Shadow Slave

There were several ancient archers aiming at him already, and more and more of the hunters were appearing from the darkness. Some wielded bows, some spears with jagged flint blades and crude axes.

Those were Awakened Monsters, each and every one — equal in Rank and Class to Carapace Centurions Sunny had fought once, a long time ago, on the Forgotten Shore.

And to Sunny himself, technically.

…A much tougher enemy for him to slaughter.

Luckily, unlike the massive centurions, the hunters weren't covered in adamantine chitin from head to toe.

Ducking under the flying arrow, Sunny lunged forward and thrust the tip of the odachi into the desiccated flesh of one of the bowmen. The black, bark-like skin offered a lot of resistance to the shadow-honed blade, but the force of the blow was terrible enough to rip through flesh and bone, allowing it to pierce the body of the hunter and emerge from his back.

Sunny just hoped that these bastards had anatomy similar to humans, and that their hearts were located in the same place.

From the look of it, they were… however, the monster did not react to having his heart destroyed as a human would. Instead of dying, he simply grabbed the blade of the Shadow Serpent and took a step forward, skewering himself deeper onto it, in an attempt to reach Sunny with the other hand.

'Curses!'

Sunny twisted the blade, severing the monster's fingers, and then pulled the odachi upward, slicing through his ribcage, neck, and skull.

This, finally, caused the bowman to die.

[You have slain an Awakened Monster, Ancient Barrow Wraith.]

'Revenants… great! Simply great, damn it!'

So he was fighting corpses that were possessed by some sort of a murderous spirit… as such, the hunters weren't fully sentient. That didn't stop them from remembering some of their craft, though. Not only were they able to wield their stone weapons with deadly skill, they also seemed to coordinate their attacks, herding Sunny like prey.

no choice but to show his back to one while attacking another. Those with melee weapons rushed forward, aiming to surround

lashed out with the Shadow Serpent. Just a moment after the blade of the

that the enemies had succeeded in positioning themselves in a way that would have doomed a normal enemy. He was

didn't want

streaked through the air to bite at his

the archers and decapitated him with

what had happened, Sunny was inexplicably at

afterimages behind, the figure of the warrior in the menacing onyx armor seemed to blink between half a dozen monsters in the span of a few seconds. Each time it appeared, one of the creatures died, their black bodies crumbling into piles of severed limbs and shattered skulls. The blade of

on the broken asphalt, leaving

low growl escaped from beneath his

the [Underworld Armament], the enchantment of the Blood Blossom was behaving strangely. It was supposed to augment his Memories, Echoes, and Shadows, but with so much blood flowing to the ground, Sunny found that even his body and mind were being affected by

exhilarated and frustrated — exhilarated by the slaughter he was perpetrating, and frustrated because he wanted… needed… to kill more, cut more, make them bleed

'Blood... blood... more!'

bloodshed for a split second, and then lashed out at himself, making the rabid

but could easily blind him. He had to maintain clarity… that was the only way to control the flow of the battle and survive. Thankfully, he knew how to keep a cool head better than

a lot of shadow essence, he had managed to break the enemy formation and eliminate most of the archers. The rest were going to be much easier to deal

to spew more and more

hunters emerged from the darkness, a frenzied mass of

'...Too many!'

was going to get buried under the tide of Nightmare

were going to move past him and descend upon the six Awakened, and then, inevitably, escape

Toward Rain's school.

This is going to

the survivors of the previous one, Sunny shifted his Memories around. For a brief second, the Broken Oath took the place of the Blood Blossom, its soul-eroding aura being inherited and enhanced by the

nausea washed other Sunny's

'Argh!'