Shadow Slave

Back when Nephis was teaching Sunny how to use the sword, he had never been good enough to be her sparring partner. Once he learned enough to be of any use in a training fight, their fragile alliance had already broken and shattered to pieces.

So, apart from that short altercation on the somber slopes of the Ashen Barrow, they had never actually crossed swords with each other.

Now, it seemed, Changing Star had found a reliable sparring partner. Caster had not only replaced Sunny as her right-hand man, but also filled the roles that Sunny had been either reluctant or unfit to take on.

'Well… good for them.'

Once the Memories of the cohort were close to being fully restored, Nephis and Caster moved to the far end of the white arch to practice. Now, they were standing opposite each other, ready to begin.

Although no one called him over, Sunny approached the two Legacies and sat down, ready to enjoy the spectacle. He was keenly interested in observing these two immensely skilled swordsmen in action.

Both of them had been trained for combat from the day they could walk. Watching them would surely be helpful to his understanding of battle styles and techniques. Not to mention that he was very interested to see the rematch between Nephis and Caster. The last time he saw them fight, Changing Star had lost, but not by much.

She also had held back her Aspect Ability at that time, but he doubted that that would change today. Neph's flame could be used both to heal and annihilate, but sadly, not to train.

Caster glanced at him and frowned with visible displeasure.

Was he irritated because Sunny was about to learn a thing or two about his technique, or because Sunny was ruining his alone time with Nephis?

'Either way, I don't care.'

"What are you doing?"

Sunny shrugged.

"Watching. Why? Does this part of the arch belongs to your clan or something?"

The proud Legacy shook his head and turned away.

"Do as you wish."

Neph glanced at Sunny and didn't say anything. However, he could tell that she didn't mind.

In fact, it was almost as if she was approving of his decision.

Without wasting any more time, the two of them clashed in a whirlwind of steel, moving with the kind of speed that made it difficult for Sunny to follow along. The clangor of swords filled the air.

A bit stunned, he stared at the furious fight with a blank expression.

'...Damn.'

After the months of hunting monsters in the Dark City and his lessons with the Stone Saint, Sunny thought that he had developed his skill a lot. And he did. It's just that compared to Nephis and Caster, he was still so far behind that it was nothing short of disheartening.

Before, he had sometimes entertained the thought of maybe being able to stand against them… well, at least one of them… on equal ground. But now, this illusion was ruthlessly broken.

If things went south and he ended up on the opposite sides of the barricades with Caster, facing him would be tantamount to committing suicide. For now, at least.

Which, of course, simply meant that instead of facing him, Sunny would have to stab him in the back.

'Duly noted.'

He wasn't going to take on an enemy of this caliber in a forthright manner, anyway. What was he, a fool?

Concentrating on the fight, Sunny watched attentively. With the benefit of his new experience, he was able to discern more and learn more from how these two experts moved and acted. Sometimes, he was even able to predict what they were going to do next.

However, as time passed, a subtle frown appeared on his face.

'What is she doing? That doesn't make sense."

Sunny had been able to notice two unexpected things from how Nephis fought against Caster.

The first one was rather easy to spot. While Caster did not use the full extent of his incredible speed, he did use a fair share of it, making it almost impossible for Nephis to win any of their matches. She lost much more than she won, almost always by a few fractions of a second. Which was seemingly not conducive to training at all.

What was the point of training if one of the participants had almost no chance of winning because of how large the gap between them and their opponent was? There was a reason why Neph had never used Sunny as a sparring partner in the past, after all.

But then, with a bit of amusement, he realized that Changing Star was doing exactly what he had done with the Stone Saint. She was tempering herself against an overwhelming force. That's why she had instructed Caster to use just enough of his Aspect Ability to always be much faster than her.

Losing in a fight against a superior opponent was truly the best way to learn.

'Ha! So I was right in my approach, after all.'

If Changing Star was doing the same, he had to be right.

The second thing he had noticed, however, was much more perplexing.

It was that Nephis was not using her usual flowing and unpredictable battle style. Instead, she was moving with precise and firm elegance, hiding behind a carefully woven wall of defense and patiently waiting for an opening to appear — instead of creating one herself.

While intricate and impressive, this style was still a bit lacking in comparison to her real one. What's more, while it was deliberate and dependable, it was also rigid.

If there was one thing that Nephis would never tolerate in her battle art, it was rigidity. Her whole worldview was built around the idea that nothing had more value than adaptability. That's why the style she had taught Sunny suited her so well.

It was designed to be the epitome of changeability.

So, the question was…

Why the hell she was using something so alien to her against Caster?

The answer was pretty obvious. Either Nephis was trying to experiment with something new in an effort to adopt elements of this style into her own… which didn't seem very likely...

Or she didn't want Caster to know her true combat style too well, for some reason.

But what could that reason be?

Sunny rubbed his chin.

'Interesting…'