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.

sort of monopolized the preparation

teaching him how to cook all kinds of seemingly inedible things, as well as meats of all sorts of Nightmare Creatures, in preparation for his journey into the Dream Realm. Here, hunger was as much of an enemy as the

I'll make you a steak. It'll be the most delicious demon

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

That's a promise

Nephis was done with the rope. She threw it down

"Are you ready?"

second, feeling the strength of his

"Yes. Let's do this."

***

chest. Glancing up, he saw the crippled Carapace Demon staring right at him, a

leaving only a

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 several

the

tired. However, it was still terrifying, perhaps even more so than before. Because, despite the

and Nephis — the architects

first beams of the rising sun shone on the spikes covering

summoned the Azure Blade and

careful. He's

terrible creature in action.

not taking her eyes off the

Carapace Demon. Sunny was slightly ahead and aiming to circle the behemoth from the right — the side where the demon had

creature from the left — the side where

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

was their

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

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

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

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 that he was going

in control

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