Shadow Slave

Days later, Sunny was sitting on top of a dead scavenger, calmly cleaning the azure blood off his face.

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

His sword was still stuck between the plates of chitin armor, trembling slightly as the beast's body convulsed before falling still.

Somewhere behind him, the sound of breaking carapaces announced that Nephis was already digging out soul shards from the corpses of the creatures they had slain. After dozens of such battles, the two of them were nothing if not efficient.

Glancing back, he evaluated the scene of carnage.

The path between two crimson walls was littered with corpses. Initially, they were simply planning to lure the carapace centurion that had been tracking them for the past few days into this narrow passage to turn its size against the monster. However, things quickly took a turn.

Attracted by the noise of the battle, both the scavengers and the weird centipede creatures that were waging war against the carapace legion in this part of the labyrinth showed up to join the fight. In the ensuing mayhem, Sunny and Nephis used the animosity between the two tribes of monsters to their advantage and ended up as the only victors.

Not far from him, the Echo was mutilating the corpse of the centurion. Its lost arm had long grown back. Now, the scavenger was tearing pieces of monster meat with its new pincer and vindictively devouring them.

Technically, an Echo wasn't supposed to experience hunger. This one, however, had seemingly acquired a hatred for carapace centurions after their encounter with the massive scythe slayer on that fateful stormy night.

since they left the cliffs. In that

Echo, the speed of the group was dramatically enhanced. Still, they took care to explore paths to their next

another storm was minimized, as they could always either reach the

had also changed. In the past, Nephis and Sunny tried to avoid the scavengers, resorting to fighting them only if there was no other

creatures that were either completely isolated or moving in groups of no more than three. The idea of two Sleepers consciously seeking out Nightmare Creatures of the Awakened rank was pretty ridiculous, but somehow,

had said, both of

an extremely formidable fighter, was now able to showcase the full extent of her combat ability. Simply put, she was a menace. It seemed as though her silver sword had a mind of its own. Whenever the tall figure in white

powers grew with each soul shard she consumed. Every increase was barely noticeable, but with dozens of them added up together, the difference was

same could be said about Sunny, although, in his case, it was predicated on the timely use of the shadow. His own body had become considerably stronger due to the rigors of

through the consumption of soul shards, he was quickly collecting shadow fragments. Of course, he wasn't able to get every kill, so their amount was less than that of the

of their progress was

the only factor that

were also improving by leaps and bounds. Under the tutelage of sword

with his life on the line. This brutal, merciless reality was, for better or worse, the best training grounds for a true fighter. There was no room for mistakes, only

real fight was worth a thousand hours of training. With experience, Sunny was able to gain knowledge. With clarity, he was

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