This chapter is going to be quite a long one, to make up for the missed chapters.
Chapter 16: In The Shadows
Cora trained hard and improved her fighting skills and magic focus.
By that time she had forgotten about the ancient ninja's skills.
that was until one afternoon, when she walked in, and saw Graham waiting for her.
She went to her usual place to practice, when Graham cleared his throat.
"Not today, we'll be doing something different".
She was ready to practice the first skill, called shadow walking, when Ryan walked in.
"Hey" he said, but she ignored him, instead focusing on her shadow intently.
She pictured herself in her mind, what it would be like to be a shadow, and suddenly, it wasn't just a picture in her mind, but in her eyes too.
It was disorientating, but she got used to it pretty quickly.
She also found she could rise up out of her shadow, and sink back in.
"Cora, Cora!" Ryan was yelling, and she thought it would be fun to surprise him.
She came up behind Ryan, and grabbed his ankle, and he gave a yelp, and fell over backwards.
But instead of falling, he had transformed into a shadow too.
"Whoa" Ryan marveled, and Cora realized she could turn others into shadows as well as herself.
Eventually, once she had had her fun running on the ceiling, popping out of the walls, she pulled herself and Ryan out, and stood in front of Graham.
"Well, so you had your fun, but there is something other than turning into a shadow"
"wait, what else?" Cora asked.
Graham told her about ninja's who could not only transform into a shadow, but transform a shadow into them.
Cora was even more exited to try this skill and once again took her place in the middle.
She focused on the magic like she had done many a time, and focused on her shadow.
She envisioned it rising out of the floor, and after some patience, it did.
Cora looked at it in awe, as it was a perfect representation of her, except in all black.
She tried to tell it to talk, or do something, but it didn't do anything, until she thought "I wish it could attack something".
Instantly it jumped into action, swinging a shadow katana and throwing shadow shurikens at it.
Eventually, like the shadow walking she had had her fun.
Graham talked to Ryan for a while, and eventually he stepped into the middle.
He creased his brow, and soon an arrow appeared in the air.
No, it was actually two.
Three, four and on and on until there must of been hundreds.
Cora watched amazed, as he thrust his hands forward, and the spectral arrows all converged onto one target, and stuck out of it like it was a pincushion.
Ryan walked back to Cora, and the two of them shared exited looks.
Graham suddenly said "I'm glad you've learnt these skills today, you need to be ready for your first mission next week".