Shadow Slave

'Crap!'

This was the only thought in Sunny's head as he awkwardly fell backward, allowing the pincer to close right in front of his face with a loud "clack". The jagged, chitinous blades were so close that he could clearly see bits of mud sticking to their surface.

Sunny landed on his back, narrowly avoiding the unexpected strike. The good thing was that he managed to avoid being injured or even killed. The bad thing was that he was sprawled on the ground, unable to quickly create distance between him and the attacker. The massive pincer was still hovering above.

Just as this realization dawned on Sunny, he desperately rolled to the side. In the next moment, the pincer lunged down, sending small tremors through the mud. If not for his quick reaction, Sunny's chest would have been caved in by that blow.

He was just beginning to stand up when the pincer swiped sideways. Luckily, Sunny was ready: instead of trying to dodge or block the attack, he went with it, letting the pincer collide with his outstretched hands and cushioning the blow.

As his arms screamed in pain, Sunny used the force of the blow and allowed his body to be sent flying through the air. This way, at least, he would get out of the pincer's range.

He might not have been taught how to fight, but one thing he knew very well was how to fall!

Instead of breaking his neck or having the breath beaten out of him by the landing, he braced his body and nimbly rolled before stopping some distance away from the ambushing monster.

'I take it back!' Sunny though, remembering his sarcastic critique of Hero's battle rolls. 'Rolling is an integral part of any respectable monster-fighting technique!'

Then, he looked up, trying to ascertain the situation.

In front of him, the attacker had finally shown itself. It burrowed from under the mud, casting a vast shadow over kneeling Sunny. Its tiny eyes were full of rage, hunger, and malice.

monsters he had spent so much time observing. Towering over him at almost three meters in height, the bulky creature moved its

with the

to Sunny's indignant plea was rather obvious. The monster seemed to be in a rather bad shape: half of its eight scythe-like legs were broken, and there were cracks in its thick carapace, each oozing with viscous azure blood. Additionally, he was missing one of its two

would have had no need to hide in the mud, hoping to catch easy prey. It could have just followed the other monsters and joined on the feast.

abilities of his shadow, forgetting that it wasn't much more observant than an awakened human. It was also weightless and inaudible — that's why the monster did not react when the shadow had passed over its trap a

other hand, Sunny could also consider himself lucky — by the same logic, he would not have been able to dodge the

luck could wait for later — right now, Sunny

ordered the shadow and jumped

second, the space he occupied a moment before was torn apart by the attacking monster. Its heavy pincer crashed into the side of

but unfortunately, it turned out to be surprisingly agile. Its scythe-like

caught a second of reprieve. His eyes darted around, desperately searching for something to use as a weapon. Almost instantly, he noticed a long, smooth, sharp bone left behind by some unknown creature sticking from the mud. Without slowing down, he bent down and grabbed the

a half meters long, ending in a narrow, sharp tip. It was almost like a spear. The problem was, even with the added length of this makeshift spear, Sunny's range of attack was still shorter than the monster's. He also doubted that it was

didn't dare to. At that short of a distance, the monster could easily crush

idea

couldn't decide whether it was the product of audacity or

grazed by the edge of the pincer. The Puppeteer's Shroud held, not allowing the monster to

no time

his eyes opened wide, Sunny understood that it was time to act crazy. So, instead of trying to dodge, he stopped moving and

a terrible pressure descended on his ribs. Sunny felt as though he was going to be split apart, but his armor, received from defeating an awakened tyrant, resisted the crushing bite of the monster's pincer. Every muscle in his body tensed, delaying

the

man couldn't free himself from the monster's grip, while the monster could not kill the prey by cutting it in halves with its