Shadow Slave

After that, things became hectic.

Sunny had to push himself to the limit to fight against multiple opponents while maintaining the pace with the rest of the group. Knowing that slowing down meant death, he slashed, dodged, blocked and moved back without allowing himself even a moment of respite. Slowly but surely, countless wounds began accumulating on his body.

But even then, it wasn't enough.

So he pushed himself past his limit.

After all, this was the exact situation he had been preparing himself for by enduring the ruthless onslaught of the Stone Saint day after day. The inevitability of having to fight against an overwhelming force.

Dark, vehement fury ignited in his chest, washing away pain and fear.

"Come, come and get me! I'm right here!"

Who did they think they were trying to kill?

Noticing four new abominations answer his call, Sunny couldn't help but laugh.

'Good… good…'

Their assault came fast and without mercy, not leaving him any room to breathe. But Sunny welcomed it.

Dodging one of the skeletons, he dashed forward and positioned himself behind another one, so that its body blocked the path of the third.

He couldn't do anything about the fourth one for the moment, but its attack was accounted for… it was going to hurt like hell, but not to the point of killing him. Blood Weave was going to take care of the rest.

The Midnight Shard cut through the air and severed the undead creature's knee, causing it to clumsily fall to the ground. At the same time, cold fingers tore into Sunny's side. He had already shifted his body to make sure that they were not going to damage any vital organs.

With Puppeteer's Shroud taking most of the damage, Sunny only ended up receiving five deep scratches, which then instantly welled with blood.

'Ah! Crap! That hurts!'

But he didn't regret it. The only thing he regretted was the fact that, with the shadow wrapped around the Midnight Shard, he couldn't observe its movement during this long and arduous fight.

Just imagining the kind of insight he could have gleaned from it filled him with avarice.

Turning around and reversing his grip on the sword, Sunny commanded the shadow to move onto his body. Almost instantly, he felt a rush of power fill his muscles. In the same fluid movement, Sunny took a step toward the monster that had just wounded him and delivered a crushing blow with the pommel of the tachi.

The skeleton's jaw flew away in a rain of broken teeth. Taking another quick step, Sunny circled around the disoriented creature, hooked his hand around its damaged skull, and tore it clean off the spine.

Then he pushed the decapitated creature into the two remaining ones, briefly slowing down their approach. By the time the undead abominations regained their balance, Sunny was already upon them. The Midnight Shard flashed three times, turning the three skeletons into three piles of bones.

Taking a step back, he narrowly avoided the claws of the last remaining skeleton — the one whose leg he had chopped off at the start of the skirmish. Sunny glanced at the creature that was madly crawling toward him and finished it off with one powerful thrust.

Then, he groaned.

'Ah, crap… I think I overdid it…'

Sunny was bruised, hurting all over, and covered in blood. What's worse, he was exhausted. This moving battle was too intense and had lasted for too long. Even with his endurance enhanced by the Blood Weave, he was nearing the point where his performance would start dropping rapidly.

Once that happened, he would die. Because the damn undead creatures were not only immortal, but also tireless.

Just as this thought appeared in Sunny's mind, a new wave of skeletons lunged at him from the depths of the tunnel.

Tiredly raising his sword, he gritted his teeth.

'Time for plan B…'

***

At some point, the tunnel they were currently in was briefly drowned in a brilliant wave of pure white light. Glancing over his shoulder, Sunny noticed that Nephis had finally summoned her flames, channeling them into the blade of her sword — just like on the day they had fought against the Carapace Demon.

Faced with the blinding radiance of the incandescent blade, the skeletons almost seemed to melt.

'Perfect timing!'

Using the momentary disorientation of his own opponents, Sunny dashed back and commanded the Stone Saint to switch places with him. As they passed each other, he sent the shadow from his own body onto that of the taciturn stone knight.

Almost immediately, the Shadow Saint's eyes blazed with menacing carmine fire. Her skin shone with dark radiance, and wisps of ghostly grey fog appeared from beneath her stonelike armor like dancing flames. The impenetrable darkness of the catacombs suddenly seemed to become even deeper, embracing her like a vast black mantle.

'Yeah, I have some tricks up my sleeve too...'

A second later, the Shadow crashed into the undead creatures, sending splinters of bones and severed limbs flying through the air. She proceeded to massacre them, moving from one to another in a graceful storm of darkness and destruction.

Taking her place near Kai and Cassie, Sunny was finally able to rest for a few seconds. His battered body was screaming with pain, and the grey fabric of the Puppeteer's Shroud had turned heavy with blood.

With two wielders of Divine Aspects activating their hidden cards almost simultaneously, the cohort got a chance to catch their breaths for a few short moments. However, it was clear that this calm wouldn't last long.

Sunny didn't really want to show all his cards yet, but the situation left him little choice. He doubted he could continue this mad dash for much longer. Plus, chances were that the rest of the party, preoccupied as they were with their own share of the undead monsters, would either fail to notice the sudden alteration happening to the Stone Saint or assume that it was just an Ability of hers.

Using the opportunity, Sunny took a look at the condition of his companions.

…It was not good.

Changing Star's armor was battered and torn, with blood seeping down her right side. Effie's shield looked like it was on the verge of coming apart, while her white chiton was painted red. Caster managed to preserve some semblance of a collected look, however, there was a deep gash under one of his eyes, his face bloodied and grim.

Kai was doing not much better. He was pale and visibly exhausted, his auburn hair disheveled and soaked with sweat.

...Sunny didn't even want to think about his own sorry appearance.

Only Cassie, whose tier-six armor made her less likely to be attacked by an enemy, looked more or less fine. However, her flying rapier had several visible nicks on its slender blade, and looked tired and dispirited overall… as much as a flying weapon could look like anything.

In short, one thing was painfully apparent from their state.

If things didn't change soon, all of them were going to die…

Skillfully using his sword to cut down a skeleton that had suddenly lunged at him from a side passage, Sunny strained his lungs and shouted:

"Hey! Effie! How far are we from the exit from this damned place?! When is this going to end?!"

Swatting away an undead monster of her own, the huntress briefly glanced back and grinned.

"What do you mean, "end"?!"

'What does she mean what do I mean? Isn't it obvious?'

Turning back to concentrate on the horde of enemies in front of them, Effie yelled:

"What end?! This was just a warm-up!"