Shadow Slave

Trapped in the small bubble of the energy barrier, the Tyrant turned into a murderous hurricane. Moving with speed that was surprising for such a large creature, it thrashed and spun, trying to rip the hateful humans apart.

Sunny and Dale had managed to dodge or deflect the barrage of devastating attacks, for now, but avoiding being crushed by the sheer mass of the frenzied monstrosity was even harder. The barrier was just too small to move away, leaving them no choice but to try and straddle it.

That had not been a good choice… even on the Tyrant's back, the three maws and the stinger could attack them freely. More than that, the abomination instantly rolled on the ground, throwing them off.

Sunny barely avoided being buried under the mountain of flesh. Just a handful of seconds after Dale had erected the barrier, he felt the salty taste of blood on his tongue. Both Ascended were battered and wounded.

Of course, the Tyrant was not unscathed, either.

Three of its legs were gone, its body was covered with a multitude of deep cuts, and one of its necks was halfway to being severed. Better yet, the creature seemed to have surrendered to its most primal instincts, driven into madness by the Sin of Solace.

The bestial rage of the Tyrant was terrifying, but it would have been much more dangerous to fight the monstrosity if it had retained its inhuman intellect. A smart enemy was infinitely deadlier than a senseless one.

Now, all they had to do was put it down.

"Cut off its head!"

"I'm… trying…"

Dale's shield was wedged into one of the Tyrant's necks, and as Sunny yelled, he hammered its rim with his mace, as if driving a nail into wood. The heater shield sliced through the flesh of the abominations like a blade, causing a river of black blood to spill onto the stones.

Half-deafened by the creature's shriek, Sunny manifested a wall of shadow to defend Dale from one of the remaining two maws. The wall broken under the monstrous assault, but by that time, the Ascended had hammered his shield one last time, and one of the Tyrant's heads flew off.

'Damn!'

After that, Sunny had to worry about himself. The wounded creature shifted, slamming him into the barrier with the looming bulk of its body. Bone Weave and Marble Shell saved him from being turned into bloody paste, but he was trapped, crushed, and unable to breathe. What's worse, there was no escape…

Sunny simply dissipated into the shadow projected onto the creature's body by the shimmering barrier, and appeared on the other side

mistake away from being greatly injured or killed at every moment, but neither of them had made that mistake yet. As time went on, their enemy grew more and more frenetic, but the two Masters only

the Tyrant's stinger was shattered by the heavy flanged mace. Sunny was now bleeding from a deep cut above

created by the monstrosity throwing all of its weight against the barrier, Sunny finally managed to position himself for an all-out attack. He dashed forward, turning his

it sliced through the tough hide, steel muscles, and unbreakable bones of the Tyrant, emerging from the other side of its neck in a fountain of blood. The second of the three

"One more!"

shield and slid

hold for much longer. We

— the shimmering energy

most of its weapons, as

bleeding heavily, maimed and wounded, its speed gradually decreasing. Sunny knew not to let his guard down — these last moments were often the most deadly, both because human fighters tended to get overconfident when the victory neared, and because their enemies would often abandon all caution in one last desperate

this had to

'Risky…'

his mind, but Sunny was already moving. Pushing himself forward, he deflected a

itself into a fierce retaliatory attack. Sunny managed to dodge its legs, but not its maw. He simply slashed at it with the Sin of Solace, feeling the flesh part before

the creature left itself completely open to Dale. The stalwart Master lunged forward, his mace suddenly igniting with a dangerous red glow. The moment it connected with

saw the shape of the abomination's neck melting in the furious red light

second, he could not think

with its maw and fling Sunny into the air. Feeling a pulse of tearing pain, he found himself flying backward away

a few meters more, and came to

'That… hurt…'

and glanced at his shoulder. The leather pauldron of the Puppeteer's Shroud was pierced in several places, and there were deep scratches on his skin. The Tyrant's fangs, however, had not cut deep.

looked up. High above, the Devouring Cloud seemed… aimless and lost. Without malevolent purpose guiding the swarm of brood beasts, they were being

have finished off

glanced at Dale, who seemed