shadow slave: Omnitrix

Far away from Falcon Scott, in a secluded area near the region, Hugo landed on the ground reverting to a human form, while sunny assumed a corporeal form from the shadows.

The former had used his fastest flying imprint, jetray, while the latter had used his awakened ability, [Shadow step.]

Hugo stretched for a few moments.

“Well then, let’s not stall.”

He summoned Zed and made her assume the form of a huge, rock-based life form —with crab-like body and a rhino-like face. Six long purple legs carried her, spiked and sturdy. A long horn jutted from her head, with small ears twitching beside it, and her dark purple-grey hide was only broken by sunken red eyes.

This was the predator of heatblast, a form with incredible physical abilities and high resistance to fire.

At the same time, Hugo’s spirit body landed beside them, wearing the [Mechamorphic Asura], shaped into an eight foot tall mechsuit.

Hugo had actually used the enchantments of the [Mechamorphic Asura] to absorb a few destroyed machines from the first evacuation army, such as tanks, ships, and exoskeletons, giving him plenty of choices when it came to using ranged attacks.

With that done, Hugo slammed his Omnitrix and transformed into Four Arms, making sure to keep the [Shroud of Graceless Dusk] summoned to retain its enchantments.

He activated [Omni-Kix] armor, making red, black and white plates of armor wrap around his mighty body.

This way, he could benefit from the [Omni-Kix] armor and the [Shroud of Graceless Dusk] at the same time.

And lastly, Hugo’s shadow manifested into a physical form and assumed the form of Ghostfreak, this was a strategic move as it would be able to inflict soul damage when needed, but for now he simply commanded to remain invisible.

Sunny, on the other hand, had more thorough preparations.

Firstly, he summoned his new shadow, Fiend who was a Transcendant devil.

Next, he activated the [Mantle] attribute, letting his body be encased by onyx stone armor, and summoned a jade blade that made Hugo shiver slightly.

‘Something is wrong with that sword…’

He should ask sunny about it later.

Saint and Nightmare were currently in the front lines, battling a few hordes alongside Hugo’s legions, but their absence wouldn’t affect them that much.

Sunny summoned his [shadow Symbiote], and made it crawl towards Fiend, bonding with the devil and augmenting its body.

Seeing sunny do all of this, Hugo asked:

“You mastered the fourth step, right?”

Sunny nodded.

“Yes, during the battle against the terror of LO49…. The legacy reward this time was a little confusing, but we’ll have that conversation later.”

Strangely enough, he was not using shadow dance, and decided to remain in his human form.

‘I suppose shapeshifting isn’t always the best solution…’

Sunny summoned another memory, a dark heart shaped object made of stone. This was the [Dark Soul], a memory Sunny had gotten from killing the Heart of Darkness.

It was capable of creating a zone of true darkness, suppressing anything inside it and weakening their powers.

Sunny had tampered with the Ascended memory using his weaving, elevating it to the Transcendent rank and adding a new feature to its singular enchantment.

It was the ability to choose which targets would be suppressed in the zone of true darkness.

He placed the memory on his belt and activated its enchantment, surrounding the area in ten miles with true darkness.

From an outsider’s perspective, it looked extremely terrifying, however from the inside, thanks to Sunny’s alteration of the memory, Hugo and Sunny could see perfectly fine.

They were not affected by the true darkness, as well.

“Alright, do your thing.”

Sunny sighed, and a dark wheel manifested above his head.

It twisted once, twice… And continued, until it reached its seventh turn.

A white cocoon manifested from the sacred wheel, appearing a few feet away from the odd cohort.

It shuddered violently, and slowly unraveled, as if giving birth to a child.

Despite the White Devil merely being a Transcendent, its presence was still powerful enough to make both Hugo and Sunny frown.

It stepped out of the cocoon, tearing the silk like material apart. It was a tall white behemoth with no eyes, and a golden wheel above its head.

Its white slender body was disturbing, yet somehow it was also beautiful and smooth, like that of a beautiful fairy.

The blade attached to its arm radiated an aura aura, as well.

Sunny glanced Hugo.

“Remember… I have to be the one who gets the final blow.”

If Sunny was to tame it, he would need to deliver the killing blow, but aside from that rule, everything else was fair game.

“Sure.”

Hugo augmented his body and launched himself at the White Devil alongside Zed and Fiend.

He came from the front, while the two others rushed forward from the left and right sides of the battle.

His two fists reached the White Devil’s body, hitting its chest point blank.

Its Transcendent body rippled slightly, and then it looked down.

The reason it didn’t dodge was because of the [Dark Soul] suppressing its senses, however, despite it being blind, the formidable creature was capable of feeling that punch.

Hugo, as an Ascended terror, dented its body and made it take a few steps back.

But the White Devil quickly retaliated.

Hugo was flattened to the ground by the fist of the White Devil, his bones shattered and blood exploded from all sides.

It was as if he had been smitten by a god… But now, he had experienced being smitten by a god once, and quite frankly, this hurt more.

‘How is it so fast?!’

Hugo groaned as his body was kicked away violently by the devil, sending him flying away like a broken toy. Before the devil could pursue him, inky black tentacles held him in place, while also draining strength from its body.

The shadow Fiend was laughing at the white devil, and then, a giant purple rocky figure slammed through the devil, its horn piercing its body and sending it flying.

Sunny watched the scene from afar, and made a few notes.

The devil’s physical strength was above the average Transcendent devil. Its senses, while dulled, were still plenty sharp.

After a few seconds, it managed to stop Zed’s rampage, grabbing the predator alien by the head and lifting it above the ground before slamming it into the floor.

The devil brandished its blade and right before it could cut Zed, something red and angry drove into its side, launching the white devil far away and saving zed.

Hugo was back in the game, and this time he left it no moment of respite.

He soared into the sky, following its body as it was hurled away by the previous blow.

Before it could land, he followed with a devastating punch that sent shockwaves through the skies, sending it to the ground and creating a large crater.

It seemed Hugo still held a grudge from their encounter in the depths of the second nightmare.

He landed on top of it and rained down an endless number of blows, each of his punches carried the strength of a lesser Saint, wounding the White Devil but then, the wheel on its head suddenly twisted, making a full turn and its physical strength skyrocketed.

It grabbed Hugo’s arm as he was about to land another punch and stabbed it using the blade attached to its hand, before kicking its attacker away.

Zed and Fiend engaged it in battle once more, each using their savage bodies to their advantage, but the White Devil danced between their attacks masterfully, dodging and evading each hit like a sword saint.

Fiend style of battle was unrestrained, fusing the agility of its small body with the Abilities granted to it by the [Shadow symbiote] to create a battle art befitting a true shadow creature, while zed on the other hand had far more savage in her attacks, which was a little reckless.

And yet, both of their styles paled when compared to devil.

‘it has a Transcendant battle art…’ Sunny thought, hiding in the shadows.

The white devil battle art was built on the principle of adapting to its enemies, and even without its mystical abilities, the Devil could still gain insight into its opponent’s movement and adapt to them naturally.

That said, its current battle did make full use of its mystical ability, which was adaptation. It has fully integrated its transcendant powers with its body movement, creating a combat style unlike no other.

It did not have a transcendant transformation, though.

‘Fascinating…’

Even while it was blind, it was still this skillful.

Hugo got up from the floor, injured and annoyed.

He quickly used the [Sunlight Rings] to heal his wounds, and gathered his energy by augmenting his body once again using the mystical abilities of fourarms.

Instead of jumping in, Hugo dug his hands into the ground and pulled a big chunk of the dirt.

He tossed it towards the White Devil, distracting the shadow creature, allowing Fiend’s clawed arm to scratch its head and Zed to kick it using one of its many rocky legs.

Hugo jumped in and engaged the devil in melee combat for the first time, sending multiple jabs and uppercuts at the creature. Its battle art gave it not only amazing adaptability but also skillful use of its blade — it blocked each incoming attack and carved deep gouges into his Omni-Kix armor.

Still, Hugo persisted and studied its combat style.

He was fighting like a boxer against a swordsman, but that did not mean he didn’t have the advantage — not at all. Instead, if anything, he was in a better position than the White Devil.

That was thanks to the fact that the devil fought like a creature, despite its intilligence and battle art, while Hugo fought both like a human and a creature.

Four Arms was a powerful imprint, not only because of tremendous physical strength but also because of the innate battle skill gained in this form.

It was not full mastery over battle arts — no, it was an instinctual awareness offered to the body in battle. Hugo had an intuition about where he should move, how he should move, and how to fight in the best way possible.

It was hard to describe in words, but the knowledge he got in this form was comparable to a video game teaching you how to control your character during the early stages.

That said, this was not an automatic thing — not at all. At the end of the day, it was up to him to use this sixth instinct to its best, and currently Hugo was fusing that instinct into his own personal battle art: that of the stone saints.

He defended against the blows with his two left arms, while he attacked with his right arms, making sure to utilize all four and his incredible physical abilities to create an indomitable defense and a ferocious attack.

Still, he could see that the White Devil was adapting to his fighting style, reading it like a book and expecting the unexpected.

The White Devil grabbed Hugo’s arm after he attempted another swing, and bent down, using its back to lift Hugo off his feet and toss him away.

Fiend attempted another surprise attack, but this time, his tentacles were easily caught, and the White Devil pulled the gremlin towards him and raised the mighty slaying blade.

Fiend was about to be stabbed by the White Devil’s blade, but Sunny dismissed him before that could happen, as for Zed, she had retreated on Hugo’s command.

A jade blade flashed from the shadows, cutting through the White Devil’s flesh and pulling down — slashing off its arm.

The White Devil turned, and Sunny shadow stepped away before it could detect him.

He had been waiting for this one moment the entire battlefield, deciding to use the stealthy approach to deal one devestating strike at the right moment.

An explosion of blue light engulfed the world, and a great swarm of vines wrapped around the devil’s other arm, pulling it into the ground and restraining its movements.

Hugo had transformed into Wildvine.