The Race for Naomi

"Shadow Manipulation Bond!"

The words shot out like instinct, and in a blink, Parker disappeared. His body wasn't flesh anymore—it was shadow, pure and primal, liquid darkness stretching and bending as he melted into the floor.

He became the shadow itself, slipping through cracks and slicing across the ground like a living void, hunting the faint, dark streaks left in Naomi's wake. His form cut through the thick, musty air of that cursed old building like a bullet tearing through silence—faster, faster, like his own heartbeat was screaming at him to move.

The trail was sharp, clear—there. He chased it with everything he had until—

BAM! BAM!

What the hell—

It hit him like a goddamn freight train. One second, he was unstoppable—unstoppable—slicing through the dark like a living nightmare, and the next—slam.

Like running headfirst into a fucking mountain.

The shadow form shattered.