the thing would fly with Star to make sure he stayed within range for the visage's next attack, which turned out to be a rising diagonal slash, starting from the low left and ending to the high right.

Star had not been expecting the hit to be an actual hit and so he was forced back a bit when the shadow pegasus's sword connected with his. He tried to fly away from it but seeing that it was determined to stay with him, he held his sword at the ready to defend himself. When it started to attack him again, he swung downwards to met it's sword, putting a bit of force behind it. At the same time, he tried to fly closer to it to kick it.

The shadow pegasus's blade clanged loudly off of Star's as the two met, but the creature shifted it's blade when it met Star's downward slash. It drew the handle back, letting the blades slide off each other and resetting it's power as with that single motion came also a drawback of the sword so that it's tip was now aimed right at Star. Just as Star would start to try and fly in, it would stab forward with a thrust of it's shadow made blade.

Meanwhile back on the branch, Scarlet sat there watching the combat with a strong intensity. Her brow was furrowed in concentration as if her focus was demanded.

Star gulped as the shadow pegasus drew it's sword back and let his blade slip off. He knew he didn't have time to move his sword but maybe he could fly away in the little time that he had. His wings gave a powerful flap and pushed him back away from the pegasus, his eyes wandering down to Scarlet for one moment before back up at the pegasus.

Star would see that Scarlet hadn't really moved from her spot, and that her eyes were still glowing from her position. The shadow however wasn't letting up for as the stab fell short, the shadow tilted the blade to the side and bent it's forelegs to the side. With the blade now sticking out horizontally to the shadow's left, or Star's right, the shadow swung again, and immediately followed through with lifting it's sword up just so it could bring it down in a vertical strike.

Star quickly looked between Scarlet and the shadow right in front of him, quickly thinking of a plan of what to do. When the shadow swung down at him with a vertical strike, he ducked under it and flapped his wings with all his might to launch himself to the side. He then quickly shifted his wings and flew around the shadow as fast as he could, flying straight at Scarlet.

Scarlet grimaced as Star took to flying right at her and past her shadow minion. Shakily and slowly, one of Scarlet's hooves reach back for her dagger, clumsily pulling the blade from the sheath while her red eyes continue to glow. When it became obvious though that her shadow wasn't going to be able to reach Star before he reached her, Scarlet's eyes stopped glowing and the shadow dissipated while she got into a bit more defensive of a stance.

Star kept his eyes on Scarlet as he continued flying towards her. He eyed her dagger for a moment as she took it out but quickly shook his head. At least he didn't have to deal with a shadow anymore. When he got closer to Scarlet and she was within sword's reach, he raised his sword up and to the side a little before bringing it down at her in a diagonal strike. He put a bit of force behind the strike to that if it hit, he'd hope to over power her a bit.

Scarlet raised her dagger to the downward slash from Star's sword, but the smaller abomination was forced back, and right off the edge of the tree branch she'd been sitting on. Scarlet fell a short ways, her hoof still stinging from the blow she'd barely managed to keep from cutting her, before spreading her wings and taking to the air once again. Scarlet angled herself towards the ground, but would continue flying just above it instead of actually landing.