Aiden wasted no ti, rushing forward to attack again. A golden light ford in his hands and turned into a sword.
SLASH
The sword ca down fast on Casper.
Casper looked at the attack. He tried to dodge the sa way he normally did, but this ti he was oddly not fast enough. The blade dug into his shoulder, blood gushed out like a fountain.
Casper was stunned. He looked at the blood leaking out of him with utter shock.
Aiden wasn’t interested in allowing Casper to gather himself. He stepped back and thrust the sword at full speed to penetrate Casper.
Casper pushed himself fast, managing to get out of the way barely. The sword grazed his side and even more blood leaked out.
Casper quickly retreated multiple steps. He looked at his wounds slowly, the shock evident on his face. He didn’t believe that he was getting cut down this way.
This had never happened to him before. His body naturally adapted to whatever enemy was facing him. He looked at Aiden. All the other shadows that he had fought were no issue, so what was making this one different?
The issue sprang from his idea of an enemy. Casper saw the shadow as an extension of Aren. aning Aiden was Aren’s ability, and so he only needed to adapt to Aren to be stronger.
The reality was sadly different in this case. Because Aiden was naturally stronger than Aren, Aiden was, after all, a divine Avatar. So while Casper was adapted to Aren’s strength, he wasn’t adapted to Aiden.
The only way for him to fix the situation was to adapt to Aiden as a singular entity, and not an extension of Aren.
Casper seed to co to this conclusion as well. He looked at Aiden, making him the new enemy in his mind, and the mont he did that, his power imdiately rose to surpass Aiden.
Aiden flew in fast, attacking with a slash. Casper dodged it clean. He watched it go right past his face and then leaned forward, driving his fist right into the gut of Aiden, throwing him back.
Aiden slamd through multiple trees, shattering them, but then he flapped his wing, shot into the air, and then shot down extrely fast. He attacked with a downward slash.
Casper flipped in the air, dodging the attack and putting a distance between them. He looked up with the sa confidence that he had before, but what he saw wasn’t Aiden attacking, it was Aren’s sword coming for his face.
Casper didn’t expect this. He lifted his hands quickly. The sword dug into his arm, blood jetted out, and he was pushed back. He dropped his hand slowly, looking at Aren who stood beside Aiden.
"Seems I might have just cracked your ability. Sohow, you can gauge your enemy and ensure you are stronger than them. You never hit with more force than needed to take the enemy down, so I believe that’s the force that you have inside your body.
And when I summoned my new shadow, you couldn’t fight him," Aren said, his voice steady despite the exhaustion in his body. "Because he was much stronger. You had to treat him as his own person."
Casper watched him silently.
"You couldn’t adapt to him through ," Aren continued. "You had to adapt to him directly. As an individual."
Aren’s eyes narrowed.
"So I wonder... what happens if you have to adapt to multiple beings at the sa ti?"
He stepped forward.
Then he began summoning.
First ca the Lizardman he had fought.
Then Fang.
Then Riker.
The shadows ford around him one after another.
Behind them, a massive presence erupted from the ground.
The Hydra.
Its colossal body rose behind Aren, its many heads swaying with terrifying power. The ground trembled under its weight.
Then ca the Horned Snake.
Then the Millipede.
One by one, his strongest summons appeared beside him.
They ford a line with Aren at the center.
"These aren’t like my wolves or panthers," Aren said. "Those are extensions of my ability. These... are different."
His gaze sharpened.
"They have their own personalities. Their own existence."
He pointed toward Casper.
"So tell ... can you adapt to every single one of them?"
Casper remained silent.
"How does your ability even decide where the limit is?" Aren continued. "Does it add all of our strength together and raise you above that total? Or does it take the strongest among us and use that as the cap?"
His eyes flicked toward Aiden.
"If that’s the case... then you’d probably cap at Aiden’s level."
He slowly spread his arms.
"But the rest of us aren’t that far behind him."
Aren smirked faintly.
"So now you have to handle Aiden... and all of us at the sa ti."
He shrugged slightly.
"I don’t even know if this plan will work. I’m just improvising."
His eyes hardened again.
"But I have a feeling... the greatest counter to your ability is numbers."
"Not weak numbers," he added quickly. "Strong numbers."
He gestured toward the army behind him.
"Last ti you destroyed my shadows easily because you only had to adapt to . Once you surpassed , everything else was irrelevant."
"But now?"
Aren pointed toward Aiden again.
"If you adapt to , you’re weaker than Aiden."
"If you adapt to Aiden, maybe you surpass all of us individually."
His voice dropped.
"But even then... you’d still have to deal with all of us together."
Casper listened patiently as Aren finished speaking.
His gaze slowly moved across the battlefield, studying every shadow that stood beside Aren.
For a brief mont, sothing like respect flickered in his eyes.
"I didn’t expect you to be this troubleso," Casper admitted.
He took a single step forward.
The ground cracked beneath his foot.
The temperature of the battlefield seed to drop.
His eyes grew colder.
"But unfortunately..."
Casper’s eyes suddenly turned completely black.
Dark veins bulged across his skin.
His entire aura shifted.
"It doesn’t work that way against ."
Aren’s expression stiffened.
Casper’s voice beca deeper.
"I am inevitable."
His gaze locked onto Aren.
"And anything I consider my enemy... will not succeed."
Aren frowned.
Casper continued.
"I am not rely adapting."
His black eyes glowed faintly.
"I am denying."
A heavy silence fell across the battlefield.
"As long as I look at the present and deny your victory," Casper said calmly, "then you will not have victory."
"No matter your numbers."
"No matter your strength."
"My ability forces reality itself to move toward one outco."
His lips curled faintly.
"Your failure."
Aren felt a chill run through him.
Casper raised a finger slightly.
"Of course... it cos with a cost."
"If my ability fails to create that outco..."
His voice lowered.
"I suffer severe punishnt."
"Even death."
He looked at Aren again.
"So now that you know this..."
Casper slowly spread his arms.
"Do you still believe overwhelming with strong opponents will bring you victory?"
Aren stood there silently.
The information he had just received crushed the logic of his entire strategy.
Casper wasn’t just adapting anymore.
He was denying outcos.
His power would shift and evolve until it produced a reality where Aren failed.
Aren clenched his teeth.
What kind of absurd ability was this?
Calling it unfair would be an understatent.
It wasn’t just powerful.
It was a cheat.
Casper wasn’t rely overpowered.
He was the embodint of an unavoidable outco.
"Damn... talk about unfair," Aren said.
Casper raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
Aren let out a small breath.
"Well... there’s basically no way to beat you then," he said.
Casper slowly relaxed out of his fighting stance and stood normally.
"Are you giving up?" he asked calmly. "If that is the case... then I will end you."
"I’m not giving up," Aren replied imdiately.
His eyes hardened.
"I still have to go in and save soone."
Casper watched him carefully.
"I’m just saying," Aren continued, "how does anyone beat soone like you? You deny their strength, deny every possible outco except the one you want. So how does anyone win?"
Casper’s expression didn’t change.
"Telling you would only give you information you could use against ," he said.
Aren smirked slightly.
"So there is a way to defeat you."
Casper shrugged faintly.
"There is a way to do anything," he said. "That does not an it is possible."
His gaze sharpened again.
"You would have a far better chance defeating normally than discovering the condition where my ability stops working."
Aren took a deep breath.
Then he slowly exhaled.
"Well... I guess I don’t have a choice then."
His eyes turned cold.
"I fight until I die."
Casper studied him for a mont.
Despite the overwhelming odds, Aren wasn’t backing down.
Even when facing sothing he had just called inevitable.
For the first ti, Casper’s expression shifted slightly.
Curiosity.
"Why are you here?" he asked.
It was the first ti he had spoken to Aren without hostility in his voice.
Until now, he hadn’t even cared.
All he knew was that Aren was trying to enter the Blade Family town, and his duty was to stop him.
Aren blinked.
"You don’t even know why I’m here?" he asked.
Casper shook his head slightly.
"Then why are you trying to stop ?" Aren pressed.
"Because that is my duty," Casper answered.
His voice was calm and absolute.
"I stop anyone who tries to enter the Blade Family town without authorization."
His eyes darkened.
"I stop them... and I kill them."
"The secrets of this forest cannot leave."
A quiet pause followed.
Casper continued walking forward slowly.
"You will probably die after this conversation ends," he said bluntly. "But before that..."
His eyes locked onto Aren’s.
"I want to know sothing."
"Why are you so determined to pass ?"
"Why are you so desperate to enter?"
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