The Lady's Butler: I Reincarnated To Serve The Villainess-Chapter 7: Battling A Frost Wolf {Final}

Sebastian had a bit of frown on his face before his expression reverted to his normal cold self.

He turned around with his cane in hand, uninterested in witnessing the rest of the candidates take their tests.

But he suddenly paused.

Something seemed off, so he slowly turned towards the fence, and sure enough, the black cat was still comfortably laying on it.

Before Sebastian could say anything, a voice came from within the arena.

"That was too close for comfort," with wide eyes, everyone turned towards the direction of the sound only to witness the strangest scene most of them ever had.

Still impaled on the ice spike was Adrian, but a second later, his body seemed to be melting into a pool of shadow.... literally.

The shadow then started traveling through the snowy ground as if searching for something, before finally reconnecting with its source.

Adrian’s feet.

Or more accurately, his shadow that had disconnected from him, reconnected again

He was now standing a few meters away from where he had been ’impaled’ with a small grin on his face.

«I see you figured it out,» he heard the cat’s voice inside his head again.

"Hmm," Adrian nodded as he felt himself complete again when his shadow reconnected.

The frost wolf, the other candidates, and even Sebastian was confused at what just happened, after all, they had all seen Adrian being impaled.

So how was he on the complete opposite side of the attack, and what was that inky shadow thing? 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

The answer to both those questions was pretty simple.

Shadow manipulation.

Well, maybe not as simple as that, but that was exactly how he had avoided being turned to swiss cheese.

Moments before the ice spikes reached him was exactly when memories of how to use his abilities flooded him.

Multiple options for his safety immediately flashed through Adrian’s mind, but none could be activated quickly enough for him to escape the spikes whose freezing cold he could already feel closing in.

But there was still one viable option.

Allowing his mana to flow through him, Adrian willed for it, and his shadow suddenly disconnected from him, moving as farther away as possible.

The moment it was far enough, Adrian immediately used another skill and the world around him seem to blur.

When his surroundings cleared up, he found himself standing exactly where his shadow previous was, and it had taken his place.

An ability he named, [Shadow Swap]

The next second, a perfect copy of Adrian solidified right where he had previously been.

And just as the transformation completed,

SHHK!

The ice spike erupted from the ground and pierced straight through the decoy.

To every observer in the arena, it looked exactly as if Adrian had been impaled.

The shadow-copy even twitched slightly as the spike burst through its torso before going completely still.

***

And thus, he avoided being impaled.

There was only one problem though, using two advanced skills in a row wasn’t ideal for his first time trying it.

And right now, even with his unusually large mana reserves, they were already close to running dry. If he didn’t end this now, he’d be in serious trouble.

Fortunately, he had enough to end the fight.

"Alright then," he turned to the frost wolf that had recovered from its confusion, "let’s end this shall we?"

As if agreeing to his words, the crystal frost wolf let out a growl before pouncing towards him.

But unlike previously, Adrian was in no hurry to move out of the way, instead, the moment the creature was close enough, its very own shadow transformed into a spike.

But unlike the wolf’s jagged ice, this spike was pure black, writhing and fluid-like, almost as if it were alive.

It shot out from the shadow beneath the beast, and though it managed to avoid a fatal injury by dodging to the side, the shadow spike still managed to leave a large cut by its side.

The wolf a pained howl as it tried distancing itself from Adrian, but he wasn’t about to allow it to.

Extending his hand forward, he folded it into a fist and as if responding to his actions, the shadow spike suddenly expanded, completely enveloping the wolf.

It tried struggling, but it was all for naught, as the shadow had already firmly wrapped around it, creating some sort of cocoon.

The next second, a loud squelching sound was heard as bloodied shadow spikes pierced through the opposite ends of the cocoon.

The candidates watched the scene unfold with horrified fascination.

A few of them instinctively took a step back from the fence, their faces pale as the bloodied shadow spikes slowly retracted back into the cocoon.

Some swallowed nervously, others simply stared with their mouths wide open, unable to process what they had just witnessed.

The Crystal Frost Wolf, although relatively weak, wasn’t a creature one could handle with the same ease as Adrian had.

Unless you were multiple ranks above it.

Inside the arena, the cocoon slowly unraveled, revealing the wolf’s dead body which collapsed onto the snow with a heavy thud, its crimson blood staining the white arena floor.

Adrian stood there quietly for a moment, his chest rising and falling as he tried to steady his breathing.

The fight had ended faster than he expected, but that final move had drained the last bit of strength he had left.

His legs suddenly felt a little weak.

"So that’s what using mana feels like..." he muttered under his breath.

The feeling, although described multiple times in the manhwa, was on a different level when one experienced it themselves.

Even with the exhaustion, he couldn’t deny that this felt exhilarating, though, spending this much mana was pretty painful.

Well, it wasn’t pain exactly, but more like extreme exhaustion, as if he had just sprinted for miles without stopping.

On the fence surrounding the arena, the black cat lazily looked at him, seemingly pleased by the outcome.

«Not bad for your first fight,» the cat’s voice echoed inside his mind, sounding mildly impressed.

"I’ll take that as a compliment," Adrian replied with a chuckle as he turned towards a certain observer.

Sebastian remained silent for a few seconds as he stared at the dead wolf.

Then his eyes slowly moved toward Adrian.

He was definitely pleased that a servant with such talent hadn’t perished, but he wasn’t going to allow himself to show that.

Maintaining his cold expression, he calmly announced, "the test is over."

"You pass."