Shadow Slave

'What the…'

The shards of stone and the dancing flames moved, flying through the air toward the tall woman. Instead of crushing and burning her, however, they somehow assembled around her slender body, the pieces of stone levitating around it to form a strange armor, the fire shrouding her hands like incandescent gloves.

Sunny suddenly felt a deep, dangerous sense of unease.

"How dare you, vile shadow…"

The voice of the War Madein thundered in the darkness that the Shadow Lantern had created, and then, two furious white eyes ignited in its depths, piercing Sunny with a murderous gaze.

"How dare you challenge War…"

A split second later, the Maiden disappeared from where she stood, the stone slab beneath her feet exploding into a rain of shards. Almost instantly, she was already upon him, a flame-wreathed palm shooting forward to pierce his chest.

'Damnation… what is it with women of War always going straight for my heart? This is already the third time this happens!'

Sunny awkwardly blocked the devastating blow, and felt himself being thrown back by the terrifying force of the impact. Luckily, the Mantle of the Underworld had withstood the touch of the divine flames that shrouded his enemy's hands, if just barely, the enhanced enchantment of Memory of Fire still coursing through its polished onyx.

'Argh!'

Something wasn't right here… even for a Master, the speed and strength of this woman were way too terrifying. With three cores nearing full saturation and augmented with two shadows, he was supposed to be near the realm of the Ascended, at least, if not more or less on par with some of them. And yet, her might was far greater than his.

That could have been explained by possessing an Aspect that augmented one's physicality, but as Sunny had just seen, the white-haired War Maiden seemed to be some sort of an elemental sorceress.

'Ah… I see how it is…'

onto the floor in a roll, he instantly threw the Cruel Sight forward to prevent his enemy from chaining the next attack after the first, and then slashed at her with the

the austere tachi scraped fruitlessly across the carapace of

Not only was the fearsome leader of the Red Sect capable of manipulating the elements, she also drew power from

the white-haired Maiden to perceive her

her beautiful face, the woman easily swatted both the Cruel Sight

sharp blade of the ghostly stiletto that suddenly appeared in one of Sunny's hands and slid between the chunks

benefit to

high and

Moonlight Shard flying away from his hand, and then two incandescent fists descended upon him. A spark of flame traveled through the whirlwind

'Bad…'

and Sunny clashed, their speed and ferocity causing more destruction to befall the devastated hall of the temple. Since they were shrouded by a rolling cloud of darkness, no one would have been able to see what was happening under the veil of

would be able to perceive were the furious

and stronger than Sunny. Her Aspect was fearsome, and her skill was unlike anything he had ever seen. It was different from how humans of the waking world fought, but in no way inferior… in fact, her murderous technique was utterly sublime

essence through her body with such an intricate and ingenious measure of control that it made Sunny realize how crude and clumsy his own, which he had been proud of before, really was. His essence was running low, too, because of how much he

not defenseless in that fight. While the War Maiden possessed a sublime technique, Sunny possessed a myriad of them. He was able to

his four hands — Sunny had dismissed the Midnight Shard, knowing that it would not be able to withstand the immolating heat of

ferocious assault of the monstrous Ascended… and through all of it, he was observing how she moved, how her shadow moved, how they fought, how

that Sunny had recognized the same foundation in it that he had witnessed when Effie attacked him earlier… the two were a

as though his death was only

soon enough, that moment

reserves of essence were almost empty, and his breathing was labored and arduous. One of his horns was broken, or rather cut cleanly,

then, he suddenly saw it.

be another one of those in

terrible strike, he suddenly turned the