Shadow Slave: Immortal Ice

Eirwen instinctively raised his arm, shielding his face from the searing blast.

"You absolute morons! Don't destroy my garden!" he roared, his voice barely cutting through the deafening explosion.

The explosion surged outward, consuming the entire garden in red and white flames, engulfing everything in its path except Andromeda. The Aegis Mirror remained intact, acting as a protective barrier around her, shielding her like a fragile flower.

"Why?!" Gale's booming voice echoed through the garden, "What was the point of doing that, Andromeda?!"

She huffed, leaning against a nearby tree weakly, her voice sharp. "Shut up!"

When the explosion and flames finally died down, Gale stood in the middle of a charred spot. His body was completely unscathed, but his clothes were another story. He was now dressed in a tight black bodysuit, with white pants that resembled thick sweatpants more than real armour.

That was his primary armor-type Memory, the one Gale always relied on. While it looked mundane, it was nearly impossible to cut or punch through. In addition to its surprising durability, it enhanced his most terrifying ability: his monstrous speed. Eirwen knew this all too well, having experienced it firsthand. Gale would often use it to beat him senseless during their training, claiming it was all for the sake of practice.

"Let's see how good that Mirror really is!" Gale boomed before vanishing into a blur again, a stupid grin painted across his face.

Andromeda flinched, her eyes wide as she instinctively stepped back. Her silver mirror flickered rapidly, appearing and disappearing in multiple spots around her, as if trying to predict and counter his movements.

Clang Clang Clang

Eirwen could tell that Gale wasn't putting in his full effort. The speed he was using now was barely more than a casual stroll compared to his the theoretical max speed he could achieve.

The mirror, however, was performing flawlessly. Each strike that came from Gale was deflected. From what Eirwen could see, it wasn't even Andromeda's eyes that were tracking Gale's movements, she wasn't keeping up at all. It was the mirror itself that seemed to react on its own, almost as if it was sentient, predicting every attack. But Eirwen knew that if Gale boosted his speed up, it would be over in less than a second.

'It would work well with my Aspect Ability. I can copy abilities into it,' he thought, when another idea struck him. 'Wait... can't I copy them into the reflection in my eyes? That's a reflection too. After all it didn't say I have to record stuff into mirrors. It clearly said reflections'

He made a mental note to test that out when it was his turn, but for now, he simply watched Gale bully Andromeda with an amused smile.

With each deflected attack, the mirror vibrated and brightened, clearly straining under the overflow of energy.

His smile faltered as his brows furrowed, "I swear if you two blow up my gard-?"

But exactly that happened.

Andromeda's Aspect exploded in white and red flames again, this time much stronger, annihilating multiple trees and a whole field of roses.

Eirwen's jaw dropped as he witnessed that.

"Enough of this Gale! I will fucking fire you!"

---

Eirwen sat in the underground training ground with his arms crossed and his face visibly pissed. He was still annoyed at the fact that these two had destroyed a huge chunk of his dear garden.

The training ground his father had prepared for him and Gale was as big as a football field and just as wide. Made out of tough and thick iron surface, it was equipped with various high-quality tools and materials, and even had a section to hold weak Nightmare Creatures for hunting and training.

Gale and Andromeda stood not far from him, discussing how to best utilize her abilities. They settled on a relatively simple plan. First, Andromeda would absorb enough energy to create a shield around herself. Then, she would send the mirror out to defend her teammates, in this case, Eirwen. The mirror would float around him, absorbing incoming attacks until it accumulated enough energy to unleash a blast. Gale decided that Eirwen didn't really need any force-field-shields after witnessing his insane regenerative abilities, so they would be focusing on the blasts as additional offensive power. 

From everything Gale had learned so far, Andromeda's Aspect currently had only two real abilities. The first was the ability to release the absorbed energy in the form of a powerful explosion. The second was the ability to create a force field that acted as a shield.

She could theoretically work perfectly both offensively and defensively. But there was an issue in the offensive department, her flaw.

Her Flaw [Fragile Mirror] made her body weak and easily breakable, akin to a mirror.

Even now, as a Dreamer, her body was less durable than that of a normal human. It was so bad that just a small shockwave could potentially snap her neck. They needed something to help her with that. Fortunately, their teacher already had an idea: a strong armour Memory and a charm to top it off.

'She would probably look weird and silly in thick armour, but better safe than dead and sorry,' Eirwen thought just as Gale turned to him, signalling for Andromeda to rest..

"Now you brat!" he called out.

Eirwen groaned and sat up, dusting off his knees as he looked at his teacher.

Gale's face was simple, yet still striking. He was a Master, after all. His sharp features, reddish eyes, and navy-blue hair made him resemble someone from the House of Night. But whether he truly was, Eirwen didn't know, he just assumed there was some connection.

"Before we start, you gotta explain to me what the hell that regeneration was," Gale immediately asked as Eirwen approached him, stretching his arms and rolling his shoulders.

"My Flaw," Eirwen admitted. He had already decided what to share and what to keep a secret.

His teacher shot up a brow and chuckled, "Flaw? You know that even among Saints there are only one or two who can heal to such an extent? I nearly severed your head, after all. I honestly assumed that was your Aspect, but I guess no."

"No, my Aspect is a bit anticlimactic," Eirwen rolled his eyes and took his shirt off.

"It allows me to copy physical moves, like kicks and so on," he explained simply. "And my Aspect Ability lets me copy two abilities, no matter whether physical or magical."

Gale nodded, falling silent for a moment as he processed the information while Eirwen stretched.

"We have to test your Flaw and then see what Abilities you can copy and to what extent," Gale concluded after a moment, summoning his spear. "Let's start with your Flaw"

Eirwen raised a brow, starting to summon his Bone Gauntlets himself. "Test my Flaw?"

His teacher laughed, spinning the spear in his hands. "Did you really think your Flaw would just grant you immortality with no drawbacks? I can only assume it eats up a ton of your Essence and drains you like crazy. If that's true, I can also assume that your Aspect Ability drains a lot of your Essence too."

Eirwen rolled his eyes and braced himself.

---

Both of them were nothing but blurs and afterimages for Andromeda as she watched the two spar, hugging her knees tightly.

Gale's spear constantly poked holes in Eirwen's body, but they closed as fast as they appeared.

Eirwen, on the other hand, could do little more than try to deflect the attacks with his Gauntlets. Half an hour into the spar and he only landed one wide hook into Gale's side, but that monster ate the punch like it was nothing.

He cursed under his breath as Gale's spear thrust into his right shoulder, crushing the bones and tearing through the muscles. In the same instant, Gale twisted the spear and pulled it out, fountains of blood spraying from the wound. But Eirwen's body worked desperately to replenish the blood, the wound healing itself and making his body perfect again.

It did hurt, but the pain wasn't as intense as what he had experienced in his first Nightmare, so it wasn't enough to make him collapse or scream in agony. It was still annoying though.

Eirwen also noticed how quickly his energy was depleting. He could practically feel his Essence flowing out of his body, and he hadn't even attempted to use his Aspect Ability yet.

'What is this?! Why am I already exhausted?' Eirwen kept cursing.

More and more blows slipped through his already weakened defenses when suddenly he lost his balance. Gale had stomped down onto his foot.

Eirwen's eyes widened in disbelief as he looked down at the dirty play, and before he could react further, the spear thrust mercilessly into his skull. Blood immediately sprayed out once more, painting the already red floor with even more of his blood. Andromeda's eyes widened and clearly winced.

Now that was painful. He staggered back and the spear slid out of his head on its own.

A guttural roar escaped him as he clutched his forehead, feeling the sharp throb of the injury. It was a clean hole that went from his forehead to the back of his head. Of course it was already closing though. The feeling of his skull stretching itself back into place was weird and painful.

He tried to sit up, teeth gritted in frustration. "You goddamn imbecile!" Eirwen cursed angrily.

Gale leaned on his spear leisurely, seeing how exhausted his student was, "Alright boy, I'm not gonna lie, your Flaw is absolutely ass"