Shadow Slave

Monsters did possess some rudimentary intelligence, however, they could not compare to humans. At their core, they were still predators who acted mostly on instinct. Their cunning was beastly in nature and was not that hard to overcome. That gave the three Sleepers a chance to leverage their advantage.

After finalizing the plan, they made some preparations.

While Changing Star was getting ready, Sunny had retrieved the soul shards from the eight dead scavengers. After delivering them to the silver-haired girl, he watched as she brought them to her chest and crushed them in her fist one after another, absorbing the essence of each shard into her soul core. After a few minutes, when the changes caused by the absorption were over, Nephis opened her eyes and slowly inhaled.

To a Sleeper, consuming the shards of eight awakened beasts was equivalent to slaying sixteen dormant creatures. While not tremendous, it was still a significant boost in physical ability. Her body had become stronger, faster, enhanced in every way.

They were going to need every bit of that strength to survive.

Because of how attuned Nephis was to her physicality, getting accustomed to her new limits did not take long. Very soon, she looked at him and asked:

"Are you ready?"

Sunny sighed glanced at his shadow, hoping to get some moral support.

The shadow pretended to not notice and ignored him.

'Disloyal bastard!'

"As ready as I'll ever be."

Nephis nodded and turned to Cassie.

There was nothing really to say. They had already discussed everything there was to discuss, and empty words could not make the blind girl worry any less. Come to think of it, Sunny wouldn't have wanted to trade places with her, even though out of the three of them she was the only one who didn't have to risk her life in combat.

Facing the enemy, no matter how terrifying, was better than waiting powerlessly for the outcome, knowing that there's nothing you can do to change it. From that point of view, he was actually the lucky one.

Cassie tried to put on a brave face. She turned to Nephis and forced a smile:

"Go and kill that thing. Maybe you'll finally get something decent to wear and stop making me feel so guilty."

A corner of Changing Star's lip curled up.

"Okay."

After that, she turned to Sunny and returned to her usual serious self.

"Let's go."

monster. The shadow was wrapped

he still couldn't get rid of the ominous feeling that

'I don't like this.'

his

shook it, causing the clear melodic ringing to resound amidst the

***

looking for the source of the sudden noise. As he saw Sunny, a mad crimson flame ignited

not see any of this, because he was already facing the other way. As soon as the bell rang,

a considerable distance to the ground. Sunny hit the rocks hard and rolled, trying to disperse the force of the impact. As soon as he got back to his

behind his back. The monster simply crashed into it with its hulking body, breaking through the layers of rocks as though they were paper. Simultaneously, there was a flash of lightning and a thunderclap, drowning the

retreating Sunny and lunged forward, trying to pierce his body with one of its scythes. Shards

Sunny was already far enough. Without slowing down, he lowered his body, ran for several more meters, and then

more than three meters tall, rushing at him like a speeding train was enough to make any person falter. However, Sunny stood his ground, raising the Azure

he was the

from him, the monster

was strung between two massive boulders at the height of the creature's leg joints. Earlier, Sunny had lowered his body to

normal rope, it would, without a doubt, immediately snap. However, the golden rope was a Memory, and being

was tied to, unfortunately,

the damage was already

the ground face-first, sliding forward on wet stone and leaving behind a shallow trench. Sunny jumped

body to a stop.

it was allowed to stand up, their fates would be

Sunny's Echo was

dead scavengers, got up and dashed forward. Just as their enemy was about to rise, it jumped on its carapace from behind, pinning the creature down with its weight, and locked its pincers

wounded by the spikes growing from the monster's carapace, it succeeded in immobilizing it, at least for a

A second was enough.

lying in ambush, appeared in front of the monster. Darting between its terrifying scythes,

had. However, there was no reason to assume

be flexible could not be

Changing Star's sword plunged into the narrow gap. Then, the sword disappeared into the monster's

Sunny

the next

to be if not fatal, then at least heavily debilitating. Straining its body a little, it suddenly twisted, throwing the Echo