Shadow Slave

Sunny looked at the wounded demon, a grim look of resolve on his face.

At this point, there was no reason to argue. They had no other choice but to face the guardian of the island themselves. Sunny's bag of tricks was all empty anyway — in the end, their fates were still going to be decided by sharp blades.

Someone was going to get killed, and someone was going to be the killer.

"How are we going to deal with his armor?"

Nephis weighed the sword in her hand and glanced down.

"I will break through the armor. Can you create an opening?"

Sunny nodded, not wasting time on unnecessary questions. If Changing Star was certain of her ability to cut through the demon's carapace, he had no reason to doubt it.

Creating an opening… that was not going to be easy. Even though the monster had suffered terrible injuries, he was still a force to be reckoned with. His size alone was going to pose difficulties. They would have to bring the behemoth down to his knees before even thinking of carrying out any sort of an effective attack.

And he was not just going to stand still under their assault, either.

But what else was there to do?

While Nephis was tying the golden rope to the branch, Sunny walked over to Cassie and lightly squeezed her shoulder.

She tried to force a smile.

"I take it that the Carapace Demon is still alive?"

Despite the heavy, cold, dark feeling gripping his heart, Sunny tried to make his voice sound relaxed and carefree.

"Yeah, but just barely. Don't worry too much. This whole thing will be over in no time."

'One way or another,' he added inwardly.

Cassie's smile weakened. She was clearly not convinced by his clumsy attempt to reassure her.

Sunny hesitated.

"Hey. Have you ever eaten demon meat?"

blind girl was clearly

"What? No."

Sunny grinned.

steak? I'm an excellent cook, I'll have you know. Uh… I think. Neph had sort of monopolized the preparation of food, so I had no chance to put all the knowledge from the Wilderness

as meats of all sorts of Nightmare Creatures, in preparation for his journey into the Dream Realm. Here, hunger was as much

you a

real smile appeared on Cassie's face. She gave him

That's a

rope. She threw

"Are you ready?"

and close his eyes for a second, feeling the strength of his body being enhanced by

"Yes. Let's do this."

***

burning a hole in his chest. Glancing up, he saw the crippled Carapace Demon staring right at him, a dark glint shining in

one was gone, leaving only a

body seemed even more debilitating. Its carapace was fractured in several places and covered in cracks, each seeping with azure blood... sadly, none of the

stumps of his two severed arms were pressed tight against his torso to stem the heavy bleeding. The other two were hanging to the ground, almost brushing against

Because, despite the horrible wounds, his gaze was still firm and

on Sunny and Nephis — the architects of

the spikes covering the demon's once lustrous carapace,

summoned the Azure Blade and glanced

He's lightning

seen the terrible creature in action. As such, only he knew how dangerous the demon

her eyes off the enemy,

the waiting Carapace Demon. Sunny was slightly ahead and aiming to circle the behemoth from the right — the side where the demon had both his last remaining scythe and

step or two behind him, aiming to circle the creature from

right. Through the tacit understanding that they had developed through surviving dozens of life or death situations, the two of

was their

a slight shift in the demon's posture. Instantly, he knew that

he also had to deal with it himself. Sunny knew that he was much slower than the giant creature, but he still

clan. Caster possessed an Aspect Ability that made him ten times faster than the silver-haired girl — at least. However, in the end, he only won by a hair's breadth. Nephis had almost

a difference between their speeds, no amount of reaction could have helped her. Instead, she was able to predict and manipulate the opponent's attacks, starting the strike even before Caster himself knew that he was going

was in control of the

of the Forgotten Shore. Luckily, his speed