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.

to one while attacking another. Those with melee weapons rushed forward, aiming

it shatter the asphalt into dust, and lashed out with the Shadow Serpent. Just a moment after the blade of the great odachi severed the attacker's legs, another arrow hit him in the shoulder, causing Sunny to stagger and almost

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

didn't

air to bite at his armor… Sunny

moment later, he appeared behind one of the

happened, Sunny was inexplicably at the opposite side of their formation, his odachi piercing the head of

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

moments later, Sunny slid backward on the broken

escaped from beneath

the Blood Blossom was behaving strangely. It was supposed to augment his Memories, Echoes, and Shadows, but with

he was perpetrating, and frustrated because he wanted… needed… to kill more, cut more, make

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

a split second, and then

blind him. He had to maintain clarity… that was the only way to control the flow of the battle and survive.

many times in rapid succession cost him a lot of shadow essence, he had managed to break the

course, the Gate was not done with him. It continued to spew more and more enemies, making any progress he had made

a new wave of hunters emerged from the darkness, a frenzied mass of

'...Too many!'

superior his armor, weapon, and skill were, he was going to get buried under

rest were going to move past him and descend upon

Toward Rain's school.

is going

the previous one, Sunny shifted his Memories around. For a brief second, the Broken

wave of nausea washed other Sunny's

'Argh!'