The next shadow was a beast to be reckoned with, and unlike the first one, Ethan would have a hard time swiftly dealing with this foe.
From the moment he had arrived, he had caused quite the stir. With his body and mighty axe composed of shadows and Ki unlike any Ethan had seen, the man jumped from his platform and concentrated his Ki on his axe, and literally cleaved through the platform Ethan was on.
He had no choice but to climb onto the platform of the twelfth shadow. The eleventh shadow jumped as well from the collapsing platform and appeared in front of Ethan.
"..."
Ethan stepped back, straining his eyes to analyze the man before him. The level of Ki was absurd, but the control was lacking. The man was simply swinging his axe around wildly and putting an absurd amount of Ki in every blow.
The uncontrolled flow made his attacks weaker; they could have been much stronger had he used proper control. Ethan was confused. A warrior like this would certainly know that.
But then again, he wasn't fighting a human being, but a conjured spirit of sorts. He shouldn't expect them to think so much whilst fighting. It worked out in his favor because it was easy to fight a rampaging beast.
The shadow raised his axe, clearly intending to cleave the platform apart once again. Ethan took a deep breath, and instead of running away from the attack, he dived into it. The man was still loading his axe with his Ki; he had a few seconds before the axe came down to cleave the platform in half again.
Even now, right in front of it, Ethan couldn't believe the amount of Ki the shadow held. If the Huntress really was the one behind this... then why didn't she use this massive amount of Ki against Ethan before?
There wasn't any time to think; the axe would descend at any moment. Ethan stepped to the side of the man and stabbed his sword in his abdomen.
'... Nothing?'
No reaction whatsoever from the man, Ethan grunted and jumped, moments before the Axe struck down, and used the force exerted from the strike to propel himself even further above, decapitating the man with one clean strike.
"What the hell?"
Ethan exploded his Ki at his feet to propel himself away from the destroyed platform and towards the eleventh platform. He grabbed the edge of the platform and gazed down at the abyss. The twelfth platform was gone, already consumed by the abyss, as well as the shadow.
Ethan looked at the endless dark maws of death itself and shook his head, climbing the platform, only to find another shadow looking down at him, crouched over. In his hands lay two daggers.
Ethan's eyes widened as he cursed in his mind.
'Shit!'
A sense of alarm took over, and Ethan let go of the edge. It was the correct decision, for moments after the two daggers flashed by where he was holding, and cut the edge away.
Ethan looked down in fright and hurriedly stabbed his sword into the sides of the platform, stopping his fall.
"Holy shit..."
His breathing had become unsteady, as the fear of falling into that unknown abyss had overtaken his mind for the moment, but the sound of the wind being torn apart and rocks being crushed woke him up.
Beads of sweat rolled down his head as Ethan's instincts ran wild. He raised his head to see the shadow of a slim man crawling towards him.
"WHAT THE FUCK!"
Focusing his Ki on his fingertips, Ethan put the hilt of his sword in his mouth as he pushed his fingers into the sides of the platform. Like a spider, Ethan crawled his way out of the way of the shadow, which had jumped at him!
The daggers flashed once more, leaving a cut on his ankle. He hadn't been able to dodge in time. The shadow had gotten him.
Ethan looked down at the crazy shadow that had fallen into the abyss. He had expected it to hold onto the platform just like he had, and was expecting a battle on the sides of the platform. Something he wasn't confident in at all.
His chest heaved up and down as Ethan quickly climbed up the platform. He was puzzled.
The opponents were definitely strong, but they lacked any sort of thought at all. The first shadow had used an odd combination of swords, and he was definitely skilled with them. Ethan had just dealt with him too quickly, but even then.
There was no semblance of thought. It was the same with the second shadow, the bearish man with a mighty axe. Ethan had stabbed him in the abdomen and even cleaved his head from his body, but the shadow had followed through with his strike.
And with the third, he had possessed speed Ethan himself couldn't track with his enhanced eyes... Ethan had to trust his instincts to dodge the blows, but then again... such a fast opponent had fallen to his death.
Was he fighting puppets? They were performing a routine set of actions no matter what, like they were programmed to do so. The third had done the same attack as he had done the first time, making no variation at all...
The only difference being he had been able to wound Ethan this time, although it was only a shallow cut.
Just... what the hell was he fighting? What is this sense of familiarity accompanying these accursed shadows?