Shadow Slave

A clear and melodic sound of a ringing bell reverberated through the air above the Labyrinth, alerting the monstrous spiders hiding in the enormous cocoon of grey webs that a new prey came knocking on their door.

Moments later, swift bodies clad in heavy plates of iron armor shot from beneath the grey spiderweb, moving through the steel wires with terrifying speed. There were enough Nightmare Creatures in that wave to obliterate anything that stood in their way… seemingly.

However, what stood in their way were two figures — one tall and boisterous, the other one on the shorter side and radiating a strange feeling of indifferent firmness.

They were Effie and the Stone Saint. Both held their shields raised, the tips of their weapons resting on their edges. As the huntress grinned, the Shadow silently struck the rim of her shield with the blade of her sword twice.

As if answering that call, a vicious black arrow suddenly appeared from somewhere above, hitting the leading spider right in one of its many eyes. The monster's legs buckled, and it fell to the ground, forcing those creatures that followed behind to either dash around or jump over the massive body.

A fraction of a second later, the wave of spiders crashed into the small shield wall. A deafening roar of iron striking against iron resounded under the grey skies of the Forgotten Shore like a thunderclap. Despite the furious force if the assault, Effie and the Stone Saint somehow held — at least for now.

As soon as the momentum of the iron spiders was slowed down a little, Nephis and Caster appeared out of nowhere and attacked the mass of repulsive creatures from the sides. At the same time, a stonelike sword and a beautiful bronze spear lashed out from behind the shields.

Black blood splashed into the air.

Meanwhile, Sunny softly landed on the ground behind the Nightmare Creatures and stealthily moved through the shadows, swiftly approaching them from the back. The Midnight Shard flashed, sending one of the spiders into the embrace of death.

[You have slain an awakened beast…]

Without listening to the Spell, Sunny used the precious moments before the enemy noticed his presence to wreck as much havoc as possible. His tachi moved twice more, severing several limbs and heavily wounding another abomination. After that, the spiders finally reacted to his treacherous attack…

'Not treacherous... just... smart!'

With Effie and the Stone Saint holding the front, Nephis and Caster attacking from the sides, and Sunny closing the trap from behind, the monstrous arachnids were now surrounded from all sides.

…Well, sort of.

Of course, a small group of dormant humans could never hope to truly surround this many superior Nightmare Creatures, not even with the help of a monster of their own. Trapped or not, as soon as the iron spiders had the time to react, they could easily overwhelm and tear them to pieces.

Especially Sunny, who was behind the line these vicious creatures and all alone. If the spiders decided to shift the focus of their attack, he would be dead in seconds.

abdomen, Sunny hissed and dove under a spider scythe, then thrust his sword forward, ruthlessly piercing the head of the beast through its open, salivating

[You have…]

Shard from the spider's corps, Sunny let go of its hilt and jumped back, narrowly avoiding

later, the spiders were bound to come to their senses. Even though the cohort had managed to kill

look at Nephis to feel the shift in her movements. The silent understanding the two of them developed during their journey through the Labyrinth many months ago was still there, allowing them

the rift in their relationship,

understood each other so much better

exhilarating to fight side by side

the battle in their favor, Effie and the Stone Saint — who

Caster, and

in her hands, while an elegant rapier hovered in the

As though following the direction of the Quiet Dancer's blade, Cassie

of the Nightmare Creatures, sending several of them reeling and throwing clouds of dust into the air. Of course, it wasn't strong enough to

that wasn't the

was rather strange, considering that they had no organs that resembled ears at all. The truth of the matter was that spiders were able to

architects, using the vibrations in the specially created threads weaved into

As the powerful wind threw dust into the air and made every wire of every surrounding spiderweb vibrate all at once,

spilling rivers of viscous black blood onto the ground. Sunny himself had already gotten his austere sword back, and now used its razor-sharp blade to gut the beast that had forced him to retreat a couple of seconds

[You have slain…]

iron spiders came back to their senses, their numbers were

there were still

with chaos. There was no time for plans or tactics anymore. Every member of the cohort had to

Saint was calm and indifferent, moving through the ranks of the iron

from above, but with how intense the fighting got, he was having trouble finding the opportunities to take shots without

how harrowing the effects of the Blood Arrow were. If even the Nightmare Creatures of higher rank were doomed to succumb to a torturous

people on the

struggling against two ironclad abominations, gritting his teeth in exasperation. The damn bastards were too fast to reliably hit them in the gaps in armor and too damn powerful to face them directly. As the result, he was forced to constantly dance between the two of them, dodging the whirlwind of strikes that rained on him from

"Curses!"

Shard with one hand and used another to throw the Prowling Thorn in the direction of one of the spiders. The creature easily dodged the kunai and continued