A lonely Shadow

Three weeks had passed since Sunny and Nephis inauguration into clan Valor. Their reception had mostly been positive, although members of the clan looked at her with suspicious expressions as they walked through the halls of the barracks, their reception was more positive than they had expected.

That said, being tied to the great clans meant that Sunny's movements were limited. He had heard from Jet that the mission to evacuate Antarctica was coming soon, looming over the world like a cloud of terror that none could escape, but that wasn't Sunny's concern.

Making his way to the training grounds, he watched as the scions from Valor sparred with immense vigour, not taking heed to his presence in the slightest as they went through practiced movements with focus that would put even Sunny to shame. Despite this, he walked through the chaos and found a secluded corner of the training ground, pressing his back against the wall, he slowly slid down before closing his eyes.

Pretending to be asleep had it's advantages, due to his general ability to go unnoticed by people for large periods of time, it allowed him to connect his shadows to Valor's next generation and study their style of combat. The increased versatility their combat arts gave him would only give him added benefits whenever he chose to use shadow dance once more.

It only took thirty minutes for Sunny to grow bored of studying them, despite their immense focus and practiced skill, all who surrounded him were pitifully weak. He was sure if he left Saint in a room with all of them, only Saint would come out alive even despite the three masters who were seated in the room with him.

'This is boring.' Raising himself to his feet, Sunny dusted himself off before slowly making his way out of the training hall. He needed to find someone who could satiate his desire for combat quickly before he started lashing out at everything that moved.

Saint wasn't an option, revealing his echo's to Valor this early on would only prove detrimental to his future goals. Although she served as the perfect sparring partner, Sunny enjoyed watching Saint fight far more than actually participating in combat against her. Through all their experiences together even holding a weapon to face off against her felt like it violated some hidden sanctity in their relationship.

Making his way through the hallways slowly, Sunny's peace was interrupted by the form of Morgan. Sunny lamented his inferior stature as he tilted his head upwards to meet eyes with the woman. Morgan was looking at him with an imperceptible strained smile on her face as she took his hand in her own.

"You don't need to stay in the training grounds with the rest of them, you're Valor's esteemed new recruit! It's only proper that you have your own private section to train." Despite this, Sunny knew perfectly well that this was merely an opportunity for Morgan to privately observe Sunny's fighting style, without having any added distractions or interruptions.

Regardless, he didn't refuse her hold on him, rather, his eyes shot downwards to her hands as Sunny raised an eyebrow in confusion. He had never actually seen Morgan's hands before, she was constantly wearing different gloves which had differing spell weaves, all tempered for enhanced durability.

Upon reaching the training ground, Sunny could no longer restrain his curiosity as he summoned his scythe and used it as a stand to lean on. "Why don't you ever take off your gloves?" Sunny asked, Morgan's expression flashed with an unknown emotion as she shrugged slightly with a sigh.

"It's my flaw, anything my hands touch quickly becomes weakened and is destroyed. I wear it for the sake of damage control." Her flaw wasn't something that was detrimental in combat, rather, it served as quite a boon. Although Sunny wasn't sure if her flaw could affect armours of transcendent class and above, the ability to weaken objects to any extent through physical touch was an extreme benefit.

Pondering it further, Sunny's eyes widened slightly as he realised Morgan would never be able to make physical contact with another human lest she shred their skin. The spell was truly cruel, but that wasn't what Sunny cared about. Frankly, he didn't care about Morgan's personal relationships at all.

Making his way towards Morgan, he saw her expression quickly turn from confused to shocked as Sunny firmly grabbed her hands and pulled off her gloves. Taking her hand in his own, a pleasant smile arrived on Sunny's lips as he studied his flawless skin remaining unharmed and uninhibited.

'So, it doesn't work on the marble shell!' Armour that gave him resistance even to the mystical and complicated wonders of flaws was truly invaluable. However, Sunny didn't even take a moment to realise Morgan's face turning stiff. She had never encountered anyone who could resist her flaw, let alone completely ignore it.

Letting go of her hand, Sunny made his way back to the centre of the training hall before swinging around his scythe. The dojo put his own to shame, the walls were polished and white and the essence infused into them was truly monumental. Sunny almost wanted to swing his scythe at the wall to see how much damage he could do, but getting in Valor's bad books so early wasn't part of the plan.

"If you're going to keep watching, I'll have to assume you want to spar!" Sunny exclaimed, as he continued to cycle through the motions with his scythe. Morgan's face paled, quickly turning around she shook her head silently before making her way outside. Turning the corner and returning to her own quarters.

'Like I'd ever fight that thing again' she thought to herself, as she paced out of the room, she was halted in her tracks by Nephis. She was leaning against the wall with an impassive expression on her face, clearly having waited for Morgan to exit the room before making a move.

"I see you've been trying to get close to Sunny" Nephis commented, Morgan raised an eyebrow in response, before a sly smile settled itself upon her face. "What can I say, he's a strong Master who even bested me in battle. It would be foolish for me not to get close to him."

Morgan's voice came sickly sweet, and her smile only served to fan the flames of Nephis silent fury even further. Yet, Nephis did not let any of it show as she simply sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "You say he 'bested you in battle' like it's an achievement. Furthermore, I'm unsure if Sunny would even want a relationship with someone like you."

The neutral and matter of fact tone she used caused Morgan's eyebrow to twitch. 'Someone like me? What's that supposed to mean!' however, she didn't let her thoughts show as she allowed her smile to beam even further. To Morgan, conversations like these should be treated with as much composure as any battle.

"Well, if it isn't an achievement you're welcome to try. But I will say, your friend...Sunny as you call him seems to have taken a liking to me. He even held my hand surprisingly!" Nephis mask of indifference nearly cracked at the comment, however, their conversation was interrupted by a black form flying past the two of them into a wall like a bullet.

Sunny had grown tired of practicing alone and had summoned Saint to fight him as he kept watch to see if anyone was watching. As they fought, Sunny found himself on the receiving end of a blow to the face by Saint. The attack had sent him flying directly out the doors of the training room and into a wall.

A massive crater was left in the essence reinforced stone tiles of the wall, as Sunny looked around to study his surroundings for a brief moment. There he was Morgan and Nephis, staring at him with dumbfounded expressions before prying himself from the crater and jumping down to meet them.

Wiping blood from his mouth, Sunny cleared his throat slightly before studying their expressions. Nephis had a look of panic painted across her face as her arm extended, summoning a longsword, and preparing to battle whoever had put Sunny in such a condition. Morgan too had her own weapon summoned, their eyes darting towards the training hall and preparing to make their way inside.

Sunny stepped in between two women, barring their entry into the hall. He needed to speak first in order to wriggle his way out of his predicament. "It's fine, I was just sparring with a friend of mine." His comment only caused more suspicions to arise, neither Nephis nor Morgan had sensed anyone enter the training hall except Sunny.

"Your friend...can they teleport?" Nephis asked, thankfully, she was the only one alive to her knowledge who knew Sunny's flaw, so trusting him came easier than it did for Morgan. Sunny shrugged before placing a hand on his chin, technically Sunny could make Saint teleport by accompanying her using shadow step, but Sunny had never tried asking her to do it alone.

Shrugging, Sunny finally gave up on contemplating the possibilities of Saint using shadow step. "She might be able to, I haven't really asked her to try yet. But it's fine, she's already gone anyway so there isn't anything to worry about." Morgan accepted the answer temporarily, intending to press Sunny on the details later on, but Nephis eye twitched slightly at the mention of a woman.

Morgan suddenly cleared her throat, gaining the attention of Nephis and Sunny allowing him temporary reprieve from the suspicious glares he was receiving from the woman before she spoke. "I haven't had the opportunity to tell you two, so I'll do it now. Lady Cassia or Cassie as you know her, has applied and been accepted to join Valor. The three of you will be conducting missions in Antarctica with the help of Saint Tyris before Valor completely let's their presence be known in the Continent."

Nephis nodded silently, it was only to be expected Cassie would join soon after her, after all, they were inseparable. But Sunny on the other hand wasn't taking the situation with nearly as much grace, his eyes darkened and his lip twitched, unconsciously, he slammed his fist into the wall, increasing the crater he had once left and sending dust cascading from the ceiling.

Tolerating Nephis presence was already an impossible ordeal, he still had inclinations of killing her in her sleep each moment he locked eyes with the woman, and now Cassie being in such close proximity to him in conjunction nearly tore his composure into pieces. Morgan raised an eyebrow, a silent question being conveyed, but Nephis didn't need to.

"Sorry for that, it's just I'm excited to go into Antarctica and I couldn't contain my emotions." Sunny said lightly, although that was true, the emotions he couldn't contain weren't excitement. But bubbling hatred, the voices in his head screaming for him to strangle Cassie to death roared ever louder as he slowly descended into the shadows out of sight.

Morgan allowed a small smile to grace her features as she stared at where Sunny had once been. 'So, there is someone he hates after all.'