novelraw Chapter 97: The Shadow Imp
Chapter 97: The Shadow Imp
Axel floated inside the shadow and he could see Drax as clear as day, even though Drax was invisible.
That alone made Axel pause for a second. The shadow wasn’t just hiding him. It was showing him things others couldn’t see. That thought crossed his mind fast, followed by another.
What else can this place do?
But there was no time to think about that now since his fight wasn’t over yet.
Axel knew the truth. Without the shadow void, he wouldn’t have lasted this long against Drax. Maybe he wouldn’t even be standing. That thought sat heavy in his chest, but he pushed it aside.
Outside the void, Drax was still invisible, and he started attacking at random.
Black spheres flew everywhere, slamming into the arena walls, tearing up the ground, exploding on impact. Drax was trying to force a hit. Trying to get lucky, but Axel wasn’t there.
He wasn’t invisible like Drax was; he was somewhere else entirely.
Drax was so caught up in trying to get a hit on someone who wasn’t there that he didn’t notice when his invisible shadow became visible on the floor and started to stretch. Didn’t notice when it grew longer than it should have.
Axel burst out of it. He swung the Godrend sword straight into Drax’s back.
The blade was coated in Ruin Echo Energy.
The hit landed. Then the explosion followed.
Drax screamed as fire and force ripped into his skin, throwing him forward. He crashed hard into the ground and rolled.
Axel didn’t stop. He quickly created a shadow clone and stepped back into the darkness again, slipping through the shadow and reappearing on the other side of the arena.
This is dragging on too long! Axel thought.
Ending this now mattered more than anything. If he was going to finish this, he had to go all out. No holding back. No saving strength.
That meant using everything, including infernal skills, Umbra skills, and even his normal strength.
Two messages flashed across his vision.
< [Infernal Core: 40%] >
< [Umbra Core: 40%] >
"Crap... Not much juice left."
He pulled everything together anyway. Every active skill he had flared at once. Infernal Energy, Ruin Echo, Fire Infusion, and the Energy Burst. He packed it all into the sword.
The blade rattled violently and Axel launched it.
The attack tore through the air straight toward Drax, who had just managed to get back to his feet. Before Drax could fully react, Axel stepped into the shadow again.
He appeared a few feet behind him and delivered another slash. Same combo.
Then another movement. Axel quickly planted Ruin Echo charges around the space without stopping. One after another in a fast, messy, and desperate burst. Then he stepped back into the shadow.
From inside, he watched as Drax tried to move, but he was too slow.
The slashes hit first, then the explosions went off. Fire, force, and smoke swallowed everything, followed by a loud booming sound that rattled the entire arena. What the audience witnessed was a deadly display of power.
"IT SEEMS AS THOUGH THE RED IMP HAS GOTTEN ANGRY!" the commentator announced.
The smoke around the place rose high, and when it finally cleared, Drax was on the ground. He wasn’t moving.
His sword had vanished. His body was burned and broken. He tried to push himself up once, then collapsed.
Axel slowly emerged from the shadow, his breathing heavy.
The commentators didn’t speak at first. Even the entire arena was silent.
Then, the commentator’s voice exploded through the arena.
"WE HAVE A WINNER!"
The crowd went insane.
"DRAX TAN IS DOWN! THE VICTORY GOES TO—THE SHADOW IMP!"
"Wait what?! What happened to Red Imp?" Axel looked up as the crowd screamed his name. Thousands of voices were chanting the Shadow Imp’s name.
Axel hadn’t used his mask for this fight, so everyone could see his face clearly. Deep in his gut, he knew he had drawn too much attention.
It wouldn’t take long now. Not with this display, and especially not with a shadow demon fighting in public.
The demon slayers would hear about this... It was only a matter of time.
Axel swallowed.
"...Shit."
---
Earlier that day, back at the cafeteria, things had been loud... a bit too loud. Drax, Axel, and then one of Dasha’s guards.
When Kade had come over and told Axel that the Nexus field had finally been opened, Rick’s reaction had been immediate and overly dramatic.
"Nexus?" Rick had asked with eyes wide. "Like... a Nexus portal?"
Drax was still there, but attention had shifted from him to Kade.
"People go missing in those things," Rick continued, already spiraling. "You don’t just walk into a Nexus portal and come back—"
Rick had no idea about the whole underground fighting pits or even the Nexus field. So the moment he heard the word "Nexus," he immediately thought it was a Nexus portal.
Kinsey had shut him down fast. She told him it wasn’t a portal, just a place. A field inside the school called the Nexus. Nothing dangerous or special. Just another training ground that people went to.
Rick didn’t look fully convinced, but he calmed down enough to sit back. Axel had left not long after. And with him, the tension at the table went too.
Hours passed.
Kinsey went about her day like normal, walking the halls and keeping her head down as a Lumina 3, but her thoughts kept drifting back to Axel. To where he had gone and to what was really happening in the Nexus field. She was certainly missing a lot.
She knew what the place once was, considering she had been there once when it was still closed.
When the sun began to dip and the sky outside started turning orange, Kinsey finally stopped pretending everything was fine.
"It’s time," she muttered to herself.
Time for what...?
She headed back to her dorm. Her room was quiet when she stepped inside. None of her roommates were around, and she let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.
"Good," she said softly. "I don’t feel like explaining anything today."
She knelt and reached under her bed, pulling out a small bag. It was old and worn out. She dug through it with quick movements, irritation building with every second.
As she searched, she scoffed and spoke under her breath. "No one must know you’re one of us," she muttered mockingly. "No one must know because you’re such a disgrace."
With the way she spoke, she was obviously quoting someone.
Her jaw tightened. "Well guess what, father," she continued quietly. "I don’t even want to be one of you suckers!"
Her fingers finally closed around something solid and she stopped, then pulled it out.
A small circular device rested in her palm. On its surface was a crest shaped like a snowflake. Kinsey stared at it for a second.
"I’m only keeping this thing because of the perks," she said. "Nothing else."
She opened the device and keyed in several codes from memory. The screen flickered and a short pause followed.
Then a voice came through.
"What do you want, Kinsey?"
The tone was smug and dismissive, like Kinsey was an inconvenience.
Kinsey rolled her eyes out of habit.
"Go to hell," she said flatly. "Put someone reasonable on."
The voice laughed at that.
"I would," it replied, "but unfortunately you’re already there, and I’d rather not be anywhere near you."
Kinsey went quiet. For a moment, she said nothing. The words had probably stung harder than she wanted to admit.
She bit her lip and forced her face to stay neutral.
"Zara," Kinsey said finally. "I need to speak to father."
"Father is preoccupied at the moment," the person on the other end, who was Zara, replied immediately. "Whatever business you have goes through me."
From the way they spoke, it sounded like they were siblings.
Kinsey exhaled slowly. "I need some money," she said without pride. No dressing it up.
Zara scoffed. "What happened to the twenty thousand CNT we sent you last week?"
"I’m sorry, did you say we?" Kinsey scoffed. She rested her back against her bed and continued. "Do you have any idea how expensive the Oval Academy is?" she said. "Everything costs something here. Nothing is free, and things aren’t exactly going great for me."
She paused, then added quietly, "I shouldn’t even be here if father hadn’t sent me."
"Ha!" Zara laughed, a sharp, mocking sound.
"Pathetic," she said. "A Lumina Three is what you are. Why send you anywhere else? That public school suits you better."
Kinsey felt that one too, but she said nothing.
Zara continued, clearly pleased at her jabs.
"Hold on for a few more days. When father returns from his expedition, he’ll deal with you."
Kinsey raised a brow. "Expedition?" she asked. "What expedition?"
"The Skavverns are coming back, sister," she said. "Space scouts picked up signs on several distant planets. Father went himself to deal with it, since those cockroaches are coming back."
"His attention is required there," Zara said. "He is the Lord of Frostfall, after all."
***