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...'

on the invisible string, Sunny strained his

I'm

faces turned to look straight down. Their

tilted her

her expression was

the Prowling Thorn could change its length at will, he commanded it to shorten and rode comfortably all the way up,

cliff and sprawled on the

rest of the cohort just

"...What?"

the first to

alive, Sunny. But also… what the hell? How did you do

it up, Sunny pulled on the invisible string and

a piece of cake. Nothing that a knife and a piece of string can't solve...

almost soiled his pants in the few short moments between jumping off the edge of the chasm

a couple of times, then slowly

Where did

kunai and

know those porcupine monsters back in the city? I

him alone. They were all hurt and dead tired, too. Everyone needed to rest and patch

and heal them, but

We'll need you to be

her, lingered for a few moments, but then sat back down. Out here, the word of

to care. He knew that he was not going to bleed out thanks to the Blood Weave, and that

just wanted

later, he heard a shuffling sound and looked up to see Kai sitting down near him. The charming archer looked way too pretty 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

made him

the beautiful young man,

How

scratched the back of his head and

guess. That was

Sunny nodded.

"Yeah. So… what's up?"

hesitated for a

just wanted to say three

'What a strange guy.'

"Oh? Alright, go on."