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…'

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

and sharp talons were absolutely deadly even if there was not

fiend pivoted and snapped one of its limbs in his direction, Sunny sent both of his shadows from his body to encompass the Puppeteer's Shroud. A moment later, the talons slashed across his torso… and slid from the lusterless black leather of

to throw Sunny flying back. He counted on that, though, and used the momentum to create distance between himself and the vile creature. Landing

rose even higher, and the burden of the

***

the verge of passing out

"Argh! Curse you!"

hunched over, using the shaft of the Cruel Sight to keep himself standing upright. His breath was

not

the both

much longer than either of them had ever expected. After the first few

succumb to the dozens of shallow wounds that Sunny had delivered to it. What's worse, all of its vital organs

was the most terrible battle of

battle between two

lasted for

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

to give

Sunny. Then, it giggled once again. This time, the giggle sounded tired, slightly bewildered… but mostly

bastard really, really wanted to rip

to swipe at him with one hand, but crashed heavily to

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 more. Very soon, both of them were going to

just had to kill it

the Cruel Sight to its full length and thrust it

to death, you piece of

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, especially past the point where the incremental increases in its potency

tried to dodge the attack, but failed to move fast enough due to the merciless pressure of the Crushing. It tried to stand

appeared on

'Got you…'

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 there