Shadow Slave

The fiend shifted its weight, then lunged forward with a shrill giggle. It was terrifyingly powerful and fast, but because its movements were clearly telegraphed, Sunny had plenty of time to react.

Diving under the long arm of the abomination, he narrowly avoided being torn apart by the sharp talons and lashed out with the Cruel Sight. As the silver blade bit into the abdomen of the creature, piercing its tough skin just under the ribs, he continued forward and spun.

Just a split second later, Sunny was already behind the enemy.

…However, he wasn't safe.

Without pausing ever for a moment, the bizarre monstrosity pressed its hands against the ground and then kicked back with both legs. There was enough power in that strike to shatter a small hill, but Sunny was already moving, getting out of range.

He had not observed how the fiend fought against the Chained Worms for nothing. He knew that the wretched thing could use all four of its limbs to attack, and that its joints seemed to be able to bend in any direction. Not only did he know what the abomination was capable of, he also knew what it liked and tended to do.

He also knew where it was most vulnerable, and where none of his weapons would be able to do any harm. That's why he had aimed for its gaunt body instead of the much larger and obvious target — the chest itself.

Sunny had always been very perceptive, and practicing Shadow Dance only sharpened his ability to observe and understand such things. Maybe it was thanks to that that he had managed to learn so much about the fiend so fast.

As the soles of his boots scraped against the dark stone, a fleeting thought passed through his mind:

'How would it feel to shadow a Nightmare Creature… I wonder…'

Then, he had no more time for unnecessary thoughts.

Crushing through blackened bones, the abomination bent its joints in the opposite direction of where they were supposed to turn, spun, and lunged at him once again. This time, it was moving on all fours, the lid of the chest serving as its lower jaw. That made it almost impossible for him to dodge out of the way.

…Sunny had no idea why the golden coins weren't spilling out, but luckily, they seemed to be held in place by some strange force.

Unable to use his maimed arm to help himself keep balance, he had no choice but to jump down and roll under the attacking fiend. The Cruel Sight flashed again, leaving a deep cut on the leg of the creature. At the same time, a pulse of sharp pain radiated through Sunny's entire body… even though he took care to protect his broken bones, he couldn't keep them from scraping against one another completely.

But the worse pain was still to come.

'That is going to hurt…'

to his feet before the next attack came. Due to the fact that the abomination would have to perform it

deadly even if there was not

encompass the Puppeteer's Shroud. A moment later, the talons slashed across his torso… and slid from

used the momentum to create distance between himself and the vile creature. Landing on his feet,

and the burden of

***

later, Sunny was on the verge of

"Argh! Curse you!"

standing upright. His breath

not

both of them,

either of them had ever

chest monster was too vigorous and resilient to succumb to the dozens of shallow wounds that Sunny had delivered to it. What's worse, all of its vital organs seemed to be hidden inside the chest, which was nearly

the most

battle between

result, their fight lasted for a simply stupid amount of

in rough shape. Sunny was almost dead from exhaustion, bleeding from several ugly wounds, and in a world of pain. The abomination looked even worse. Its gaunt body seemed to have gone through a meat grinder, and its long tongue was hanging lifelessly over the edge of the

to

heavily and stared at Sunny. Then, it giggled once again. This time, the giggle sounded tired, slightly bewildered…

to

one hand, but crashed heavily to the ground

wasn't sure that he would be able to withstand it for much longer, so the abomination had to be having an extremely rough time, too. In fact, it was certainly being tortured by the oppressive force much

kill it before that

able to take another step, Sunny extended the Cruel Sight to its full length and thrust it forward. The silver blade

to death, you piece

the enhancement of the Blood Blossom become a tiny bit stronger, but at this point, it was already meaningless. The charm was just an Awakened Memory of the second tier, after all. Whatever boost it could provide was not that substantial when dealing with Fallen Nightmare Creatures and Ascended weapons,

to move fast enough due to the merciless pressure of the Crushing. It tried

smile appeared on Sunny's

'Got you…'

enemy, it seemed, was now completely helpless. But Sunny could still move… he could still attack... he had not even used any of the shadow essence that had been accumulating in his cores this whole time. The reserves weren't large, but