Shadow Slave

Landing on the deck of the enemy ship, Sunny swayed and caught himself, then stared somberly at the warriors of the Sun Legion, all of whom had already noticed his arrival.

Following the command of the captain, the swordsmen advanced in a loose, but orderly formation. Behind them, the archers drew their bows and aimed them at the towering devil, their eyes shining with faith and resolve.

…They did not get a chance to shoot, however.

A split second later, a ghastly abomination landed between them, its six front limbs and terrifying beak reaping half a dozen lives in an instant.

This was Sunny's signal to move.

He dashed toward the ranks of the advancing swordsman, and at the same time, the Soul Serpent attacked them from behind. The two cut through the defenders of the ship and met in the middle of its deck.

It was at that moment that the Shadow finally exhausted the last of its essence. The abominable form of the Spire Messenger suddenly lost its shape and crumbled into a tide of darkness, which then rushed toward Sunny.

A serpentine black odachi then appeared in his hands. Sunny dismissed his other weapons, leaving only the great blade to keep him company... and roared.

He was too low on essence to use any of their enchantments, anyway… but each kill of the odachi was going to return a portion of it into his cores. More than that, the Soul Serpent was not the only one who reunited with Sunny — the haughty shadow had returned, as well, and had already wrapped itself around his body, alleviating some of his exhaustion and gifting him with its strength.

Now, all Sunny had to do was fight and kill. With each of the enemies that fell, he was going to replenish more of his dwindling shadow essence, and that essence would then be used to kill more enemies and destroy more ships.

As long as he continued to kill, he would not have to stop. Unless he was killed himself, of course…

[Soul Reaver] was, indeed, an insidious Ability.

enemies descended on him, Sunny

hull was in shambles, with several sections of it shattered by the heavy bolts of the enemy ballistae. The powerful siege engine on its bow was gone, blown away by some terrible strike. There was a

on the deck, most

state of the once-majestic ship, Sunny couldn't help but grit his

Then, he frowned.

the hell

the ire of Sun Prince and the enemy ships.

girl must have known what she was doing…

had

of his mind, Sunny strangled his worry for her and

the opponent's helmet and skull with the sharp blade of the great odachi, then slammed its hilt into another man's face, shook off the first corpse of

Sunny grabbed the disoriented man whose face he had just crushed with one of his free hands and, using his body as a shield, barreled through the enemies,

dire. Something managed to cut through the onyx armor and bit deep into his flesh, making Sunny stumble and hiss. It was the captain of the vessel — the woman in bright armor stood among the slaughtered archers, her hands raised, two disks of sharp, blinding light forming on

of the still struggling enemy at the attacking legionnaires… and then bent down, picking up a stray bolt

the towering demon, the massive projectile

some of the newly received essence into his muscles, Sunny grunted, and then tossed

her in the chest with

slain an

had no time to celebrate, because he was

of his mouth

was an

***

as well. By then, the Mantle of the Underworld was full of cracks and