Shadow of Reform

Hallowed Battleground

With a war cry, Sombra launched himself forward, harpooning the first legionnaire who had the misfortune of being the line of Rancor’s blade. Then Sombra yanked the blade upward, completely bisecting the undead ape.

Sombra whirled around and decapitated two more before blocking the attack from another ape. Sombra broke it’s defense by kicking it away and, with a whirl of his blade, sliced off the ape’s legs, causing it to be launched into the air before Sombra sliced it in half with a downward slash.

Sombra was now coated with a few drops of blood on his face as he turned toward the remaining legionnaires with a deathly scowl, all while dark magic began to emanate from his eyes.

He saw that most of them were trembling, he saw their claws tighten around the hilts of their weapons in fear.

It was seeing this that made Sombra’s gritted scowl turn into a wicked, malicious smile.

Nothing made him happier than seeing his enemies tremble before him. To watch as any chance they thought they had at defeating him melted away with the frightening realization that they were not facing some mere pony.

They were facing a monster.

And with his smile still on his face, Sombra leaping into the air before striking the ground with Rancor in a downward slash.

And the moment the blade struck the stone floor, massive spikes to black crystal exploded from the point of impact.

Three shadow apes were impaled on the spikes as the rest fell to the ground from the impact.

The crystals retracted as Sombra dashed toward the first downed ape. It began to get up before Sombra struck it with a forehoof slash and followed with a return slash. He finished it by reversing his shadow-clawed grip on Rancor before plunging the blade right into the legionnaire’s abdomen, where he proceeded to correct his grip and flip the still-impaled ape and slammed it into the ground.

Where it dissolved into nothing just as the others.

Sombra sheathed Rancor onto his back before walking over to another ape. It was still disoriented from the stallion’s previous attack, where Sombra uppercutted it, launching the legionnaire into the air.

From their he grabbed it by it’s leg, and slammed it back into the ground with a sickening splash as it exploded into black fluids and shadow.

Sombra turned toward the last legionnaire, who was now on the ground and holding its claws up in surrender.

Sombra just walked up to the legionnaire and grabbed by the face with his shadow claw, before mercilessly crushing it’s head with a sickening crunch.

His enemies defeated, Sombra raced to the door on the far end of the courtyard. Skidding to get his flank facing the door, Sombra reared up and bucked the heavy wooden obstacle open.

He stepped through the threshold and found himself inside what looked like a nave. It contained dozens of withered and broken church pews, as well as a derelict altar. But what caught the stallion’s attention was the same armored Umbrum mare that he was searching for.

From her spot on the walkway running along the upper levels of the hall, and perched on the overhang above the altar by her dark magic tendrils, “You did good in escaping your little chains, but I will not be bested by a mortal! Kill him!” she shouted.

And with a flick of her hoof, two large beast descended from the walkway. The crashed down into the dusty and broken floor before straightening themselves.

They were two massive undead minotaur creatures. Their hides rotted and oozing an inky black substance and had parts of their muzzle and bones exposed along with snarling mouths filled with sharp teeth, and glowing red eyes. They wore rusted and tattered armor on their upper bodies and wielded large, jagged battleaxes.

One minotaur brought it’s arm back before hurling the deadly axe towards the stallion.

Which did little, as Sombra easily sidestepped the weapon before turning back towards the two monsters with a snarl.

The minotaurs charged forward, heads low to attempt to skewer the stallion. But Sombra jumped into the air and somersaulted over the first minotaur and landed on the back of the second.

Taking advantage of it’s confusion, Sombra gripped it’s horn with an aura of red magic, his natural magic, and hopped off the creatures back and slammed it’s head on the hard floor. He followed up by spinning the minotaur in his magical grasp before batting the other minotaur away, where it crashed through multiple pews before indenting itself in the wall of the nave.

Enraged, the minotaur Sombra held in his grasp broke free and attempted to swipe at the smaller pony as it roared and snarled mindlessly.

Sombra dodged each of the attacks, but failed to notice the other minotaur had recovered and had caught the stallion off guard, ramming him with its charge.

Sombra’s back hooves skidded against the stone floor in an attempt to halt the charging monster, all while having to deal with being put through multiple other pews that littered the hall. But with sheer force Sombra stopped the minotaur.

He pushed the beast back a few steps before pushing it further with his forelegs. Once he had it extended all the way, Sombra reared his head back and slammed it forward in a wicked headbutt.

The minotaur staggered back a ways as it reeled from the sheer force with which it was hit. Sombra took this opportunity to deliver a powerful right cross to the minotaur’s face, where he followed up by unsheathing Rancor from his back and cleaving the legs of the creature clean off. The minotaur fell to the ground as it writhed before Sombra reversed his grip on Rancor and drove the blade clear through the minotaur’s head.

His first opponent defeated, Sombra turned toward the second minotaur. It gripped harder on it’s battleaxe as it crouched low and kicked up some dirt with it’s hind leg before charging forward.

Sombra stood his ground and stomped his right hind leg as he prepared to take the brunt of the attack.

The minotaur struck the stallion but could not push more than a few inches, as Sombra had placed Rancor into a defensive block. With one shadow-claw on the hilt and another on the blade pushing the beast back, Sombra pushed the beast back a few inches before swiftly side stepping out of the way. This caused the minotaur to trip forward from the inertia.

Sombra quickly raised Rancor above his head before swinging the blade down, slicing the minotaur’s claw that held it’s axe clean off.

And with lethal grace, Sombra sliced off the minotaur’s right leg in a return slash, causing the creature to keep its balance with only one arm and leg each. But Sombra wasn’t finished, he hooked his left foreleg around the minotaur’s neck and was ready to drive Rancor’s blade right through the creature’s head, but found himself struggling.

This was due to his sword leg being held back by the minotaur’s remaining arm. Sombra struggled but broke free of it’s grasp and, with a roar, drove Rancor through the minotaur’s open mouth, causing the blade to come out the back of the beast’s head.

The stallion pulled his blade out and prepared to move on, but he was stopped mid step by a cacophonous sound, in fact it sounded similar to an elephant trumpeting.

Sombra looked up to where Malicia had been perched and saw a massive creature leap off the walkway and down into the dirty stone floor below.

It rose in its massive legs to its full height. It was a humongous creature, it had gray scaly skin along with bits of armor surrounding it’s large upper torso. It had sharp claws and a large trunk with a mace at the tip along with two long tusks adorned with golden bladed armor. It’s body was covered in the same black oozing mass as the other creatures and glowing red eyes.

It was an undead elephantaur.

It ket out a head-splitting trumpet as it slammed it’s massive cub on the stony floor for emphasis as it faced the smaller stallion in front of it.

Sombra merely gave a snarled huff in reply as he unsheathed Rancor from his back.

The elephantaur lunged forward, charging towards the small pony as it raised it’s club before bringing it down with full force.

But the elephantaur looked puzzled as it saw Sombra not only still alive, but also using Rancor to block the club. The dark stallion used his strength to lift the massive weapon before pushing it to his side before side flipping into the air, where he brought Rancor’s blade down in a heavy slash down onto the undead creature’s head.

The undead elephantaur reared back as it clutched it’s wound, black bile seeping from the gash. It retracted it’s claw before glaring back at the stallion and emitting a roar of rage.

The elephantaur charged forward with it’s club raised as Sombra got into a fighting stance. The beast swung the club downward and swung it again with a backhand swing, as Sombra merely ducked under or rolled out of the way. But as Sombra dodged another feeble swing, he managed to get in a few good slashes into the beast’s side and behind his legs.

But the elephantaur got in a lucky hit, as he quickly turned and struck the stallion with all his strength, only stopping from said stallion managing to block the club with his blade once more. Pushing the club away Sombra hefted Rancor and used an uppercut slash to slice off the elephantaur’s claw, effectively disarming it.

The beast reeled back in pain as it clutched the now bleeding stump with its only still-attached claw. Taking advantage of the monster’s distraction, Sombra sheathed Rancor and grabbed the handle of the large club.

Hefting it in his shadow-claw grip and testing its weight, Sombra swung the club to the side, striking the monster in the face before following up with a downward smash on the it’s head before doing a 180 swing and hurling the massive weapon towards the beast.

The elephantaur was knocked back and was panting heavily as it balanced itself with its only good claw on the ground. Sombra took advantage of this as he unsheathed rancor and reversed his grip before plunging the blade straight through the creature’s claw and nailing it to the stone floor. Sombra continued the assault by quickly hitting the monster in the face with a left hook, followed by a heavy back hoof and finished with a fierce left uppercut.

Sombra then grabbed the hilt of Rancor and pulled the blade out of the ground before swinging in a reverse upward arc to completely slice off the elephantaur’s trunk and one of its tusks.

It’s focus returned, the elephantaur roared in anger and quickly grabbed the smaller pony with it’s remaining claw, where it proceeded to slam him on the ground, gaining a pained grunt, and raising him into the air and began to crush the life out of the stallion.

Sombra grunted in pain but quickly gained his bearings and snarled at the monster before plunging Rancor into the beast’s wrist, only gaining a harder squeeze but he didn’t give up. The stallion repeated the assault a few more times before he was finally freed as the elephantaur reeled from the pain.

Dropping to the ground, Sombra ran towards the elephantaur and leaped into the air with a massive uppercut, and as he descended, he hooked his shadow claw around the monster’s remaining tusk and pulled downwards, smashing the monster’s head into the stony floor.

Hooking his foreleg around the creature’s neck, Sombra held it in a headlock and unsheathed Rancor before impaling the blade into the monster’s skull. He did it again, repeatedly stabbing the beast with his blade and effectively dodging a claw in a vain attempt to grab him. But Sombra plunged the blade down into the monster’s skull before dragging the sword down and, with a roar, ripping it out of the creature’s head, cleaving and bisecting it’s head in two.

Sombra let go and sheathed Rancor and began to look around the nave for anyway to escape, but found that the exit Malicia used was toppled and destroyed. But Sombra looked to his right and saw the crater left by one of the minotaurs. Sombra approached and weighed his options. Finding no other choice, Sombra bucked the stone wall and created a hole into the outside of the cathedral.

Sombra peeked downwards through the hole and saw a few patches of bricks haphazardly jutting out from the wall.

With a determined huff, Sombra dropped downward and used his shadow claws to grip the stone. He continued moving right along the wall as he carefully gripped the bricks and eventually began to ascend the stone building.

~~~

As the stallion made his way along the further end of the cathedral walls, he eventually noticed a large wooden segment overlooking the the outer portion of cathedral.

Letting himself hang from one claw, Sombra engulfed his free arm with shadow before launching them towards the wooden scaffold, effectively gripping it and leaping off the side of the wall.

Sombra let the shadow slack before swinging himself forward, slamming himself into the stone wall. He repeated again, but this time he managed to break through the stone and into an inner passage with a hallway, but luck was not on his side.

He felt the hall shake and eventually he heard a roar from the outside.

But he looked up as he saw a massive spike break through the roof heading towards him, only managing to catch with a mere seconds.

Still holding on, Sombra was picked up off the floor before the spike proceeded to slam him through multiple walls before he was once more he landing outside on a stone terrace being overlooked by two bell towers.

He quickly looked up and saw Malicia perched on the side of one of the towers before she said, “You have caused me trouble for the last time warrior. Your insolence ends here!”

And with that, two massive spiked appendages pulled themselves over the terrace railing. The creature that revealed itself was massive. It’s body was completely made of flowing black shadowy matter, with three more spiky protrusions on it’s back and a black crystal carapace. And as for it’s head, it was fairly equine in nature like a horse and it had a black crystal maw and glowing red eyes.

It stared down at the small stallion before unleashing an ear piercing roar.