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?"

clearly surprised

"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 no chance to put all the knowledge from

of all sorts of Nightmare Creatures, in preparation

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

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

a promise

rope. She threw it down without hesitation

"Are you ready?"

eyes for a second, feeling

"Yes. Let's do this."

***

feet touched the ground, Sunny felt a heavy gaze 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 bleeding black

this distance, the damage dealt to the demon's 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 cracks were near the vital organs. His horns were shattered, as was one of his front legs — in addition to

severed arms were pressed tight against his torso to stem the

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

Nephis — the architects of his sorry

sun shone on the spikes covering the

Azure Blade and glanced at

He's

the terrible creature in action.

not taking her eyes off the enemy, and

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

two behind him, aiming to circle the creature from the left

this battle, Sunny's role was to take the brunt of the enemy's attacks, letting his partner deal the lethal blow when the time was right. Through the tacit understanding that they had developed through surviving dozens of life or death situations, the two

was their

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

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

seemed. Speed wasn't everything in a fight. Take, for example, Changing Star's training fight against the proud scion of the Han Li clan. Caster possessed an Aspect Ability that made him ten times faster than the silver-haired girl — at least. However, in the

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 before Caster himself knew

in control of

had to repeat that feat against the ancient demon of the Forgotten Shore. Luckily, his speed advantage was not nearly as