Shadow Slave

Sunny remained motionless for a while, then chuckled.

"No... that's crazy! It would never work."

Then, he stared at the wall some more.

...Would it?

'No way.'

The thought that had crept into his mind while he was thinking about the limitations of the Shadow Shell was so out there that it seemed utterly ridiculous. But the more he thought about it... the fewer reasons to discard it he saw.

'No, that's... that's a bit too strange, even for me.'

And yet, he could not find a logical reason for why it wouldn't be true.

Sunny hesitated for a while longer, then furtively looked around.

Then, he cleared his throat, stood up, and left the office.

If he wanted to test this bizarre theory, he needed to do it somewhere more private.

He left the Valor compound and made his way to the nearby dormitory, where most of the government staff still remaining within the siege capital lived. There, he entered his living quarters - which were a bit more spacious and had better amenities than that of both mundane and Awakened government workers - and locked the door behind him.

Being an Ascended had its perks.

watch - two outside the apartment, two within - and stood there for a few minutes, mentally going over what he was

be dangerous,

The principle was simple.

art was shapelessness and formlessness - it allowed him to shadow an enemy, copying the very essence of their combat technique.

styles. He had achieved that breakthrough while

more sophisticated styles, and do it much faster. It also gave him a glimpse of an intuitive understanding of the more esoteric components of the truly advanced battle arts - those created and used

duel with Morgan. The inspiration Sunny had received after being decimated

arena of the Red Colosseum, he had submerged himself into their perverted, demented, rabid minds... which allowed him to intuitively feel what

practitioner. It required one to truly accept the formless nature of the shadows and let go of their actual self - which, of course, posed the risk of losing it

together by using his True Name. It served as an anchor for what made Sunny an individual, and through it, he was

even further, allowed him to actually perceive the flow of essence through their bodies as opposed

The fourth step...

all on his own, with no one guiding him... as such, he

of Shadow Dance went far beyond battle techniques... and would

had stagnated in mastering Shadow Dance, he had achieved progress in other aspects

culmination of it was the Shadow Shell - a powerful tool he had created by bringing together various facets of his skills, Attributes,

able to create shells of other creatures. In fact, its role was perhaps the most important - without deep comprehension of the desired form,

there was a limitation to Shadow

shadows were truly shapeless and formless, while Sunny was not. Even if he had managed to make his mind supremely malleable, he still possessed a human body.

added another

of his Dormant Ability, Shadow

Awakened Ability - Shadow Dance - was

for

let's just try

direction that would eventually