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…

at the dragon

Dread Lord, Mordret… both of them were monsters. He still remembered what the scion of the Great Clan Valor had done in the

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

more, Sunny. I'll come back for

from his friend, Kai gritted his teeth and pushed himself off the ground. Soaring into the air, he strained his core muscles to draw

blasts, or robbing Nightmare Creatures of their strength. Its enchantment was rather simple — it burrowed much

was a tough task. More than that, its tip would shatter against any kind

paralyzed by the battle happening within its soul, Kai

right now, leaving him defenseless

brought himself right to the dragon's maw, and looked into the dragon's silver

his Ascended Ability and uttered a

the Dread Lord,

"KILL HIM!"

broken body, and a cold, frightening

sent an arrow flying

to stray off course, and there was no

dragon's eye, pierced through it, and burrowed deep into the creature's brain. It had been shot from a Transcendent bow of the Fifth Tier by the hand of a Master, and so the havoc it wreaked inside the Dread Lord's

battered in the battle against Sunny, and his soul had been weakened by the

dragon shuddered and let

and crashed into the

blood shooting from his open maw. His head drew an arc

and fell heavily to the ground, his silver

This time, forever.

Kai heard the Spell whisper into his

Tyrant, Hideous Ruler of

[You have…]

he didn't hear

did, however, hear a

hand and covered in blood. There was something terribly wrong with that lunatic, though. His face, which had seemed to be incapable of showing earnest emotions, was now twisted by a terrible grimace, an eerie darkness devouring his

his hand into the water… no, into

thing looked like a soul shard… no,

turned into a vague figure. That figure then turned into a perfect

by ripping one of his cores out of