Gooooooooooooooooooo!

　Shadow, in the form of a dog, let out a yell.
　Then he kicked the ground and attacked me with vigor, pointing his fangs at me.

'Same attack again?　The same attack won't work on me twice.

　However, there's no way it would work, even if it was the first time.

　Shadow aimed at my shoulder and made a physical attack.
　In order to match that, I cut the shadow in half with my magic sword.
　If this was an ordinary monster, the game would have been decided at this point.

　However.

''Goooooooooooooooooooo!''

　Shadow, who had been cut off in both directions, returned to his original form in one piece.
　And just like before, he roared and turned his red glowing eyes to me.



　I muttered to myself as I looked at the restored Shadow.

　A shadow is an existence like a mass of magical power.
　
　This is because the magic power must be used to control and keep the shadow's form intact.

　You have to create something that is separate from you and yet has an independent will.
　Being able to forge a shadow gives you a wide range of strategies, but it is difficult to master.

　He made a poorly crafted shadow.
　You can't even defeat a dragon with one of these things.

　But in this day and age, it's safe to say that if you can create a shadow, even if it's a poor one, it's quite a feat.

"Well........the problem here is that because it's magical power, the shadow has no substance.

　There is no way you can slay something without substance with an ordinary sword.
　Therefore, as a countermeasure against the Shadow, the most effective method would be to unleash a spell to swallow the opponent's magical power and make it disappear.

　If it was me, this level of Shadow, if I released even a fire spear, it would be possible to defeat it in one hit.
　However.

"This is a test cut of the magic sword. Without using this sword, there's no choice but to defeat Shadow.
Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

　Without seeming to be afraid of me, The Shadow kicked the ground again.
　This time, in the midst of his sprint, Shadow's body simultaneously fired dark bullets, which are also like lumps of magical power, and came at me.

''It's quite a good training partner. My magic sword will cut you down to the ground, all of you.''

　As if to intercept me, I hold my magic sword at the upper level.

　In an attempt to reap my life, dark bullets come at me from all directions, and from the front, The Shadow comes at me.
　I spin around on the spot as I dance around it and swing my magic sword, this time slashing at the shadow.
　Furthermore, I also catch all the dark bullets that are chasing me with my magic sword.

''Guo?''

　In fact, both Shadow and the dark bullets are insubstantial, so even if I slashed them with my sword, they would recover quickly.

　However, the shadow that was cut by me was in its original form and looked like it could barely stand.


''What's the matter?　I'm not going to give up on something I can't cut with a non-corporeal entity, okay?


　I'm going to be able to say to the dog-shaped shadow as if to provoke it.

　Of course, it's tough even for me to slay the insubstantial shadow with an ordinary sword.
　So I put some magic power into the magic sword and intercepted the shadow.

"Is this the end?　Are you going to run away with your tail between your legs?
Guh, guh, guh, guh!

　Wobbling, The Shadow made a suicide attack.

'Very well. Then you can follow me.

　And I still had some more things to try.

　I purposely ran this fast, with Shadow catching up to me, and eventually we reached a small lake in the canyon.

'Well, let's dance here,'
Gooooooooooooooooooo!

　Me and Shadow jump into the lake almost simultaneously.

　Even though it's shallow enough to touch my feet, the water restricts my movement.
　However, Shadow didn't care about the water's resistance and fired six of the dark bullets that I had mentioned earlier.

"Haha, that's quite interesting.

　The dark bullets that jumped out of the water were dealt with by a magic sword filled with magic power.

　It seems to have been said many times, but The Shadow has no substance. It is a mass of magical power.
　In other words, it is possible to move without the resistance of water, which is what living creatures are supposed to be able to do.

　Currently, The Shadow was moving around in the water as if he were running on the ground.

''Well, if it's not that good, as a practice partner, it won't be worthy.

　I dare to lure The Shadow here to do something.

　In other words, practice underwater fighting.
　I've come to this era and there's not much in the way of underwater fighting.
　I'm going to use it to the end anyway.

"Goooooooooooh!

　You can't be sure that you'll be able to find a way to make use of it in the water, but The Shadow moved around to disrupt it.
　And at the same time, he fired a dark bullet.

''It's.......annoying. Do you mistakenly think you would have an advantage if you were in the water in the first place?''

　As I said that, I put my magic power into it and swung the demon sword to my heart's content.

　In the space of one swing, three hundred slashes are fired not at Shadow........but at the surface of the lake.

　Then the surface of the lake breaks into shreds.

　Shadow, who was unable to avoid it, was cut in both directions this time.

''At least water you can cut it if you have this magic sword.

　That's right.
　This time, I slashed the lake instead of Shadow.

　Because I slashed the lake, the surface of the water was cracked open and hadn't returned to its original state.
　It was as if the cracked surface of the water had frozen as it was.
　The Shadow was also involved in it, and without having time to echo the decisive words, the entire magic power was annihilated.
　If you wield a sword properly loaded with magical power, you can mimic this kind of imitation.

'Come to think of it, underwater warfare........that wasn't very subtle.

　Nevertheless, leaving the slashed lake intact would cause a lot of inconvenience.
　At the same time as I snapped my fingers, I used my restoration magic and the lake returned to its original state again.



　I squeezed the magic sword tightly several times.
　I didn't know it was possible to activate the magic attack so smoothly.
　This time I tried to slash the lake, but with a little more familiarity, slashing mountains will be easier.

''Well, now the rest is on Avril.

　Well, if it was the way it looked just now, I don't think there's anything to worry about.
　I guess we'll just have to wait and see what Averill has in store for us.

　I left the lake and headed back to Averill's group.