Shadow Slave

1521 Sharpest Arrow

In the courtyard of the drowning fortress, a harrowing dragon growled and took a step back, its massive body shuddering. His silver eyes had lost their sinister light, turning glossy and unfocused.

A vicious battle must have been taking place in the dragon's corrupted soul.

The maddening whispers thundering in Kai's head finally grew silent. He swayed, then took a labored breath and limped toward Sunny.

His friend was laying on the cold stones, barely alive. His body was a terrible painting of torn flesh, white bones visible through its mangled mess. Eerily, he was still not bleeding at all… usually, Kai would have been reassured by that fact, but right now, it looked like Sunny was already a cold corpse.

But he wasn't a corpse. Sunny was still moving, struggling to stand up. Even after battling a Defiled Saint tooth and nail, he was still unbroken, trying to continue to fight.

As Kai approached, he heard his furious whispers:

"Kill you… I'll kill you… shut up! I'll tear you apart!"

Strangely enough, his hateful gaze was not directed at the archer. Instead, Sunny was glaring past him, seemingly at an empty spot.

Kai felt his heart tighten.

'What is happening to him?'

Sunny had always had a wild personality, and there was that time he had turned a little feral in the Dark City… but he was never truly mad. Now, however, it seemed as though his friend had entirely lost his mind.

'There must be a reason.'

He had warned Kai to stay away before, had he not? That meant that this strange condition Sunny was in had a purpose. To resist the authority of the Dread Lord, most likely… somehow. It had to be a part of some cunning scheme.

He would deal with it later.

For now, Kai had a more serious problem to solve.

The abominable dragon was still alive. And while that man, Mordret, seemed confident in himself, there was no telling who would prevail in their dire fight.

The result would be clear in seconds.

But…

dragon with a lost

monsters. He still remembered what the scion of the Great Clan Valor had done in the Second Nightmare. The harrowing massacre he

fine to let the dreadful authority of Kai's voice fall into

Sunny. I'll

himself off the ground. Soaring into the air, he strained his core muscles to

was not capable of producing devastating blasts, or robbing Nightmare Creatures of their strength. Its enchantment

drawback was that the arrow was flimsy and fragile. It was disobedient and slow, too, so hitting anything with it was a tough task. More than that, its tip would shatter against any kind of armor… therefore, it wasn't easy to make use of the insidious

by the battle happening within its soul, Kai had a chance. Of course, the battle could end

even end right now, leaving him defenseless

right to the dragon's maw, and looked into the dragon's

Kai activated his Ascended Ability and uttered

Lord, however.

"KILL HIM!"

his broken body, and a cold,

aimed carefully… and sent an arrow flying straight through the

off course, and there was no armor in the way to make the

It had been shot from a Transcendent bow of the Fifth Tier by the hand of a Master, and

his soul had been

let out a terrible

back and crashed into

blood shooting

then, the mighty dragon toppled and fell heavily to the ground, his silver eyes growing

This time, forever.

conscious, Kai heard the

have slain a Corrupted Tyrant, Hideous Ruler of the Empty

[You have…]

he didn't hear

did, however, hear

in blood. There was something terribly wrong with that lunatic, though. His face, which had seemed to be incapable of

out a stifled groan, Mordret clutched at the stones and crawled to the nearby puddle. Reaching it, he thrust his hand into the water…

looked like a soul shard…

ground, the mirror shard suddenly rippled and turned into a vague figure. That figure then turned into a perfect copy

Reflection, created by ripping one of his