Chapter Nineteen: Endless Pursuit
Dusken didn't linger; he once again tried to control the shadow, but there was no specific way. He was only following his instinct - an instinct that came out of nowhere, at least.
The shadow of the dead creature was still… but not for long, slowly but surely, it began to move, like a child learning to walk.
It scaled the ground, moving swiftly like flowing water, but Dusken felt something inside of him being drained drastically; the magical energy that he could sense flowing through his veins was diminishing at an alarming rate.
The shadow's movement was swift but slow, fast but impeded, and this drained him exponentially.
Dusken didn't know what was the cause of the shadow's slow movement and the drastic draw on his magical energy, but a sudden thought flashed across his mind.
He lingered for a brief moment and then executed it. His plan was to try and sense what the shadow could sense, with creased eyebrows and squinted eyes, Dusken followed his intinct.
A tug at the back of his mind spread across his very being but he followed its guidance and surprisingly, his view changed.
He saw everything around him through the moving shadow, the trees, himself, the people around and not only that, but the senses were also perceived, the smell, the warm breeze, in fact everything that humans could feel was felt by him through the shadow, like an extended self of him.
Then he tried same with his shadow, which unexpectedly worked; trying the same with the other shadows nearby, the tries all succeeded.
However, there were some shadows that he couldn't fathom how to even sense, because no matter how many tries made, they remained stubborn.
These were shadows of living beings - the beastmen, humans and even the creatures. Only the tree's shadows worked for him, but the control aspect of his talent ability failed woefully.
Snapping his mind from distracting thoughts, he continued his previous action. The shadow slowly slided towards his area, and when it neared him, it moved towards his shadow and merged with it; by then, Dusken was almost drained.
Sensing through the trees shadows and controlling this shadow made him almost expended.
[You have bonded a shadow]
[Congratulations on reaching a milestone, binding a shadow]
[Magical Energy evolving…]
[Evolution completed, magical energy has evolved into… Abyssal energy]
Dusken was gobsmacked, he felt energy filling his veins once more, but they were different than the previous one, foreign and ancient.
This one was cool, soothing and calm like it was made for his body, but still, he was shocked at the information; what was abyssal energy?
What does that have to do with the creature's shadow entering into his? What was even this bond? This evolution, would it occur every time he slew a creature and took its shadow?
All these questions troubled Dusken, but no one was there to answer him; looking down at his shadow with tilted head, he tried to manipulate the shadow that had merged with him.
His expression warped as surprise flashed in his eyes. The excessive drain was there no more, the extensive sluggishness was available no longer.
Now, the shadow wasn't slow anymore, it was easier to control and took less energy, surprisinf him to large extent.
Dusken snapped out of his thoughts and scanned the battlefield; the creatures were already extinct by now; all of them were dead, and what was left were only the beastmen fighting their war.
Most of the slaves had ran away, and only a few remained; Dusken was ready to set off, too; he wasn't staying here longer than was necessary.
He set off deeper into the forest, avoiding trees while running; suddenly, an inspiration struck him on his way, and Dusken decided to leave his newly attained shadow behind.
He ran and also sensed through the shadow at the same time; this was new and foreign to him; it was strange and indescribable - though not uncomfortable, it was in a way… euphoric.
He kept on running, but just as soon as he crossed fifty metres radius of the shadow left behind, all the senses shared vanished.
A incredulous light flashed across Dusken's face, without hesitation, he stopped and went back a few steps, then tried once again and immediately, he was able to sense the shadow once more.
It turned out that fifty metres was his limit of control towards his shadow, just as he was calling the shadow back, the voice of Gartan sounded as the beastman spoke to Guro in their location.
"You know, our clan is now weakened, and the slaves have escaped; I have a plan to resolve this feud between us," Gartan chuckled mischievously.
The beastman king of the Nura clan - Guro - stopped fighting and asked their voice laced with suspicion.
"What is the plan?"
The beastman king of the Naga clan - Gartan - chuckled once more.
"We both have experienced disastrous losses in this small battle; how about we play a game? We choose equal numbers of beastmen and send them to pursue the children; the clans that catch and eat the most humans shall win and get half of the other's territory."
Guro paused his actions and seemed to be contemplating about it.
"A good plan, whoever among our clan can eat the most human children will win, haha, I love human children, but we both will only enter this game last since we don't want the children to die on time."
The beastly laughter of Guro sent shivers running down Dusken's spine, but he continued to observe through the eyes of the shadow.
The two beastman kings called their people together and both chose 5 beastmen each from their clans.
Which made them ten; the plan was that every hour, 5 more beastmen would be sent to pursue the children until the beastman kings themselves showed up.
"T-this, this is going to be endless pursuit, damn it, such a brutal race," Dusken blurted out, anger evident in his face, but also a cold intent.
Since the beastmen wanted to hunt them, whoever reached him would die, and he would use them as tools to get more shadows and abysmal points; maybe levelling up wouldn't be difficult.
The beastmen were sent into the forest to chase after the escaping children, it may take some time, but the race had good noses and could track the location of anyone simply using their natural gift.
Dusken moved, he decided to run away, no matter what, surviving what imperative. He called back the shadow as it instantly reacted to his call; it dived through other shadows with relative ease.
As Dusken ran, he noticed that his stamina and endurance had increased; running now was as easy as breathing, and even after a very long time, his limit wasn't in sight yet.
The shadow arrived and fused with Dusken's own. He wanted to leave it behind, but knew that even if it was left behind, as the distance between them increased, the shadow would have to continue running after him so that they wouldn't exit the fifty-metre radius between them, which although was miniscule still charged energy.
Dusken was still trying to get used to his talent ability; as he couldn't use his spell card and Innate ability, simply because there was not enough chance for him to discover their potential.
His longsword had already been dispelled by him making so it had return to whatever space it stayed.
Dusken decided to try out something while running; his senses swept through the nearby trees' shadows, as he used them to perceive the environment behind him.
His limits while perceiving the senses from the shadows of trees were only ten metres, unlike the restriction of fifty from his attained shadow.
However, his expression suddenly changed.
'So fast', this thought scratched the back of his mind because he had sensed a swift shadow heading towards his location, and through the tree's shadows, it was revealed to him that it was a beastman.
Not one, but two; before he could react to anything, an arrow shot at rapid speed, heading for him.
Without hesitation, he moved sideways while following the arrow's movement through its shadow and evading the trajectory of the weapon. The beastmen had arrived.
Dusken instantly came to a stop and turned to face them, as winds made the tree leaves rustle around him.
"Human child, today is the day you die, kekeke." one of the beastman laughed foolishly like victory was already in its hand.
"I don't know what gave you the confidence that made you stop, but human, I can assure you that today is your last; sadly, you met me of all beastmen."
The other beastman shook its head slowly and let out a low sigh as it held its now and arrow.
'Hmm, that one seemed reasonable, too bad that the results of this battle are unknown' Dusken shook his head inwardly.
"Shut up and come at me, you pile of mixed-borns." Dusken spoke darkly as his voice rang out, with no more exchanges needed; arrows flew at him while the other one charged forward.
Dusken immediately summoned his material card as well as his spell card, it was time to see what it could do, instantly dark particles swirled around him.