Shadow Slave

Sunny glanced down at the young man, then slowly moved toward him. The Awakened shuddered and took another involuntary step back, then gritted his teeth and lowered his stance, raising the sword into a proper defense position.

"Lord, shine thine light upon me! Let my s—soul burn unextinguished, as the sun can never be extinguished…"

'Huh… I've seen suns fade away and disappear before. Never say never, fool…'

Sunny listened to the strange prayer and allowed one of his shadows to slide off his menacing body, flowing to the ground like a dark veil. After that, he hissed from pain and stopped near a mangled human corpse.

He stared at the trembling youth for a few moments, and then bent down, stretching his hands toward the body.

The young man flinched and fell silent, then shouted:

"Get your vile hands away from him, demon!"

Sunny ignored the Awakened and used his claws to rip the white tunic off the corpse. Then, he straightened and glanced at it with displeasure, his black eyes narrowing.

This one was not too dirtied by blood, bud sadly, its previous owner was of a normal size for a human. As such, the tunic was way too small for Sunny's new towering body. He snarled, and then tried to tie the tunic around his waist like a makeshift loincloth.

There was a big problem, though… his tail.

Sunny froze, somewhat confused about what to do. Then, he awkwardly tore a hole in the tunic and made another attempt, this one, thankfully, successful.

With his nakedness finally covered, he instantly felt better and turned his attention back to the trembling youth.

The young man was staring at him with wide eyes, periodically glancing at the unceremoniously disrobed corpse at his feet. Finally, he opened his mouth:

"You… you barbarous beast! Have you no shame?!"

Sunny grinned, revealing two rows of sharp fangs and four long, terrifying canines.

In the next moment, though, his smile dimmed, because there was suddenly a familiar pressure rising in his mind.

So, his Flaw remained, as well…

'Damn it.'

slowly shook his head.

if when I'm mute… how

The Awakened blinked.

course not, why would a demon know shame… it's… wait! You... you can

Nightmare was gone, too. However, Sunny found himself able to discern what the young man was saying, as well as the only word the spectators seemed to know, even

language they spoke was not exactly the same as the ones he had learned before, first in the Academy and later during his travels in the Dream Realm, but similar enough to make out some of the words. He was able to deduce

at the youth from above,

The young man blinked.

Corrupted, then? What

changed, and perverted… a being cursed with some form of corruption. But what exactly was the Awakened asking? Was he referring

again, and pointed to

The youth frowned, confused.

wonder the Warriors

talking to me? Or to

a moment, then took a step forward. The Awakened flinched, torn away from his pondering, and raised

away, demon, or

when the gaunt, towering monstrosity walked

attack first, of course. Made into a gladiator or not, he was not going to play the part of an obedient slave. He had no qualms with killing humans,

come down in person if they wanted to

old… the only thing in common they had was the color of

and then threw it back to the ground. What was the point of having

using the sword against him, too. He just stood there, staring at the

steward of the arena, whoever that was, did not seem to

sound of scraping metal, another rusty gate rose, opening the path to the third box, this one

and the young Awakened glanced at each

then walked toward the

***

next cage was larger and more comfortable… well, he at least could stand

that he was in any

last circular one at the very heart of the coliseum. In each box, a new Nightmare Creature, or a group of them, awaited — those abominations who had prevailed in their own battles at the