Shadow Slave

With the Carapace Demon using his deadly scythe to support the weight of his body, Sunny was temporarily safe from its sharp blade. Of course, the monster had other means of attack. Each one of his towering legs was like a siege ram, dangerous and capable of devastating destruction.

But at the moment, his position was too precarious to lash out with them. Sunny had at least a second to do whatever he wished to, with no risk involved.

The only thing he had to avoid was going directly under the behemoth, thus putting himself in danger of being crushed to death by the demon's giant body.

Coincidentally, that was exactly what he had to do.

'Crap, crap, crap!'

Glancing up at the massive armored creature, Sunny cursed and dashed forward. A moment later, he dove underneath the Carapace Demon, feeling the thick shadows swallow him whole.

Instantly, Sunny was covered in cold sweat. There was nothing but polished metal and murderous intent above him now. All the monster had to do to turn the tiny human into a puddle of blood was to rest his body on the sand.

Under the crushing weight, Sunny's organs would burst and his bones would turn to dust. There wouldn't be anything solid left of him at all, only a thin layer of bloody goo smeared across the ground.

Not the best situation to find yourself in.

With his nerves on the verge of melting, Sunny brandished his sword and rushed forward. His eyes were glued to the joints of Carapace Demon's legs. He was utterly focused, looking for the slightest movement. Waiting for it.

With no room for error, Sunny pushed every unnecessary thought and emotion into the farthest corner of his mind, not allowing dread, doubt and his tendency to overthink things to slow him down even by a fraction of a second.

Time moved excruciatingly slowly. It felt as though hours had passed, but in reality, it was only a couple of moments. Sunny was only at the second pair of the giant monster's legs.

It was then that he finally noticed the almost imperceptible change in the demon's posture. The tension in his joint changed slightly, indicating that the behemoth was about to move.

This was the sign that Sunny was both hoping for and terrified of. Now, his survival was wholly dependent on whether or not he was fast enough.

As soon as his eyes had registered the change in the creature's posture, Sunny pivoted on one leg and dashed to the side, trying to get away from underneath the armored giant. A small cloud of sand was sent flying by his sudden turn.

But the demon was incredibly fast. He threw his body down, determined to squash the odious invader like a bug. With inertia and the limits of his human body slowing Sunny down, he felt the metal surface of the carapace begin to fall down on his head long before reaching the safe zone.

Death was approaching with abhorrent speed.

going to make it

large clouds of sand into

mass of falling metal and spikes missed Sunny by just a few centimeters. He flew from underneath the demon's body at the last

Sunny rolled away and jumped back to his feet, slightly disoriented by the shockwave

actually managed to

life was full of

calculated. He was not in the habit of putting his life at risk without being sure that

also always purposeful and pursued a specific

was to bring

by forcing the giant creature down to the ground, in reach

success. The bastard was now lying on his abdomen, his carapace and humanoid torso, where all the vital organs were

although he still had no idea about how she was planning to

not going to be a trivial task. Despite the fact that the monster's mobility was now severely reduced, the distance between

experience that hardship for

to slice his body in half. Sunny had no idea how Nephis was doing on the other side of the creature's enormous body against the pincer, but dealing with the scythe was almost beyond

the demon that followed his every move was not helping the situation at

think of — he jumped as high as he could and pulled his legs

his jump was nothing short of impressive, by human standards.

ground, he dashed forward. Sunny knew that the scythe would come back, but he had a second

to make the giant creature forget about Nephis completely and concentrate fully on dealing with him, and him alone. To do that, he

What a lovely task!

his time was running out, Sunny spun around

as he thought, the Carapace Demon was already bringing the scythe down at him again, this time in a ruthless horizontal thrust. The sharp tip of the scythe was flying through the air, aimed

As the result, there was already no

the difference between life and death on

situation was eerily similar to this one, with the inescapable doom

blade of a carapace creatures's

he was before. Since that fateful battle, he had spent every day training, gaining experience and gathering power.

that easy to

hard steel of the Azure Blade. Not only did Sunny block the blow, he even managed to angle the sword in a way that would deflect most of the impact instead

the other gripped the tip of the blade with enough strength to prevent the edge from cutting his

still enough to send him flying back… but it was not enough to break the bones in his hands. Not with