Shadow Slave

Sunny was too close to dodge the sudden strike, and the Scavenger was too quick to let him. Even though the Sin of Solace was longer than his whole body, the little fiend managed to swing it fast enough to leave the enemy no time to retreat.

'What... the hell...'

Knowing that the jade blade would easily cut him in half, or at least deliver a devastating wound, Sunny stared at the deadly white blur as it approached his torso. The time seemed to have slowed down.

'Is this a joke?'

Without having to do anything, he simply dismissed the Sin of Solace. Instead of the lethal touch of the perfect jade, his skin was washed by a scattering of white sparks.

The gremlin blinked in confusion and then awkwardly clenched his fists, as if trying to understand where the sword he had been just holding went. In the next moment, Sunny kicked him in the chest, sending the abomination flying again. Judging by the satisfying crunch he felt, the plate of bone armor on the Scavenger's chest was broken, and very likely a few of his ribs, too.

...Best of all, the damned sword finally stopped talking.

The wounded fiend bounced off the rocks, rolled a few meters, and then jumped to his feet. He did not seem too wounded to not be able to continue the fight, and more than eager to. However, his expression was slightly pained, and before doing anything, the gremlin hit his head a few times.

Sunny smiled.

It seemed that the annoying whispers had done a number on the Scavenger's mind, as well.

Now, all that was left was to finish the little menace off. Preferably, without losing any more pieces of flesh or getting even more poisoned than he already was...

Sunny just started to consider the best and most painful way to kill the Scavenger, but at that moment, a beautiful sound reached his ears.

It was the ringing of adamantine hooves that was approaching them from somewhere further up the road.

A nasty grin appeared on his face.

"Oh, you are so done now, bastard..."

obliterated his foes and was coming back to

too.

'Time to die.'

The expression on the ugly face of the vicious gremlin shifted, turning into one of indescribable fear. Moving his head, the little fiend stared at something behind Sunny's back. But there

Sunny wanted to scoff.

think that I will fall for the oldest trick in the book? I wrote

...except for the ocean.

neglected to look behind himself once today.

a chill ran

Gritting his teeth and knowing that

was just as it had been a minute ago, and no horror was lunging at him from the cold

'...No, no, no!'

the time he looked back, the Scavenger

to, but he could not see any trace of him. It was as if the

stunned expression appeared

slip away from me?

opened his

'...Damnation!'

then spun, hoping against reason to find the hateful gremlin, somehow. He could not have gotten too far away, or hidden too

was thoroughly

it! Curse

teeth, Sunny sent his shadow sense outward, reaching as far as he could in the hope of

not sense a scrawny shadow of the

did sense something else,

felt very

again. The surface of the

senses, he could feel shadows moving across the ocean floor,