Shadow Slave

Sunny had already faced off against a Spire Messenger once.

Back then, the vile creature had killed several experienced hunters in a span of just a few seconds, and the rest had only been spared this fate because of Effie's strength…

That and the fact that the Messenger had no need to fight them and chose to retreat and search for easier prey.

There was nowhere to retreat in this hidden cavern. Sunny didn't even know how the flying abomination had gotten here in the first place.

However, he was not the same inexperienced kid he had been all those months ago, either.

Sunny had grown considerably stronger. His arsenal of Memories was better now. His skill and technique were far beyond what he had known in the past, and his kill count had crossed a hundred Nightmare Creatures a long time ago.

There was the Stone Saint, too.

But, most importantly, his Memories were empowered by the Crown of Dawn.

Theoretically, Sunny could stack three augmentations on the Midnight Shard — one from his shadow, one from the miraculous crown, and one from the Blood Blossom, as long as someone managed to make the Messenger bleed.

Hopefully, that would be enough to breach the gap between a dormant human and a Fallen Beast and allow him to actually wound the abomination, unlike the previous two times he had tried to cut into the flesh of similar horrors — Corpse Eater and the giant eel that had tried to hitch a ride on the ancient colossus.

…But first, he had to survive.

a blow from the Messenger thanks to the enhancement of

— one belonging to Effie, the other to the Stone Saint. The terrible beak came down, aiming at

the round shield that protected Effie from knee to shoulder would have been easily pierced and torn apart, as if it was made out of paper instead of metal. But due to the empowering aura that emanated

impact, however, still threw both of them back. Even Shadow Saint, whose flesh was made

the

abomination, Nephis and Caster attacked from the sides. One sword shined with brilliant white radiance, while the other gleamed

cohort might have been enhanced, but their

limbs swiped forward, deflecting the swords. Two more shot at the

Messenger twisted its neck and caught Kai in its

itself into the air, the abomination lunged

a triangular blade cut an arc around one of the legs and tied

'Crap!'

before his hand was jerked forward with

was exactly

the momentum of the pull to turn his laughably slow levitation

of the Messenger as though someone had launched him

the air and bit into the abomination's

'Do it!'

to cut

But it was enough.

of using the Dark Wing to levitate and the Prowling Thorn to create momentum, the blow Sunny had