Shadow Slave

Chapter 867: Tooth and Nail

The tide of the battle had turned.

The terrifying confrontation between the Tyrant of the Stone Hive and Sky Tide of the White Feather clan went on, but now, the eerily beautiful jade beetle was clearly losing.

On the battlefield itself, the force of abominations trying to attack the Irregulars from the rear had been decimated under the cover of unnatural darkness. The Corrupted lieutenants leading the main assault had been dealt with by Soul Reaper, Although human soldiers had been feeling hints of despair just a few minutes ago, now, a new strength filled their bodies.

"Fight! We can do this!"

"Crush the bugs!"

The Irregulars knew that the moments when hope finally shined from the distance were often the most dangerous, so they did not allow themselves to relax and fought with fierce determination.

Then, something strange happened. The veil of darkness enveloping the lower part of the slope suddenly flowed forward and drowned a large swath of Nightmare Creatures assaulting their defensive line from the flank.

Immediately, frenzied shrieks of the abominations resounded from it, only to stop abruptly in the cracking noise of splitting chitin.

At the same time, Soul Reaper Jet broke through the ranks of the hive and joined the crescent battle formation.

Suddenly reassured, the humans fought with doubled ferocity.

The effect was even more pronounced for the members of one of the cohorts, who could actually see through the unnatural darkness thanks to Kim's unique Aspect.

Luster, who had lost count of the number of repulsive bugs he had killed or wounded with his halberd, threw a quick glance to the flank of the defensive line and almost stumbled.

"W-what?"

Out there in the darkness, their captain was dancing between the abominations, slaying one after another with graceful strikes of a long and somber blade. His swordsmanship was elegant and exquisite. However, what stunned the young man was not the battle skill of their commanding officer, but the armor Captain Sunless was wearing, as well as the shape and color of his odachi.

'That's that's Monorel's armor and sword!'

Luster's eyes widened.

'Don't tell me...'

a lot of things made

to those who witnessed Sunny fight, an intense fire ignited in Luster's heart. His

more... I need

his goal not long after the clash with the stone hive started,

kill enough... I might get a hug from

bolstering effect

had made it

currently cursing

***

Curse it

Sunny fought while feeling extremely aggrieved. Things were not going great for him...

through what little he had left with frightening speed, but the worst offender was the Shadow Lantern. A Divine Memory was as gluttonous as one would think.

would be completely

most likely, but he somewhat trusted them to keep his

had to dismiss something,

benefit to his soldiers and, to a lesser degree, to all Irregulars he simply could not allow the expenditure of essence that both the [Death

itself. Sunny was reluctant and more than a little scared to continue his fight without a suit of armor, but there was little he could do. Without sufficient essence to feed the [Living Stone], many cracks appeared on the stonelike onyx surface of the Mantle. Not only had it lost some of its protective quality, but there

was also growing heavy without the effects of the

now on. Even if he made a mistake or two, a couple wounds were not

evidence was gone, Sunny had no reason to keep the Shadow Lantern active, so

back by dismissing these Memories, he could maintain the shape of his sword for a bit

more enemies, barely avoided a stream of acid that one of the monstrous insects spat, and retaliated by neatly severing its body

this going to end, damn

then dissipated into a shadow. Sunny was

gods, let it stop... let it stop... let it stop... argh, damnation, this is such crap! What the hell?! What kind of

do, he grabbed a severed chitin blade of one of the abominations and used it

the Shadow Lantern finally

in a torn black bodysuit, Captain Sunless hammered a severed limb of an enemy into the carapace of a Fallen abomination. The white chitin split, and the creature let out