Shadow Slave

Time was moving very slowly…

No, it was Sunny who was moving too fast. It almost felt as if the world had frozen.

The rain was suspended in the air, the fountains of mud had grown still, the distant figures of dying Awakened were like grotesque statues.

In this nearly static world, only two things seemed unbound by paralysis — the monstrous Saint in front of him, who was no slower than Sunny himself, and a bolt of lightning that was crawling across the sky, extending toward the ground as it forked and illuminated the bloody battlefield.

'Faster!'

Suddenly, a deafening roar exploded from Dire Fang's mouth, strangely distorted and haunting. It would have hit Sunny like a wall…

But he was prepared.

The [Silenced] enchantment of the emerald bone flute activated, creating a dome of absolute silence around him. Sunny passed through the sorcerous roar without being struck by its crushing power… however, behind him, Nephis had to endure its full weight without the protection of her flames.

Stripped of their augmentation, she couldn't resist it like she had before.

Erasing the image of her falling figure from his mind, Sunny concentrated on the task.

If anything, the importance of success had only become more stark now that his partner was debilitated. If he failed, both of them were going to die.

But he had already rejected the possibility of failure.

He was going to win. He was going to do what he promised to do. He was going to kill a damned Saint!

At that moment, Dire Fang was more than a chance adversary to Sunny. He was the embodiment of everything Sunny wanted to destroy — the rotten authority of the great clans, the vile curse of the Chain of Nightmares, the torturous brand of powerlessness that he bore on his soul ever since Falcon Scott.

inescapable shackles

A terrifying enemy, an overwhelmingly powerful enemy, an enemy that was nearly impossible

But…

Sunny somehow did manage

maybe he would be able to overcome the other

he was on the verge of losing here in East Antarctica, as well. And so, he was willing to bet everything on this

was weakened and vulnerable right now, but also because of

and pain. If Sunny delivered him a serious wound but failed to make it fatal, then that

only had

incredible feats to earn that single chance. He had learned the secrets of Dire Fang's Aspect, deciphered the battle style of the Transcendent monster,

it would be

exceeded all reason. His claws were ready to tear Sunny apart, and his fangs were ready to sink

But that was alright.

Sunny was a master

the essence of Dire Fang's battle style into Shadow Dance, the Saint

Sunny's technique was as formless and

Dire Fang could do was try and predict how his enemy would act based on his formidable experience of participating in countless battles. However, there was a

because the Saint had never fought a shadow spawn before. He was still judging Sunny

still considered himself a human, he

practitioner to bend his body in an extreme and

result, the Saint's claws tore through the raindrops above his head, while

all his prodigious strength

was too fast and skilled to allow the unexpected attack

Sunny could bring his sword down

pushed forward, catching