Shadow Slave

Sunny was ready for battle.

Now... he wasn't Sunny anymore.

He was a mighty serpent, clad in an armor of onyx scales, with fangs as sharp as diamonds and enough fury to incinerate the world.

But that was not enough.

Following his wrathful roar, the Shell hiding below his scales turned into the adamantine Mantle. A fearsome obsidian armor encased his flexible body, light as a feather and crafted so intricately as not to restrict his movement in any way.

The water exploded into the air when he dove into the depths... the depths that belonged to him, and him alone.

"OLD SNAKE!"

The call escaped his monstrous maw, turned into a senseless roar.

...What he had done was simple, but also indescribably hard.

He had dove deeper into Shadow Dance than ever before, mirroring both the mind and the physique of a Nightmare Creature. He had not been sure that it would be possible until the last moment, but his meticulous preparation paid off.

It was do or die, nothing less.

He had spent countless hours observing the Azure Serpent and learning everything there was to learn about it. Then, he dissolved into the shadows, and manifested himself back into a tangible form. Finally, he summoned the dead shadow of the Black Turtle, which he had lured into the Lantern, to form a mighty shell around his fragile incarnation.

But, for the first time, the shape of his shell was not that of the shadow fiend. Instead, it was the shape of a monstrous river serpent... the shape of the mad beast whom he feared, admired, and wanted to kill.

Of course, this Shadow Shell could not compare to the real thing. He was only an Ascended, after all, while the Azure Serpent was a Great Beast. It was weaker, less resilient, and smaller - maybe a quarter of the size of the actual abomination.

However, it was suffused with the power of both shadows and soul flame, granting it power well beyond the limits of what an Ascended could possess.

by the Mantle,

another challenging his

spear. He could feel it... the scent of blood spilling from the mangled body of the older,

what if it was older? So what if it

apart by his

Azure Serpent had

sensed a vast shadow rising from below to meet him. It was brimming

he was not

know how to be

was

azure scales and a smaller serpent encased in obsidian armor, wreathed in shadows and blinding white radiance -

he had not twisted his body at the

to remind

he was

Nightmare Creature. He was not a Beast. He was cunning, resourceful, and skilled. He possessed the honed battle sense of

a strange thing, to both believe that he was a serpent with all his heart and know that he was something

powerful than a Saint's Transcendent form would have been, perhaps.

Serpent, that strength was almost laughable. Despite the terrible wounds covering the body of the Great Beast,

to be devious, cunning, and sober if he wanted to kill his

be deranged and overcome

and

fangs into an open wound on the Azure Serpent's neck. It was only for a moment, though - giving up on tearing out a chunk of flesh, he let go

time, because the leviathan's jaws snapped closed just a meter behind him in

ascended from the depths. The Azure Serpent was much larger, more powerful, and terrifyingly domineering. The black

in the leviathan's jaws, Sunny was suffering tremendous

brushed against each other, a vast stretch of the Mantle cracked and shattered. The shadows below rippled, the internal structure of the shell twisting and breaking apart. The violent currents created by the passing of the Azure Serpent's body were slowing him down, and his dark flesh was sliced open by

shell was