Joe looked at the sword with piqued interest. That's an awesome sword, he thought. It had just cleaved one of those creatures in half, no trouble. When Salem reached for it and it moved away from him, Joe looked at Salem critically. "C'mon, dude, you gotta excalibur that shit," he urged. How could he not muster the strength to grab the sword that just saved their lives? It could've been their ticket out of this place.<br/><br/>Instead, the cloud of shadows began to materialize, thick and black. Two arms came into existence, attaching to the mass of smoke. A head began to form, a large, upside-down heart mask that looked to be made of wood. An additional two pairs of legs began to form, complete with three pronged dragon claws. The mask came alive in a flurry of green and blue. Triangles spun across the mask at a fast pace. Two black lines formed in the center in the mask, and then opened to reveal two large eyes. Its human hand flexed momentarily, and then snatched up the stone sword in one fell swoop. The shadow twirled it experimentally and then drove it into the ground, shattering the cobblestones. It bobbed its head back and forth like it was laughing, and ripped the sword from the ground again.<br/><br/>The shadow turned at a great speed to face another one of the creatures. It flung its arm back and slashed experimentally, cleaving the creature in two. It shimmied side to side, craning its neck to get a good view of every angle around it. However, the shadow must've missed an area, because one of the creature's leaped onto its back and began to tear at its shadowy fur with its talons. The shadow let out a painful hiss, and pulled the sword forward so it was holding it at the front of its form with both hands. The shadow shuddered and became intangible and with a startled shriek the creature dropped down into its body. At the right moment, the shadow drove the sword into its own body, pinning the creature right in the chest. As the creature dissolved, the shadow became tangible again and dropped the sword in front of it. It turned its eyes towards the two boys.