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?!"

boost in strength, Sunny tried to pull his broken arm out of the abomination's

"Argh! Crap!"

and then commanded the Cruel Sight to turn into a spear. At the

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 the chest a lot, because it suddenly let out a shrill shriek, and then spat Sunny's

and rolled away, then rose to one

'Yes!'

could celebrate getting his freedom back, however, the chest suddenly swayed… and then rose into the air, revealing a gaunt

Sunny had no idea how the creature managed to hide all that bony flesh inside the fake

'Oh, curse it a…'

legs…

reinforced door of the armored compartment, and rolled into the corridor

tried to groan, but all the air had been knocked out of his lungs by the terrible collision. His skull seemed to be in one piece, as was his spine… barely. It did feel, however, as though his entire body had recently suffered from being

disoriented state, Sunny couldn't

hell

noticed the vile creature falling on all fours, and then launching itself forward, the lid of the chest rising for another

landed, though, there was nothing to bite into. Sunny had used Shadow Step and fell out of a shadow ten meters further into the corridor, then landed awkwardly on his broken arm and

'Oh, damn… that hurts…'

chest hovered in the air for a couple of moments, as

picked himself up from the

His first attempt failed.

much pain he was currently experiencing, Sunny threw a

"Come here, you bastard!"

Cruel Sight to help himself stand up, and then