Shadow Slave

1017 The Fall of Falcon Scott (35)

The monstrous killer whale cut through the crimson darkness, descending upon the ethereal blossom of flowing white cloth.

His mouth opened, revealing a palisade of terrifying fangs. His blue eyes had turned deep red, glowing like spotlights and full of murderous intent.

As the great predator approached, the pallid flower exploded with movement. The shorter petals swirled, creating a barrier of white cloth around the small, unclear shape hidden in their center. The longer ones, which had been drifting gracefully on the currents, suddenly contracted and shot forward like tentacles.

Bloodwave roared.

Powerful currents surrounding his body churned, surging forward to meet the petals. He dodged nimbly, continuing to move forward as his jaw closed on one of the white tentacles.

There was no blood, no torn flesh, and no crushed bone. It was as though the petal was indeed nothing but white silk, and damaging it was like cutting a piece of lifeless cloth.

Sunny did not see much of what happened after, because he had his own problems to worry about.

There were just too many thralls around him, all powerful enough to pose a serious threat. Even with most of them assaulting the port fortress somewhere far away and above, the Terror's drowned guard was enough to kill him and Naeve ten times over, if they were not careful enough.

'Damn it...'

Propelling himself forward through the dark water, Sunny collided with a hideous creature made of iron and bone. The Sin of Solace passed through the abomination's body, cleaving it apart. However, the next thrall was already upon him.

the pale fingers, but he still found himself being strangled. Using shadow sense to perceive the shape of the enemy, Sunny slashed back with the

hands off, he twisted and kicked back, pushing himself and the thrall

more were already closing

not

one mistake away. Sunny relied on his superior speed and maneuverability to slay the thralls, which meant that the moment he was immobilized or stalled, the tables would be turned. He was not a stranger to fighting

to make a fatal mistake in a

looked in the direction where Naeve was battling a throng of abominations. The Nightwalker moved with ease and graceful precision, navigating the dark waters like a creature born in and for

knew

strategy in order to always keep Naeve in his sight,

talented fighter, possessing combat intelligence on par with the best of the best. He had plenty of insight into the underlying laws of conflict, and much better than that, his mastery of Shadow Dance allowed him to read most of his opponents like an open

this battle, like most of the battles of

many thralls around to truly grasp all of their patterns, but their rudimentary battle styles were also crude and unsophisticated.

might have been the

to shadow his enemies, Sunny concentrated his will on trying to shadow his ally. Naeve's battle style was much more complex, profound, and refined — in

of a scion of

was not something that he could learn

minor insights Sunny did gain were already enough to qualitatively change his

how

from using Shadow Dance to study how the Nightwalker moved were not anything grand, but they were extremely valuable. What better teacher could there be than a man supposedly carrying the