Chapter 43: Shadow Incarnate

Lucas whirled through the air with a trail of twirling sand flying in his wake.

The two mages seemed oblivious to the incoming danger at first but quickly became somewhat alert as a cloud of sand filled their vision.

"<Settle>," One of the mages said out loud and with it, a blue light flashed and all the sand fell to the ground as if it had no air resistance

Lucas stood behind the two mages and stared at them with a bright smile on his face. The two men were both scouting in front of them and casting observation skills that came up with nothing.

"Off with your heads!"

<Indissolubilis> soared through the air as the two men flinched at his booming voice. Slicing blades extended from the black bat and in one swift moment Lucas cut off both of their heads.

<The user has gained 5800 XP. The user has leveled up twice and has received 15 stat points.>

The silver blades disappeared back into the bat, leaving no trace of the carnage it had just caused.

'Noice,'

Lucas broke through the doors of the hospital once more and simply walked inside.

'System, Mute all notifications. This is about to get messy,'

He twirled the bat in his hands with his gauntlet on full display and went looking for any combatants in the building... and any survivors in general.

After a little bit of a walk, however, he noticed that the building was rather empty compared to before.

After the first dozen survivors, he found and killed it seemed like they had simply disappeared.

Lucas went up to another floor and realized that something was off.

It was pitch black on the second floor. Not a single light on. He heard the sound of movement shuffling through the floor and in a moment he felt someone gently tap his shoulder.

<User is under the effect of the skill <Soul Tear>. The user is immune to soul effects. Skill is nullified.>

He turned around and swung out with his bat but came up with nothing.

'Damnit... It seems like they knew I was coming somehow, but the real question is how?'

'Did they try and provoke me here?'

"Come out you bastard!" Lucas said in a growl of a voice.

A light chuckle could be heard from behind him but when he turned around and struck out once more he came up with nothing once more.

'That wasn't a man's voice... it was feminine,'

A wooshing of air could be heard as Lucas received a heavy hit to the back of his head.

"Fuck!"

Lucas quickly checked his health in an instant.

---

[Name:]

Lucas Walker

Tier: 1 (Basic System User)

Race: Interface Connection

Health: 2248/2500

Stamina: 246/250

Mana: 70/70

Divinity: 0

System Clearance: 4

---

'Almost three hundred health points gone just like that,' Lucas gritted his teeth as a sense of anger filled him.

'Seems like that <Third Eye> Skill is coming in handy... I bet that it would have been some form of a sneak attack if I didn't have it,'

'I could always run away... but that wouldn't be any fun,'

Lucas checked his stamina but noticed something else in the system prompt that reminded him of a specific skill he had.

'System! Use <Interface Connection>!'

After a slight ding from the system, the entire room lit up with blue strands that signified the information flow of the System.

He scanned the room around him for any clumps only to come up empty once again.

The entire room was covered in light threads of blue energy. It was more concentrated than any area he had seen before.

'Is this an illusion or some sort of skill?' And as soon as he thought of that it was broken.

The entire room flooded with light and he found himself laying on the floor. Jane Roseby, the nurse who first tried to lock Lucas up during his stay at the hospital, stood over him with a smirking face. She wore the famous set of goggles he had made.

Though when she saw Lucas come to, she seemed to have a look of fear flash across her face.

He quickly used his identity skill on her to try and see what had changed before quickly trying to swing at her feet with his bat only to find that his bat was gone.

'Fuck'

<<Name>: Jane Roseby. <Titles>: Darkness's Heir<Levels>: Tier 1: <Living Shadow: LV: 29> Tier 1: <Night Doctor: LV:14> <Age>: 24>>

He noticed the strange names and tried to think of how Nyx might be alive since this chick had a darkness-related title but came out blank.

'I still have my gauntlet!' Lucas realized before he cast <Sandstorm Blitz> and got behind her.

The sand that filled the room gave him fodder to use but as soon as he got behind her he noticed that she was holding Indissolubilis behind her back.

'Fuck this bitch!'

He raised his gauntleted hand towards her and commanded the sands to grab at Indissolubilis and retrieve it.

And something else happened without him noticing it.

The bat was humming and vibrating gently in her hand and seemed to almost be... upset.

The sand flooded towards the back of her hand but just before it could reach her she disappeared in a flash of darkness.

Then he felt a massive force from behind as he stumbled a few steps forward.

'Fucking hell!'

He turned around as quickly as possible only to see Jane staring at the bat in satisfaction.

"Nice toy you have made here... It's a shame you won't be using it anymore. You know, after I kill you and all,"

Her voice sounded silkier than before. Almost as if it was covering the room with smooth molasses.

Lucas gave up on the sand in an instant and just reached out with his mind towards the bat and was surprised that it actually worked.

It soared through the air and he caught it in his outreached hand.

"This is my bat, Bitch!"

Lucas swung at Jane once more and felt that he actually made contact with something but just as he thought he had done some damage the image of her slumped to the ground as a shadow version of her appeared on the wall.

'How the hell am I supposed to kill a shadow?'

'Didn't the system say that I could change things in the system with the <Interface Connection> skill? It's got to be my only chance here,'

The shadow had begun to move as it struck out at his own shadow.

<The user is under the effect of <Shadow Strike>. The user has taken massive damage!>

'Fuck!'

Lucas didn't necessarily feel pain but instead felt an empty feeling fill his body as he felt his shadow get ripped apart.

He looked at the strings that surrounded Jane's shadow and quickly touched one of them. As soon as he touched the string he felt his mind become overwhelmed with knowledge but he pushed through it with a grunt.

'Skills, stats, levels, names, titles... Ugh! This is hard. Perhaps status's?' He thought to himself as he searched her status, desperately looking for anything that could help him out.

He searched through the information that was overflowing within his mind and quickly narrowed it down to the girl's current status effects.

---

Current Status Effects:

Shadow From <1 Minute duration>

---

'One minute? That's easy to deal with!' Lucas thought as he activated a skill he hadn't touched since his fight against the <Hero> He had fought here previously.

He picked up Indissolubilis and slammed it on the ground while shouting "Unbreakable Field!"

As soon as he uttered those sacred words a field of blue energy erupted from the bat and pushed everything, except for Lucas, out of it.

He smirked as the shadow got shunted out from his space and he prepped himself to heal his wounds while the minute was going out.

The shadow that was fluttering throughout the grown rammed into the barrier but its attempts were futile.

It started to throw shadow daggers at the barrier but they simply fizzled upon contact.

Lucas stood there in wait... And after a minute had passed both the shield dissipated and the shadow effect that had been keeping the <Living Shadow> Alive.

As soon as they both fell Lucas created a mental barrier around Jane and started to crush it.

A panicked look appeared on her face as she tried to slam against the barrier but Lucas's Psionics stat was too high for her to resist.

And in a matter of moments, Jane was crushed into a pile of goopy blood and bones.

'Serves her right...'

'Now it's time for the rest of the riff-raff,'

'But first... It's time to rest,' Lucas thought before sitting down with a grunt and began recovering his stamina.

It was then that he remembered the goggles on the Bitch's body and he grabbed them and snapped them in half in an instant.

'Not gonna have this fucking item stab me in the back again,'