Shadow Slave

On a dark square surrounded by ruins of once-magnificent buildings, a vicious battle was coming to an end. The remains of its solemn protectors were lying on the cold cobblestones, ruthlessly shattered into pieces.

Sunny blinked in shock.

'They actually lost.'

He was really astonished. The living statues that used to guard the square were a very tough bunch. As far as Nightmare Creatures of the cursed city went, they weren't the most formidable in terms of size and physical might. However, their strange bodies were extremely durable and capable of withstanding truly devastating amounts of damage.

Aside from that, the stalwart stone warriors were also disciplined, proficient in the use of weapons and utterly deadly. They were able to perfectly coordinate their movements, using strategy and tactics to silently overwhelm opponents whose power far surpassed their own. Countless monsters fell to their blades.

That's why Sunny had always avoided getting into a confrontation with these weird creatures. Even though they weren't Fallen by rank, the stone revenants represented a threat that was enough to make him wary.

However, now the ownership of the square was about to change hands.

The bodies of the previous masters lay shattered to pieces. In death, they looked just like broken statues. Even their metal armor and weapons had turned to stone after the wielders were destroyed.

There were five or six of these stone piles scattered around the square, while the attackers seemed to have lost only three of their numbers — including the massive monster that had been sent crashing through a building earlier. Each body towered above the dark cobblestones like a small hill.

invaders were of a type of the Nightmare Creature that Sunny had never seen before. These new menacing monsters looked like giant spiders with bodies covered in

on the square,

of the living statues seemed to be a female. Compared to the spiders, she was almost comically small in stature, standing no taller than Sunny himself. The graceful stone creature was armed with a sword and a round shield, wearing a plate

forged from some unknown and incredibly heavy stonelike alloy. Of course, in reality, they were made out of the same stone as their wielder. However, the dark force that had turned the granite body of this Nightmare Creature into the strange approximation of flesh had also turned the stone

raised, the blade of the sword resting on its rim. Her head was lowered, ruby

for sure, but he suspected that these spiders were both fallen beasts. In any case, the stone woman

for the show! Watching Nightmare Creatures slaughter each other was one of his favorite pastimes,

'Come on, get her!'

the stone monster lunged at the spiders first. Calmly striking

spider she was aiming at was a second too late to react. However, due to its superior physical form, it was still able to meet the sudden onslaught with a vicious strike

with her sword and bashed the spider with the round shield,

body of the Fallen beast

monster's abdomen, filling the square with the clangor of metal. The stone warrior

iron plate protecting the soft innards of the monster cracked, the second beast joined the fray. The following bloodbath was nothing short

kept up with them for a while. Her indomitable will and ruthless resolve were enough

to take them to the grave