Shadow Slave

The Shadow attacked with the vicious strength of a true monster. Knowing perfectly well that his strength was not enough to block her sword, Sunny desperately moved the Midnight Shard to deflect the strike to the side.

The countless hours of practice and hundreds of thousands of times he had repeated his katas had not been in vain: his body moved with lightning speed, placing the blade in the path of the Stone Saint's weapon at just the right angle. Feeling the impact reverberate in his bones, Sunny gasped from the pain and stood his ground.

Guided by the Midnight Shard, the Shadow's sword glided to the side and missed his body by a wide margin. However, before Sunny had time to congratulate himself, the Saint simply continued moving forward and slammed into him.

Being hit by her shield felt like crashing into a stone wall at high speed.

Flying back, Sunny impacted against an actual wall and rolled to the floor. A small yelp escaped from his lips.

Getting distracted from her food for a moment, Effie glanced at him and called:

"Sunny? You're alive?"

He weakly raised a hand and brought his thumb and index finger together in the shape of a circle.

"...Yeah."

The huntress smiled.

"Good! Don't die yet, alright? It's going to be really inconvenient for me to get out of here without your help."

Sunny gritted his teeth.

'...Is that all you care about?'

"I'll try."

his feet, he staggered and had to

Saint returned to her spot and stood there

in front of her, raised the Midnight

"Again."

***

wondered if he had really gone

things: spending time with

of the three, the time he was spending in the deadly maze of the Dark City was by far the least dreadful. He even found himself enjoying it a great

a cursed ancient ruin teeming with abominable creatures as a comforting place, you should really start thinking about

knew that he was on the right

as they were, his training sessions with the menacing Shadow had turned out to be even more advantageous than he imagined. Every bruise, every cut, every drop of blood that he spilled was making him

technique was finally

had not even scratched the surface of the immense didactic potential of the [Battle Master] Attribute. For someone like him, who had never received a formal education in combat,

a

fight against a carapace centurion, he had noted her distinct battle

taciturn creature fought with the firmness of stone, combining flawless defense with devastating offense. Each action was efficient and perfectly calculated, with blocks, dodges and deflections leading into deadly ripostes. It was solid, indomitable,

this was not the only battle style that the Stone Saint was perfectly proficient in. Rather, it was something that she used based on her current weapons and opponents. Back when her original fought against two harrowing Fallen Beasts, her style was reckless and brutal, disregarding any form of

there were some foundational similarities between them, these two techniques were vastly different. It seemed as though she was able

couldn't wish for

own style — or rather, the kernel of one that had been given him by Nephis — was flowing and unpredictable. It focused on adaptability and making it impossible for the enemy to anticipate your next move. The more Sunny fought against

that this style couldn't be improved. In fact, Sunny suspected that it was actually designed with the intention of being able to incorporate various elements from other sources. If so, it

where this strange style had come from, and if Changing Star had taught him its

things he had already learned, and