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.

***

the advancing monster, calmly weighing

still followed his commands,

its help, he wouldn’t be able

this was a useless thought. He couldn’t do anything about it, so there was no sense in wasting time

immobilized, Memories couldn’t be

only the

to be his only tool to either kill the enemy or prevent the enemy

transparent mucus. In a flash of lightning, he was able to see and instantly

handle of Changing Star’s sword was still protruding from its body, washed in

‘What an ugly bastard.’

with crimson patterns and a mighty body

was almost majestic… in a terrifying, murderous

monster closed the distance between them and

scythes rose into the air, ready

monster’s burning eyes,

to hell, you overgrown

scythes shot toward his

the monster from

a chaotic mess of limbs as they rolled on the ground. Despite the fact that it was smaller and weaker, its crazy assault and complete disregard for its own life were enough to give the bigger monster

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

sudden attack. With an angry screech, it sliced with the other scythe, cutting one of

the rear leg that was already wounded by Sunny broke off, but the monster

limbs and slowly stood up. Another deafening screech resounded in the howling darkness of the

thought, momentarily lost for

then, something very

slayer moved to finish off the Echo, it had to slightly raise and lean its torso back to account for the loss of a rear leg

of the sword that was still sticking from its body, aimed at the sky at a slight angle. At that moment, Changing Star’s longsword

of

the ground. Whisps of smoke rose from the cracks in its

of events, arcs of residual electricity danced on the monster’s chitin, slowly accumulating on

stared at all this in

‘It’s… glowing?’

strike of lightning was not enough to kill a creature like

rather bad shape, it

its limbs and tried to stand up. Slowly but surely, it was coming back to its

it did, Nephis was

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

quicker. Dashing to the side, she simultaneously lashed out with her sword. The glowing, white-hot blade caught