Chapter 442: Shadowmancy

“No wonder…”

Nathan instantly put the pieces together. Sophia had hacked the T-09’s programming and taken down the company’s comms—of course. She was working with the Black Hand Legion.

She’d betrayed the company. And that kind of betrayal? It never ended well.

Damn, she’s got some serious guts…

Maybe the Black Hand Legion was her real backup plan all along.

…

At the edge of the battlefield, Sophia was deep in conversation with Slade.

“I didn’t just reprogram the Cyborg,” she said coolly. “I also brought Selene and a few other top-tier fighters with me. They’ve got nowhere else to go, so odds are they’ll end up joining the Black Hand Legion too.”

“Nice… real nice…” Slade grinned like a wolf, clearly pleased. “That’s what I like about you, Sophia. You just got here and already brought the organization a hell of a gift.”

“But let’s get one thing straight,” Sophia said, her tone sharp. “From now on, I operate on my own terms. No one tells me what to do.”

“No problem,” Slade said with a smirk. “You’re gonna be mine sooner or later anyway, so why draw lines?”

As he spoke, he reached out to grab her chin.

Sophia flinched and quickly stepped back. “The zombies are about to swarm us. You might wanna focus on that instead.”

“Alright, alright…” Slade shrugged, turning his gaze toward the battlefield.

They were in San Diego, right in the middle of a once-in-a-lifetime warzone. No way he was gonna sit this one out. Hunting a high-tier Zombie King and scoring a few crystal cores? Hell yeah.

Especially S-class crystal cores—those were priceless. And exactly what he needed.

Up ahead, the battlefield was chaos. Zombies roared, people screamed. A horde of undead was chasing Selene and the others.

Vines whipped through the air, slicing through human bodies like paper. A dark, writhing mass slithered across the ground, snatching lives as it moved.

“So this is the infamous L.A. Hive…” Slade muttered under his breath.

But as one of the five top leaders of the Black Hand Legion, Slade was an S-class powerhouse himself. The guys he brought along? All elite.

Add in the reprogrammed Cyborg T-09 and fighters like Selene, and they weren’t exactly outmatched.

“Shadowbind.”

He whispered the word, and suddenly, the shadow beneath his feet came alive—like a ghostly creature slithering forward, stretching out like tendrils.

Slade had awakened a rare ability: Shadowmancy. And he was damn good at it.

Selene was mid-battle, slashing at the vines with her longsword, retreating as she fought. But then, out of nowhere, a pool of darkness surged across the ground toward her. The shadow twisted and stretched like tentacles, wrapping around the monstrous vines chasing her.

With a sickening crack, the vines stiffened—then froze midair, completely immobilized.

“What the hell is that?” Selene gasped, eyes wide. She turned toward the source of the shadow and spotted a towering man channeling the power.

Around him, several fighters charged forward, blades drawn, tearing into the zombies like a pack of starving wolves.

“Welcome to the Black Hand Legion,” Slade called out to her.

“…???”

Selene blinked, completely thrown. One second she was fighting for her life, and now she was apparently part of the Black Hand Legion?

When the hell did that happen?

But then her eyes landed on Sophia, standing beside Slade—and it all clicked.

Still, this wasn’t the time to argue. Zombies were still coming hard from behind. She didn’t have the luxury of hesitation. Gritting her teeth, she raised her longsword and dove back into the fight.

With the Black Hand Legion’s heavy hitters joining the fray, the tide of battle finally started to even out.

Bulldozer and Snowy were locked in a brutal clash with Cyborg T-09, neither side giving an inch.

T-09’s body was covered in bite marks and gouges, but the liquid metal that made up his frame writhed and healed itself in seconds. Then he launched a counterattack, unleashing dual abilities with deadly precision.

Until his energy ran dry, he wasn’t going down.

“Huh? More humans?”

Little Shadow slithered silently through the darkness, watching from the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. His eyes locked onto the human at the front of the group—clearly powerful, using some strange sorcery to freeze the surrounding zombies in place.

“You’ll do just fine.”

With a ripple, Little Shadow darted forward, his form melting into a streak of darkness across the ground, ready to ambush.

But Slade’s eyes flicked in his direction. He was hypersensitive to shadows.

“All shadows… are mine to command.”

With a casual wave of his hand, a powerful force surged outward. Little Shadow’s movement halted instantly, as if invisible ropes had snapped tight around him. His shadowy form froze in place, yanked out of his stealth state and forced into his true form—a pitch-black, charcoal-skinned figure, rigid and exposed.

“Shit! A natural counter!”

The moment he was revealed, one of the Black Hand Legion fighters spotted him and charged, kukri blade gleaming.

“Shadow freak! Die!”

“…”

Little Shadow was speechless. He gritted his teeth and twisted his body, barely dodging the fatal blow. The kukri sliced across his shoulder, spraying thick, black blood into the air.

“Damn… they’re strong.”

From a distance, Sophia watched the chaos unfold, a flicker of awe in her eyes. The Black Hand Legion might be a bunch of perverted lunatics, but their combat skills? No joke.

Meanwhile, Slade’s gaze had locked onto a different target—a slender, feral figure in the distance. A Zombie King.

Laura.

He was good at picking his prey, and he knew she was on her last legs.

“She’s done for. Time to put her down and be done with it,” he muttered to himself.

Laura, though wounded, was still vicious. She was crouched over a human, tearing into his throat with her fangs, devouring flesh and blood to replenish her strength.

“Taking out a Zombie King like her? That’s doing humanity a favor.”

Slade activated his Shadowmancy again. A thick, oily darkness spread across the ground like a flood of black tar, surging toward Laura.

Just as she sank her teeth into her victim, the shadows engulfed her.

Her body stiffened. A crushing force wrapped around her, locking her in place.

Like a marionette on tangled strings, Laura slowly lifted her head. Her glowing, predatory eyes locked onto the human who dared attack her.

But Slade’s Shadowmancy, at this stage, was purely for control—it hadn’t evolved to deal direct damage. So he drew his kukri, stepping in to finish the job himself.

“Die.”

He lunged forward, blade flashing with cold steel, slicing through the air with a sharp whistle as it arced toward Laura’s neck.

Her face twisted into a snarl. To her, Slade’s movements were sluggish—like watching an ant crawl. But the shadow’s grip held her tight. She couldn’t move.

She focused all her strength into her legs and kicked off the ground with everything she had. Her body shifted—barely a few inches.

Shhk!

The kukri slashed into her already-injured shoulder.

“GRAAAHHH—!”

Laura let out a guttural scream. Her right arm went completely numb.

Blood—thick and black—gushed from the wound. Her shattered arm was severed completely, spinning through the air before crashing to the ground.

“Laura!”

From afar, Little Shadow cried out, panic rising in his chest. Bulldozer and the others were still pinned down, and after the earlier chase, they’d been separated from the main battlefield.

No backup. No reinforcements.

Laura was on her own—and she was losing.

“She’s still alive?”

Slade frowned, but shrugged it off. She was barely hanging on. Just a few more seconds and it’d be over.

He raised his kukri again, this time aiming for her skull. He was going to carve out her crystal core and end it.

Laura’s head tilted slightly, eyes locked on the incoming blade. It was still moving in slow motion to her, but her body wouldn’t respond.

The blade grew larger in her vision, inch by inch.

The scent of death wrapped around her like a shroud.

She was about to die.

Images flashed through her mind—memories, battles, faces. The fire in her eyes began to fade.

“Goodbye… boss…”

But just as the kukri was about to split her skull—

CLANG!

A blade shot in from the side, intercepting the strike with a deafening metallic screech.

Lightning crackled across the newcomer’s weapon, and in the next instant, it lashed out at Slade with a blinding arc of electricity—

—aimed straight for his chest.

…