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,

mistake away from being greatly injured or killed at every moment, but neither of them had made that mistake yet. As time went on,

by the heavy flanged mace. Sunny was now bleeding from a deep cut above his left eye, but in return,

Sunny finally managed to position himself for an all-out attack. He dashed forward, turning

unbreakable bones of the Tyrant, emerging from the other side of its neck in

"One more!"

shield and slid back with

barrier won't hold for much longer. We

were changing — the shimmering energy was growing dimmer every time the Tyrant slammed into it. By now, most of

most of

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 attempt

had to

'Risky…'

flashed through his mind, but Sunny was already moving. Pushing himself forward, he deflected a glancing blow from the creature's tail… and slammed into the Tyrant like

Sunny managed to dodge its legs, but not its maw.

lunged forward, his mace suddenly igniting with a dangerous red glow. The moment

abomination's neck melting in the furious red

a second, he could not think

of tearing pain, he found himself flying backward away from the dying creature. His back connected with

landed gracelessly a dozen meters away from the convulsing body of the Tyrant, rolled for a few meters more, and came to a stop

'That… hurt…'

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. The

Devouring Cloud seemed… aimless and lost. Without malevolent purpose guiding the swarm of brood beasts, they

Jet must have finished

glanced at Dale, who seemed rather battered,