Shadow Slave

Strips of meat were roasting above the fire, and a delicious fragrance permeated the air. The remains of the Corrupted Monster crackled as they burned. Somewhere far away, ancient chains rattled loudly.

Darkness shrouded the world outside the circle of light cast by the dancing flames.

"... and that was the moment when the explosives detonated. Boom! I don't know how the whole city did not just slide into the ocean, but it was really something. The wall fell, the buildings crumbled to dust, the earth itself sank. Oh, but I did not see any of this, of course, because I was right in the middle of the explosion, protected only by a few layers of manifested shadows."

The members of the cohort were staring at Sunny with wide eyes... well, except for Cassie, of course. Nephis had been paying more attention to roasting the meat, but as the story went on, she seemed to become more and more distracted.

He grinned.

"And the Scavenger was right there with me! I couldn't let the wretch escape into the shadows, so I held on to him with one hand, and pummeled him with the other. At that distance, swords were of no use, so he started biting. And let me tell you... his teeth were really, really sharp..."

Sunny smiled, revealing his own teeth, then suddenly made a ferocious face.

"But not as sharp as mine. I bit the bastard, too! At that point, the sphere of shadows was already breaking, and the heat inside was like an oven. It had survived the initial detonation, but got tossed around by the shockwave, and then rolled down into the crater before finally shattering."

His expression relaxed.

"Well, anyway. I came to my senses a bit faster than the Scavenger, who got pinned to the ground by some debris. Problem was, I still had no way of breaking his armor... luckily, I still had a chest full of the dark beetles with me. lіghtnоvеlcave.c|о|m. So, before the fiend could free himself, I poured the beetles out, and they ate him alive. A fitting end for a corpse eater, don't you think? And since those beetles were not exactly living things, the Spell attributed the kill to me. So, that was how I received a new Shadow."

There was silence for a few moments. Eventually, Effie shook her head.

stalked you across all of the Antarctic Center, infiltrated a siege capital,

at

are we just going to ignore the

Sunny laughed.

exactly what happened. The first months of the operation were really wild, what can I

In the silence, Cassie asked in a worried

what happened to your soldiers? Were they alright? You said

slowly faded

quiet for a few moments,

his legs, but he survived. He's currently back in the Northern Quadrant, recovering after receiving treatment from the best government healers. Kimmy is right here in East Antarctica,

His eyes grew distant.

action, officially. As for Belle, Dorn, and Samara, they died a few days later. When we tried to fight the Winter Beast. Everyone died that

silence that followed, Cassie sighed

"I'm sorry."

her sharply. It was strangely off-putting, to hear those words coming out of her mouth... he

for something stupid like

shook his head, then put

sorry too. But that is how Antarctica is. It has a way of reminding you that no matter how strong you have become, there is always something stronger

bit, looked at Nephis, and

is said and done... I think

felt protective of her -