Chapter 44 Fang's New Skill
"First, let me ask you, what is your main element?"
Fang, who knew that Fatima already know her Shadow element, doubted the intent of her question. Despite that, she still answered.
"It's Shadow."
"Half correct!"
However, Fatima quickly snickered and waved her finger.
"Yes, you are mainly of the Shadow Element. But, did you know that shadow is just a derived element?"
The tip of Fatima's fingers released a squirming dark substance, like a shadow given physical form.
"Your true element is Darkness!"
Fang gulped upon seeing this scene. The amount of energy she used to conjure the dark substance is something Fang possessed. However, the power that it exuded was several times that of the energy used on it. Fang's hair was standing on end as she stared at this impossible phenomenon.
"Since you already know how to control your shadow, you should be able to easily control darkness."
Fatima waved her finger, extinguishing the squirming dark substance on her finger.
"Now, with a similar principle to controlling shadows, try what I did earlier."
Fang didn't know what she did or how she did it, but since Fatima was only smiling at her, waiting, Fang couldn't help but try at least.
Fang focused her energy on her fingertips. The energy, which was mostly of shadow element, isn't something that can be emitted easily. Shadow element has three rules to exist in the word. A light to cause a shadow, a body to cast a shadow, and a space to receive the shadow.
To emit shadow on her finger, she lacks the "body" to cast a shadow. After a few minutes of trying, an idea popped into her mind.
Using her other hand to cast a shadow, she succeeded in creating a similar squirming darkness to what Fatima did.
"I-I did it!"
Fang celebrated as she showed Fatima.
"That's great progress already! I knew you had talent in this. Next, try it without using your other hand or any other obstacles to cast a shadow okay?"
The smile on Fang's face quickly morphed into a frown.
"... That's impossible..."
Fang couldn't help but deny it. Even though she just saw Fatima do it easily, no matter how she thinks of it, it should be impossible to create shadows from nothing.
"With shadow element, it sure would be impossible. Remember our lesson's topic?"
Fatima grinned as if Fang was funny. Hearing this, however, Fang was enlightened. She couldn't explain it in words but something inside her started moving.
Not wanting to lose this feeling, she quickly tried once more.
She focused all her energy on her finger. Her consciousness ignores all things other than her energy flow. There, she could feel that other than the shadow energy she was extremely familiar with, there was another energy that was mixed.
She tried extracting that energy with extreme difficulty.
Fang lost track of time. It could have been minutes or hours that she mas maintaining her focus. Sweat had been rolling down her face as she was nearly out of energy.
Finally, after gathering enough of that unknown energy, it started leaking out of her finger. There, a small thread of squirming darkness appeared.
"Beautifully done!"
Fatima quickly shouted in praise. Fang was surprised and lost focus for an instant. The thread of squirming darkness vanished without a trace.
"Ah!"
Fang felt disappointed at losing her focus, she also felt slightly angry at Fatima who suddenly raised her voice.
"Don't be angry, it wasn't in vain right? With that success, you should be able to easily tell your shadow and dark energies apart."
When Fatima said so, Fang quickly tried to feel the energy that remained inside her. To her surprise, the unknown energy that she was having difficulty to just identify was already as familiar to her as shadow energy.
"Since shadow and darkness go hand in hand, they are basically one and the same. As long as you know how to control them, you can create shadows anywhere anytime."
Fang showed a smile of pure joy, her tail wagging left and right. She was happy to have learned to use a new power. She was happy to become more powerful than before. She was so happy that any and all wariness to Fatima that she still had completely vanished.
"Haha, what a cute one."
Fatima laughed after seeing her reaction.
"However, this is nothing but the beginning."
Hearing this, Fang quickly straightened her expression and listened to Fatima's words attentively.
"I said earlier that I would teach you a skill from your ancestors. That ancestor I was talking about is the Eclipse Wolf, the wolf that controls the phases of the moon and even influence the movement of the sun. A legendary being above even God-level monsters."
Fang was shocked upon hearing this. The Eclipse Wolf was believed to be a fictional beast that existed in a plane of reality above theirs. To hear that such a fictional beast existed and that Fatima was even about to teach her a skill from it, she couldn't help but get excited.
"Well, calm down. Even though I say that it was a skill of your ancestors, it was more like a replication of one of its skills. Do you think a mere beast could replicate a skill that even Gods couldn't?"
Despite hearing Fatima's discouraging words, Fang still stared at Fatima with pure and undivided attention. Fatima was secretly pleased with how Fang was willing to learn so she quickly explained.
"What I'm about to teach you is the skill [Soul Eclipse]. It's similar to [Nightmare] which attacks the enemy's soul."
Speaking up to this point, Fatima raised one finger in Fang's direction.
"However, unlike [Nightmare] where the enemy could survive if lucky, [Soul Eclipse] would disintegrate the enemy's soul. It's a killing move with damage that couldn't be limited."
Fang nervously listened. [Nightmare] was already a forbidden skill due to its high fatality. To think that she would learn something that had a 100% death rate, she was slightly intimidated.
"And, it has one drawback."
Fatima continued.
"In case of a failed execution, it will instead consume the user's soul."