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.

arms... what was to stop him from shaping shadows into

Kim were barely holding on against the ever-increasing number of the vile beetles. Just at that

metal instantly split, but 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

down

him? The answer

lot of time teaching himself how to shape shadows into hands on the fly — creating an

in the end, it

was something that could solve both

of Shadow

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

instinctual level, the task of forcing shadows into that form would become much, much

he did not have to make that 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 himself like

suit of exoskeleton armor in the shape of a Nightmare Creature... a shell of shadows,

—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

one of the beetles. A savage expression appeared on Sunny's face, and he flinched back, narrowly

this off?

choose a suitable form, and one that was exceedingly familiar to him. The better he knew 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

just a few seconds, attempting

to try turning into,

Unless...

that he had thought of some

to rain one

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

the

side and swiftly hid behind it. He also called back the deepest and most ancient shadows unleashed from