Shadow Slave

'Crap!'

Jumping into the bottomless dark abyss, Sunny briefly regretted every decision he had ever made in his life.

How did he end up in this situation? Where did he go wrong?

However, there was no time for self-reflection. He wasn't ready to see his whole life flash before his eyes yet.

There were more pressing matters.

Before the momentum of his jump waned, Sunny summoned the Prowling Thorn. By the time the triangular dagger materialized in his hand, he was already beginning to fall. Not wasting any time, Sunny threw it with as much power as he could while simultaneously sending the shadow from his hand onto the blade of the kunai.

The throwing dagger flashed in the darkness of the underground cavern, streaked the wide chasm, and embedded itself into the hard rock on the other side of it. Because of the enhancement of the shadow, it got deeply lodged in the stone.

'Yes!'

A moment later, the invisible string connecting the Prowling Thorn to Sunny's wrist drew tight. Instantly, his hand was violently jerked forward. Holding on for his dear life, Sunny swung through the darkness with incredible speed. Behind him, dozens of skeletons plummeted into the chasm, with more being pushed down with each second.

However, he was already far away.

'Ha! Bite it, you bastards!'

A couple of seconds later, all humor was smashed out of him by the hard impact against the opposite wall of the crevice. Sunny tried to soften the blow a little, but it still hurt like crazy. His bones groaned, on the verge of breaking apart.

A couple of them probably did.

Sunny blacked out for a moment or two. When he came back to his senses, his wrist was in agony, with the invisible string of the Prowling Thorn slowly cutting deep into its skin. Hissing, Sunny gripped the thin string with his other hand and relieved a part of the pressure.

Then, he looked up.

Ten or so meters above him, five pale faces hovered above the edge of the cliff. On them were written expressions of horror, shock, and astonishment.

'Oh. Right. I guess they don't know about this Memory of mine.'

To the cohort, his desperate trick must have looked like… simple suicide. From the perspective of people who didn't know about the secret enchantment of the Prowling Thorn, Sunny just took a running start and jumped into the abyss, only to disappear into its darkness without a trace.

It was as though he had chosen to sacrifice his life to give the others a chance to escape. Like some sort of a stupid hero would.

'Do they even know me? Like I'd ever do something like that...'

string, Sunny strained his aching

I'm down

four of the five faces turned to

simply tilted

her expression was priceless

shorten and rode comfortably all the

edge of the cliff and sprawled on the

the cohort just stared at

"...What?"

was the first

what the hell? How did you do

pick it up, Sunny pulled on the invisible string and made the

That was a piece of cake. Nothing that a knife and a

between jumping off the edge of the chasm and successfully embedding

a couple of times, then slowly

Where did you

the kunai and

the city? I got it off one of

were all hurt and dead tired, too. Everyone needed to rest and patch up their

and heal them, but was stopped by Effie. The huntress darkly

There's one last hurdle to overcome. We'll need you to be at the top

but then sat back down. Out here, the word of the pathfinder was the

to care. He knew that he was not going to bleed out thanks to

just wanted to

and put together for a person who had just lived through the same mayhem as them, but Sunny was starting to suspect that this infuriating trait was just something he

made him look

young

How

scratched the back of his head

alright, I guess. That was intense back

Sunny nodded.

"Yeah. So… what's up?"

hesitated for a

really. I just wanted to say three

'What a strange guy.'

"Oh? Alright, go on."