[HUGE thank you to Daoist4bMk5P, Zackary_Davis, and Mattirro for being my biggest golden ticket supporters!]


    [Also, thank you Epic_Buddie123, Dark_Knight16, Master_Atlest and NotGRE3D for being my biggest supporters through giftingst month. Truly appreciated]


    "Lloyd!" Tina shouted as she saw the ck-haired man standing in the middle of a foggy fieldposed of pale blue mes. However, just when she was about to run over to see if he was okay, she felt Roderick''s arms wrap around her waist as he pulled her away from in iing talon before throwing her down to the ground.


    cing an arrow onto the device on his wrist, Roderick quickly aimed at the creature before shooting at it until it fell, and when he finally confirmed that it was dead, he turned around with a cold expression.


    "I said stand down. He wants to handle this on his own. We only help him when he''s in danger." Roderick spoke.


    "But, he was in the shadow the whole time. How were we supposed to know if he was in danger?" Tina asked, yet she quickly quieted down after seeing Hime stare at her from the corner of her eye.


    While the owl had left Lloyd''s shadow looking like a fireball, Lloyd knew that the shadows most likely tanked most of the mes, but there was also a chance that the mes had hurt it.


    Looking up from the blue mes encircling where he stood, he squinted into the distance. However, he quickly realized that there was no need for that.


    While the owl was no longer covered in shadows to make it appear to look ck, Lloyd quickly realized that its mutation had also changed the color of its feathers, making it look more like a stealthy ninja owl than it had before with its half-translucent white wings.


    "Huh?" Raising a brow, Lloyd squinted again to see why the owl had suddenly stretched out its wings, yet in the same instant, he felt panic jolt to his stomach as a shower of arrows made out of shadows shot toward him.


    ''I can block it with the mes... Or at least dy it until I have time to move away.'' Lloyd thought.


    Just before the arrows could hit him, Lloyd released arge sphere of mes that stopped them and even managed topletely burn one or two of them away.


    With the help of the mes, he quickly elerated and flew toward the owl, dodging the shadow arrows while the pale blue mes on his feet shot him upwards.


    "Bring it bitch!" Lloyd shouted beforeunching a powerful punch covered in shadows toward the owl. The second the punch made contact, the creature was thrown back several meters and mmed into a tree, resulting in a loud *CRACK* that echoed through the forest.


    Before it could recover, Lloyd shot a kick toward its head and followed up with a series of punches, leaving it dazed and unable to stand much longer. Knowing what it would do if it regained itsposure, Lloyd shot both hands forward and engulfed the owl in a pir of mes.


    The pir of mes burned the owl''s body until all of the remaining shadows on its body disappeared, and its feathers began to burn, yet it continued to increase in strength, forcing Lloyd to jump several meters away since he was running low on mana.


    Suddenly, a surge of mana shot in every direction as the owl advanced to half-step secondmandment, sending gusts of winds through the forest while causing all the small fights to halt for a moment as everyone looked at Lloyd and the ascending monster before him.


    The horse-sized ck owl monster advanced toward him, and a sense of anticipation and thrill filled the air. The creature was formidable and cunning, Lloyd could see it in its eyes, and he knew he wouldn''t be able to hold back even if he wanted to.


    Of course, he wasn''t about to use his Void Walker abilities, but he would have to use everything else.


    ''Half-step secondmandment? At this rate, it will reach the secondmandment within a few minutes. Maybe this wasn''t a mutation... Maybe it was an evolution?'' Lloyd inwardly analyzed while ncing toward his group. He didn''t know what he expected, but he could tell you that he didn''t expect to see them staring at him like hawks, analyzing his every move.


    On the other hand, Hime looked like she was ready to kill the owl the moment she saw him close to being in danger.


    The difference between a Topaz stage secondmandment and a half step was like the difference between night and day, so Lloyd didn''t doubt that she had the ability to kill the owl with a single attack if she truly wanted to.


    Shaking his head, Lloyd took two des out of his dimensional storage, ready for the fight ahead. The owl charged forward, its massive wings spreading wide as it attacked with its sharp talons. Lloyd dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the owl''s deadly strikes before spinning on his heel and swinging his des toward it.


    His weapons sliced through the air with precision and speed, and despite reacting in time to move away from the attack, Lloyd also predicted that it would try to dodge.


    The owl screeched in pain and fury, its feathers flying everywhere as it tried to defend itself, yet it was toote. Or so Lloyd thought.


    Lloyd''s sword shed against the owl''s stomach, yet instead of seeing red like he had expected, all he saw were sparks followed by the sound of metal hitting metal.


    ''Sh*t... Its feathers are as strong as my de even without its shadow covering it...'' Lloyd gritted his teeth.


    The battle continued as the owl''s powerful talons shed with Lloyd''s weapon. Lloyd struggled to keep up with the owl''s quick movements and powerful attacks, but he refused to give up.


    He knew that he had to push himself to defeat the owl, but he also knew that even if he tried using his mes, he would not be able tond a powerful attack again since he would have run out of mana.


    [Shadow Enhancment]


    Without thinking twice, Lloyd covered his body in shadows and began to fight with precision and speed that rivaled the owls. Yet unlike the owl, Lloyd had quick thinking to his side while the owl was just a stupid animal who would run away at the first sign of danger.


    Lloyd''s determination and skill began to pay off, and before he knew it, he started to gain the upper hand.


    He knew that his attacks were much more powerful now that he had activated [Shadow Enhancement], but in a situation like this one, it wasn''t his body or abilities that held him back; it was his weapon.


    Gritting his teeth, Lloyd flipped away from the owl, creating two to three dozen meters of distance between the two.


    To everyone''s surprise, Lloyd slowly returned his des to his dimensional storage before-


    [Shadow w]


    Lloyd''s eyes shone brightly, and before the owl could react to the ws that ad seemed to havee out of nowhere, Lloyd had already shot forward with all the speed he could muster behind his legs.


    Lloyd wasn''t in any way proficient in using his ws.


    It was one of the main reasons why he barely used them. Or at least that was the case before he began his lessons with Hime. Since his ws were sharper and stronger than his des, he saw that using them would be the best course of action.


    *ng*<novelnext></novelnext>


    *Clink*


    *BOOM*


    shing with the owl''s talons, Lloyd could feel that he could produce much more power with his ws than he could with his des, yet at the same time, he felt as if using his ws was a much more dangerous approach than using his des or even his katana.


    Lloyd''s katana gave less attack power, mainly due to its quality and grade, but that was not all. A katana was simply much less adaptable than ws attached to one''s hands.


    Lloyd could use them as gauntlets, ws, 10 razor-sharp needles, and much more, while a katana could only be used for shing, defending, or parrying, even tho thetter would be much easier with European des that have a hilt and two sides to cut from.


    However, a katana''s advantages were clear. It cut better than any other de, and it had more reach than Lloyd''s ws, allowing Lloyd to keep the creature at a distance at all times.


    However, now that he had to get close and personal to attack his opponent, he needed to find other ways to defend himself.


    The owl and Lloyd fought for several minutes as the owl continued to gain strength, but simultaneously continued to get hurt. While its powers increased over time, it still lostrge amounts of blood every time Lloyd hit it wherever it was wounded.


    They bounced in and out of the shadows, making it seem like a game of cat and mouse, but in this game, the mouse beat the cat before retreating. Lloyd mainly did it to show Roderick that he was listening to his lessons, but it also helped in its own way since the owl''s anger was increasing, something everyone could see by the killing intent that was bing thicker by the second.


    After a while of fighting, an idea finally came to Lloyd''s mind.


    ''I got it!'' Lloyd thought while a sinister smile stretched across his lips.


    Charging forward again, Lloyd stretched out his hand to strike the owl, yet instead of moving away, it chose to intercept with one talon and attack his face with the other.


    Unfortunately for it, Lloyd wasn''t actually aiming for the owl... He was aiming for the talon.


    Grabbing the owl''s leg, Lloyd used his body to its maximum output before swinging with everything he had and mming the owl into the ground.


    Seeing this as a moment of weakness, Lloyd focused his energy and unleashed his fire and lightning powers, engulfing the owl in mes while electrocuting it with all the electricity he could create.


    The owl screeched in pain and fury, but it was toote.


    Reeling his arm back, Lloyd''s eyes shone with a hint of rage as his wed hand descended toward the owl''s heart, yet before it could fully reach it-


    *SCREECH*


    Lloyd felt his face being stretched as the sound waves pushed him back, yet before he could fly too far away, the owl froze.


    Lloyd, who had not used a single ounce of killing intent since the start of the fight, had suddenly released everything.


    His killing intent flooded his part of the forest, and every creature that stood within it could not help but hold their breath for a moment as the killing intent intertwined itself in the powers of [Monarch''s Aura].


    After his lessons with Veronica, Lloyd''s killing intent had skyrocketed in power. Every day he felt like he was going to die for 5 hours straight, but now that he was in a battle, he finally saw use to those hours of torture.


    mes slowly swirled before bing a small pale blue sphere, and within an instant, the spheres ripped through the air and shot toward the owl with speeds that could probably put bullets to shame.


    The owl also tried to create its own attacks, yet when Lloyd saw it expand its wings out, Lloyd closed his eyes before mming his hand onto the ground.


    ''Use the mes as the material, and the shadows as the cement that holds it together.'' he thought before opening his eyes and looking straight into the owl''s pupils.


    [Void Gaze]


    [Fire + Shadow]


    [Hede''s chains - Lock Down]


    ck and blue chains ripped out of the ground and wrapped around the already frozen owl, and before it could regain itsposure and snap away from [Void Gaze] to even attempt to break the chain, several pale blue fiery bullets ripped through the air before appearing before it.


    And in that very instant, dozens of me bullets shot through the owl, destroying its wings, organs, and heart before entering its brain and melting in an instant.


    *Ding*


    Despite being exhausted, Lloyd looked down at his watch, and when he saw what he wanted to see, a smile appeared on his face, extending from ear to ear as a powerful surge of energy entered his body.


    [Shadow Enhancement (Lvl 2 ----> 3)]


    [Shadow Movement (Lvl 1 ----> 2)]


    [Shadow w (Lvl 1 ----> 2)]


    [You have 3 gained new abilities]


    [Shadow Wings]


    [Shadow Expansion]


    [Shadow Arrows]