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.

wrong with these people? Since when was I an icon of chivalry? Wait, what

then switched to the official

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 who would

turned out, out of the thousand Awakened who had fought in his battle royale, two more qualified to participate in the tournament — one of them was Fireshing, the young woman whom he had faced last, and Dar of the Maharana clan, the archer who had almost skewered Sunny with his

squeezed through,

turned off the

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 competition, one victor was going to emerge to reap the best

'I better rest well.'

closed his eyes. Soon, the familiar sight of the Sanctuary

Island, went to his room, crashed on the narrow cot, and almost instantly fell

that 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 find an excuse

powerful Memories elsewhere, but every day that passed was one less day for him to increase his sister's

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

the

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

of lesser Ranks — not only because they stored more essence,

Sunny just became

there who could determine the nature and source of a shard. If anyone learned that he was in possession of one coming from a human Saint, Sunny would have to answer too many uncomfortable questions. So, he had just given it to

as strengthening himself, so Sunny didn't feel that

still incredibly

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

at her with an incredulous expression and asked

tournament

the last

Dream Tournament? Yes, the

a sip of tea,

I think I saw some

She nodded.

"Yeah…"

mentioned as if he just happened to think about

uh... hear that that Mongrel guy

Rain scoffed.

But

choked

"What? Why?"

lot of effort to keep his voice calm

awesome! He defeated twelve Awakened