Chương 20: Strong Enough!(?)

It was another silver card. Just how powerful did a gold card have to be? Shadowstride Farni never walked through doors. Locked rooms, prison cells, guarded vaults—none of them could keep him out. Those who survived his visits all remembered the same thing: shadows stretching where they shouldn't have. Recorded in the Akashic System in the year 446798. Shadowstride allows the wielder to merge with connected shadows and emerge from another within range.

While merged, the wielder can sense every living being whose shadow is connected to their own. Cloaking oneself in shadows enhances physical strength and speed at the cost of Magika. I didn't give Kach a moment. The instant the card formed, I assimilated it. The familiar tingling spread through my chest. Then I stepped into my own shadow. My body unraveled into black mist before melting beneath my feet. The world became silent. Cold. Weightless. There was no up or down. Only an endless sea of connected darkness.

Kach snapped her head left and right looking for me. Too late. Her shadow rippled. My silhouette peeled itself off the darkness behind her and became flesh again. My fist rushed toward the back of her head. Then I stopped. The lightning racing through my veins accelerated my thoughts. No. I dissolved back into the shadows before the punch landed. Kach spun around to find nothing. I climbed out of the shadow cast by a broken machine several metres away. I couldn't hit her.

The moment I did, my hand would twist apart before hers did. I glanced at Lania. She was digging through the sack, desperately searching for something to heal her fingers. Kach had smashed most of the bottles already. Judging from Lania's expression, there wasn't a single healing medicine left. So what the fuck was I supposed to do? A metallic clang echoed beneath my foot. Kach's head immediately turned toward the sound. I looked down. It was a steel pipe. All around me were broken rods, steel plates, bent rebar.

Hundreds of metal scraps littered the room. Through Shadowstride, I could sense every one of them as long as they cast a shadow. They weren't trash, they were weapons. This could work. I melted into the darkness again. Kach landed exactly where I'd been standing. The floor exploded beneath her feet. Every step she took twisted the concrete before shredding it apart. I emerged several metres away. She noticed instantly. She lunged. Before she reached me, I had already vanished. This time I rose from her own shadow.

I grabbed the steel pipe lying beside her and swung it with everything I had. It smashed into the side of her head. I released it the instant it touched her. The pipe spun violently. Its straight body twisted into a spiral before flying away. But it had done what I wanted. It hurt her. I disappeared before her counterattack arrived. It worked. But Shadowstride had its limits. I couldn't carry the metal through the shadows. I tried. I vanished but the pipe stayed behind.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Looks like only I could travel through shadows. Then why did my clothes come with me? Something to figure out later. Right now I needed to survive. Kach charged again. I picked up a longer steel rod. One end had snapped into a crude spear point. Sharp enough. I hurled it. Not at her. She would've knocked it aside. Instead, I aimed just past her left shoulder. As the rod flew through the air, I melted into my shadow.

Then emerged from the rod's shadow. Still airborne. I caught it and drove it into Kach's side. The instant it pierced her, I let go otherwise my arm would've twisted apart with it. This time her own power worked against her. Instead of throwing the rod away, the spinning drilled it deeper into her body. Nearly a finger's length before stopping. The black sludge went still. She had deactivated her superpower. Kach grabbed the rod, trying to pull it free. I wasn't about to let her.

I kicked the exposed end and the rod buried itself even deeper. She coughed. Black sludge splattered onto the floor. Yet, she was smiling. No. Grinning. It was finally fun for her. She reached for the rod again. I rushed in to capitalize. It was a trap. Her fist appeared in front of my face. I vanished at the last possible moment. I emerged behind her. Her leg whipped backward. Thankfully the sludge wasn't moving anymore. But the kick still caught me. My body spun through the air before crashing across the rubble.

Blood burst from my mouth. A tooth landed beside me. My jaw screamed. Kach ripped the rod free and hurled it at me. The spinning force shrieked through the air. I barely ducked beneath it. My Magika was running low. Maybe six more shadow hops. After that... I was done. I picked up another rod. Then threw it almost straight upward. Kach charged. I vanished. She expected me to appear behind her. She spun instantly to intercept me. I wasn't there. The shattered ceiling cast a shadow across itself. I emerged from it.

Falling, I caught the rod I'd thrown seconds earlier. Gravity added to its momentum and I slammed it into Kach's head. She screamed. For the first time... She screamed. I disappeared before she could retaliate. From another shadow, I watched. She clutched her head. Black sludge seeped between her fingers. Just a few more hits. A few more and I could actually win. The ground trembled. I dropped to one knee. Concrete split apart beneath my feet as the entire facility shook.

I'd lived through three earthquakes and none of them came close to this. Because this wasn't an earthquake. It was Kach. The black sludge coating her body erupted into motion. It swirled faster than ever before, even the air around her began to twist. The ground completely shattered. The machinery, the scrap metal, everything above the surface twisted, crumbled, and disintegrated. How the fuck was spinning things doing this? Thankfully, Lania and Pyiari were outside her range.

I melted into a shadow and climbed onto one cast by the broken ceiling. My body emerged from the darkness, clinging to a narrow crevice as I watched whatever she was doing. It lasted nearly a minute. By the time the black sludge settled, nothing remained. The concrete floor had become gravel. The once uneven battlefield was now perfectly flat. Every loose piece of metal, every pipe, every weapon. Gone. There were still machines standing at the edges of the room, but they were far beyond my range.

Worse, none of them cast a shadow close enough for Shadowstride.

"Fuck." Kach vanished. In the next blink, she was in front of me. I dropped from the ceiling and emerged from my own shadow the moment my feet touched the ground. Kach rebounded off the ceiling straight at me. Her shadow merged with mine. There were only two shadows left in the entire battlefield. Mine, and hers. I ran. She crashed into the gravel where I'd been standing a heartbeat earlier. Even with Fulgur's Blood still sharpening my reflexes, she was too fast. I dodged by a hair's breadth.

Her kick caught my shin. It didn't twist. She had deactivated her superpower. She was playing with me again. A fist buried itself in my face. The world blurred. My ears rang. I hit the ground. When my vision returned, everything had turned red. Was that... my blood? Her foot slammed into my ribs. I flew backward. The gravel bounced me once. Twice. Thrice. I finally slid to a stop. My ribs were broken. Some had probably pierced my organs. Blood streamed from my ears. My nose. Even my eyes.

I tried to move but I couldn't. The whole world had turned crimson. Only one figure still moved within it. Slowly and steadily, it walked toward me. An angel? Or a devil? Kach's grin was gone. For the first time since our fight began, she looked... Satisfied. If she's satisfied... Will she let me go? The answer came as she slowly raised her arm. The black sludge stirred once more. She was going to kill me. Then... A wall of violet erupted behind Kach. At least... It looked violet to me.

Everything I saw was soaked in blood, so it was actually blue. It was a wall of blue fire. Lania was reviving her toy.