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

growled as he 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 number of the vile beetles. Just at that moment, Dorn was a split second too slow to bring his sledgehammer down, and one of the small creatures.

The sharp blade wounded Dorn, as well, but receiving a shallow cut was infinitely better than having a murderous little

striking down with the Sin

The answer

himself how to shape shadows into hands on the fly — creating an actual moving construct in the form of a

not be very deadly, since in

that could solve both of these problems

knowledge of Shadow

then shadow it. How they moved, how they

was shaped and worked on an instinctual level, the task of

of relying solely on the strength of the shadows themselves, he

a Nightmare Creature... a shell of

to assume the shape of a Nightmare Creature —just like Soul Serpent could. Of course, there would be a vast difference. Unlike his Shadow, Sunny would

breath, almost swallowing one of the beetles. A savage expression appeared on Sunny's face,

to pull this

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 that Sunny was confident

Even if it was just a few seconds, attempting something that

up with some monster to try turning into, but several seconds of peace were

Unless...

some time ago suddenly popped back into his

beetles with an obliterating strike of the flat of his jade sword, then continued to rain one

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

was the

and swiftly hid behind it. He also called back the