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?!"

out of the abomination's maw, but its

"Argh! Crap!"

the chest almost reached Sunny's neck, he growled, and then commanded the Cruel Sight to turn into a spear. At the same time, he activated the [Dark Mirror] enchantment with a burst of shadow

only by a centimeter or

to the floor and rolled away, then

'Yes!'

getting his freedom back, however, the chest suddenly swayed… and then rose into

abomination must have been a masterful contortionist, because at its full height, it 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 with

'Oh, curse it a…'

could even react, the creature moved one of its long legs… and kicked him in

reinforced door of the armored

His skull seemed to be in one piece, as

disoriented state, Sunny couldn't help but think

hell is

however, all thoughts disappeared from his head, because he noticed the vile creature falling on all fours, and then launching itself forward, the lid

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

'Oh, damn… that hurts…'

air for a couple of moments, as if

from the floor and

His first attempt failed.

currently experiencing, Sunny

"Come here, you bastard!"

to help himself stand up, and then pointed the spear at