Taking out Shadow One and Two

...….

"I still don't understand why we didn't attack earlier, Shadow one. Is there some particular reason that we didn't get rid of the target as soon as he won the Outer Sect Competition?"

Shadow One looked over at Shadow Two before he turned his emotionless gaze back to the boy they were trailing.

"It's because we must know exactly what it was that caused his power to spike so much. And to do that, we need to preserve his life a little longer," he said after a moment of thought.

"I see. Then we shall do just that." Shadow Two began with an indifferent tone.

"For the betterment of the Black Tiger Family," he added with an expression befitting something akin to a zealot.

"For the betterment of the Black Tiger Family." Shadow One spoke with a voice just as differential as the two of them disappeared into the shadows of all the people in the bustling and vibrant streets of the Yang Sect.

-

I wonder how I should go about losing those two guys behind me…

Azmodeus had been thinking on that topic for a while; however, nothing exceptionally special came to mind. So in the end, he lightly shrugged his shoulders before muttering, "The old-fashioned way it is."

Following those words, his figure blurred after approaching an alleyway off to the side of a sushi restaurant with a bright neon-colored sign.

"!!!" "!!!"

Both Shadow One and Shadow Two immediately noticed the disappearance of their target as they sped up in the direction he disappeared to.

And just as they turned a corner and reached the end of the alleyway, a sword gleam materialized from thin air as an illusory blue boy emerged right after the appearance of a sleek sword.

"!?!?" Shadow Two noticed this from the corner of his eye as he backed up as fast as he could, narrowly dodging the sword slash that was aiming to take off his head.

"Tch." A soft clicking of the tongue echoed out as the illusory blue boy faded into the land of non-existence.

*Clang!*

The sound of metal hitting a hard surface sounded as an eastern-style sword fell to the ground.

"!!!" Shadow One was mildly surprised by the appearance of the sword.

Isn't that the sword that the winner of the Outer Sect Competition was able to win??

However, before he could delve deeper into the topic of this mysterious attacker with power rivaling their own, another blue illusory boy materialized from thin air. This was followed by another sword being thrown through the air from a random direction in the wide alleyway.

"!!!"

This time around, there wasn't merely a single illusory boy, as two more sparkled into existence!

Two more lowest-ranked weapons—a dagger and a sword—appeared in their hands as well.

"It looks like the report on the abilities of that boy was far off the mark. In addition to that, his strength is far superior to the Late Pulse Condensation Realm combat power that he was rumored to have." Shadow Two spoke with a calm voice.

Shadow One heard what his fellow shadow said as he thought over any potential countermeasures. After figuring out what they should do, he said, "Get into Pincer Formation. We shall corner the target until he comes out from wherever he's hiding."

He couldn't find out where these abilities originated from, and the blue illusory boys were no help in leading back to their source. So, in the end, the only option they had was to whittle down the energy reserves of the target before locating his main body and striking him down.

Shadow One realized this, and Shadow Two understood it after listening to Shadow One's commands.

So in response to the unforeseen circumstances before them, both of the two cloaked shadows vanished from sight before reappearing on two different sides of all three of the illusory figures.

SLICE! SLICE!

They let out a few slashes of their poison-coated daggers, effectively cutting up all three of the illusory figures!

Bzzzt…

The energy that was used to hold up the three illusory boys was immediately dispersed as a blue misty substance filled the air.

"???" "???"

Both Shadow One and Shadow Two had their peripheral visions covered up as everything around them turned into a blue smokescreen!

"What the hell-!?" Shadow Two exclaimed, but before he even got the chance to finish his words…

SHING!

A crisp, unsheathing sound echoed out as five razor-sharp black and silver blades came flying from five different directions!

"!!!" After realizing he couldn't take care of all five of them, Shadow Two attempted to jump out of the way and dodge the incoming strikes.

However…

SHING!

*Spurt!*

Another blade—of far superior quality with a sleek design—penetrated the tough skin of Shadow Two before making its way deeper into his side!

"!?!?"

Shadow Two was still trying to understand what was happening when the pain suddenly registered for him. Along with the pain came a few clots of blood leaving his mouth, as a number of his internal organs were undoubtedly injured with that strike.

*Tap!*

He leaped away from his spot as fast as his feet could take him away, but…

SLICE! SLICE!

Four more swords found their way into his back as four consecutive bloody holes were made in his body!

"Blegh!!" He violently coughed up blood while looking at the five different swords lodged in his skin, messing up most of his internal organs and rendering him on the verge of death.

I'm going to die…

Shadow Two was a trained professional, and he knew when an injury was proven fatal. With this knowledge, he knew that at the rate he was going, his life force would fade into nothingness within the next five minutes.

It was this fact that led to him using his last resort…

|Shadow Cleaver|

An ability was silently enunciated by Shadow Two as a shadowy blade formed from thin air, and along with it, an increase in his strength was given to him!

"..."

Azmodeus watched the pitch black tendrils of energy being emitted from the slightly shorter, cloaked figure. His smile widened a little as he thought, 'It looks like I found my next Trait.'.

Through this thought, he cycled a few more of his Mirror Mirages away from Shadow One as he once again focused the majority of them on Shadow Two.

...…