Shadow Slave

Glancing at the graceful figure of Saint, Sunny gritted his teeth and made a difficult decision.

He had no choice but to do it. Too much depended on his success.

A moment later, he feinted an attack and jumped back at the last moment, disengaging from the three menacing coral golems instead. At the same time, he sent the Shadow a mental command.

The taciturn demon froze for a fraction of a second, as though hesitating. But in the end, she did not.

Abandoning the measured cadence of her flawless technique, Saint allowed the spear of the Hunter to strike her in the chest. The force of that vicious attack was so immense that her onyx armor shattered, allowing the tip of the spear to bite deep into her stonelike flesh. Soon, a stream of ruby dust flowed out of the wound, painting the broken cuirass red.

But the Shadow did not pay it any attention. Catching the shaft of the spear with her shield hand, she twisted her torso and flung the towering coral golem away.

And then, she suddenly dashed to the side.

Before the terrible creatures could understand what was happening, she closed the distance and descended upon the three abominations attacking Sunny. Even though her attack was swift unexpected, they managed to react to it at the last moment. The obsidian steel of her dark sword was met by weapons made of crimson coral.

It gave Sunny the second he needed to get past them, nevertheless.

Dodging the hand of the Priestess, he appeared behind the three golems and ran toward the distant figure of the Lord.

Behind him, Saint challenged all six of the golems, tying the down with a ferocious onslaught of attacks. She paid dearly to buy him time, however. Just a second later, another attack got past her defense, leaving a deep crack on the black armor. And then another, and another…

Ruby dust flowed down like blood.

With a terrible grimace contorting his pale face, Sunny rushed to reach the seventh of the Star Sigil guardians.

***

Kai approached the dark mass of broken flesh and groaning iron wires, feeling cold drops of blood fall on his face. Changing the angle of his flight to move parallel to the ground, he clenched his teeth and lashed out with his sword.

The heavy blade of the falcata collided with the iron wires and easily sliced them apart. This net was created from the same thin metal as the webs of iron spiders. As such, it couldn't resist the sharpness of his weapon Memory, which was elevated almost to the Ascended Rank by the miraculous Crown of Dawn.

His hand, however, wasn't as strong. Even with his core brimming with soul essence, Kai was still just a Sleeper. As soon as he struck the net, a sharp pain pierced his wrist.

not let the sword fall from

'Almost…'

a long cut appeared on the net, many corpses fell down through the breach. Kai had chosen the target for his attack carefully, making sure that the rain of dead Nightmare Creatures would fall on the empty stretch of crimson coral between the largely intact line of archers and the remnants of the vanguard, which was

was too small to relieve

turn and flew back. A few moments later, he delivered another strike. A second cut appeared on the

four triangular sections of the net collapsed, creating a wide funnel through which a flood of bleeding carcasses fell. Even more slowly rolled

through that breach, he saw the

of the flying Nightmare Creatures had been slain by the archers, with just a few still trying fruitlessly to break through the net. But high above them, five dark

soon as Kai saw them, a cold shiver ran

though they saw him,

the Messengers broke the perfect symmetry

'No!'

Kai's eyes widened.

he dismissed his Aspect Ability and allowed inertia to pull him down. A moment later, he landed on the carpet of dead

them from the flesh of the Nightmare Creatures, he

Kai pushed himself off the carpet of carcasses and

upon him, wind whistling through their gruesome black

though the heavens

the Fallen Monsters, Kai desperately drew his bow and send an arrow in their direction… then

point, the Messengers were close enough to see every detail of

ones, and thus unable to do

aimed perfectly by a

struck the base of one of the Messenger's wings, damaging

the second one by just a

was now right above him, its beak opening

sixth shot. Only this time, the arrow he sent flying was not

the Blood

Messenger right in the eye, sinking in so deep that only its fletching remained seen. The terrible monster suddenly convulsed, and then fell

voice of the Spell sang into Kai's

have slain a

time to listen to