He felt it. Right now, he had a deep connection, to the point that it was like an extension of himself, with the shadows and the darkness.
And he felt, clearly, that something else was trying to use them. It was as if someone were holding his arm so tightly that they could move it as they pleased: even though it was his and he didn't want to, they were forcing him to do it by brute force.
Now he understood: this aberration and all those who separated from it also used the shadows or darkness, just like him.
"jijijijiji!"
The two figures coming toward Cassian were deformed and familiar: aberrant copies with distorted faces, with no features other than a single eye and mouth, but always with a scythe in their right hand and an awl or blade in the other.
It was in an instant, just after coming out, that Cassian assessed his surroundings and what the aberrations were doing.
Fwoosshhh!
He acted quickly, ducking and leaning back without losing his balance, dodging the giant scythe.
The other two aberrations would arrive before he could regain his position, so even in that awkward stance, he used his knives to stop the attacks coming at him.
He made a quick decision and deflected the one coming from the left. When the scythe and his knife collided, he made a versatile wrist movement that sent the aberration in another direction with the momentum it had been coming in with.
He knew how to use the enemy's strength and characteristics to his own advantage, and he could make his body execute what he wanted with precision and effectiveness.
Yeling, despite being who she was, was good—no, she was a genius. She learned to fight, techniques, and anything else quickly.
When taught one thing, she could do many things with it, even if she wasn't good at applying it in actual combat.
But that limitation no longer existed now that she was part of Cassian, who easily controlled his body to do what Yeling knew.
With a simple movement, he made the aberration deviate along with its own momentum, and then he was able to concentrate on the other one.
At this point, he was back in a good position. He focused on the aberration, which was stopped in its tracks by his knife.
"jijijijiji."
He made a quick assessment and found the location of the sapling: it was right where the hand turned into a scythe.
It was a tricky spot, as it was the fastest-moving part of the aberration, but Cassian quickly found his way.
His knife and the scythe clashed in a contest of strength. There, Cassian had the advantage: he made a sharp upward movement.
This caused the scythe and the arm that was colliding with his knife to also rise, leaving an opening in the aberration's defense.
He could attack the chest, abdomen, and everything else, but he knew that wasn't a critical point.
Quickly, with his other knife, he moved with mastery and...
Swoosh!
With a precise movement, he cut off the hand right at the point where the roots ceased to be rigid like wood.
The scythe flew through the air for a few seconds, but immediately the same darkness of the knives transformed into several small blades that attacked with precision the point where the aberration was beginning to regenerate.
Crack!
The sound of breaking was clear; he had eliminated the aberration.
Without hesitation, Cassian sank back into the shadow, allowing himself to be absorbed.
During that brief moment, he had dodged the giant scythe, deflected one aberration, and destroyed another, but he was forced to re-enter his shadow because four more appeared, lunging at him.
Cassian moved, wanting a better position, as he had lost sight of the large main aberration.
After failing its attack, it had disappeared, and the other four aberrations simply emerged from the shadows.
He moved in this world of darkness, but the aberrations could do so too.
No matter how fast he was, they seemed to match him. No, in fact, they seemed to have more mistress than him in this type of shadowy movement.
Although he couldn't see them, it was as if they were there and, at the same time, somewhere else. Cassian didn't fully understand how this darkness worked, and both he and Yeling were encountering other bearers of this ability for the first time...
But despite this disadvantage, he was not the prey. He was the hunter.
He prepared himself, following his instincts, understanding them and understanding himself, reading the exact moment. He acted...
He stepped out of the shadows. When he did, he was surrounded. Now there were ten aberrations, they continued to multiply, but that didn't matter.
The giant aberration was nowhere to be seen, but those ten had surrounded it from all angles, ready to attack in coordination.
However, what stood before them was not Cassian.
It was just a dark lump, something resembling a person, a silhouette. A decoy.
The real Cassian appeared the next moment, right behind one of the aberrations.
He had gathered and concentrated a large amount of mana in his hands and feet, following the path that Yeling's art had marked.
He was in a posture as if he were about to take a step... a step that seemed slow, while everything around him was happening at a frantic speed.
The aberrations still did not understand that what they were attacking was a decoy, and that small moment gave Cassian the time he needed.
"Art of the Swift Shadow."
Saying that, and as Cassian's foot touched the ground, Yeling's arts were unleashed.
Swish!... Clink!
Instantly, his body moved faster than ever before; invisible cuts were drawn in the air.
In just a fraction of a second, Cassian's blurred figure became visible again... and the ten aberrations collapsed into pieces.
"Tenebris Step. Fleeting Cleave.... Hufff..."
He exhaled a hot sigh, as if releasing the intense heat his body had produced by performing the first and third techniques of the art at the same time.
But he didn't let his guard down for a moment. His eyes searched for the giant aberration. He didn't know if the ten he had just killed were her divided self or if she was still lurking in some corner.
But he didn't dwell on the question. If he couldn't see something that big, it must be hidden in the darkness of the night.
He extended his senses into them: if he found the slightest movement or theft of his control, it must be one of the creatures.
And his method paid off: he immediately felt that sensation and located it. He positioned himself and went after it.
But at that moment, contrary to what he expected, the ground where he was standing suddenly turned to ice.
Understanding the cause, he quickly looked in the direction of the wolf and saw it: the blue wolf, covered in frost, advancing toward him with great momentum.
Now, in addition to the frost, it wore thick armor of ice, especially on its head.
Indeed, although it wounded him severely, it seems that it was not enough to kill or incapacitate him.
And he thought the ice on his feet was a silly trick. The tattoos on every part of his body were darkness.
It was a darkness closer to him, literally acting as part of his body. And, in fact, he didn't even need mana to handle it.
And his feet were covered by it. Cassian could mold it to give him strong support or use it as a bridge to get into the darkness; he would never lack stability or footholds as long as he had them.
But this didn't seem to be the wolf's goal, because there was ice not only under its feet, but all around it, covering an area about the size of a soccer field.
Crrrkk
This sheet of ice suddenly rose upward, dragging him several meters high with it.
At that moment, Cassian understood: the wolf did not intend to attack him head-on. It was now running at full speed around what was now an ice-giant pillar, each turn with more momentum.
Cassian didn't understand what the beast was planning... but he wasn't going to let it do what it wanted.
He was about to descend when, at that moment, he sensed something strange in the nearby shadows, and it had stolen his control in a more forceful way than before.
And although he tried to avoid it, he couldn't. It was as if the other being had more strength than him, but in that brief struggle they had, Cassian noticed something. It wasn't a matter of strength or amount of mana.
But it wasn't the time to analyze it thoroughly, because in addition to that, he noticed that there was something different. It felt dangerous, more dangerous than ever.
The wolf distracted him from the aberration for a moment, but since it seemed to be the aberration's effective method, he wasn't surprised when it came up behind him; he was always prepared.
He changed his plans instantly, turning quickly to stop the attacks from both sides.
Clang!-Crack!
The clash echoed. But immediately there was a crack: the sword made of darkness began to crack.
At that moment, his weapons had form and physical strength, but in the end they were nothing more than darkness molded by his will.
However, that very quality was his solution: Cassian poured even more mana and darkness into them, reinforcing them until they became stronger.
Cassian was alert, he knew the aberrations could keep coming and prepared to act, but he was paying attention to the wrong place.
Plac! Shunk!!
The aberration didn't just have two limbs as usual; when it blocked two attacks, two more came after and struck its torso, piercing it.
Skrunch!
They were extra arms that the aberration had below the ones Cassian was holding back. Instead of scythes, they were stingers.
Cassian felt the pain piercing his flesh, and, terrifyingly, the creature exerted more force to sink the spikes even deeper.
"Arrggghhh!"
Cassian gritted his teeth, not wavering in his attack with the scythes. He knew that if he let up for even a moment, the creature's scythes would continue on their path and finish him off.
But that would also mean he couldn't deal with the spikes, which were sinking deeper and deeper into Cassian's flesh.
Or so it would normally be, but Cassian didn't let the aberration go on with its thing, if the creature wanted to use more limbs to its advantage, he wouldn't be far behind.
Using his will, he made the black tattoos on his abdomen move, and quickly began to form what looked like a pair of extra arms made of darkness.
Swooossh!!
Immediately, these arms also fiercely formed a pair of knives and made coordinated downward cuts, with the intention of cutting and separating the spikes from the hands.
Clang! Shnk!
There was a sound of resistance, but it was only brief. The knives pierced and cut through the two spikes.
"jijijijjiji!!..."
The creature let out something between a laugh and a shriek, and Cassian took advantage of this and put more strength into his hands, his muscles tensing to the extreme and his veins becoming more visible.
"Ugh!!! Damn thing!!"
He put a lot of force into it until he finally repelled the aberration's scythes.
This gave him room to back up a little.