Shadow Slave

A week later, two people sat across from each other on the cold floor of the underground dojo, their eyes closed. With their legs crossed and their hands resting on their laps, it seemed as though they were meditating.

Of course, they weren't.

While Sunny was calm and in relaxed, Nephis was the opposite. There was a furious torrent of soul energy flowing through her body, making it hard for her to remain still. Invisible to anyone except for her partner, radiant streams of ethereal essence rushed through her veins like rivers of flame.

Her breathing was uneven, and there were beads of sweat on her face.

Sunny observed Changing Star through his shadows. After a while, he said:

"You are doing much better. While crude, your control is already stable. However, there is no precision to it… a Master has to be intricate in how they apply and expend their essence. That is what truly separates us from the Awakened. While the soul of an Ascended is more potent, the gap is not too large. It is our ability to make better use of this potential that really separates us from the rest of them."

Neph was doing well. In fact, her rapid progress in learning how to control her essence was nothing short of exceptional. However, she was facing substantial obstacles in her training. Not only was Changing Star completely new to that aspect of her power, she also simply had too much soul essence. Compared to normal Master, she had at least five times as much of it.

If most Ascended contained a tranquil current of essence within their bodies, Nephis contained a furious sea.

Her soul essence was also different from anything Sunny had ever faced. It was much more potent, fiery, and vibrant, probably because of [The Fire] Attribute she had inherited from her mother.

What it effectively meant was that Neph would have to put much more effort into learning to control her essence. However, once she did climb over that steep obstacle… the result was going to be simply terrifying.

Showing her the way put Sunny's own experiences in perspective, gifting him a few new insights of his own. Just as it had been with Rain, the role of a mentor allowed him to learn a lot himself.

truly the best

control was far more precise and nuanced than that of most,

actual combat yet. He was also growing more and more sour about the fact that both Blood Weave and Bone Weave were

been during his encounter with the Vile Thieving Bird's Spawn. Even

not utilizing

Weaver's lineage had not devoured the Shadow God's, Sunny would have been in a different

there

of soul essence in her body settled, returning to a calmer cycle. She rested for a moment,

commanding the four shadows to

"Are you ready?"

and then exploded in motion, attacking him with her

shadows, Sunny easily dodged, deflected, and blocked the torrent of devastating punches and kicks. This was the second part of their training — Nephis not only had to learn how to control soul essence, but also how

task, considering that the difference went much deeper than simple physical ability and explosive might. At their high level, combat became much more tactical. Soul essence was a precious resource that could achieve a

amounts of essence. However, they could also quickly deplete it. The same statement held true for Awakened, but to a much lesser degree, since Masters had much greater powers at their disposal… and thus could

a constant and complicated dance that required a lot of skill, foresight, and cunning to be

himself still had a lot to

By dedicating himself to nothing but withstanding a constant barrage

least she had mastered essence control enough to not

against flesh. Both fighters were exerting themselves to the utmost degree. Sunny had it easier since he