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."

rocky ridge, looking down at the deadly monster. The shadow was wrapped around his

get rid of the ominous feeling that this

'I don't like this.'

a sigh, Sunny raised his hand and

it, causing the clear melodic ringing to resound

***

the monster below moved, turning its massive torso around and looking for the source of the sudden noise. As he saw Sunny, a mad crimson

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

disperse the force of the impact. As soon as he

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

one of its scythes. Shards

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

was more than three meters tall, rushing at him like a speeding train was enough to make

he was

a dozen meters away from him, the monster finally

and the pouring rain, the golden rope was strung between two massive boulders at the height of the creature's leg

tautly drawn rope and ran into it at full speed. If it was a normal rope, it

it was tied to, unfortunately, were quite mundane.

damage was already

and crashed into the ground face-first, sliding forward on wet stone and leaving behind a shallow

body to a stop. In the next moment, unexpectedly swift and nimble

allowed to stand

Sunny's Echo was

it jumped on its carapace from behind, pinning the creature down with its weight, and locked its pincers on the creature's arms

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

A second was enough.

front of the monster. Darting between its terrifying scythes, she leaned forward and delivered a devastating thrust with her longsword, putting her whole

relatives, the scavengers, had. However, there was no reason to assume that there was no gap between its carapace and torso

that had to be flexible could

disappeared into the monster's body, penetrating so deep that its hilt ended up brushing against

Sunny thought,

the next

body a little, it suddenly twisted, throwing