Shadow Slave

The swarm of brood beasts descended upon Sunny and Master Jet. The two of them moved with speed that would have seemed utterly inhuman to mundane soldiers, if any of them had remained nearby... curiously enough, a Master would have been stunned just as much.

Both Ascended Irregulars were showing a level of physical prowess that only those with extremely powerful combat Aspect were supposed to possess.

Soul Reaper's glaive turned into a blur as she spun it, dissecting scores of the ghastly abominations. The gorgeous jade jian danced like a feather, harvesting life after life.

Of course, neither Sunny nor Jet remained static, moving across the wide expanse of the battlement similar to a hurricane of cutting steel. They danced between the attacking Nightmare Creatures, never remaining in one spot long enough to be buried under their onslaught.

Well... Sunny danced. His battle style was graceful and fluid, to the point where it seemed as though he had no rigid shape at all. Master Jet, on the other hand, fought with the dire and straightforward inevitability of an experienced butcher, slaughtering her enemies both methodically and ruthlessly.

...There was an awful beauty to her mesmerizing savagery, as well.

"Get ready!"

Sunny did not need the warning. The whirlwind of abominations surrounding them was already poor enough, but it was also just the beginning - most of the protuberance of the Devouring Cloud had yet to reach them, and the situation was about to become numerous times worse.

'Oh, oh... why did I come to this damned continent?'

Full of self-pity, he pivoted to the right, narrowly avoided a diving brood beast, and brandished the Sin of Solace to cut down another one. At the same time, he glanced over the edge of the wall, where a long stretch of the world was obscured by the swarm of abominations.

By now, the two of them were surrounded from all sides, but most of the enemies were still coming from a single direction. The excellent news was that the Dying Wish was working, preventing the brood beasts from passing the wall and escaping into the city.

which meant that the part of the swarm attacking them was a second at most from growing

black wall suddenly rose between the battlement and the main body of the protuberance. Countless brood beasts slammed into it in the next moment, impaling themselves on the sharp spikes that shot from the black surface. Even

it did funnel it somewhat, giving Sunny and Jet some

for

got

"Argh, dammit!"

at him to kill and evade them all. Sunny did his best, but it was still not enough. Even

stood his ground. A disgusting leathery body slammed into him - if he had not used the Feather of Truth to change his

it was, he only took half a step back, while the brood beast bounced back with the nauseating

'Ah, that hurt...'

The leather vambrace of the Puppeteer's Shroud

Sunny's skin, not leaving even

He grinned.

'Chew on this, bastard.'

Solace into reverse grip and easily cut through the abomination's long neck. Usually, it would have been difficult to deal any damage from such an awkward position, but the jade blade of the cursed sword was so sharp that he

brood beast's body convulsed and fell down. Its severed maw, however, was still

'Whatever...'

into

not the last abomination that managed to hit him. As their number grew and grew, Sunny started to miss more attacks. Most of them failed to penetrate the adamantine barrier of the Marble Shell, but a few did not - there were now

though her black leather armor was torn and shredded, revealing glimpses of alabaster skin and trickles of crimson blood, she fought with the same unrestrained, magnificent brutality. There was even a dark, wicked grin