Shadow Slave

Nephis looked at him and contemplated. This time, she remained silent longer than usual.

Sunny felt a bit nervous under her gaze, knowing that he was being evaluated. With Changing Star's skill and insight, it wasn't hard to imagine just how much she had gleaned from his battle performance. Both his current level and future potential must have been pretty much laid bare in front of her. Were they enough to make teaching him worth her while?

After some time, she took the soul shards and nodded.

"Okay."

Sunny smiled, congratulating himself on a successful deal. Not only did he receive a lot while not losing much, but he had also managed to create a bit of a favorable impression of himself in the eyes of Nephis and Cassie. As far as performances went, this was a great one.

"So when do we start?"

Nephis shrugged.

"Now."

Now?

Sunny glanced at the sun, which was already almost gone. Were they going to train in complete darkness? It wasn't really an obstacle for him. Changing Star, however…

"We will start with some words. That will be enough for today."

After hesitating a little, she added:

"Cassie, you listen too."

Sunny and Cassia turned to Nephis, listening to her like two obedient students. Despite the fact that their age was more or less similar, both knew that, in terms of martial prowess, their companion had authority that was as beyond theirs as a dragon's might was beyond that of a worm.

thought for a while and then

repetition and experience. In a fight, things happen too fast to consider every detail in the moment. That's why your technique must exist in your muscles and bones, so much so that

She paused.

initial results through repetition. Then, it must be cemented through experience. The more battle experience you have, the deeper a technique will be assimilated into your body. There is no other way. A thousand hours of training won't be as impactful as one real fight. Only those who survive countless battles can be

Changing Star's statement made

difficulty. So maybe her statement was true. That, however, posed a question of its own… just what

stop

Meanwhile, Nephis continued:

outcome is often decided before your body begins to move. And to master

at them and

think

of combat? What might

say something stupid like "honor", "valor" or "duty". But he already knew that Nephis did not fit into the

a minute or

"Victory."

at the same time,

"Survival."

Star shook her

"No."

her neck and pierced them with a cold,

essence of combat is

and opened her eyes wide. Sunny frowned a little. Nephis, however, did not seem to care.

to kill you. In the end, one of you will be killed, and the other one will be the killer. Everything else is just

deep into Sunny's heart and reverberated there, causing

doesn't matter. Weapons don't matter. Reason and intent do not matter. The only thing that matters is to be the last one standing. In this way, anything you do in combat must be viewed as only serving one of two purposes: either to kill your enemy or to prevent the enemy from killing