Shadow Slave

1035 The Fall of Falcon Scott (53)

As the river of darkness surged forward to devour Sunny, the small lantern of black stone hanging on his belt opened, and a tide of shadows rose from within it to meet the swarm of beetles.

He held nothing back, unleashing every wild shadow he had tamed, from mundane and shallow ones to those that were ancient, vast, and unfathomably deep. The night itself seemed to move, as well...

It moved to answer the call of the Master of Shadows.

Two dark tides met with a deafening thunder, and thousands of beetles were instantly broken, crushed, and ground into black dust. Some shadows were vanquished, too — and yet even more persisted. Permeated by Sunny's essence, they were as deadly and resilient as an Ascended weapon would be.

With no sun and no moon to illuminate the skies, there was nothing but dim starlight, and a few distant flames, to chase away the darkness. The whole world was shrouded in shadows, and so, Sunny had an almost infinite well of them to call upon. The only limitation was his essence.

However, the number of beetles was even more limitless. Despite thousands of them being destroyed in the initial confrontation, it was no more than a drop in the ocean. Already, even more were surging forward, crashing into the wall of shadows and tunneling into it with their sharp mandibles.

Gritting his teeth, Sunny poured more essence out, strengthening the wall and turning it into a tall dam. Almost instantly, cracks appeared on its surface, and a moment later, the river of dark beetles overflowed, spilling over the top of the dam and spreading wide to encompass it from the sides.

Funneled by the Dying Wish, all of them rushed toward a single point — Sunny himself.

'..Die!'

speed to leave afterimages behind. The Sin of Solace lashed out, slicing through two dozen beetles with a single strike. Almost at the same, a radiant orb of charged essence shot

turned into a whirlwind of annihilating jade, delivering half a dozen

the small creatures was not too hard, the effectiveness of these attacks was low. Almost instantly, he switched to using the flat of the

the other controlling the manifested shadows to hold back

was

was simply overwhelming. Already, many had flowed past him — some tried to turn around to attack from behind, but the pressure of the

and using his sword to cut down as many small creatures as he could. Kim, with her rapier and buckler, was the least suited for this battle, but she did her best to

of alloy with essence and flicking them into the mass of beetles, each streaking through the air like a bullet and exploding into a wave of destructive force. Once her supply of alloy beads and needles was exhausted, she would have to use the crudest form of attack and simply toss out projectiles formed of unrestrained, wild

each moment. Their number endlessly swelled, and

his right, Bloodwave and his Echoes had engaged another tentacle of the Heart of Darkness. To his left, Saint and Nightmare were holding back the

working... this

past his defenses and bitten into his skin. Their sharp mandibles only leaft shallow scratches on it, which almost immediately healed, but still... the memory of one of these vile creatures crawling inside

only a matter of time before several bites would turn into a dozen, then a hundred, then a thousand... would the Marble Shell be able to withstand countless thousands of mandibles plunging into it? Even if it did, it was only his skin that was so resilient. Once he was buried under a cold, slithering

of Solace

that be a sight to behold? Ah, yes... yes, it would... I

pay the whispers of the

beetles as he could. 'I... I need to think

escape... not, not quite. The last time, a few beetles were pulled along

'...Not alive?'

it. Even if it worked, he would only be buying himself a