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.

I an icon of chivalry? Wait, what does

switched to the official feed and looked up

the tournament the moment he had won the battle royale. However, other participants also had a chance to move on to the next stage. That depended on their performance and individual score, so there was no set number of people

one of them was Fireshing, the young woman whom he had faced last, and Dar of the Maharana clan, the archer who had

squeezed

interest, Sunny turned off the

real tournament was going to begin. Around a thousand fighters — those who proved their mettle in the qualifying rounds — were going to face each other in proper duels, and after several days of intense

'I better rest well.'

the underground dojo, climbed into the sleeping pod, and closed his eyes. Soon, the familiar

any time, Sunny left the Altar Island, went to his room, crashed on the narrow

there was no rest for

***

the training session, punctual as ever. Luckily, the tournament was not going to start until noon, so Sunny didn't have to

that he would. This was much more important than some stupid tournament. He could get powerful Memories elsewhere, but every day that passed was one less day for him to increase his

shown her the last time. Her form was as 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 her and absorbing the technique into her bones. For a

in the

faced away and grinned. At that exact moment,

message was from Aiko, informing him 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

just became considerably

learned that he was in possession of one coming from a human Saint, Sunny would have to answer too many

strengthening himself, so Sunny didn't feel that aggrieved because of the loss

still incredibly sad,

made a tasty breakfast for himself and Rain. The girl was hungry as a wolf, so she destroyed the contents of her plate in

Sunny glanced at her with

tournament of yours

the last

Tournament? Yes, the qualifying rounds were

a sip of

think I saw some clips on the network. Uh…

She nodded.

"Yeah…"

bit, then mentioned as if

uh... hear that that Mongrel guy

Rain scoffed.

I guess. But I don't like

almost choked on his

"What? Why?"

a lot of effort to keep his voice calm and

like Mongrel?! Mongrel is awesome! He defeated twelve