Zero put the claymore back into his soul as he continued to drink more blood. Even though his regeneration had increased his body was a total wreck. He found merely standing to be a challenge. He still needed to kill the arc demon before he could escape via teleportation.
The knight armor then broke into a run and rushed at him and attacked him. They no longer obeyed the rules of chivalry after the death of the first shadow knight. Zero took his counter sword style without a sword and used the defensive style to dodge and redirect the oncoming attacks. He managed to evade most of the attacks putting some distance between him and his attackers and he received some cuts on his body as a result. The wounds closed as soon as they appeared but his internal injuries persisted.
His counter form's greatest strength was evading or countering attack with minimum movement so it worked best to save his stamina. As soon as he backed up more than 9 feet away suddenly a flame pillar appeared behind him. He managed to avoid stepping inside it but still received some burns. When he looked at the culprit behind the attack the Arc demon looked back at him smiled and pointed toward the living armors. It was telling Zero to fight desperately against them and not to try to run or it would kill him.
Zero having no choice moved forward towards the armors only stopping when he was 6 feet away from them. 'Damn I promise even if I die here I will definitely kill that Arc demon horribly' swore Zero
Taking the claymore out Zero gathered the remaining strength that he muster and threw the blade at a shadow knight. With his new strength, the blade pierced the knight's chest killing it instantly. Another red soul flew out to Zero and as he was getting ready to absorb it he felt the flow of mana change in the room and quickly moved to dodge as dark shadow spears pierced from his own shadow. The spears miss his vital due to his last-minute movement but one of them had pierced his left leg reducing his mobility instantly.
Pushing the pain out of his mind Zero quickly ordered the system to absorb the ability of the soul. As he did that 2 final guards launched some fireball at him and with his leg injury he couldn't dodge or block with no blade in hand. With no other choice left to him, he decided to tank the fireball as he waited to counterattack.
SKILL SHADOW MANIPULATION GAINED
SHADOW MANIPULATION: USERS CAN CREATE, SHAPE, AND MANIPULATE DARKNESS AND SHADOWS. BY ITSELF, DARKNESS IS MOSTLY USED TO CLOUD EVERYTHING INTO TOTAL DARKNESS, BUT IT CAN BE CHANNELED TO A VARIETY OF EFFECTS, BOTH AS AN ABSENCE OF LIGHT AND A SOLID SUBSTANCE: ONE CAN ALSO CREATE, CONTROL AND MANIPULATE A SHADOW AVATAR, CREATE AND DISPEL SHIELDS AND AREAS OF TOTAL DARKNESS, CREATE CONSTRUCTS AND WEAPONS.
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With his skin burning in the flame Zero quickly used the shadow manipulation to coat himself in shadow and extinguish the fire. Writhing in pain on the ground Zero managed to use his new ability to hide in the shadow of a pillar. The Arc demon displeased by this turn of events launched an enormous fireball at the pillar and Zero shifted his shadow to one of the final guards that burned him.
His regeneration was now overtaxed and was barely keeping him alive so he took some more blood bag to drink while constantly shifting between shadows the final guards. Having drunk 4 more bags his skin regrew and he felt alive again. Zero then shifted to the shadow of a pillar away from the knights and emerged from the shadow with his burned and tattered clothes. He felt his mana decrease as he used the skill but the mana nullification was ineffective against the skill. He didn't know how the skill worked but he didn't care at this point.
Now somewhat rested and healed Zero began his counterattack by first creating a shadow avatar to fight alongside him. The avatar looked like him carrying a claymore and launched itself at the knights while Zero turned his focus on the Arc demon. He had made it a promise which he was about to keep.
The knights were having a difficult time with the shadow avatar as whenever they cut it or damaged it the shadow would simply reform as if it never occurred. It lacked Zero's power to kill the knight but it was succeeding at distracting them while Zero took care of his main problem the demon.
Using his shadow manipulation to create a shadow katana with the durability of the previous claymore Zero broke into a dash. He ran with his new improved speed and ran up the wall as far as he could and jumped in the direction of the demon. The demon wasted no time and launched 4 fireballs at Zero but they were dispelled by shadows of the same size. Zero then slashed at the devil but the attack missed and the demon attacked Zero with his claws cloaked in flames. Before the attack reached Zero a shadow sword appeared behind the demon and slashed one of his wings. The demon screamed in pain and fell to the ground unable to keep afloat with only one functioning wing.
Zero fell right next to the demon and the impact caused him great pain. The demon stood up and created a sword of flames and fired fireballs at Zero. Zero managed to dodge the attack but the demon who was equally as fast was appeared right next to him and attack but was blocked by Zero's shadow sword. Zero quickly switched to the void sword style to adapt the demon sword style into his own.
As the fight between Zero and the demon intensified Zero noticed that his mana was ¾ depleted and at this rate, this shadow avatar and sword would disappear before the battle would end. He would need to think of something soon or he would lose this fight at this rate. He created shadow spears like those the shadow knight had created before and managed to stab the demon in the leg and abdomen. The demon retaliated by launching 3 fireballs at point-blank range causing a large explosion.
The explosion caused Zero to fly backward as he skids across the floor. Most of the damage of the explosion had been negated by cloaking himself in shadow this however drained his mana even more. The demon had cloaked itself in a protective flame that fully negated the explosion and melted the shadow spear out of existence. The demon stood up and faced Zero in anger. It didn't take kindly to the fact that Zero had almost ended its life.
The demon launched 3 fireballs at Zero but he dodged and 3 more fireballs flew in the direction that he dodged towards. The demon was firing fireballs constantly forcing Zero to focus on dodging without having any opportunity to counterattack. As Zero dodged the fireballs a flame circle surrounded him blocking any path of escape for him. With no way to go but up, Zero looked up and noticed a dark inferno meteor falling down from above.