SSS Ranked Shadow Monarch: Summoning Infinite Shadows-Chapter 178: Umbrella

Aren arrived at the edge of the Geisha Ruins. He stood there but didn’t enter. Rather, he turned on shadow sense. He knew better than to just walk into a city filled with thousands of Awakened.

The moment his shadow sense spread out, he instantly picked up a group of Awakened waiting in the buildings around him, and they weren’t hiding. They were waiting, waiting for him.

A total of ten Awakened who seemed to have chosen to work together to take others out or something. The tournament had just started, and certain trolls had already started doing what they did best.

There was absolutely no reason for them to try and attack others, but they wanted to. The only reason Aren could think of was to steal their resources or something.

"Since you all want to attack, then let me show you what it feels like to be on the receiving end," Aren muttered to himself as he walked into the area, moving calmly like he didn’t know they were there.

He watched them, and when he was certain that they wanted to attack, the side of his lips slowly rose into a smirk.

All ten of them charged out, lunging with their weapons and abilities to take him down.

For Aren, everything seemed to move in slow motion as he pinpointed every one of their locations. Tendrils lunged from the ground below in their shadowy form, wrapping around all of them in an instant.

Before they could all understand what was even happening, he proceeded to summon his ants. They rushed out of the shadows wildly and attacked every single one of them.

The ten Awakened all reacted in different ways. Some immediately unleashed their abilities as fast as they could in hopes of slowing down the ants and possibly helping them escape the tendrils.

Explosions rang out all around, and a majority of them managed to escape from the tendrils. As for those that didn’t, Aren lifted them high into the air, four of them.

The six dudes that got out were faced with the ants and immediately started fighting against them while Aren stood there at the center.

But one of the Awakened who seemed to be the leader had other plans. He wielded a sword made of some sort of blue plasma, and he fought extremely well.

He was average height, with black hair and a relatively normal appearance. He gritted his teeth as he saw the ants rushing at him. He pushed forward, and as the first one attacked with a bite, he went for a slash, cutting right into the jaw of the ant. He then planted his feet hard into the ground, forcing himself to stop before stabbing right into the head of the shadow.

Aren watched with intrigue as the guy managed to cut through three shadow ants and then lunge for Aren.

"Arghhhhhhh! Die!" he screamed as he attacked, slashing down, only for Aren to step back one step and avoid it before kicking the guy right in the head, throwing him back and immediately summoning a shadow wolf that lunged at him.

The guy rushed back to his feet and tried to attack the wolf, but it dodged the attack and lunged at his leg, biting deep into it and pulling him down.

"Arghhhhhhh!" he screamed from the bottom of his lungs. Blood spilled as the wolf dragged him and slammed his body right into the ground.

By now, every other person from the group was already bound or knocked out.

Aren wrapped them all together with tendrils. He found a block to sit on.

He looked at the group all tied together. "Alright, eliminate yourselves before I’ll have to," Aren said.

The leader frowned in anger. "Screw off. You think we will just give up like that?" he said angrily.

"Ahhhh, I don’t have the time for this," Aren said, then summoned the Hydra. It appeared there, all seven heads looking down at them.

When the group saw the Hydra, they all broke down, shivering in pure fear. Even the leader couldn’t hold it in. He stared in fear, his eyes trembling.

"I said eliminate yourselves now," Aren said, and from his eyes, they could tell he wasn’t joking at all. This was about to be the end of their tournament.

In that moment, Aren sensed someone enter his shadow sense. He looked up in the direction and saw a man. He was dressed in mage robes, with long black hair, walking with elegance. An umbrella hung on his back.

His appearance pulled the attention of everyone, including the Awakened tied up.

"Really now, forcing people into elimination, that’s pure evil," the man said. He kept his eyes closed as he walked.

"Urghh, who is this dude?" Aren muttered. He didn’t bother getting to his feet. He looked back at the group. "I said eliminate yourselves," Aren said again, this time more stern.

"Now why would they do that?" the man suddenly said. He took out his umbrella slowly and opened it. It was some sort of metal umbrella with rune markings all around it.

The moment it opened, the tubes glowed. "I don’t like bullies, you see, so I’ll have to get rid of you," he said and lifted the umbrella before suddenly leaping into the air, moving forward very quickly, gliding with the umbrella.

He arrived right in front of Aren, and the moment he landed, he thrust his palm forward. The palm moved so fast that it would be basically impossible to dodge. It was coated in pure soul energy and a very compressed destructive force.

But when the palm was a few inches away from Aren’s chest, Aren grabbed the hand.

The man was stunned when he saw this. This was the first time someone had ever caught his attack.

"Can’t you see that I am busy here?" Aren said in anger before punching with his free hand.

BAM!

The fist collided. His face caved in, and his body was thrown back through the air. He slammed into the ground, rolled, and then finally lifted the umbrella, using it to stop himself with the wind.