Shadow Slave

Sunny had never been that happy to see anyone in his entire life. Master Jet arrived just in the nick of time, saving him from having to regret the decision to send Saint to aid Rain.

…Not to mention that she was really pleasant to look at.

More importantly — taking off a Fallen Tyrant's arm with one strike! Even for an Ascended, this was an incredible feat. Tyrants were not creatures one usually dared to challenge alone. Instead, they were dreaded horrors that were capable of decimating whole cohorts of experienced, battle-hardened fighters.

Masters rarely worked together, simply for the fact that there were too few of them and too much for each one to do. But facing a tyrant was one of the things that pushed them to band together. And even then, not everyone was guaranteed to return from the fight.

Truly, Teacher Julius had not been exaggerating when he said that even Saints were wary of Soul Reaper Jet.

And yet… although her entrance was spectacular, would she be able to battle the tyrant and survive? Even though the chieftain was seriously wounded, that wound came from a surprise attack. Now that she lost the advantage, things could change really fast.

As if answering his thoughts, Master Jet glanced at him.

Despite the fact that they were surrounded by piles of corpses, the terrifying giant looming above them like an omen of doom, an unexpected smile suddenly appeared on her cold face.

"...Cool mask."

With that, Soul Reaper sprung forward, turning into a blue blur. Her movements were so fast that Sunny had only been able to perceive them because he was an Awakened, his senses vastly superior to that of a mundane human.

Several things happened at the same time.

The somber glaive flew away as it spun fast enough to appear as a blurry circle. It cut a bloody swath in the mass of abominations, eviscerating dozen in a matter of a second as it moved in a wide arc.

At the same time, Master Jet streaked across the bloodied, broken asphalt and appeared behind the tyrant, then caught the glaive and immediately lunged forward in a devastating thrust.

The chieftain was much faster, though.

His spear seemed to almost teleport into the path of the glaive, positioned for an indomitable block.

Something weird happened then.

suddenly turned ghostly and eerily luminous, and simply passed through the shaft to the spear, then effortlessly pierced… no, phased through the creature's armor, burying

the

'What the…'

planned, though. Sunny got that suspicion because of a slight frown that appeared on Jet's

soul damaged or one of his cores destroyed, the bastard simply took a step forward and raised his spear, which

Sunny sighed.

that's my cue to get

battle he could handle, at least not in his current state. Master Jet seemed to have the situation under control — even if she ended up as no match for the

probably just be erased from existence by the destructive fallout their battle was

the children

that was left

to get more shadow fragments and, hopefully, an additional Memory or

way faster than thirteen minutes, though… what an exemplary employee! I am starting to understand why Master

the six Awakened, who were on

that all

had been aiming at the familiar young woman with a

him, in the direction where Master Jet was

What

Wasn't that obvious?

'Run, you idiots!'

and said, his voice full of resentment toward the fact that

"Stand and fight."

him, a sudden expression of shame clearly written on

is what an Awakened ought to

infuriated groan, Sunny strained his aching

I better not see that quote

***

Gate was contained with,

appeared, the government strike force finally arrived. Several swift air carriers descended from the skies in the howling of jet engines, and dozens of Awakened jumped down, all clad in

obliterate the weaker abominations and herd the more powerful ones away from the city streets. Operated by mundane humans, these machines were meant to control the battlefield and make it easier