Shadow Slave

For a few minutes, Sunny simply lay on the ground, letting the rain hit his face. From time to time, a bolt of lightning arced through the skies, drowning everything in blinding light. Other than that, it was almost completely dark. If not for his Attribute, he would have had trouble discerning the shapes of Nephis and Cassie, who were resting nearby.

After some time, however, a feeling of uneasiness entered his mind. Something was off. Sunny scowled, trying to understand where that feeling was coming from. Finally, he realized that it was his shadow. It was trying to draw his attention to something.

‘Please, let me rest. I just want to rest.’

He was too tired to do anything. Both his body and mind were exhausted. However, the shadow was very persistent. It remained adamant.

In the end, Sunny moaned and rolled over on his stomach, then slowly stood up. Nephis turned her head and looked at him.

“What is it?”

He grimaced.

“I don’t know yet. Something feels wrong.”

Cassie shivered and got closer to Neph. Following his shadow’s warning, Sunny looked around, trying to find any sign of danger in their surroundings.

Even with his vision, he couldn’t see anything out of place. The upper part of the cliffs was well above the stormy sea, forming a small island. Its surface was rugged and uneven, with several protruding ridges breaking the line of sight. There was a large space between their group and the nearest ridge. That space was littered, seemingly at random, with piles of dirt and tall boulders.

Nephis got up and summoned her sword.

“Do you see anything?”

Sunny frowned.

“Not really…”

another lightning flashed, briefly illuminating

irregularly shaped. They were black in color and motionless… that’s

them, scavengers were

froze, suddenly consumed by terror. The hairs on the back of his neck bristled and stood up on ends. One, two, three… he lost count because of panic and gritted his teeth.

three humans were not the only ones who thought of taking shelter from the dark sea on these cliffs. He

were

something on his face,

“Sunny?”

turned his head to

speak. Don’t move. Just…

his instructions without asking for the reason.

Cassie did the same.

calm his panicking mind down. There were no hopeless situations. Every problem had a solution. He

yet. Maybe they were asleep or patiently waiting out the storm, trying not to move in fear of attracting more terrifying monsters. Maybe they simply did not notice the humans. After all, it was unknown how well these

There was still hope.

opened his eyes and looked at the small island again. But this time, his perspective was different. He saw the deep darkness, the clamor of the storm that drowned out

a murderous shadow. Didn’t he dream of becoming a silent assassin? Well, here was his chance. He

— all that was left was to put that knowledge to practice. And even if he makes a mistake, there were other means to fall back onto. Echo and Nephis could do their part if

work. It

at Changing Star and

care of

he seemed to dissolve

his breathing controlled. He quickly determined the optimal order of attack to minimize the chance of being discovered and proceeded to the

shadows, Sunny suddenly felt calm and focused. He felt