Ayla placed a barrier between them and the Eclipsed before turning to Nox, who had fallen to his knees, sweat filling his face.

He found it hard to breathe right now, and his body was shaking uncontrollably.

His instincts only screamed one thing while he stood before this monster.

Run.

It was a dread unlike any he had felt before, and he was sure he would go insane if he was exposed to this any further.

Nox was drowning in the sheer amount of umbra energy hitting him right now, so much so that he couldn't even hear Ayla calling his name.

Not until she placed a hand on his cheek and he managed to snap out of it.

"Nox."

Her voice was calm, unnervingly so.

His vision focused again, the world snapping back into place as he sucked in a sharp breath. The suffocating pressure didn't disappear, but it subsided, just enough for him to think.

"Look at me," Ayla said.

He did.

Her grey eyes were steady, and completely unfazed by the monstrous presence just a few meters away.

In it, he could see no fear, nor panic. Just an unsettling clarity.

That's right, the headmistress placed Ayla under his care during this mission, and yet, he was being taken care of?

Ayla was clearly stronger, but there was one thing he knew for sure, she wasn't stronger than the Eclipsed before them.

Yet, she was still willing to facing it, unlike him.

He was ready to run just seconds ago while drowning in fear and she was ready to stand strong.

With a sigh, he realized that with the fear, his SE flow was being restrained even more, so he just let it flow.

And with the flow, came clarity of his mind.

"Are you okay?" Ayla asked watching him get back to his feet.

"Yeah," he nodded, "I'm fi—"

Before his words could be completed, he felt a sudden force crash into him, sending him backwards.

"Huh?"

Was the only thing he managed to say before crashing into a building head first and shadows cocooned him, completely restraining him.

Ayla turned to the restrained Nox before turning back to the Eclipsed that was also 'looking' at her.

It seemed the creature was suddenly completely uninterested in Nox now, quickly taking him out of the equation.

Ayla's eyes narrowed.

So that was its decision.

It had assessed the situation, adjusted its priorities, and removed the variable it deemed unnecessary.

Nox.

The shadows binding him tightened as the cocoon slammed him fully into the fractured wall before pulling him upwards and hanging him on the ceiling, shadowy threads digging into his limbs and chest, pinning him in place.

He tried circulating his SE, but it seemed his seal decided to fully act up causing him to only be able to draw out the tiniest bit of SE.

"Stay still," Ayla said calmly, "I'll get you out in a while."

Yeah, he didn't have much choice either way, since his SE seemed unwilling to work with him, he might as well just hang around.

"...."

The Eclipsed didn't wait for invitation as it lifted its hands and with it, the ground started trembling before it fully became a pool of shadows.

Just before it could trap Ayla, she teleported away.

Seeing that its attack didn't work, the pool of shadows suddenly detached from the ground, forming a couple of Eclipsed which immediately ran at her.

Ayla clicked her tongue in annoyance as she observed, "it's learning faster ."

She reappeared atop a half-collapsed tower just as the shadow-born Eclipsed lunged at where she had been standing. Their forms were crude, unstable, with their bodies seeming as if they could collapse at any moment, but the problem was their speed.

The creatures were too fast for their unstable forms. But the thing is,

They were made of shadows, and shadows were her domain.

Ayla raised her hand and the shadows around her twisted violently, folding inward as if obeying a higher command.

One of the newly formed Eclipsed froze mid-leap before imploding, its umbra dispersing into harmless mist.

The other didn't stop though, not like it had any instincts to.

It skidded across the rubble, claws digging in as it launched itself upward toward her perch.

Ayla looked at the approaching mass of shadows, but instead of teleporting away, she simply let it approach.

The moment it was close enough, she grabbed it by the head.

The shadow creature shrieked as her fingers sank into its form, and all the umbra energy composing it unraveled under her grip before flowing into her, and the Eclipsed collapsed into nothing as she released it.

The tier 5 Eclipsed looked up at her, seemingly learning from whatever she was doing with the shadows, and she couldn't let that happen.

She lifted her arms and darkness peeled itself away from walls, from broken streets, from the remains of buildings, converging toward her like a tide flowing upstream.

The Eclipsed reacted instantly, sensing the danger of what she was about to do, it slammed its palm into the ground.

Boom.

A wave of umbra energy immediately headed towards her, tearing through the shadows Ayla had gathered and crashing into her barrier. The impact shattered it instantly, sending her skidding backward through the air.

She twisted midair, landing lightly, boots skidding as she came to a stop.

For the first time, she truly was annoyed.

"This is getting troublesome."

The tier 5 moved again, faster than before.

It closed the distance in a blink, its claws, coated in umbra energy, descending towards her.

But instead of panicking, Ayla simply vanished.

She reappeared directly above it, shadows forming beneath her feet like a platform.

"Down."

The darkness remaining darkness that had gathered around, immediately dropped.

A column of compressed shadows slammed into the creature, driving it into the ground hard enough to create a crater.

For a few seconds, it seemed that the shadows would truly hold her, until it couldn't any longer.

Its pressure became heavier and it soon tore itself away from the restraints. The next second, it disappeared and before Ayla could react, it reappeared behind her, before slamming its tail in her back.

This sent her flying through a wall that was barely holding together and a couple of rubble falling on her.

Her breathing becoming shallow.

It was obvious enough that the creature was now extremely angry and from its pressure, dealing with it now would be almost impossible.

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