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!'

with enough 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

to slow the beetles down a little. Sunny turned into a whirlwind of annihilating jade, delivering half a dozen

was low. Almost instantly, he switched to using the flat of the jade blade to crush them — with his strength, each blow sent a concussive wave through the mass of dreadful pests, damaging and breaking their tough little

body, the other

was not enough.

blows he delivered, the number of beetles was simply overwhelming. Already, many had flowed past him — some tried to turn around to attack from behind, but the pressure of the thousands more pushing forward brought them away, forcing Belle, Dorn, and

was able to destroy the most with his Aspect Abilities and the heavy sledgehammer. Belle used himself as bait, phasing from place to place and using his sword to cut down as

beads 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

overbearing with each moment. Their number endlessly swelled, and the dam of shadows was being continuously destroyed and rebuilt, consuming Sunny's essence like

Darkness. To his left, Saint and Nightmare were holding back the third. And further still, behind them, Jet and her cohort were fighting

working... this is

his skin. Their

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

of Solace

Ah, yes... yes, it would... I can't

to pay the whispers

eviscerating as many of the beetles as he could. 'I...

along with him as he stepped through the shadows. Most likely because the small creatures were not,

'...Not alive?'

dismissed it. Even if it worked, he would only be buying himself a few seconds of respite, at