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 surprised by

"What? No."

Sunny grinned.

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

lot of time teaching him how to cook all kinds of seemingly inedible things, as well as meats of all sorts of Nightmare Creatures, in preparation for

meat, I'll make you a steak. It'll be the most delicious demon steak you had ever eaten… I

smile appeared on Cassie's face. She

That's a promise

the rope. She threw it down

"Are you ready?"

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

"Yes. Let's do this."

***

felt a heavy gaze burning a hole in his chest. Glancing

other one was gone, leaving only

with azure blood... sadly, none of the cracks were near the vital organs. His horns were shattered, as was one of

were pressed tight against his torso to stem the heavy bleeding. The other two were

despite the horrible wounds, his gaze was still firm and

on Sunny and Nephis — the architects of his sorry

sun shone on the spikes covering the demon's once lustrous carapace, painting them in

Blade and glanced

He's

who had seen the terrible creature in action.

not taking her eyes

Sunny was slightly ahead and aiming to circle the behemoth from the right — the side where

to circle the creature from

Through the tacit understanding that they had developed through surviving dozens of life or death situations, the two of them were able to cooperate without speaking a single

was their main

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

Sunny knew that he

an Aspect Ability that made him

had been able to catch Caster unaware not because of her fast reaction — with that big of 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

was in control of the

the Forgotten