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.

but did not let the sword fall from his

'Almost…'

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

this was not enough. The number of dropping corpses was too small to

air, Kai made a turn and flew back. A few moments later, he delivered another strike. A second cut

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

that breach, he saw the sky

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

saw them, a cold shiver ran through

as though

later, the Messengers broke the perfect symmetry of their circle and plunged

'No!'

Kai's eyes widened.

inertia to pull him down. A moment later, he landed on the

two, three… five of them from the flesh of the Nightmare Creatures, he simultaneously summoned his bow. He would have gathered more,

soon as his bow weaved itself from sparks of light, Kai pushed himself off

upon him, wind whistling through their gruesome black feathers. Hunger and madness were burning

as though the heavens themselves were falling on

send an

Messengers were close enough to

shot were mundane ones, and thus

a

the Messenger's wings, damaging it enough to send the vile creature crashing down,

side, missing the second one by just

one was now right above him, its beak opening in a

Only this time, the arrow he

was the Blood

in the eye, sinking in so deep that only its fletching remained seen. The terrible monster

the

slain a Fallen Monster,

had no time to listen to