Shadow Slave

Sunny waited for a moment, then slowly straightened and looked around. The Chain Breaker was laying on white sand, tilted awkwardly.

'Damnation!'

His trembling fist collided with the railing and splintered the enchanted wood. He didn't feel the pain.

'Curse it! Curse it all!'

"Sunny? Are you alright?"

Sunny lingered for a moment, took a labored breath, then looked himself over and slowly turned to Nephis.

His voice sounded hoarse:

"...Yes. It seems that I am."

In the end... he still lost to Undying Slaughter.

The odds seemed to be in his favor. He successfully avoided having his shadows destroyed, summoned Saint and Fiend, and managed to wrestle the initiative from the ghostly claws of the mist wraith.

However, the battle did not go how he had hoped it would. It ended in disaster, just like the previous time.

Sunny had been almost certain that Saint would be immune to Undying Slaughter's soul attacks. And it turned out to be true... somewhat. It seemed that she could withstand much more damage than the rest of them, but even then, the ghostly blade was just as lethal to the taciturn knight as it was to Sunny and Fiend.

The reason, as he belatedly realized, was the unique nature of Jet's Aspect. Her attacks bypassed physical defenses and struck the soul... and yet, they were not true soul attacks. Instead, they were physical attacks that inexplicably dealt damage to the soul.

supposed to

to destroy it. Other than enduring the damage or avoiding being hit entirely,

Slaughter, but actually withstanding her dreadful assault was almost impossible. The mist wraith was astonishingly swift, devastatingly strong, and

an inexplicable one, too. Sunny had just enough time to catch a glimpse of what hid in the darkness

her soul. But that node... was truly colossal in size, dwarfing any other corruption

could both block and damage intangible beings, Undying Slaughter was at least forced to change tactics. After clashing with them a few times, the mist wraith silently discarded her ghostly form, turning back

version of the members of the cohort, they were instantly dispelled at that moment. Undying Slaughter looked more like a revenant, both dreadful and dreadfully beautiful, than a human being... but there was no way he could fail

Reaper Jet... or rather, had

once, but there was nothing human left in her

a corporeal form,

with the real Jet was shattered almost instantly. Undying Slaughter read his intentions like an open book, and

he had so arduously won was immediately lost when the revenant aimed all her attacks at Jet instead of him, Saint, or Fiend.

was a simple, but viciously

and terrifyingly strong Undying Slaughter was, the rest of the battle did

which Sunny considered nearly indestructible, was eventually pierced and violently split open, the infernal flames spilling out of horrid wounds like blood. The ravenous ogre collapsed with a frightened, confused howl and grew

her limbs were broken. Ruby dust flowed like a river, and although the taciturn knight tried to stand her ground, the ghostly blade eventually found its way into the narrow crack of her visor. The crimson glow of her ruby eyes

announced

he would be next... but Undying Slaughter was not

die before

deck of the Chain

anyone fight

fine. I can still put

flinched and looked

expression and repeated her usual words... it was just a

a strange sense of incongruity. Mere seconds ago, Sunny had been fighting for his life, watching his Shadows