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.

weeks since they left the cliffs. In that

to another, they steadily traveled west. With Cassie riding atop the Echo, the speed of the group was dramatically enhanced. Still, they took care to explore paths to their next stop before committing

they could

and Sunny tried to avoid the scavengers, resorting to fighting them only if there was no other choice.

taking out any 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

Nephis had said, both of

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

consumed. Every increase was barely noticeable, but with dozens of them added up together, the difference was apparent. She was slowly approaching the line between the peak of human physical form and the threshold

shadow. His own body had become considerably stronger due to the rigors of the Dream

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 shards. But he also didn't

their progress was more or

accumulation of power was not the only factor that influenced the rapid growth of their

skill level and battle sense were also improving by leaps and bounds. Under the tutelage of sword goddess

to practice, participating in bloody battles each day 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 progress — because a single mistake would most likely become his

training. With experience, Sunny was able to gain knowledge. With clarity,

wasn't the biggest contributor to the dramatic increase in the group's overall