Shadow Slave

The ancient temple was quaking from the furious clash between the monstrous dweller of the depths and Nephis. Flashes of blinding white light and waves of incinerating heat tore the darkness apart, sending the deep shadows drowning the dark expanse of the flooded hall into a demented dance.

Sunny danced with the shadows like a specter of death. Wreathed in a billowing black mantle, his figure had turned vague and elusive. He moved across the restless surface of the black water with stunning speed, no different from how he would have moved on solid ground. Sunny's attacks were lethal, unpredictable, and almost impossible to trace - it was as if he was nowhere and everywhere at once.

Due to his speed and the ability to step through shadows, it seemed that the dark figure wearing the fearsome black mask was in several places at the same time. So was the merciless blade of his jade longsword - hissing furiously as it cut everything in its path, the cursed jian cruelly reaped the lives of the Drowned.

Still... Sunny was struggling.

He was struggling enough to not want to admit it. Beneath the polished black wood of his mask, beads of sweat were rolling down his pale face. The Drowned were both powerful and dreadful adversaries... each of them was a Nightmare Creature strong enough to threaten the life of a Saint, let alone of a Master like him.

Their black tentacles allowed them to move at a speed that was no less stunning than his, and made their movements hard to predict. More than that, the tentacles were both supremely flexible and mighty enough to crush enchanted stone with ease. Being caught in their vile embrace meant certain death.

The creatures possessed a pair of human hands, as well. They were insidiously cunning and wielded their weapons with devious skill... worse than that, the Drowned feared neither pain nor death. They knew only a dark and cold resolve to see the enemy fall.

A foe like that was the worst nightmare of an Awakened, especially when there were so many of them.

And that was without even considering the eerie power of the sybil who was twisting the future in favor of the abominations. It was because of her influence that Sunny felt like he was not even one mistake away from dying, but rather one step behind staying alive.

'D-damnation.'

venturing into the flooded temple, but at the same time, it was as if he was back in the crimson labyrinth of the Forgotten Shore - unsure of his footing

he had become accustomed to were gone, replaced by uncertainty. His attacks routinely missed the intended target, while the enemies appeared

now, by expecting failure and imbuing his battle style with as much fault tolerance as he could. Several of the Drowned were already dead, their

...Luckily, Sunny wasn't alone.

allies to

the slaughter. Her graceful figure was surrounded by something much darker than the shadows populating the ancient temple. Jumping into the water, which reached up to her waist, she slammed her round shield into an attacking Drowned Warrior, shattering his spear and bones. Her dark blade moved lightlessly, severing a tentacle that was

Scream, Saint seemed more than capable of fighting in

blazed with indifferent

ogre was also empowered by one of Sunny's shadows... however, he had also been bestowed with a measure of Neph's flame. Unlike the taciturn knight, who could not be augmented by the flame because of her affinity to true darkness, the gluttonous Shadow seemed to

which was usually red, had turned pure white. It was as though an incandescent star was burning

receiving from Saint was not wasted, either. His movements were not quite like those of a seasoned battle master, but still showed a chilling level of skill. Using

to the eerie influence of the sybil due to her sublime mastery of combat, Fiend simply gave up on trying and chose to overpower the enemies with brute force instead. A barrage of blows rained on

under the water, he simply used Shadow Step

Drowned, using

the dark destrier... but several Classes below him. Empowered by the shadow, the darkness shrouding the flooded hall, the fear of his enemies, and the army of nightmares residing in the lightless abyss that served him as a soul, the dreadful stallion