Shadow Slave

'What a chore…'

Sunny dragged himself out of the Dreamscape pod and sighed.

Even though the battle royale happened inside an illusion and his body wasn't tired or bruised, the mental exhaustion was real. The qualifier round had turned out to be much more demanding than Sunny had thought.

Of course, he could have used the three shadows to augment himself and devastate the entire arena, but that would have defeated the purpose. Sunny had managed fine with just his own strength. This way, he was also polishing his technique and enriching his comprehension of Shadow Dance, which was not a small matter.

Putting on some clothes, he returned upstairs, sprawled on the sofa, and then looked at his communicator.

Currently, hundreds of similar illusory battles were being broadcasted for people to see. Some were already close to a conclusion, some were in the thick of bloodshed, and some were only just starting.

However, not every broadcast received the same amount of attention — those arenas where renowned duelists or especially powerful newcomers were fighting pulled the most of it. Sadly, due to Mongrel's infamy, the one Sunny had just finished was among the more popular broadcasts. It was also one of the earliest to end, so clips of the most exciting moments were already circulating on the network.

Sunny groaned.

'Perfect… just perfect... another damned viral clip…'

His final fight against Fireshing and Saitoh received a lot of views, but nowhere near as many as the clip of his brutal confrontation with the twelve ambushers.

The comments were exploding.

"Hell yeah! Our Lord taught these thugs a lesson!"

"Only twelve? These guys are idiots, they should have gathered at least a hundred…"

"No hard feelings? None whatsoever… gods, how can anyone be so cool?!"

"Did you see his odachi shapeshift? I was not hallucinating, right?"

"...Is it just me, or does Mongrel's hair look extra gorgeous today?"

He grimaced, then look at the comments under the other video:

"That Saitoh guy… why did he even ask? Doesn't he know that Mongrel is an icon of chivalry?"

"Of course it is beneath Lord Mongrel! He is so noble!"

"What are you fools talking about? Mongrel is not noble! He is a wild beast! He only said that teaming up is beneath him because a beast like him doesn't need anyone's help to kill everyone! "

"Gee, so many edgelords in the comments today. Eh, I miss the early days when only true experts knew about Mongrel. His technique was way better back then, too…"

Sunny stared at the screen for a while, then shook his head.

Since when was I an icon of chivalry? Wait, what

again, then switched to the official

chance to move on to the next stage. That depended on

to participate in the tournament — one of them was Fireshing, the young woman

bastard squeezed through,

Sunny turned off the communicator and

qualifying rounds — were going to face each other

'I better rest well.'

and closed

went to his room, crashed on the narrow cot, and

there was no rest

***

at his doorstep for the training session, punctual as ever. Luckily, the tournament was not going to start

Memories elsewhere, but every day that passed was one

horrible as he had expected, but Rain was nothing if not diligent. She was improving with every set, slowly correcting the mistakes he pointed to

the

Sunny faced away and grinned. At that exact moment, his communicator received a message. After looking at it, his mood

that the soul shards he had retrieved from the Wormvine were finally sold. Transcendent shards were infinitely more rare and precious than those of lesser Ranks — not only because they stored more essence, but also because there were Aspect Abilities and spelltech applications that depended on the quality of the

just became considerably

learned that he was

in a sense, the same as strengthening himself, so Sunny didn't feel that aggrieved because of

was still incredibly sad,

training session was over, he made a tasty breakfast for himself and Rain. The girl was hungry as

she was almost done, Sunny glanced at her with an

tournament of yours

the last bite and

Dream Tournament? Yes, the qualifying

took a sip

Right, I think I saw some clips on the network. Uh…

She nodded.

"Yeah…"

mentioned as

that that Mongrel guy is quite

Rain scoffed.

I guess. But I don't

almost choked on his

"What? Why?"

effort to keep his voice calm

like Mongrel?! Mongrel is awesome! He defeated