Shadow Slave

Observing the motions of two shadows that followed Nephis, Sunny was finally able to understand the foundation of the elusive shadow style.

Before, he only sensed a hint of its essence. He knew that just like the shadow, the hidden battle art was insidious, shapeless, and everchanging. But this was where lay the problem: a battle style was, by definition, a structured framework of patterns and principles, a doctrine that dictated how one should act to defeat an enemy.

That doctrine was used as a foundation and expanded into a variety of specific movements to create a style.

But If something didn't have a shape and its form was constantly changing, how could it ever be stable and structured? Sunny had no idea how the concepts he felt were at the core of the shadow style could create something even remotely applicable to practice.

Insidious, shapeless, everchanging. What was he supposed to do with that?

But now, he understood. The key to it all was so simple and evident that he almost laughed. Why had he not guessed earlier? It was so obvious.

The idea that tied everything together was as innate to the nature of shadows as formlessness and elusiveness.

It was imitation.

After all, what were the first two things that came to mind when one thought about shadows? That they lived in the dark and imitated the things that hid them from light.

The foundation of the shadow style was indeed insidious, shapeless, and everchanging. Its core concept was to steal that which made the enemy strong and use it to destroy them.

To master that style, he had to learn how to behave like a shadow.

Sunny stared at Nephis and Caster, but didn't see them. His mind was consumed completely by the sudden revelation. He had no time to pay attention to their fight anymore.

This style… this style had endless potential. If he managed to master it, he would be able to counter any style or technique used against him, not to mention become an immensely unpredictable opponent.

What could be more unpredictable than a formless shadow?

Of course, it was easier said than done. To begin with, while the ability to imitate the enemy was incredibly powerful, it also demanded an incredible amount of talent, experience, and insight from the user. You couldn't imitate that which you didn't understand, after all.

More importantly, this was just the foundation of the style. He still had to expand it into the actual collection of specific principles... and retrain himself accordingly.

That was a mammoth task.

battle master years, if not decades.

It was a start. Personal battle arts were not created in an instance, anyway. It was a long and arduous process, with endless iterations coming and going while being tempered by the crucible

would

could be applied in battle in one

moment, a deep scowl appeared

how, exactly, am I supposed to

***

while later, when the sun was already touching the western horizon, Sunny was sitting by himself and staring at his shadow. He was motionless like

Sunny lingered for a few moments and then slowly looked up to see who

his surprise, it was

bit, her graceful figure illuminated by the setting sun. Then, she sat

Sunny blinked.

"Uh… hey Neph."

him

"Hey, Sunny."

waited for a few moments,

"...Did you want something?"

curled upward. With a

to say that I saw you fighting in the catacombs.

Sunny smiled.

a lot of opportunities to lead a peaceful life in

She shook her head.

would have been able to grow so much and as

a while, Sunny

it yourself. One real battle is worth more than a thousand hours of training. There was… a lot of battles. In

nodded, and then

into your technique… where

scratched the back of his head and, remembering the hellish training

just observed how the Stone Saint fought

Changing Star smiled:

I thought. I've seen her fight, too. It's a very formidable Echo. One