Shadow Slave

Chapter 40

“Halt!” Sunny whispered, observing the group of scavengers through his shadow.

As soon as the word left his lips, Nephis immediately summoned her sword. After studying the surroundings for a second, she turned her head and glanced at him with a question in her eyes.

Cassia, meanwhile, froze in place and hesitantly raised her staff.

Sunny counted the monsters: one, two, three… five…

‘Curses!’

The hulking beasts seemed like the losers of the pack, similar to the one he had killed. However, their wounds were not as pronounced and terrible. Each of them was much more of a threat than the mangled one from before, and there were half a dozen of them at least.

“There are scavengers on the path ahead, six of them. They’re slowly moving in our direction.”

Nephis cast a gaze forward. There was a calculating look on her face.

“They’re done with the carcass?”

Sunny thought for a moment and then shook his head.

“No, I don’t think so. But maybe there’s not enough meat for everyone anymore, so some stragglers had no choice but to leave with an empty stomach.”

Nephis nodded and gestured to a nearby branching path.

“We’ll circle around them.”

The three Sleepers hastily moved forward and changed paths, giving a wide berth to the group of monsters. Tense and grim, they continued walking, trying to stay on course and not get lost in the labyrinth.

However, in the next hour, they had to turn in a random direction again and again, avoiding other scavengers. The distance between them and the giant statue was not shortening at all.

At some point, they were catching their breath near one of the numerous dead ends of the crimson labyrinth. They had no choice but to wait, since a large number of creatures was moving past their hiding spot, separated from them by a long length of a twisting coral passage.

Sunny sighed and shook his head.

“We can’t go on like that. At this rate, we’ll never make it to safety before sunset.”

Cassie was the first one to react.

“Maybe… maybe we should turn back?”

That was a reasonable suggestion. However, Sunny felt reluctant to agree.

Nephis shared his thoughts. With a blank expression, she said:

“It will only get harder tomorrow.”

She was right. By tomorrow, there would be even more scavengers flooding the labyrinth.

“Then what should we do?”

Changing Star tilted her head, thinking. After a while, she turned to Sunny.

“Fight.”

Fight against dozens of

to hide his derision as

that each of those things is a

Nephis nodded.

avoid large groups. Cut

a moment, she

two of

a good reason. In the

“Fine.”

for a

the corpse of the scavenger

was that

bit surprised, Sunny

“No.”

make it to safety before the sea returned.

think Teacher Julius

short pause, Nephis

Anything that has to be flexible can’t be too rigid. So, there’s gaps in the armor above the joints.

dead monster, one could better understand their strengths and vulnerabilities. This idea was so obvious that Sunny admonished

Meanwhile, Nephis continued:

the carapace. If you manage to accurately hit that spot, you can heavily injure a scavenger and deal serious damage to its body. However, unless you succeed

she talked about things that she

‘Curious.’

their armor. It is where several armor plates connect. The chitin there is comparatively thin.

weak point was too high to be hit by a human — after all, scavengers were more than two

his thoughts, Nephis

hard to target. Circling around a scavenger is almost impossible

him and calmly

be the bait. My task will be to make it turn around and then restrain it, exposing the third

Sunny gulped.

if there’s

usual, Nephis

“Don’t die.”

***

there was a long stretch of the labyrinth with no

far into that passage, a massive scavenger was moving

waited for Changing Star’s feedback. Without much

in

to the wall of the

We’ll

some thought,

“Soon.”

walk away, Cassie grabbed

you… be careful,

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