Shadow Slave

The three of them were like an obliterating hurricane. The bloody fight between Dire Fang, Sunny, and Nephis was no less furious and destructive than the clashes between the other Saints that were happening on the battlefield... or maybe even more so.

Any Awakened, Echo, or enthralled abomination that dared to enter the sphere of destruction created by their fight was instantly torn apart, and so, soon, no one dared to anymore.

All the soldiers could see were dark shapes moving with dreadful speed within the rain, and billowing clouds of scalding steam that were sometimes illuminated by bright flashes of beautiful white radiance.

Maybe only Kai could make out what was happening inside, due to his Awakened Aspect Ability.

'I hope the fool does not rush here to help us...'

Sunny was trying to dismantle Dire Fang's battle style to shadow him, but his progress was too slow.

Every second they spent fighting against the terrifying Saint threatened to be their last, and even if they continued to remain alive, their fates would be sealed due to simple exhaustion - both of their bodies and their souls.

Sunny and Nephis possessed astonishing endurance, and their pools of essence were many times larger than those of ordinary Masters. However, they still could not compete with a Saint.

Saints were monstrous not only because of their power and Aspect Abilities, but also because of how potent and vast their reserves of essence were. To Masters like them, these reserves appeared nearly inexhaustible.

Especially to Sunny, who was burning through his essence fast due to the Shadow Shell. He was never going to win the war of attrition against Dire Fang.

So, he had to dismantle the Saint's battle style faster... much faster... even though he could not concentrate on this task since simply staying alive demanded almost all of his attention.

'Not good...'

He grunted as Dire Fang delivered a powerful backward kick with his wolf-like hind leg, almost ripping Sunny's shell to pieces. He managed to deflect the blow, and even tried to scratch the Saint with the Sin of Solace - but the jade blade got tangled in the thick fur, shearing some of it off, but leaving no trace on the enemy's skin.

was supposed to be driving the Saint mad... however,

sharpest of weapons in and of itself, would not be easy, or possible

the mind of a

possessed a powerful mind himself. His cognitive ability and willpower were both abnormal. There was the blessing bestowed

yet, it was

'Well, then...'

thought of

wait, why the hell was he trying to solve the problem with only his own efforts,

a perfectly fine

Saint, he saw most of them miss the mark, while the rest were easily torn

time, he sent Nephis a mental message

words - there was no time for that. Instead, it was a much more crude, but also faster form of communication containing

knew him too well. They were so familiar with each other that even

a bit like finishing each other's sentences or guessing each other's feelings from body language, but elevated

And yet, it worked.

his

of concepts and images poured

battle style fast enough, he wanted to join their

thing as Sunny this whole time, without a doubt - she had been studying the enemy, trying to discern the patterns of his battle technique to circumvent them. More than that, her insight, while not supernatural, was in

a genius of combat, after all - she was born and bred for battle, and there were very few people in the world who possessed the same chilling level of affinity to bloodshed and

fought, and she had hers. By combining them, they would be able to enhance each other's understanding of the enemy in

Hopefully.

fight. The shadow fiend sometimes moved like a human, and sometimes like the creature that he was. He bent in strange ways, used his

claws, his teeth, and his horns were all weapons, so he used them all in