Shadow Slave

Kurt moved with terrible speed, covering the distance between the center of the arena and the first row of the seats, where Sunny and Master Jet were, in a split second.

Just from the way he moved, it was easy to tell that his soul core had been fully saturated a long time ago. He was indeed a powerful Awakened.

…Still, it wasn't enough time to summon a Memory.

The white sparks that were supposed to form into a glaive were just starting to manifest themselves around Jet's hand, but he was already upon her. One of Kurt's hands shot forward, a knife forged out of a strange lusterless alloy appearing in it as if out of nowhere.

The was no magic involved in its sudden appearance, though. The knife had just been hidden in a secret sheath on his forearm.

Of course, Master Jet was much faster. She blocked the strike before it could ever reach her flesh… at the last moment, however, Kurt twisted his wrist and let go of the handle, sending the knife flying past her.

…Right at Sunny.

He had barely any time to react.

The Cruel Sight was still in the process of being summoned, so Sunny used his other hand to try and swat the knife away. It jerked up, but then froze.

'No, wrong!'

A fraction of a second too late, Sunny realized that the knife was not aimed at his body.

It was aimed at his shadow.

And since he had wasted precious time being mistaken about the killer's intentions, it was too late to move his body away to make the shadow shift out of harm's way.

Luckily, Sunny's shadow could move on its own.

It suddenly went out of the sink with his movements and jumped away, letting the knife bury itself in the floor and send a net of cracks through the sturdy synthwood boards.

Shaken, Sunny belatedly jumped back.

'What is this…'

likely. To Kurt's misfortune, though, he

Her fist seemed to teleport forward, tearing through the air so fast that it sent a

threw the knife, he saturated his body with essence and lunged back, smashing through the velvet seats and momentarily appearing a dozen

Master Jet and Sunny. Their purpose was not to kill or wound them,

Ascended, one for Sunny, and the last

even more enhanced. He dashed forward, and finally

'Not… not too bad…'

this thought

careful! He's planning

she could finish the thought, a dark smile appeared

the next moment, something massive broke through the floorboards and struck her… or at least

the attack and jumped back, then suddenly twisted, making her shadow grow smaller. A fourth knife appeared out of nowhere and

Kurt clicked his tongue.

"...So annoying."

staring at the thing that crawled from

of worn rags , with two long arms that had one too many joints growing out of it, each ending in three terrifying curved claws. The towering thing was vaguely humanoid in shape,

angry at his

curses, of course he has an

the bastard frequent the Slaughterhouse and its underground

of a dormant beast Sunny had ever seen. If he had to guess, he would be willing to bet that the creature

the arena meant

curved sword appeared in

looked rather menacing. One was covered in black chitin and had a long tail that ended in a jagged blade, drops of poison falling from it and leaving smoldering holes on the floor; the other was like a repulsive mix of a

else, Sunny might have been worried… Soul Reaper, though, seemed unperturbed. She simply raised her glaive and smiled darkly. The air in the underground arena suddenly

trouble, even if one of them was a

to do so while also paying attention to her shadow, though? That was not something people intuitively knew

Kurt surrounded himself with dancing shadows and dashed forward… while Sunny simply took a step back, and suddenly

easier it was for Sunny to get

surprise in the killer's eyes, and brought the Cruel Sight

the form of a short sword right now, so the almost

Sunny with his curved sword. Although he was incredibly fast, Sunny was much, much faster. He moved the Cruel Sight and blocked the strike without

'Easy…'