Shadow Slave

Monsters did possess some rudimentary intelligence, however, they could not compare to humans. At their core, they were still predators who acted mostly on instinct. Their cunning was beastly in nature and was not that hard to overcome. That gave the three Sleepers a chance to leverage their advantage.

After finalizing the plan, they made some preparations.

While Changing Star was getting ready, Sunny had retrieved the soul shards from the eight dead scavengers. After delivering them to the silver-haired girl, he watched as she brought them to her chest and crushed them in her fist one after another, absorbing the essence of each shard into her soul core. After a few minutes, when the changes caused by the absorption were over, Nephis opened her eyes and slowly inhaled.

To a Sleeper, consuming the shards of eight awakened beasts was equivalent to slaying sixteen dormant creatures. While not tremendous, it was still a significant boost in physical ability. Her body had become stronger, faster, enhanced in every way.

They were going to need every bit of that strength to survive.

Because of how attuned Nephis was to her physicality, getting accustomed to her new limits did not take long. Very soon, she looked at him and asked:

“Are you ready?”

Sunny sighed glanced at his shadow, hoping to get some moral support.

The shadow pretended to not notice and ignored him.

‘Disloyal bastard!’

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

Nephis nodded and turned to Cassie.

There was nothing really to say. They had already discussed everything there was to discuss, and empty words could not make the blind girl worry any less. Come to think of it, Sunny wouldn’t have wanted to trade places with her, even though out of the three of them she was the only one who didn’t have to risk her life in combat.

Facing the enemy, no matter how terrifying, was better than waiting powerlessly for the outcome, knowing that there’s nothing you can do to change it. From that point of view, he was actually the lucky one.

Cassie tried to put on a brave face. She turned to Nephis and forced a smile:

“Go and kill that thing. Maybe you’ll finally get something decent to wear and stop making me feel so guilty.”

A corner of Changing Star’s lip curled up.

“Okay.”

After that, she turned to Sunny and returned to her usual serious self.

“Let’s go.”

few minutes later, he was standing on top of the rocky ridge, looking down at the deadly monster. The shadow was wrapped

he still couldn’t get rid of the ominous feeling that this was not going

‘I don’t like this.’

raised his hand

he lightly shook it, causing the clear

***

and looking for the source of the sudden noise. As he saw

did not see any of this, because he was already facing the other way. As soon as the bell rang, he turned around

was still a considerable distance to the ground. Sunny hit the rocks hard and rolled, trying to disperse the force of the impact. As

behind his back. The monster simply crashed into it with its hulking body, breaking through the layers of rocks

onto retreating Sunny and lunged forward, trying to pierce his body with one of its scythes. Shards of rock were flowing like a torrent from

already far enough. Without slowing down, he lowered his body, ran for several more meters, and then turned

of the monster, who was more than three meters tall, rushing at him like a speeding train was enough to make any person falter. However, Sunny stood his ground, raising the Azure Blade above

all, he was the

away from him, the monster

the pouring rain, the golden rope was strung between two massive boulders at the height of

drawn rope and ran into it at full speed. If it was a normal rope, it would, without

rocks it was tied to, unfortunately, were quite mundane. They

damage was

its balance and crashed into the ground face-first, sliding forward on wet stone and leaving behind a shallow trench. Sunny

Almost immediately, two bone scythes pierced the ground, jerking its massive body to a stop. In the next moment, unexpectedly swift and nimble for its

allowed to stand up, their fates

Echo

monster fell, it stopped pretending to be one of the dead scavengers, got up and dashed forward. Just as their enemy was about to rise, it jumped

growing from the monster’s carapace, it succeeded in immobilizing it,

A second was enough.

appeared in front of the monster. Darting between its terrifying scythes, she leaned forward and delivered a devastating thrust with

as its lesser relatives, the scavengers, had. However, there was no reason to

be flexible could not

plunged into the narrow gap. Then, the sword disappeared into the monster’s

yes!’ Sunny

next second, his expression