Shadow Slave: Possibilities Without Meaning

The group jumped into a fight to clear the nest that was blocking their path. It had to go.

The area exploded in chaos as spiders came out of their hiding places in droves.

In formation, the cohort faced the wave head on. 

It took a while but they were slowly etching away at the hive. 

Each member adorned and armed with their memories, wreaked havoc on the nightmare creatures.

Cassie armed with her trusted rapier and her wind staff supported the group from afar. 

Sunny had summoned his echo: Stone Saint to join the fray. The echo and Effie acted as the infantry of the group. 

Sunny was darting behind the spiders like a silent assassin. Using the shadows to hide his presence, he cut down all that he saw. 

Nephis and Caster supported the left and right of Effie and Stone Saint. Killing all the creatures with the efficacy of a ned from birth. 

Kai supported the group beside Cassie with his blood arrows. They were capable of penetrating through the hard carapace of the spiders. Obliterating them at a large danger to himself.

Aldric stayed at the rear, killing those who tried to pincer them from behind. With his reservoir of darkness steadily growing, he could afford to exert more of it in his attacks. Laying nebulous slashes of death wherever he looked. He spared nothing to kill the awakened ranked spiders. 

He remembered the grudge he had with the last spider that crossed his path. 

Before they knew it, the fight was over. 

After spending some time collecting shards from the corpses, Aldric had a chance to study the area. There was the corpse of the awakened tyrant that the previous lord killed with his cohort. 

It was scary to think that all these spiders could be controlled to act as one by such a large creature.

The group were introduced to the Stone Saint properly. Each person had their own comments to make until the echo stared at Aldric. As if she were looking for something. She turned away after some time. Sunny found the interaction weird and looked at Aldric.

Near the back of the statue, they had found a human-shaped cocoon near the carcass of the tyrant. 

Caster had identified the corpse as Stephen, the youngest heir of the Pandavar Clan.

Everyone reacted to the disgusting state his corpse was left in. Used as an incubator for their newborns, his face was stuck in a visage of agony.

Caster wanted to bury his friend but his request was rejected by Nephis. She claimed that they did not have enough time and burned down the entire nest after asking them to leave.

Aldric could tell that she was lying about having time. At most, it would have taken Caster 10 minutes to bury Stephen's body. He could tell that her reasoning was to kill off all the larvae that were not in view. 

In that explosion, she must have gained hundreds or maybe a thousand soul essences, if Aldric was correct. 

She could have even hidden her gaining a new core when she had asked everyone to leave the nest.

This was just another reminder for Aldric of how deceptive his comrades could be.

She exited the nest looking exhausted.

They climbed the statue of the hunter that was standing beside the nest. Making camp on its shoulder, they rested for the night.

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They had spent the next 3 days resting on the broad shoulders of the statue. Nephis had explained that they were too early for the next part of their journey. 

Most of the time was spent training. Sunny was training the infant stage of his shadow dance. Caster and Nephis were sparring. 

Aldric was using this training to work on his control. It was much easier to utilise his darkness when he had a meagre ball-sized amount but now it was close to the volume of a bathtub. Even then, Aldric used it sparingly by coating only the edge of his blade in a thin slash or concentrating a small amount at the tip of his blade for a thrust.

The downside of his abilities came with the extremely slow rate of his darkness returning after use. It was tied to the amount of soul essence he had and his Dark Sprites. The amount of darkness he could use was not tied to his essence but the recharge rate was. He guessed that it might be the same for Nephis or else she would be able to use her soul flames all the time. 

An analogy to think about it would be if his darkness was a well. The size of the bucket used to source the water would be his capacity: the number of Dark Sprites he had. The well was seemingly bottomless and how much water you could source was based on the size of the bucket. Now say that the bucket was raised down by a pulley system. The speed that you could lower it and raise it back up was based on your soul essence.

When he becomes an awakened and can manipulate his soul essence, he will see how it affects his ability.

With the increase in volume, he had to continually train his control. To not use too much or too little. 

He did this by coating different parts of his body as fast as he could as well as trying to extend the control beyond his body. Before he could only coat his blade and crudely throw a ball of darkness with "Dark Sun" but now he could extend his range by 5 metres. At 5 metres, he could only manipulate crude shapes like tendrils. At one meter, he could manipulate a "Dark Sun" as much as he wanted before throwing it. Now it was much more deadly and refined as it kept its shape more.

He practiced running around some obstacles with a portion of darkness around the soles of his feet. Constantly dividing his attention while not disrupting the flow on his feet.

He continued these exercises in the morning and evening on top of a standard exercise routine. This was something he tried his best to stick to during his stay in the Dark City. Sometimes, he was injured or swamped with something else to complete them. He was not a robot.

Seeing Nephis and Caster spar so much made him want to join in. 

To be honest Aldric felt like an outsider in the group. The main four had spent months fighting side by side and so they kept to themselves most of the time. It was rare to have group talks outside of battle or strategising. Sunny and Kai had found company in each other and were regaling stories of their past. Of course, Sunny had an undeniable bond with Nephis and Cassie. He would be welcomed back into the fold if he chose to but Aldric was the odd man out. Sunny did not include him in his conversations due to his weary nature. 

Sunny felt that Kai was simple and forecoming so he welcomed his friendship but Aldric was more elusive in character. The young teen was laidback and reliable. He had an air of superiority around him that was not formed from malice but indifference. As if he were untouchable. It took Sunny a while to decipher the demeanour that he gave off. He likened it to the feeling that legacies gave off: as if they knew something that no one else did.

And so Aldric was the odd man out of the group. He did not use his knowledge to slither his way into their group and gain their trust because of Kai's flaw. Lying about how he knew certain things would foster distrust that would slowly spread. 

'What a creepy way to make friends. I would feel like a stalker or a fan.' He thought.

But more importantly, Aldric found it weak to do. It was admitting that he was not valuable enough as a person to gain trust in a normal fashion. So Aldric committed himself to slowly building a relationship with the cohort by showing up and being reliable.

Aldric approached the sparring duo. Sunny was sitting to the side watching the fight with rapt attention as if he was reading a transcript. 

He waited for them to finish their exchange and spoke when they stopped.

"Mind if I join in? I'm sure it gets boring fighting the same person all the time."

Aldric spoke in a laidback tone. His blade was pointing to the ground.

Both of the legacies gave him a look. Caster seemed unsure and agitated at the disruption until Nephis spoke.

"Sure. I could use a break."

She walked away and sat beside Sunny while drinking some water from a flask.

Looking at the young man, Aldric noted that he was slightly darker and richer in complexion than Caster. That was where their similarities ended. From their hair to their eyes down to their aura. Caster gave off a feeling of strength and nobility while Aldric gave off a feeling of supremacy and serenity. One was willing to hide themselves behind a mask while the other one didn't. 

Aldric smiled and walked towards Caster. His claymore rising to face his opponent.

The scion of the Han Li clan looked resolved and readied his jian.

"Let's go."

**********

Thanks for reading!

Came in with the double upload today, was feeling bored.

Took me a while to think of that analogy- anyone get the reference?

Anyways see ya at the next one