Shadow Slave

As golden coins moved, revealing several rows of terrifying triangular teeth, Sunny recoiled… but it was too late. The heavy lid of the chest suddenly came to life and closed with astonishing speed, another row of fangs appearing from behind its edge.

'What…'

Just a fraction of a second before the creature sunk its teeth into his forearm, Sunny's other hand shot forward. The blade of the Cruel Sight slid between the falling guillotine of the chest's lid and the fabric of the Puppeteer's Shroud. A moment later, the chest closed, and Sunny screamed.

Because of his quick reaction, the creature failed to bite his whole hand off. However, its jaws turned out to be horribly powerful. With a sickening sound, the bones in his arms shattered. Neither the leather vambrace of the Puppeteer's Shroud nor the augmentation of the shadow managed to resist the terrible strength of the gluttonous chest.

Sunny found himself caught in the abomination's crushing maw, with the blade of Cruel Sight laying flat on top of his broken arm and protecting it from being pierced by the sharp teeth that protruded from the lid of the chest. From below, several triangular fangs were slowly sinking into his vambrace. There was no obvious way to free himself...

'What the hell is that thing?!'

As several coins fell out of the creature's mouth and rolled on the floor, the chest pressed down harder, making Sunny shriek from blinding pain.

"B—bastard! Let go of me, you vile piece of rotten wood!"

Instead of doing that, the chest moved closer, forcing Sunny to fall to his knees. Something wet and coarse touched his hand, and a disturbingly long and wide tongue emerged from beneath the golden coins, sliding across his arm and dripping with viscous saliva.

Then, the tongue moved toward his neck.

Sunny stared at the horrid sight in outrage, then screamed:

"What the Spell?!"

gifting him a vast boost in strength, Sunny tried to pull his broken arm out of the abomination's maw, but its bite was just too damn overbearing. All he accomplished was almost knocking himself out from the pain of bone shards scraping against each

"Argh! Crap!"

he growled, and then commanded the Cruel Sight to turn into a spear. At the same time, he activated the [Dark

extended inside the creature's mouth, hitting it in the back of the… whatever it had instead of a throat. The tip of the spear sunk into the adamantine wood only by a centimeter or two... the wound was by no means serious, but it must have hurt

and rolled away, then rose to one

'Yes!'

the chest suddenly swayed… and then rose into the air, revealing a gaunt and revolting body

was almost three meters tall. Sunny had no idea how the creature managed to hide all that bony flesh inside the fake chest, even if the chest was large enough to swallow a human whole. Its long and emaciated limbs unfolded

'Oh, curse it a…'

moved one of its long legs… and kicked him in the chest with the

the reinforced door of the armored

one piece, as was his spine… barely. It did feel, however, as

state, Sunny couldn't help but

hell is

he noticed the vile creature falling on all fours,

Sunny had used Shadow Step and fell out of a shadow ten meters further into the corridor, then landed awkwardly on his broken arm

'Oh, damn… that hurts…'

hovered in the air for a couple of moments, as if bewildered, then slowly

picked himself up from the floor and tried

His first attempt failed.

hiding how much pain he was currently experiencing, Sunny threw a furious glance

"Come here, you bastard!"

to help himself stand