Shadow Slave

In that moment, hovering on the edge of nothingness, Sunny realized that he was about to die.

He had to struggle against the fog that permeated his mind, slowing down his thoughts and dampening all emotions.

All except for fear.

Despite the fact that his body was broken and his mind was paralyzed, some stubborn part of Sunny was still refusing to give up. He wasn’t ready to die. At least not without giving his all to survive.

He was revolted at the thought of giving the world the satisfaction of the win.

That would be so infuriating. Hadn’t he told Hero that he was going to survive no matter what, to spite them all?

That’s right. He might be a shameless liar, but a promise was still a promise.

But… how was he even supposed to survive? No matter how he looked at it, the situation seemed to be hopeless.

As the scythe slayer approached, its eyes shining menacingly with bloodthirsty crimson light, Sunny tried to pierce through the fog that enveloped his mind. However, his attempts were aimless and weak. It was hard to find purchase in the fog.

He needed an anchor.

Suddenly, a simple thought caught his attention. It was something that he had repeated a thousand times, burning it into his mind.

‘Repetition, experience, clarity.’

Clarity…

He remembered what Nephis had taught him. The essence of combat was murder. Any action performed during a battle served only one of two purposes: it was either to kill your enemy or prevent the enemy from killing you.

If he could learn that, he would have enough clarity to master the mind.

Back then, he didn’t really understand the profound meaning behind the simple word “clarity” that Nephis had used. But now, with his mind in shambles, he was finally able to grasp it.

The two truths behind the essence and purpose of combat were simple and solid, almost tangible. Even in his half-conscious state, he was able to use them as a stable foundation in the fog. Then, he reformed his mind around this foundation, building it along the stark lines of that truth.

Suddenly, he was able to think again.

What’s more, his thoughts were clear and incredibly fast, free of all unnecessary distractions.

This was clarity.

***

advancing monster, calmly weighing

much useless. He couldn’t move his limbs at all. The shadow still followed his commands, but it was busy doing an important job — keeping

its help, he wouldn’t be

do anything about it, so there was no sense in wasting

body immobilized, Memories couldn’t

left only

carapace scavenger was going to have to be his only tool to either

quickly approaching Sunny. Its mandibles moved, viscous saliva flowing down from them in a torrent of transparent mucus. In a flash of lightning, he was able to see and instantly register every spike, every

sword was still protruding from its body, washed in azure

‘What an ugly bastard.’

and a mighty body specially

almost majestic… in a

monster closed the distance between them

scythes rose into the

right into the monster’s

hell, you

shot toward his

the last moment, something massive and furious rammed into the monster from the side, throwing

enemy in a chaotic mess of limbs as they rolled on the ground. Despite the

Echo lashed out with its pincers, ramming them against the creature’s carapace in a crazy whirlwind of blows. For a moment, the howling of the wind was drowned out by the clamor of chitin striking against chitin. The

its scythes pinned awkwardly under its body, the monster was more than able to repel the sudden attack. With an angry screech, it sliced with the other scythe, cutting one of the scavenger’s pincer arms clean off. Then, it strained its legs and

leg that was already wounded by Sunny broke off, but

and fury, it untangled its limbs and slowly stood up. Another

what?’ he thought, momentarily lost for

something very unexpected

and lean its torso back to account for the loss of a rear leg and keep its balance. At that moment, a bolt of lightning landed right in the middle of

of the sword that was still sticking from its body, aimed at the sky at a

volts of electricity coursed through the

light, it was thrown to the

monster’s chitin, slowly accumulating on the crimson patterns on it. Under that influence, the

all

‘It’s… glowing?’

lightning was not enough to kill a creature like that.

rather bad shape, it was still alive and full of

limbs and tried to stand up. Slowly but surely, it was coming back to its senses. The bone scythes scraped against the rocks,

before it did, Nephis was suddenly right in front

longsword, she grimaced as the heat burned her hands. Then, she twisted the blade, making the slayer’s body twitch, and pulled it out, breaking apart a large portion of its

out with her sword. The glowing, white-hot blade caught the creature’s arm right below the joint and cleaved through it, sending the terrifying bone scythe