Chapter 247: Shadow Attack

All ten of Mariah’s shadows attacked me at once. These shadows were in another league from Selthia and the others. Their teamwork was flawless. They moved as if they were a part of a hive mind. Mariah flickered in and out of view as she teleported around me.

So far, she hadn’t attacked, only watched my battle with her shadows like a hawk. One by one, I dispatched her shadows just like I did with the first, and just when I was beginning to wonder again when she was going to attack, she struck.

Mariah appeared behind me just as all her shadows attacked at once. My instincts were telling me to focus on Mariah. A lump had settled in the back of my throat.

Following my instincts, I left myself unguarded against the shadows’ attacks. Their hands, which transformed into spears, managed to pierce into my skin, but I bore the pain as I tried to fend against Mariah.

She appeared behind me and had a sinister smile on her face. She made a stabbing motion with her palm straight. Her nails were awfully long and pointed, and she aimed directly for my neck.

I leaned back to evade the attack, but her nails managed to pierce my shoulder instead. I immediately followed up with a counterattack, but in an instant, she was already gone, disappearing in a puff of black smoke and reappearing at the other end of the room.

I was covered in small scratches all over, but most of them began to heal. The only wound that wouldn’t heal was the one from Mariah. Instead, it burned as if someone had set fire to it. The wound itself had turned pitch black, and there wasn’t even a drop of blood, except the veins surrounding it were also black in color.

“Will you look at that?” Mariah chuckled and licked her lips from across the room. “You’re still standing after that? You’re more sturdy than I thought.”

“What did you do to me?”

She didn’t offer an answer, only continued to chuckle to herself.

I was just starting to realize just how powerful her vampire ability was. Still, I didn’t panic; instead, I took a deep breath and thought about the best way to deal with the situation.

As things stood, the shadows she created were nothing but distractions. They didn’t pose any real danger. All the wounds they could inflict were surface level, and I could easily heal from them.

It won’t be difficult to ignore them and only think of them as mosquitoes, but why do that when I have shadows of my own. I summoned exactly ten shadow hounds. None of them was actually Cerberus since he was preoccupied with a little errand of mine.

The shadow hounds growled and bared their fangs like hungry wolves as they sized up Mariah’s shadows surrounding us. Mariah’s shadows, on the other hand, seemed to switch objective from me.

“You’re a lot more crafty than I thought. Who knew you had an ability similar to mine.”

“Let’s see whose is stronger.”

The moment that question was posed, her eyes seemed to sparkle.

“Sounds like an excellent idea! But…” she paused with her finger on her soft lips as she gave an innocent smile. “Even with them out of the way, do you think you’ll be able to keep up with me…”

Before she could even finish the sentence, I struck. In her eyes, one minute I was on the other side of the room, but in the next, I was an arm’s stretch away from her. She tried to teleport immediately, but before the black smoke could even form around her, my claws tore through her abdomen.

She managed to disappear just in time before I could cause serious damage. For a moment, I thought she was retreating, but instead, where she reappeared was right behind me.

I caught her scent immediately and ducked below sharp nails which jabbed at the back of my neck. I countered her swing with one of my own, this time from down below, targeting her legs, but just as my claws grazed her thigh, she was gone.

This time, she appeared a few feet away from me. Looking at her, I immediately noticed that the injuries to her thigh and abdomen still hadn’t healed, and she was breathing heavily.

Her fatigue must’ve been caused by her teleporting back and forth. It must’ve taken a lot out of her, and those injuries must’ve stung, but looking at her, I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was enjoying herself.

She had a broad smile on her face as she stared at me, and her face was quite flushed.

“This is more fun than I thought it would be! You’re certainly not weak, but can you handle me if I go all out? How quickly will you break?!”

As Mariah spoke, darkness began emanating from her feet and started spreading on the ground. It covered the floor and ground, spreading almost like a virus. In this space, more of her shadows began to form, numbering in the hundreds.

I immediately summoned the rest of my shadow hounds to deal with them while I focused on her. Mariah stared at me, her smile still broad as she raised her hand. Immediately, a giant claw was formed from the shadow. The giant shadow claw threatened to tear me in half, but I nimbly dodged the attack.

Sensing the danger in the situation, I burst towards her, aiming to put an end to it, but the shadow on the ground rose up and wrapped around my feet before I could even get to her. I was stopped in my tracks, and immediately, a sharp spear exploded from the ground towards me.

Powerful attacks burst forward from my surroundings. I took my time dodging every one of these attacks while edging my way closer to Mariah. She began laughing, like a woman possessed, when she saw that I was approaching her.

Her attacks got even more persistent then, but I moved with the reflex of a werewolf as I closed the distance between me and my prey.

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