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?"

girl was clearly surprised by his

"What? No."

Sunny grinned.

an excellent cook, I'll have you know. Uh… I think. Neph had sort of monopolized the preparation of food, so I had

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

on some demon meat, I'll make you a steak. It'll be the most delicious demon

a real smile appeared on Cassie's face.

That's a

the rope. She threw it down without hesitation and glanced at

"Are you ready?"

sighed and close his eyes for a second, feeling the strength

"Yes. Let's do this."

***

ground, Sunny felt a heavy gaze burning a hole in his chest. Glancing up, he saw the crippled Carapace Demon staring

one was gone, leaving

cracks, each seeping with azure blood... sadly, none of the cracks were near the vital organs. His horns

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 the ashen

looked broken and tired. However, it was still terrifying, perhaps even more so than before. Because, despite the horrible wounds, his gaze was

concentrated on Sunny and Nephis — the architects of

beams of the rising sun shone on the spikes covering the demon's once lustrous

summoned the Azure Blade and glanced

He's

was the only one who had seen the terrible creature in action. As such, only he

her eyes off the enemy, and stepped

slightly ahead and aiming to circle the behemoth from the right — the side where the demon had both his

step or two behind him, aiming to circle the creature from the left — the side where his pincer arm was slowly rising

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

their main

were closing in, Sunny felt a slight shift in the demon's posture. Instantly, he knew

warned Nephis about the speed of their enemy, but he also had to deal with it himself. Sunny knew that he was much slower than the

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 smashed his face with an unexpected elbow

could have helped her. Instead, she was able to predict and manipulate the

control

the ancient demon of the Forgotten Shore. Luckily, his speed advantage was not nearly