Shadow Slave

Sunny rolled over his shoulder and jumped to his feet, the blade of the Cruel Sight slicing through a vine that was flying through the air to ensnare him. Blood was streaming down his back, and poison was entering his lungs.

What's worse, a concentrated dose of it must have been infused into his bloodstream by the black thorns. Sunny suddenly felt feverish and weak, and a sense of cold paralysis was spreading through the left side of his body, which took the most damage.

He was still able to move, and Blood Weave was already working to contain and devour the toxin. But before it prevailed, Sunny was in a dire situation.

Gritting his teeth, he dashed to the side, hoping to escape the sunlight and use Shadow Step to reach the abominable creature in the center of the cargo hold. Before he could dive into the saving darkness of the shadows, however, a massive vine crushed into the floorboards, shattering them and barring his way.

Sunny froze for a fraction of a second, realizing that there was nowhere to escape. Dozens of vines were already moving in his direction, glistening in the sunlight as clouds of murky mist escaped from the pores on their surface. Even though the root section of the vines was not very mobile, the sheer amount of them made it almost impossible to survive the onslaught.

What's worse, the vines were contracting, pulling more and more of their length into the cargo hold.

He cursed.

...At least the pressure on the Fire Keepers should have diminished.

Sunny, however... Sunny was one moment away from being killed.

He was not going to be able to reach the monster without the help of the shadows, but bathed in the merciless sunlight, he also had no chance of diving into their embrace.

All he could do was use his own.

Commanding one of the shadows to unwrap itself from his body, Sunny sent it toward the ghastly corpse and staggered as the strength and resilience provided by it disappeared. The second shadow slid from the Cruel Sight and attached itself to his feet, meant to serve as a threshold through which he was going to step.

Now, all he had to do was to survive the short second it was going to take the first shadow to reach its goal.

was easier said

an almost impossible angle, he dodged one of the vines, placed his

himself through to

skin of his palm burn, as though submerged in stomach acid, he retrieved his hand from the brown moss and immediately jumped backward to save himself from being entangled in the slithering vines. He was swift enough to avoid being caught, but not swift enough

"Argh!"

side, then rolled and threw himself upward from an impossible position, feeling his ligaments rip. Dodging the swarm

he only had to survive in their

around him, Sunny dove into his shadow and emerged

in one fluid motion, he

'Got you!'

And then…

Nothing happened.

corpse didn't react to receiving a mortal wound at all. Its ghastly face remained unmoving, its eyes full of terrifying emptiness, its body a harrowing mess of torn flesh and

and expand, and the vines themselves continued to pursue the invader. Even the

Sunny paled.

'Crap…'

***

have some effect, but all was in vain. The Corrupted Monster simply refused to die, for whatever reason, and the ancient remains that were its source appeared to be immune to flame, even if

he had never entered the wreck, so of course, the dashing griffin rider couldn't have known that the creature itself did

'Damn! Now what?!'

were

ruby eyes ignited in his shadow, and a graceful figure of the demonic knight lunged forward out of it. The blade of her stonelike sword flashed through the air, easily severing several vines, and then her shield crashed into the slithering vernicose wall, pushing it away and making the whole cargo

was Ascended, and augmented by one of his shadows, her strength was truly frightening. The taciturn demon spun in the mass of vines, cutting them down like a demented gardener. For a moment, none of them could reach

wrapped the second shadow around himself and