The hedgehog didn't know what to attack. Its claws reached the ground, but they weren't long enough that it could sweep them over the entire area without lowering its body, which was something it didn't like to do. Lowering its body would result in its behind rising, giving the opponent an opening. As it stood right now, the opponent would only find needles at the hedgehog's back.
In the end, the hedgehog decided to use one of its two sets of claws to strike Shang.
It struck towards the middle of all the Shangs. After all, it would hit most of them by striking there.
CRRRRK!
The claws slightly dug into the ground and moved to the side, dispersing many of Shang's copies.
However, it didn't hit anything solid.
It had missed.
At that moment, Distortion ended, and the real Shang was revealed.
He was at the very front.
Shang jumped and charged toward the hedgehog's head.
At that moment, the hedgehog swung its second set of claws right at Shang.
The claws reached Shang, and they were about to hit.
At that moment, Shang's body atrophied quite a bit, symbolizing that he had used a considerable portion of his life energy just now.
He lifted his Colossal Sword.
WHOOOOOM!
Just before the icy claws hit Shang, a bright burst of light came out of Shang's body.
At that moment, the hedgehog became blind. Even its Spirit Sense had been blinded somehow!
It was like this bright light had gotten rid of the surrounding area!
At the same time, the hedgehog felt its claws hit something big and soft.
It was almost like it had hit a huge hand.
BANG!
Then, its claws were thrown to the side.
The soft thing the hedgehog's claws had just hit had become hard and rubbery, and it bounced back with a lot of power.
It was almost like the gigantic hand had pushed its claws away!
This was another one of Shang's new techniques in his Colossal Sword State.
It created a disorienting light and pushed an attack to the side just by using the powers of light.
However, even with Shang's powerful body that was adapted to his techniques, it still cost him a lot of life energy.
In fact, it consumed over fifty percent, which would need to be replenished by fifty percent of Shang's Mana.
But it was worth it.
The attack was powerful enough to throw such a powerful attack to the side, which was not an easy feat.
Shang called it Brilliance.
The hedgehog's equilibrium had been thrown off, and its mind became disoriented.
For a beast, such a state was very difficult to recover from in less than a second.
Unleashing this attack only had defensive and preparatory purposes, and it cost a lot of Shang's resources.
However, he was willing to make the sacrifice. After all, this attack was not meant to be used on its own.
It was used to prepare Shang's next attack.
Shang arrived at the hedgehog's head, his Colossal Sword still lifted above him.
WHOOM!
At that moment, the bright light in the surroundings created by Brilliance was sucked into Sword, and the world returned to normal.
The hedgehog was still a bit disoriented, but it would recover very soon.
At that moment, Shang's arms bulged.
His Sword had gotten several times heavier!
When Shang had theorized about the connection of his four Elements to the concept of Entropy, he realized that light symbolized an increase in energy while darkness represented a decrease.
And after years of experimenting, Shang finally managed to make use of that concept!
He could now use his Light Affinity to increase the weight of his Sword even more, even if only for just a moment.
The substantial increase in weight was also the reason why Shang always slashed upward while using Brilliance. He had to have his Colossal Sword above him if he wanted to make full use of its new weight and power.
As Shang slashed forward, something else happened as well.
WHOOOOM!
Black fire burst out of Sword!
The Colossal Sword had the most weight, even in its base form, and with the added weight of the light, it became even more ridiculous.
Sword's Entropy also released power based on the mass of matter and energy it was burning.
Lastly, the difference in mass between Sword's Colossal Sword State and Great Sword State was by far the biggest.
Yes, Shang's Colossal Sword State was fully focused on defense.
It hid his body.
It blocked attacks.
It disoriented its opponents.
However, Shang had created his entire Colossal Sword State around this very moment.
The goal of the Colossal Sword State was to get close to the opponent and open them up for a devastating attack.
And this was Shang's most devastating attack.
Yes, this attack was the strongest attack Shang could release in all of his States.
The sheer power of everything was just ridiculous.
Shang's Colossal Sword struck...
And it hit the hedgehog's head.
BOOOOOOOOOM!
The hedgehog's head exploded!
Its flesh, bones, and brain were scattered across the area hundreds of meters behind it!
It was like a cannonball had hit a human's head!
Shang's most powerful attack.
If this one failed to do any serious damage to an opponent while they didn't evade, Shang might as well give up.
If this attack didn't manage to break through the opponent's defense, nothing else could.
Shang and the corpse fell to the ground.
Obviously, the hedgehog was dead.
This was Shang's Colossal Sword State.
He would start with Distortion to get close.
While coming closer, Shang had two other techniques he could also use, but they hadn't been relevant against the hedgehog since it hadn't launched any ranged attacks.
Then, Shang would shine like the sun in a brilliant explosion of light...
And everything would culminate in the last attack.
The light representing the life-giving sun would vanish, giving way to the icy assault of the Great Sword State.
The warm and bright day would vanish, and the cold and deadly night would arrive.
After the last brilliant ray of light...
Dusk would arrive.
And Dusk was the name Shang had given to it.
