33 Shimmer of Silver (1/2)

'He's dead?' Nine clearly felt the aura of the former king disappear, yet it wasn't as natural as he had expected it to be – at this moment in time he was finely tuned with nature itself, able to feel all the energy in the atmosphere as an extension of his own body and he'd clearly felt the aura of death in the area the former king was residing.

'No that's not right…' He thought, his senses extended over the rest of the castle – in multiple areas his own men were dropping like flies, their deaths were instant and quick and yet they felt natural as if all of them had been cut down by time rather than a swift blade.

Nine continued to observe coldly as he felt the aura of several of his men disappear in the short instance he was observing, the energy in their bodies had immediately left and assimilated itself with the atmosphere, 'Who is it?!' No matter what he did he couldn't find a trace of the killer, no matter how many continued to die there was not a trace of an intruder in the surroundings.

Minutes passed, quickly he'd lost over twenty of his troops to the mysterious force that was cutting them down like flowers, he had clearly determined it was a single person doing this due to the gap between the deaths and yet despite his full attention he failed to find even a trace of the other party.

'Seems I'll have to delay my breakthrough.' He thought, his expression was cold – whoever had forced him to stop his own breakthrough would most definitely die today no matter the cost.

…

'Army: 42/100'

I looked in amazement, I was almost halfway to my current limit and most of my current 'troops' were at the pinnacle of the Mortal Leaving stage, I was confident I could cause a Core Gathering Pinnacle Cultivator to stumble with this many shadows surrounding him but that was all a hypothesis, for now, I had no idea what sort of battle instincts they retained from when they were alive if any.

”There he is!” I heard a shout from behind me, I had decided to stop wandering around in the Shadow Realm and walk around in the light for once after all I had no reason to hide did I?

I grinned coldly when I heard the voice, the sound of people running came from behind me – I estimated at least forty of them, 'What a happy occasion, they're just throwing themselves at me!' I thought, I hadn't even glanced at my XP – the measly value I had gotten wasn't worth my attention.

”I order you. Attack!” I shouted, the aura of a Monarch pressured the black-robed figures rushing at me in that instant, ”What the hell? Do you think we don't know you're alone?”

One shouted back at me, the others burst out in laughter – they were mere feet away from me but it was already too late.

”What the?!” Their entire force stopped in their tracks – their ankles had been grabbed by shadowy arms from below that appeared from the shadows themselves.

I grinned at the sight, 'So even this works?'

I had ordered them to attack of course, but I had imagined them coming out of the shadows of my enemies rather than my own, giving me the element of surprise.

'With this wouldn't it be easy to ambush a large group on my own?' The thought caused my heart to beat faster as I imagined myself stopping an army of thousands with a simple command, the scenes I had read about in novels now had me as the main character that they revolved around – it was an exhilarating feeling, to say the least.

”Now what should I do with you lot?” I said playfully, but giving them no chance to respond I had the shadows kill them all, despite being at the same realm it seems that my Shadows were strengthened so they could easily suppress those at the same realm as them when they were alive.