Michael controlled his shadow down the tree as he thought of how to sharpen his skills with the shadow. Although it was not a fighting ability, it was very helpful to him in this his condition .
He found out he could share his senses with the shadow , that meant he could see through it . The moment he stops the connection , the shadow would run back to the owner who cast it. He could also control other shadows , the best he could do was to control another inanimate shadow .
If he tried controlling one of a living being , the being would immediately turn lifeless , as if its soul was being taken away from its physical . The catch with this was that he could not move the shadow more than three metres from the owner , and if the owner had high will power, it would be almost impossible to move.
After testing and knowing some limitations he set out , careful of not being seen by the creatures that inhabited the forest. He took his shadow all around the forest until he grew tired and connection with the shadow went out . It took no more than a few minutes before it rushed back to its rightful place underneath his feet.
"Ahhh, doing this takes a lot of energy and I am already hungry again " Michael said as he panted heavily. Every power had their disability and it seemed his lies in his energy.
"Maybe doing this constantly will increase my mental strength and allow for me to go longer and farther.
His shadow powers seemed to have no range limit and it all depended on his energy and how long he could sustain his connection with it.
" Am hungry again, time to go hunt" he said tiredly after resting up. He stealthily climbed down the tree,careful to not make any noise to alert any of the creatures below.
This time it was easier to hunt since he had another pair of eyes that kept track of prey in advance .
" I could get used to this " he said as he held a dead rabbit in his arms , happy he did not have to give chase this time. The rabbit did not even know when it died as Micheal approached stealthily from above and dealt a blow.
Attacking these black horned fellows from above is their blind spot." I have to leave now before another beast wander here and catches a whiff of me.
He was not done cleaning up before his old friend showed up. The three eyed flying Leopard. It stared at Michael with hate as it remembered this spiteful human that made it lose its prey and still escaped from him.
"Hey there Cyclops, I hope your not mad about last time" Michael said nervously. He did not know why it was here . This is not its Territory so he wondered why it was here.
The leopard roared as it heard the spiteful human call it Cyclops again. It wanted this human in between its teeth at all cost.
'I have to be cursed to run into this damned leopard, this stupid piece of crap'. Michael screamed inwardly as the leopard stared at him, almost begging him to make a run for it so that it would derive joy when it ate him.
Well Michael decided to satisfy the beast as he made a run for it, dashing away at his full speed. Even though he had awakened his abilities and could run almost times two his previous speed, the leopard was still hot on his trail, and you could tell that it was taking this as a walk in the park.
His heart was beating rapidly as the leopard inched closer and closer before widening the distance, clearly doing this to taunt Michael. 'What kind of beast did I outright provoke' Michael wanted to cry. 'Why is this happening to me again' he said inwardly as he raced through the forest, not wanting to give the leopard any chance to catch up.
He raced through the forest at his fastest speed, not giving he leopard any chance to close in. Not like the leopard had any problem with that. Right now, he was looking for any way that he makes an escape, he wished that he saw that cave that he hid in last time but he himself knew that his luck was not so good.
His brain raced as he thought of a way to outsmart this beast, he no longer had any thought of provoking it .If only his ability had a use in this situation, at the time he can only control inanimate shadows not the ones of living beings. Not to talk of the stress that his mind would have to handle.
But he has no other choice, either he finds a way to control its shadow, or it had him for lunch.
''Okay, I've made my choice, time to execute it'' Michael mumbled to himself as he thought of a way that he could kill this beast. From his previous assessments, if the shadow of a being leaves its body, its equivalent to a part of its soul leaving. And if it leaves for a while, the rest of its soul will begin to deteriorate and very soon, it would be the same as a mindless best. In a literal sense, literally.
Michael got all this from his previous study of his power, and it was practiced with other smaller beasts. There could be a massive flaw in his plan, and things could go sideways at any given time, heck it could not even work for a beast of this size but once he had decided he would not give up until he hit a brick wall.