As five of the shadow wolves broke away from the pack, converging from seemingly every direction at once, he didn’t change his method of attack in the slightest.
Well, if you ignored just one minor detail that was.
Sensing the one to his left most keenly, he turned in that direction, ignoring the others for the time being.
As he’d suspected, he was just in time to see the feral shadow beast beginning to pounce, though already he could see its clever eyes carefully judging the distance.
Just like so many times before, as the beast lunged forward, wispy jaws opened wide, it was clear to everyone present that it’s supposed attack was merely a feint. After so many repetitions, even Jun was well aware of it by now. It hadn’t changed his position with regards to it one bit, though a part of him still recognized the likely futility of engaging.
Not one to turn away from a challenge—even one’s not made in true earnest—so far, he’d refrained from applying similar trickery to what these wolves clearly displayed. Even if it would have been far smarter to ignore the phony wolf and instead target its friends, he’d refrained on principal.
And really, that much hadn’t changed.
He would meet this challenge as he had all the others, with every ounce of fighting spirit he possessed. He would do so even if his phony opponent was too much of a coward to really mean it.
“Splitting Chop!”
Like so many times before Jun leapt forward to deliver a devastating upwards chop while the beast was still airborne, and like so many times before the wolf deftly evaded his chop by twisting its body at the very last second.
Unlike before however, his attack didn’t just stop at the end of his arm.
Instead, it just kept on going. Like an extension of his will, his splitting chop crossed the distance separating them and bit into the wolfs shadowy hide with a satisfying jolt.
Caught completely off guard, the wolf wasn’t even given a chance to yip in surprise before it was neatly severed in two, it’s body still centimeters from his extended right hand. Insides exploding outward in a burst of shadow, the two halves of the wolf hit the ground with a surprisingly heavy series of thumps.
Looking down, Jun was surprised to note that, without the shadowy shroud obscuring its body, it was actually made of flesh and bone—red entrails dying the pact earth a muddy brown.
Looking away from the fallen enemy—still a bit too miffed to properly honor them with a bow—Jun turned to find that the other four wolves that’d moved in to encircle him had frozen in place. As he watched them, and they, in turn, likely tried to get to the bottom of whatever had happened to their friend, Jun smiled.
Finally, he felt like things were truly starting to make sense again.
He’d almost begun to worry for a second, but, just as he’d always suspected, facing the problem head on was always the best possible solution. Really, it might as well be the only real solution at all.
*Ding!*
Congratulations!
Your Mantra [Splitting Chop] (Poor Quality) has evolved.
[Splitting Chop] (Poor Quality) has become:
[Greater Splitting Chop] (Good Quality) +5 resonance.
image [https://i.ibb.co/rw6tMBB/IMG-2711.png]
“Splitting Chop!”
Raina watched as the little brat bisected one shadowy wolf spirit after another with a feeling akin to relief—now confident that all of her efforts hadn’t, indeed, been wasted—if heavily tinged by incredulity.
“That’s… that’s not what I think it is, right?” asked Raina.
“It’s… unique alright,” said Edmond. “Definitely not a conceptual manifestation I’ve ever come across before. Also, does anyone want to tell me when he managed to reach the image stage without any of us noticing?”
“He hasn’t,” said Raina. “Have you ever met someone in possession of a joined aspect? Let alone several? Well, I’ll tell you right now, they’re fucking terrifying. This… no, this is clearly something else.”
“But-! The level of physical manifestation alone… I sense no spirit whatsoever, and yet it’s so crisp! It’s almost like I could just reach out and touch it, even from all the way up here. I mean, how is this even possible? Do you think he’s being mentored by a sage or something?”
“Even were that the case, I can’t see it accounting for everything.”
“A genius then? A once in ten generations prodigy? Has to be, right?”
“But you see, that’s the part I just don’t get. If the kid somehow has a way of forcing stages, something I think we both know should be impossible, why in the world would he settle for… that? Surely there are more efficient, not to mention more effective ways of achieving similar results. An axe for instance. Hell, even a kitchen knife would’ve been more appropriate. Anything but…!”
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Viviana broke in. “I think it’s rather cute.”
Edmond and Raina turned to her with looks of horrified disgust. Even Arthur looked suitably disturbed.
“You think that atrocity, that crudely shaped abomination, is… cute?” asked Raina. “The way it just… flops around like that? Doesn’t it just make you sick?”
“For the gods awful waste of potential, if nothing else,” agreed Arthur.
“It looks to be performing just fine to me,” Vivian replied with a huff. “Honestly, I really don’t know what you’re all making such a big fuss about. It’s just an arm. Sure, it’s about as flat as a piece of parchment and wobbles a bit in the air, but you can’t really argue with its effectiveness.”
And unfortunately, in the face of such ironclad logic, despite every part of their cultivated hearts yearning to protest—an ingrained desire for powerful abilities to not only be functional, but also suitably flashy—they could only bow their heads in resignation.
“But-!” Raina sighed. “It just looks so… silly.”
image [https://i.ibb.co/rw6tMBB/IMG-2711.png]
“Splitting Chop!”
Out of the corner of his eye, Jun—the real Jun, trapped in timeout or purgatory, he hadn’t decided which, and effectively cut off from the rest of the world—watched his cleaving possessed spirit-body double bisect what looked like an older brother to the smallish green creatures of only moments before. His splitting chop mantra, or greater splitting chop as it’d been designated, resolving itself in the form of an extendable arm.
Or no… not really an arm, per say.
More the silhouette of an arm. As if his shadow had peeled itself free from its proper place on the pavement and immediately started cleaving everything in the nearest vicinity in two.
Oh, and had also dyed itself yellow for whatever reason.
Highly adjustable, both in general size and extension, it was a far cry from anything he had ever thought to create himself, and that alone told him something quite valuable.
Making note of the revelation and its potential ramifications, then setting it aside for future study, Jun turned back to the task he’d set for himself.
He thought he had a good handle on the methodology by now and felt as though he was on the very cusp of some higher understanding.
He just needed a little more time.
He simply had to hope that the foreign egos currently puppeteering his spirit body didn’t wind up getting him killed in the meantime.
image [https://i.ibb.co/rw6tMBB/IMG-2711.png]
At first, Meredith had been anything but convinced.
On the contrary, she’d been fully resigned to take on the considerable financial losses these travelers would no doubt demand in exchange for their lackluster rift spawn. And she would acquiesce too, no matter how poor the offering, lest she find herself transported into the heart of a volcano next.
If they didn’t simply cut her down in cold blood outright.
It wasn’t as if there was anything she could do to stop them. That much, at least, had been made very clear. Her only allies and potential witnesses were still passed out on the floor after all. Resigned and utterly hopeless, she’d watched on with shoulders slumped. Posture only slumping further as the minutes dragged by.
As the trial progressed further, however—as the rift spawn was faced with tougher and tougher opponents, yet somehow continued to come out on top—Meredith began to see a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel.
Perhaps this wouldn’t be such a catastrophe after all. In fact, if she played her cards right, it was entirely possible she’d come out of this, not only with her life intact, but in a far better position than when she’d entered.
It was the ease with which the rift spawn quickly dispatched the lower D grade flaming orc that really cinched it for her. And when her robed benefactors informed her that this was likely only a small fraction of its power, not only did she believe them, but her interest in this opportunity practically soared. And why shouldn’t she believe them?
After all, what need had they to deceive her?
It hadn’t taken long for the trial to reach its climax, and after the last of the towering earth elementals fell—all five of them middling D grade threats—they were all transported back into her reception hall, whereupon the first negotiations began in earnest.
And that was how she found herself in possession of an extremely valuable, untamed familiar for the low low price of only a hundred gold pieces. A seasonal discount, or so the cloaked leader had assured her, only further cementing the belief that her luck had well and truly turned around.
Watching the sleeping form of the rift spawn from where she sat on the edge of her bed, Meredith couldn’t help but feel an acute sense of urgency. Late as it was, she found herself completely unable to sleep. There was just so much left to do, and so little time with which to do it.
She couldn’t keep her mind from racing.
If she wanted to make the most out of the blessing that’d fallen into her lap, she’d need to make for the capital, and soon. Tomorrow, at the latest. Which meant, before any of that, she would need to bind the rift spawn properly.
Not to herself.
No, that would rather defeat the entire purpose. Instead, she would bind it to a stone of the same name. She was anything but naïve and refused to take something so potentially valuable out onto the road without sufficient failsafes in place.
She’d sooner die than have this boon stolen out from under her, so having the means with which to directly decide who did and who did not get to bind this rift spawn was a must.
And while the hooded travelers had said it was to remain in the new cage they had fashioned at all times—as it was apparently the only thing that could keep it contained—she recognized that to do so would be to squander its greatest asset. It’s peculiar strength. Something she’d need to show off on many occasions if she truly wanted to catch the royal eye.
No.
She’d bought the rift spawn, so she would do things her way. A simple slave collar would be the natural first step. And from there…? Well, there were many ways of forcing compliance.
Truly, with so much work laid out ahead of her, the interminable wait was practically torture.