Shadow Slave

There were wooden fences built throughout the arena, partitioning it into many small enclosures, each connected to a next one by a rusty iron gate. Currently, Sunny was at the very edge of the colosseum, with one of its stone walls behind him. Three sturdy fences formed the rest of the killing box, sharp spikes mounted on them to prevent the combatants from trying to escape.

…And that was unmistakably where he found himself — a colosseum. A theater of death where slaves fought each other for the entertainment of the crowd, unless they wanted to be slaughtered by the other gladiators or their own masters.

Granted, this one was rather strange. For one thing, the slaves were predominantly wild beasts and monsters of all kinds, as opposed to captured humans. The crowd was behaving weirdly, too. After his experience in the Dreamscape, Sunny expected to see the spectators overwhelmed by bloodthirst and dark, cruel fascination.

Instead, these people seemed to be joyful and proud, almost solemn. It was as though they were genuinely happy for the gladiators, even a little bit… jealous? The crowd was undulating and shifting, singing one word over and over again:

"Glory! Glory! Glory!"

Their voices merged into an echoing, thunderous roar.

'What the hell is wrong with these bastards…'

Sadly, Sunny didn't have a lot of time to think about the weirdness of the audience. He had bigger problems on his plate.

Right in front of him, another creature was let go of the chain, its powerful body covered in dirty brown fur. Four mighty paws, a long muzzle with terrifying fangs, and six eyes burning with madness… it was very similar to the Dread Wolves he had thought at the island covered by strange, twisted trees.

And it wasn't alone.

Two more beasts appeared from behind the first one, falling low to the ground as guttural growls escaped from their maws.

'Damnation!'

Sunny shifted his gaze, trying to discern the Rank and Class of the murderous beasts. They seemed a lot smaller than the Fallen Monster he had killed before, at least — simply the size of a bull instead of a full cargo vehicle. His newfound ability to peer into the souls of living things and see their soul cores was going to come in handy...

However, what he saw beneath their tough hides left him confused. Instead of spheres of radiant light, the creatures had hideous masses of swirling darkness at the center of their beings, veins of it spreading throughout their souls like cancerous growths. In the depths of that darkness, something unclear seemed to be moving, as if trying to break free.

The sight of it was both frightening and repulsive.

witnessed in the Ebony

soul cores of the

such cores, since he only knew to measure the usual ones by their size and luminosity. The growths

that it helped him

was he supposed to fight against three monsters while barely being

'Curse it!'

all happy with the fact that this gaunt and powerful body was standing more than two meters tall, devoid of any fat... and stark naked, with all his stuff

Or bite off!

there were a lot of women in

wolves, his black eyes full of menacing resentment. His lips parted, revealing sharp fangs that were in no way inferior to that of the monstrous beasts. A low growl escaped

am! You wouldn't want to fight a scary demon like me, would you? One would

exactly what Nightmare

forward, madness burning in their bloodshot eyes. Their maws opened, foam glistening on jagged fangs. The

'Damn it all!'

themselves around his body, which suddenly turned black and lusterless, as though cut from obsidian. Thankfully, at least that part of his Aspect still worked… almost instantly, his

beast, sharp claws sinking into the soft

simply used

above his head, he hissed and pulled with all his might. Lean muscles moved like steel cables under his onyx skin, and in the next moment, a river of blood flowed onto his horned head from above as the body of the wolf was mercilessly

at least of

are you screaming for,

the violent strength of his new body. It was much more powerful than his human one… however, it was also much taller, and his center

that reason, Sunny miscalculated his posture completely, lost his balance, and

instinctively raising two of his four hands to cover his throat. Almost instantly, one of the remaining two monsters was upon him, its maw opening wide before closing around his neck like a crushing bear

in the way, so instead of tearing his throat open, the wolf only managed to bite into them, sharp fangs burrowing through tough skin, piercing flesh, and scraping against

momentarily forgot how to control his limbs and operate the shadow demon's body. The second wolf jumped on him,

'Argh!'

was pinned to the ground, defenseless, seconds away from being disemboweled and having his head torn off. And he couldn't even remember how many hands he had, and what to do with

mouth and roared. His bestial scream washed over the wolves, momentarily

wolf by the jaws, and simultaneously threw his lower arms around the second one. Twisting his body, Sunny threw the monster digging into his abdomen off and pinned it to the stones, at the same time pushing the maw away from his