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."

shadow was wrapped around his body, enhancing Sunny's

the ominous feeling that this was

'I don't like this.'

Sunny raised his

he lightly shook it, causing the clear melodic ringing to

***

torso around and looking for the source of the sudden noise. As

other way. As soon as the bell rang, he turned around

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 feet, he ran,

into it with its hulking body, breaking through the layers of rocks as though they were

locked onto retreating Sunny and lunged forward, trying to pierce his body with one of its scythes. Shards of rock were flowing

down, he lowered his body, ran for several more meters, and

of the monster, who was more than three meters tall, rushing at him like a speeding train was enough to make any person

all, he was the

a dozen meters away from him, the monster

rope was strung between two massive boulders at the height of the creature's leg joints. Earlier, Sunny

a normal rope, it would, without a doubt,

rocks it was tied to, unfortunately,

damage was already

front legs suddenly jerked backward, the scythe slayer lost its balance and crashed into the ground face-first, sliding forward on wet stone and leaving

a stop.

to stand up, their fates would be

Sunny's Echo

one of the 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

wounded by the spikes growing from the monster's

A second was enough.

of nowhere, Nephis, who was lying in ambush, appeared in front of the monster. Darting between its terrifying

weak spot on its back as its lesser relatives, the scavengers, had. However, there was no reason to assume that there was no gap between its carapace and torso armor. It was a

to be flexible could

tip of Changing Star's sword plunged into the narrow gap. Then, the sword disappeared into the monster's body, penetrating

Sunny thought,

the next

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