Shadow Slave

After a while, Sunny regained enough of his senses to warily look around.

The tunnel they were currently in was somewhat different from those they had traversed while fighting the horde of undead monsters. It looked more weathered and decrepit, with its walls and floor smoothed and uneven, as though eroded by something over the course of countless years.

What's worse, it was… wet. With a cold shiver, Sunny realized that they were surrounded by puddles of black water.

The smell of sea salt permeated the air.

Looking up, he found the tall figure of the boisterous huntress and asked in a raspy voice:

"Where are we?"

Effie glanced at him and gestured up.

"A hundred meters or so below the surface, pretty much exactly under the city wall."

He stared at her blankly, slowly comprehending the meaning of these words. The huntress gave him a nod.

"Yeah, you guessed correctly. Come night, this place is going to be full of seawater. That chasm behind us is what prevents the catacombs from being flooded by the dark sea."

She sighed tiredly.

"So, unless we want to drown or be eaten by some depth dweller, we need to get out of here as soon as possible."

Sunny closed his eyes, imagining a roaring torrent of black water erupting from the mouths of countless tunnels and falling into the abyssal chasm like waterfalls made of pure darkness.

Yeah, if they were still underground when that happened, sea monsters would be the least of their problems. The sea itself would kill them.

Luckily, the day was still young.

Nephis rose to her feet and

to go.

up. Sunny was the last one to follow

that hurts. I'm really starting to wonder if fighting

wasn't. Terrible as it might have been, the battle with the skeletons was at least predictable. The

than facing an enemy that you knew nothing

the tunnel, Sunny caught up with Effie and asked with a hint of idle curiosity in

the way, how do you even

she could have leisurely explored these deadly

him a dubious

settlement hunters. I've been here a couple of times before, trying to escape from especially terrible Nightmare Creatures. Although, to be honest,

Effie shivered.

in the Dark City at that time. Back then, the strongest hunter in the outer settlement sort of took me under her wing. We went down here

of his head and grimaced when his battered body protested

been very

huntress glanced at him and

alive? Actually, they all died. I was

her for a

why the

Effie shrugged.

matter how strong that party was, they weren't even close to this one. Do you even realize how powerful the six of us are, all put together? Goddamn. I wouldn't want to be

a few moments

this time, I know what we're going to face. We'll get

at this point, he didn't really have a choice. Leaving the tall huntress alone, he walked in

angled down. With each minute,

that the harrowing battle against the army of the dead was behind them, Sunny began to wonder

all those