Shadow Slave

After finding a good hiding spot for Cassie, Sunny and Nephis proceeded forward to face the scavengers. Soon, they saw two hulking silhouettes in the distance.

With her lips pursed together, Nephis threw over her shoulder:

"Keep up."

Then, like a runner preparing for a race, she got down on one knee, inhaled deeply… and lunged forward.

'Damn!'

Sunny dove into the deep shadow cast by the wall of the labyrinth and followed, running as fast as he could. However, the distance between them kept growing.

Suddenly, he remembered walking behind Nephis as they crossed the bridge to the Academy. Was it his fate to always follow behind her?

Changing Star's running speed was incredibly fast. She was practically flying through the air, like an arrow let loose from a bow. One of her arms was stretched backward, holding the sword with its point to the ground. The other was cutting the air with each stride.

It took the two scavengers a couple of seconds to realize what was happening after noticing her. By that time, she was almost upon them.

With madness burning in their eyes and viscous saliva dripping from their mandibles, the monsters screeched and charged forward. Nephis did not slow down, as though planning to ram them with her body. Sunny's heart skipped a bit.

Four terrifying pincers shot through the air.

At the last moment, Nephis fell backward, falling on her side. The inertia carried her forward as she slid through the mud, passing between the scavengers. Then, she twisted her body and stopped herself by plunging the sword into the ground.

A bit slower, and she would have been impaled by one of the scavengers' legs.

'Crazy! She's crazy!'

By the time Changing Star got back to her feet, one of the scavengers had already turned around. However, Sunny couldn't see what was going on as his sight was blocked by the bulky carapace creatures. He only heard the sound of chitin striking against steel.

There was no time to worry about that anyway, since he had his own problems to solve.

Due to the insane maneuver that Nephis had pulled off, the second scavenger lagged a little behind the first one. It was just about to turn around when Sunny finally got close enough to launch an attack.

Silently cursing, he ran up a narrow protrusion on the coral wall and jumped, aiming to pierce the weak point at the scavenger's back from above. His shadow was already wrapped around the Azure Blade.

But at the last moment, the scavenger suddenly moved, slightly turning its torso to the right. The blade missed the concave spot where the armor plates connected and instead hit one of them square in the center, sliding helplessly across adamantine chitin.

'Crap!'

Instead of killing the beast with one decisive blow, Sunny ended up dealing no damage at all. What's worse, he landed right on top of the scavenger, practically hugging it from behind. In the next moment, the scavenger shook its carapace, throwing the irritating human off.

into the labyrinth wall, feeling breath being knocked out of him. Suffocating and disoriented, he fell gracelessly into

'Not good.'

instinct, Sunny rolled to the side. Something tore past him and hit the wall, sending pieces

however, he had already come to

steps back without falling. In the next second, his sword was in front of him, held in both

with a menacing fire burning in its

'Repetition. Experience…'

shadow flowed from the Azure Blade to his hand, then spread to his arm, shoulder, and then finally covered his whole

was it enough? No. To survive, he would

the other from the left. There was no time to retreat or dodge sideways. So, instead, Sunny did something that made every instinct in his body

to the charging monster. The pincers clashed together

not, it was the only logical step. After all, the attack range of his sword was much shorter than that

to react, Sunny did what he had recently done thousands of times. His muscles moved even before his mind

one fluid motion, he raised the sword over his head and slashed downward, pushing with one hand while pulling with the other. His whole body moved in concert to deliver a powerful

of the scavenger's front legs and cleaved right through it, severing the limb entirely. Blue

a second to

'I actually did it?'

its front leg, the scavenger lost balance for a moment, careening forward and down. However, he

though, at this exact moment, his other front leg slid in the mud, bringing the monster even further

not waste this

severed mandible

Nightmare Creature convulsed before

It was dead.

feeling the pain in his chest and at the back of his head. He carefully touched it and grimaced. His hand came back wet with

'At least I'm alive.'

have slain an awakened beast, Carapace

[You shadow grows stronger.]

[You have…]

Sunny tugged on the sword to dislodge it from

was

the mud, clearly dead. His limbs were still twitching, indicating that the fatal blow was delivered just moments ago. It seemed like

see the silver-haired girl behind the bulky carcass. As Sunny approached it, he heard the sound of rugged,

come any

silence of the battle's aftermath, Changing Star's voice sounded strange and subdued. Sunny suddenly felt as though someone had squeezed his heart in a fist.

catch her breath after the intense fight. There was a

though, was instantly

leaving her naked above the waist. She was covering

had stung him and hurriedly turned around. His face was burning. Without thinking about

followed. After some time,