The Inadequate Summoned Hero

Chapter 8

{HP: 723/1051}

"AAAAHHH!" I have gotten myself into a predicament and my health is fairly quickly plummeting. "Stop screaming and calm down." "My arm is caught in a bear trap and its bleeding! How do you expect me to calm down!" "It's technically called a foot trap or a foothold trap but this one is sharp and does seem to be for a much larger animal. You'll only make your situation worse if you don't calm down." "Well what do you suppose I do!" While walking and talking and definitely not looking at the floor. I have stepped on a trap that someone has prepared for an unknown reason. Now I am crying and whimpering very loudly.

"Normally a trap such as this will keep the animal immobile, no animal would consciously hurt themselves, except humans or human-like beings which makes this good to catch animals alive. Fortunately, you are human enough and that leg you have is definitely not going to be able to work for you anymore so you should cut it off." Unfortunately, this isn't a clean wound. The trap has spikes all around it and when it slammed shut, my left upper arm was almost separated from the rest of me anyway.

"Cut it off! Why the hell would I cut my own arm off? How would I even do that without a saw or something?" "I'm sure the shadows could do the trick." I quickly search my mind for what the skill exactly did but can't focus through the pain. "I don't even remember what the ability is called! What about after its completely separated? Then I won't have an arm!" "Just make another one with the shadows. It will increase your actual proficiency with the skill and also solve the bleeding and missing arm problems. The ability is called Expert Shadow Control."

"[Expert Shadow Control]!" I do my best to picture the sharpest blade I can in my head while the shadows slowly combine. Luckily this is all happening underneath a tree's shadow so there is plenty to work with in the immediate vicinity. The shadows raise off the ground and make me wait in agony as they begin to make the same thing I pictured in my mind. Hopefully this works and fast because I don't know if I could actually do it if it takes forever. "Position that blade as close to the wound as possible to save as much of your actual arm as you can." I have the blade move towards my arm just above where the trap got me. I am about to lose almost my entire arm. There won't be much left. "Why is my luck so bad!"

I slam the blade into my arm as fast as possible and it cuts right through. I am momentarily stunned at how sharp it is and how fast it went straight through my arm, but I am brought back by the even worse pain that comes after as well as the great amount of blood that is spewing out of it. "Why does this hurt so much!" "If you don't make an arm with the shadow now you could die from blood loss. You have a lot less blood than you did as a human."

"[Expert Shadow Control]!" Since I have been a fox for two weeks now, I am familiar enough to make the arm. It is also simple to just copy one of my other three limbs since they are practically the same. The shadows seem to take forever to form the arm while I wait in severe pain, but then it's over. I guess at some point I closed my eyes tightly so I open them and look at my new fox arm. "What do I do now? My arm is pitch black! What will people think of me? I can't even go into the light anymore unless my arm will disappear!" "Relax, just take a look at the description of the skill again." I pull up status again and see that my health is going up which is good.

{[Expert Shadow Control]}
{Result of The Devil's Mark. The user is able to manipulate any shadow's properties however they see fit. This includes the creation and removing of shadows, position of shadows, changing the state of matter of shadows, and the changing of visual perception of shadows. Does not require magic.}

This relieves some of my worries but not all of them. I put my shadow paw down to start walking towards a gap in the trees but instead of walking, I stumble. "J, why did my new arm not keep me from falling?" "I assume that's because it's not a solid. Just try using the skill to make it that way." "[Expert Shadow Control]." I step down carefully and when I can't push any more I realize that I might never have any feeling to this arm ever again.