Chapter 176: Shredder Shredder


    Vir sailed toward the Shredder with <em>Haste </em>already active. He knew from experience that this wasnt an enemy he could hope to match without his full arsenal of magic. The world slowed around him as both body and mind elerated. The swaying of the short grass stilled, and the pitch of all sounds lowered.


    While an odd sensation, it was quickly growing familiar. Though not familiar enough, apparentlythe Shredder matched his speed and then exceeded it.


    <em>Im </em>still <em>slower than that thing? </em>Vir thought in panic. <em>Haste </em>had sped up his movements and thoughts to twice their normal capacity, yet the Shredder matched him with pure physique alone. Of course, prana being several-fold denser within its domain didnt hurt, and were it not for the barrier Vir erected near his skin, his blood would have burst from the pressure.


    It quickly became clear that there was a world of difference between a newly gained Talent and one that had been honed for a lifetime; the Shredder had been born with its innate speed, having yearsperhaps even decadesto grow used to it. Vir had had a single day.


    w shes and vicious bites threatened Vir continuously, forcing him to evade. The ones he couldnt dodge, he blocked, his seric katar nging with each strike. Unlike their first battle, however, Vir evaded at least some of its blows. He considered that progress.


    Still, the fight was only slightly less one-sided than before, with Vir now leveraging <em>Prana Vision </em>to give him details of the beasts weak pointsits head and its belly. The former was more predictable, but its thick skull and heavy prana armor made it a poor target. Thetter was surprising.


    Vir had expected a heart within its chest but instead found the organ deep within its belly, where both its armor and prana armor were thickest at the center, tapering off to its nks, which were protected by its wed limbs.


    Feinting his katar, Vir forced the Shredder to block with its ws, which gave him an opening. Squatting low, Vir <em>Blinked, </em>ripping upward with a devastatingly fast uppercut. Fast and powerful. Bringing the full brunt of his momentum to bear against the Shredders prana armor, he hoped to prate its thick armorboth the prana armor and its regr hide. The de cut deep into theyer of ck prana that coated the beasts body, but it slowed, and finally stopped, having barely broken through.


    The strike put Vir in a disadvantageous position, making him vulnerable to the Shredders counterattack. He dodged the maw and parried both ws, but the tail de swooped in like a scythe, forcing him to block with his bracer.


    <em>ng!</em>


    The grating of metal on metal was followed by a gouge that marred his precious seric armor, forcing him to remember a certain warriors wordsweapons and armor were meant to be <em>used</em>, not collected like fine jewelry. Even so, the damage stung.


    <em>I need more speed if I dont want worse, </em>Vir thought, narrowly avoiding a ded w.


    Luckily, he had something that could give him exactly that. While hed never attempted to use <em>Haste </em>and <em>Blink </em>together, there was no reason thebination shouldnt work.


    Vir pulled prana from his legsfinding, to his surprisethat his blood responded the same as it always had. It was only then that he realized <em>Haste </em>had elerated his blood flow and heart rate to match his speed. It <em>had </em>to, to provide enough blood to his muscles that worked overtime. Vir wondered if there were any side effects to this state, and for how long he could keep it up before his body shut down.


    Shelving those thoughts aside, Vir allowed the supersaturated <em>Prana Dam</em> lining his skin topse, flooding his legs with prana and power. Willing himself to move at speeds that defied the imagination, he <em>Blinked.</em>


    The Shredder, which had been lobbing attacks at Vir with total confidence, froze, confused.


    Virs seric katar smashed into the beasts torso. <em>Empower</em> and <em>Prana de </em>augmented the strike, which contained the full force of Virs offensive power.


    The de drove through the Shredders prana armor, splitting it and came to a stop without prating the Shredders actual armor.


    Virs instincts red, and he charged <em>Blink </em>again<em>.</em>


    <em>Come on. Come on</em>


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    A tail de whipped around for an opportunistic counterstrike, and Vir knew he wouldnt make it. He aborted the Talent, surging the umted prana into his legs to activate <em>Leap </em>instead.


    The tail de blurred by, barely an inch from Virs nose.


    <em>Blinks </em>sheer speed would have allowed him to escape with time to spare<em>, </em>but it took somewhat longer to charge; its activation was more of a two-stage process.


    <em>Something to keep in mind from now on, </em>Vir thought, wondering how hed beat this beast without it. Hed hoped improving his speed wouldve been enough to send the abomination to its grave, but clearly, hed underestimated it.


    He had to be smarter about how he fought, and unfortunately, his greatest advantage was currently too risky to usethere was only one shadow in rangerge enough to slip throughhis own.


    The moment Vir disappeared into the shadows, hed lose his only exit. The Shredders shadow wasnt <em>quite </em>enough to allow his whole body to pass through, and there wasnt anything even remotelyrge enough nearby. While he hadnt personally confirmed what happened when the Shadow Realm eventually kicked him out, Cirayus had. Apparently, it happened to more Iksana Ghael than the n cared to admit, and the results were always gruesome. Amputated limbs or bisected torsos usually spelled instant death for those unfortunate demons.


    Needing time to devise a new n, Vir backed away. The Shredder followed, but only to the edge of its domain, and not one step farther. Perhaps out of fear of the other domain lordsthe name Vir had given the rulers of theseirswho eyed the battle with a wary eye, but whatever the reason, Vir took it.


    Taking a moment to catch his breath, Vir deactivated <em>Haste, </em>allowing the world around him to speed back up to normal.


    Vir turned his thoughts to how Cirayus would approach this battle. The demon wielded godly power, true, but he also fought with his mind.


    <em>What would that guy do? </em>Vir thought, eyeing the four-armed giant who stood with arms crossed some forty paces away. <em>Hed have his enemies fight amongst themselves.</em>


    Virs eyes lingered on the other domain lords but quickly gave up on that idea. They wouldnt leave their territory without good reason, and Vir had none.


    Shifting his thought process, Vir considered his own strengths and weaknesses. He was neither as fast nor as strong as the Shredder, but then, hed never preferred fighting opponents head-on. Sometimes, there was little choice, but whenever there was, he liked to strike from the shadows, leveraging the element of surprise, only partially because his abilities were optimized for such attacks. It was just a smarter, safer way to fight.


    It wasnt like the Shredder had no weaknesses. Its nks hadparatively little in the way of armor, both of prana and hide. Just that getting to it was difficult.


    <em>If only I could use Dance of the Shadow Demon, this would be so easy, </em>Vir thought frustratedly.


    Over-reliance on a single ability was dangerous, but Vir didnt have the luxury of diversifying right now. He <em>needed </em>to progress as fast as he could, and that meant using his most powerful weapon to its fullest.


    He just needed a shadow. Something big enough to


    <em>Wait. Thats it! It just has to cast arge enough shadow!</em>


    Vir sprinted to the nearby forest, where he broke down a limb and used his katar to whittle one end of the post into a point.


    After roaming for a few moments, he found the nt he was looking for. A type of fern whose fronts ended in a sharp point. A bane when traveling near them, but it was just what he needed.


    Vir bit down on the very end of the fern and pulled, careful not to bite all the way through. The pointy tip came loose and pulled a length of sinewy fiber behind it, which Vir fashioned into a cord.


    Back at his post, Virshed some leafy branches to the limb with his new cord, thenyered on more and more. Soon, he had a post with a thick mat of interleaved foliage connected at the top, extending out at an angle halfway between horizontal and vertical. The post was light enough to carry, and more importantly, would cast a long shadow.


    Running back to the Shredder with his new contraption, Vir considered how he might adapt this idea in the future. If he could carry around portable items that could give himrge enough shadows, hed significantly reduce <em>Dances </em>weakness. There wasnt much he could do about cloudy days, but at least hed never want for shadows on sunnier ones.


    Vir found the beast lounging at the very center of its domain, licking its superficial wounds, which suited him perfectly.


    cing his post at the periphery of their, Vir reactivated <em>Haste, before Blinked </em>back to the beast, re-engaging it in battle.


    The fight wentrgely the same as before, but this time, Vir allowed the beast to gain ground, pushing him back to the edge of its domain. Toward the post.


    The Shredder grew more and more aggressive, sure of its victory. Vir allowed it.


    <em>Just a little closer. There!</em>


    At ten paces away from the post, Vir sunk into the shadows, extending an arm from his posts shadow to let time crawl by.


    While <em>Hastes </em>effects nullified within the Shadow Realm, he didnt need it. Time flowed at a fraction of its pace, allowing Vir to n the exact moment for his strike.


    The Shredder turned its oversized lizard head from side to side, no doubt confused at Virs disappearing act.


    He waited until it gave up and turned.


    <em>Now!</em>


    This was the moment Vir had waited for. Launching out of the poles shadow, <em>Haste </em>reasserted itself. Vir <em>Leaped</em>, eager not to lose his moment of opportunity.


    His <em>Prana de </em>crashed into the Shredders nk, shattering its armor where it was weakest, proceeding through its hide as if it wasnt even there.


    Right as the weapon lost speed, Vir red <em>Prana de, </em>evolving it into a <em>de Projection </em>that speared right through the bipedal beastright through its heart<em>.</em>


    The Shredder jolted once, then seized. It slowly turned its head to re at Vir. Then it keeled over, dead.


    Vir roared in victory, thrusting his katar at the sky. He whirled, eager to show off his kill to Cirayus.


    <em>Did you see that? </em>he shouted.


    The giant had indeed witnessed his fight, as well as Virs decisive victory.


    And yet, Cirayus response wasnt what hed expected. Instead of satisfied pride, there was only one emotion painted on the giants facethat of worried concern.