The Shadow Manipulator

Chapter 27: The Trap and The Cockatrice

The unfinished building

It stood a hundred and forty-meters from the ground. A huge crane hung near it, rusted with age. The building looked like ut's not even halfway finished with all the steel bars sticking out of the walls. Only the foundations, pillars, and the beams were made. The stairs and the floors resemble that of ancient buildings  since they plainly looked cemented. 

In the middle of the city, who would have thought  that an unfinished building would be lying around here. But to those who have seen it, they wouldn't be so surprised like me.

I stared in amazement as I stared at the huge structure approximately fifty storeys tall. To me, it looked normal, being an unfinished building and all that.

But who would have thought that this is the hideout of the Black Wolf? I asked myself. 

Meanwhile, Master Ryu began to glance at it while half-smiling to himself. He looks like he has been reminiscing something that happened in the past.

There's no way that he's been here before, right? I began to wonder.

After a few moments, Master Ryu signaled me to come follow him from behind. Thinking that the time has come to infiltrate the building, I nodded and immediately followed him. It was the first time that I saw Master Ryu looking so cautious.

"What's the plan, Master Ryu?" I told him under my breath.

"I'll go first and take care of everything. Then, you go to my aide if something goes wrong." Master Ryu immediately answered. "On second thoughts, how about you handle everything and I'll just join in the fun if you're having a hard time?" He smiled.

"I understand. I'll lead the way then, Master Ryu."

"I know that you have zero experience in infiltration, so I'm giving you this opportunity." He grinned.

We entered the dilapidated building with me on the lead.  Master Ryu casually smiled as he looked around. It almost seems like he was admiring the whole building but this isn't clearly the case. He must have been looking for traps that might activate in case I did a small misstep.

After maxing out my sense enhancement, I suddenly noticed that this building is literally an abandoned one. I couldn't sense even just a little bit of heat signature. It's either everyone's concealing their presence due to knowing our infiltration plans, or the real hideout is underground.

I guessed that it's probably the latter.

Using my shadow permeation, I immediately penetrated the ground and went deeper further. I could sense that Master Ryu was still right behind me, even though we were doing the shadow permeation. Somehow, it's easier going downwards than forwards when permeating, probably due to the gravitational pull.

So when you permeate downwards long enough, you could enter the core?! I had a scary thought.

"Hikari, watch out." Master Ryu calmly told me.

We reached a black and empty room after a few seconds of going downwards through the ground. Had he not warned me, I would have kept going downwards, missing the empty room where we are since it's dark, just like when we were permeating.

Without a moment to spare, I immediately used the move that I learned from the fight between Hana and I. It was the move where shadow envelopes both my hands, allowing it to be the proper defense and offense in sticky situations. 

"Whoa, kid! Where did you learn the Shadow Gauntlet!?" Master Ryu exclaimed as he watched me. "And to think that you've learned shadow permeation as well; You sure know your stuff, Hikari." He complimented as he showed me his shadow gauntlets as well.