Chapter 211: Training Your Shadow

Watching the Likmorn, it stood up from its kneeling position, no doubt getting ready to fight Erin. Although Layla had came with her to learn the shadow ability, it seemed like that lesson was going to be put on hold for this match.

’I’ll just stick to the sidelines,’ She thought to herself, ’Maybe I can learn something by watching.’

Erin took out both her Kilton blood sword and paleneedle rapier, unsure which weapon to choose from.

’My rapier would allow me to heal, but its only intermediate tier, and I could use the Kilton sword, but that requires blood.’

Just then, Arthur tossed her another one of his blood flasks, "Use this. Having one of these on you is very handy."

Erin caught it, and began to pour its contents on the blood sword. The bar filled up all the way, becoming fully red, and she tossed the bottle back to Arthur.

With that done, the Likmorn took this as the invitation to stretch out both of its bladed arms towards Erin. They embedded into the ground next to her, then pulled its entire body towards its hands, feet outstretched in a kicking position.

Instinctively, Erin jumped back, avoiding the attack, but the Likmorn recovered quickly, and flung its arms at Erin again.

Jumping over them, she landed away from the Likmorn, getting some distance between the two.

"You’re dodging again," Arthur called out.

Erin gritted her teeth. She didn’t like him calling her out, but he was right.

The Likmorn dragged its bladed arm across the ground, lifting a mist of shadow to partially obscure Erin’s vision. Then, with its other arm, flung it overhead.

Instead of jumping away, Erin stood her ground, and lifted a wall of shadow above her.

The sheer force caused the shadow around them to ripple like a wave, sending wind in Layla and Arthur’s direction. She got up, worried about her roommate’s well being, only to see that Erin had flashstepped towards the Likmorn, slashing at its legs, then stopping right behind him.

[Agility stat has been increased by 20%]

[Successful hits: 2/5]

[Agility: 33 + 7]

Due to the fact that the Likmorn’s arm was caught in the shadow, it allowed Erin the perfect opportunity to land two successful hits, thereby boosting her. The beast was effectively stuck.

The Likmorn twisted around, and raised its free arm in a defensive maneuver.

Turning on her heel, Erin flung two blood swipes at the beast, forcing it to raise his free arm block the attacks. Then, while it was distracted, Erin rushed in, her sword empowering her speed, and leapt onto its arm.

Yanking his arm free from the shadow, he swiped at Erin, only for her to jump, and swiped at the limb midair, then landed on his shoulders.

[Agility stat has been increased by 10%]

[Successful hits: 3/5]

[Agility: 33 + 10]

Layla gasped. It had taken nearly all of her team to deal substantial damage to the Likmorn, with her as the one in charge of keeping the beast still, and here Erin was, running circles around it.

"Don’t get too excited," Arthur whispered to her, "I did tell the big guy to hold back for this demonstration."

She returned her gaze back to the spar at hand, and noticed that the Likmorn’s posture changed. Previously, it was lax, slightly slouched, but now, there was a sense of focus.

It thrusted both of its arms towards Erin, and this time, they had managed to cut into her body.

[-7 HP]

[HP 86/95]

Thankfully, Erin blocked the attacks with her shadow in time to prevent them from going deeper, but just barely.

She jumped off with a flip, and slashed at the Likmorn’s back.

[Agility stat has been increased by 10%]

[Successful hits: 4/5]

[Agility: 33 + 13]

With so much speed fueling her body, she swung her blade in a spin attack, only for her sword to get kicked by the Likmorn’s back foot.

The mound that was its head, slowly turned around. A threatening aura emanating off of its face, despite lacking discernible facial features.

Erin hesitated for a moment, but charged in regardless. The Likmorn flung its leg in a sweeping kick, but Erin created another shadow to block it. Then, she leapt into the air, and thrust her sword into the Likmorn’s back.

[Agility stat has been increased by 10%]

[Successful hits: 5/5]

[Agility: 33 + 17]

Currently, her effective speed was at 50, the fastest she’d ever been, and it was like time had slowed down for the world around her. Nothing could hit her now.

Just then, the shadows around the Likmorn disappeared, and a new system notification screen popped up.

[You have run out of MC]

Not wasting another second, the Likmorn twisted around, and flung both blades in an X formation down onto Erin. She jumped back, having the speed to comfortably do so now, and lifted a hand up to fire a blood spray.

Before she could, time slowed down even further, but instead of her being fast, and the world being slow, it was the other way around.

Despite having her king tier bow on hand, Layla couldn’t keep up with the powerful man. Arthur had suddenly stood right behind Erin, and placed his hand on her head with a strange shadow covering her. Normally, the shadow would act as a defensive tool, or even provide helpful utility to its user, but this was nothing like that.

’What a strange skill,’ Layla thought to herself.

Arthur nodded to the Likmorn, and it lifted its arms back into a neutral resting position. Lastly, he removed his hand, taking the shadow with it, and Erin was back to normal.

"That’s enough practical lessons for today."

—

Fex was standing on one of the wooden platforms with a few of his beast knives out, and away from any other human from watching. He tied a few of them onto his string, and began flinging them around rapidly. Then, he flung one into one of the thick wooden logs used for the railing as hard as he could, embedding it so deeply that it came out the other side.

"...Oops," Fex whispered.

He yanked the knife back, and looked down on it with a mixture of feelings. Using beast gear like this was something that the vampires back home would take as weakness, something that you’d only use to borrow strength from, as it wasn’t your own. Humans used beast gear as a way to compensate for their lack of physical power that vampires naturally had, and if you had to use beast gear, it meant you were just as weak as a human.

The exception to this were blood weapons, but the power from those came from blood crystals, and only the family leaders were allowed to use them. It was different.

He could see that perspective, as the knives he had were only basic tier, the kind of weapon that would bounce off most enemies. Despite this, Fex found them fun.

Just then, he heard the sound of a person running by, and turned to see a short girl with chunky purple boots run past where his training area was.

"Oh yeah, she was talking to Peter yesterday," Fex commented, and put his knives away.

Then he saw Peter chasing after her, out of breath, and although his presence did sour Fex’s mood, he was wondering as to why Cia was running away from him.

’Is it a break up situation or something?’ he thought, but a curious smile crept on his lips, ’Well, I’m sure that’ll be interesting to watch.’

When the two weren’t looking, he hid behind the trees and buildings, trailing behind them closely.