Shadow Slave

Sunny cursed and prepared himself for the worst. A few moments later, the short respite they had gotten was over.

With a sound that reminded him of rushing water, a terrifying wave of undead monsters crashed into their formation, threatening to break it apart. Effie braced for the impact and withstood the furious onslaught, somehow managing to split the wave in two.

From one side, Changing Star dove into the torrent of skeletal wraiths, her incandescent sword cutting through them like a ray of pure sunlight piercing the darkness. From the other, Caster's enchanted blade was doing the same. The scion of the Han Li clan moved with astonishing speed, turning into a blurry whirlwind of ghostly green steel.

Everything that touched it turned to dust.

Sunny glanced at Kai and said in a hoarse voice:

"Prepare yourself."

In the next moment, the wave of monsters was upon them.

Left without the comforting protection of his shadow, Sunny could only rely on his own ability, cunning, and technique. Dashing forward, he clashed with the first skeleton. His sword flashed through the air with lightning speed, and a headless corpse instantly fell to his feet, blindly clawing at the stones in front of it.

Sunny had never fought like this. From the first day on the Forgotten Shore, he always had something helping him resist the horrors of the Dream Realm — be it his shadow, cover of darkness, Changing Star, or the Stone Saint. Now, he had to face the torrent of Nightmare Creature with nothing but his own frail human body... and resolve.

This was the ultimate test of pure skill.

Gritting his teeth, Sunny tried to remember the feeling of clarity he had experienced after the carapace centurion had crushed his ribcage with one strike of its terrifying bone scythe. All unnecessary thoughts were obliterated by his will, leaving only two.

Kill your enemy.

the enemy

of what was happening in the dark tunnel. His thinking

able to react to the actions of his

…Ssssshimmm!

Shard cut the air and slashed the next monster across the chest, splitting the skeleton diagonally in two. Without paying the defeated creature any attention, Sunny

also grounded and firm. Every strike, every step was calculated and efficient, focused on delivering the maximum amount of damage while preserving as much of his strength as possible. It was a perfect

sharp like Caster's jian, nor filled with annihilating white flame like Neph's radiant longsword.

blood streaming down his body and sweat biting his eyes, his muscles on the verge of breaking apart

from somewhere ahead and briefly looked up, noticing that Effie had dismissed her battered round shield and finally summoned the beautiful bronze spear. With it in her hands, the

more and more

going well

seemed that way

the number of skeletons attacking the cohort from the front had begun to diminish. Pretty soon, Nephis, Effie and Caster were getting a few moments to catch their breaths from time to time.

other hand, had to hold off an ever-increasing number of undead creatures attacking the party from the rear. When the balance of the rolling battle noticeably shifted, Changing

to reinforce the taciturn Shadow, while Sunny moved forward to support Caster and Effie at the head of the

got there, the huntress gave him a tired

You… look

her. With his armor torn in a dozen places and soaked through and

state

He smiled crookedly.