Shadow Slave

Chapter 40

"Halt!" Sunny whispered, observing the group of scavengers through his shadow.

As soon as the word left his lips, Nephis immediately summoned her sword. After studying the surroundings for a second, she turned her head and glanced at him with a question in her eyes.

Cassia, meanwhile, froze in place and hesitantly raised her staff.

Sunny counted the monsters: one, two, three… five…

'Curses!'

The hulking beasts seemed like the losers of the pack, similar to the one he had killed. However, their wounds were not as pronounced and terrible. Each of them was much more of a threat than the mangled one from before, and there were half a dozen of them at least.

"There are scavengers on the path ahead, six of them. They're slowly moving in our direction."

Nephis cast a gaze forward. There was a calculating look on her face.

"They're done with the carcass?"

Sunny thought for a moment and then shook his head.

"No, I don't think so. But maybe there's not enough meat for everyone anymore, so some stragglers had no choice but to leave with an empty stomach."

Nephis nodded and gestured to a nearby branching path.

"We'll circle around them."

The three Sleepers hastily moved forward and changed paths, giving a wide berth to the group of monsters. Tense and grim, they continued walking, trying to stay on course and not get lost in the labyrinth.

However, in the next hour, they had to turn in a random direction again and again, avoiding other scavengers. The distance between them and the giant statue was not shortening at all.

At some point, they were catching their breath near one of the numerous dead ends of the crimson labyrinth. They had no choice but to wait, since a large number of creatures was moving past their hiding spot, separated from them by a long length of a twisting coral passage.

Sunny sighed and shook his head.

"We can't go on like that. At this rate, we'll never make it to safety before sunset."

Cassie was the first one to react.

"Maybe… maybe we should turn back?"

That was a reasonable suggestion. However, Sunny felt reluctant to agree.

Nephis shared his thoughts. With a blank expression, she said:

"It will only get harder tomorrow."

She was right. By tomorrow, there would be even more scavengers flooding the labyrinth.

"Then what should we do?"

thinking. After a while,

"Fight."

of those monstrosities?

hide his derision as he

you forgotten that each of those things is a whole

Nephis nodded.

large groups. Cut down

moment, she

two of them, there's

retort, but couldn't find a good reason.

"Fine."

for a while.

studied the corpse of the

that supposed to

bit surprised, Sunny

"No."

trying to make it to

Teacher Julius

a short pause, Nephis

their bodies. The first one is obvious: it's their joints. Anything that has to be flexible can't be too rigid. So, there's gaps in the armor above the

monster, one could better understand their strengths and vulnerabilities.

Meanwhile, Nephis continued:

carapace. If you manage to accurately hit that spot, you can heavily injure a scavenger and deal serious damage to its body. However, unless you succeed in severing its spine, the wound won't be

notice that Changing Star's awkwardness seemed to disappear whenever she talked about things that she felt confident about, like ancient

'Curious.'

cavity in their armor. It is where several armor plates connect. The chitin there is comparatively thin. If you can pierce through it, you can destroy the brain

point was too high to be hit by a human — after all, scavengers were more than

reading his thoughts,

hard to target. Circling around a scavenger is almost impossible due to their size, speed and the attack range of their

looked at him and

stumble on a single scavenger, I'll be the bait. My task will be to make it turn around and then restrain it, exposing the third weak point. Your

Sunny gulped.

there's

Nephis paused

"Don't die."

***

of the labyrinth with no suitable branching paths for them to turn onto. Ahead of them, there was a small clearing with only one other passage leading out of

passage, a massive scavenger was moving slowly in their

and waited for Changing Star's feedback.

fight in

guided Cassie to the wall of the

here. We'll be

thought,

"Soon."

walk away, Cassie grabbed her hand.

you… be

tilted her head a little. Then,

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