Shadow Slave

1036 The Fall of Falcon Scott (54)

The [Formless] Ability allowed Soul Serpent to assume the shape of any shadow contained within its master's soul, as long as it was the shadow of a creature that was of the same or lower Class and Rank.

Once transformed, Serpent would not only look like the creature, but also inherit its traits and abilities.

..Sunny, however, was not the Serpent.

While he trained his mind and body to possess some facets of the formlessness of shadows, he was still a human. Even if he used Shadow Step to turn incorporeal, he would not be able to make use of the same mystical ability.

He could, however, command the shadows and manifest them into tangible forms.

What did it mean?

Slowly drowning in the tide of black beetles and feeling their sharp mandibles scrape against his skin, Sunny continued to fight... and think. His thoughts were desperate and feverish, but at the same time, his mind was strangely calm.

His first uses of Shadow Manifestation had been very simple — nothing more than shapeless shadows turned tangible and pushed into motion. The only form they had was the one caused by the motion itself, and so, they looked like dark tentacles.

Later, Sunny trained for a long time to be able to effortlessly manipulate the shadows into more structured shapes. Chains, blades, walls, and a few more — with those, he had made several incredible achievements. Building a bridge over a vast chasm, stopping the advance of a mighty titan... were not things a Master was supposed to be capable of doing.

However, his crowning achievement in the use of Shadow Manifestation was the shadow hands. Although not as powerful, durable, and numerous as the dark chains Sunny could create, they were vastly more complex and intricately structured. A hand had to have a rigid frame, flexible joints, dozens degrees of freedom, and many more aspects that few people ever stopped to consider.

Controlling one was also much more complicated.

Currently, Sunny could skillfully implement two types of shadow hands: the cruder and larger ones acted as an independent fighting force during battles, while the much more agile ones, scaled to the size of his body, were used to give him an extra pair of hands for complicated tasks.

what was to stop him from shaping shadows into

was pushed back by the river of darkness, wide cracks appearing on the dam he had created. Behind him, Belle, Dorn, and Kim were barely holding on against the ever-increasing

before the beetle could burrow under the giant man's skin, Kim's rapier flashed and pierced the beetle. The sharp blade wounded Dorn, as well, but receiving a shallow cut was infinitely

teeth, striking down with

The answer

into hands on the fly — creating an actual moving construct in the form of a creature would have been

in the end, it would just be a more complicated

solve both

of Shadow

a person — or a creature — and learn the very essence of their style and physicality, then shadow it. How they moved, how they thought, how they felt, how soul essence flowed through their body. Of course, none of that would be possible if he did not first understand the structure of the body

Sunny knew how a body was shaped and worked on an instinctual level, the task of forcing shadows into that form would become much, much

form act independently. To translate his own power through it instead of relying solely on the strength of the shadows themselves, he could build it around

the shape of a Nightmare Creature... a shell of shadows, with me powering it instead of the other

shape of a Nightmare Creature —just like Soul Serpent could. Of course, there would be a vast difference. Unlike his Shadow, Sunny would not inherit the creature's attributes and abilities, but the physical form

A savage expression appeared on Sunny's face, and he flinched

really be able to pull this off? 'There's only

the shape of a creature, the higher his chances of success would be... and even though he had shadowed many abominations over the years, there were very few

he needed some time, with nothing to distract him from the task. Even if it was just a few seconds, attempting something that crazy for the first time could not be

into, but several seconds of peace were much harder to come

Unless...

some time ago

sword, then continued to

large alloy chest appeared in front of Sunny, large enough for him to

was the

open its lid, then pushed it on the side and swiftly hid behind it. He also called back the deepest and most ancient shadows unleashed