Shadow Slave

A clear and melodic sound of a ringing bell reverberated through the air above the Labyrinth, alerting the monstrous spiders hiding in the enormous cocoon of grey webs that a new prey came knocking on their door.

Moments later, swift bodies clad in heavy plates of iron armor shot from beneath the grey spiderweb, moving through the steel wires with terrifying speed. There were enough Nightmare Creatures in that wave to obliterate anything that stood in their way… seemingly.

However, what stood in their way were two figures — one tall and boisterous, the other one on the shorter side and radiating a strange feeling of indifferent firmness.

They were Effie and the Stone Saint. Both held their shields raised, the tips of their weapons resting on their edges. As the huntress grinned, the Shadow silently struck the rim of her shield with the blade of her sword twice.

As if answering that call, a vicious black arrow suddenly appeared from somewhere above, hitting the leading spider right in one of its many eyes. The monster's legs buckled, and it fell to the ground, forcing those creatures that followed behind to either dash around or jump over the massive body.

A fraction of a second later, the wave of spiders crashed into the small shield wall. A deafening roar of iron striking against iron resounded under the grey skies of the Forgotten Shore like a thunderclap. Despite the furious force if the assault, Effie and the Stone Saint somehow held — at least for now.

As soon as the momentum of the iron spiders was slowed down a little, Nephis and Caster appeared out of nowhere and attacked the mass of repulsive creatures from the sides. At the same time, a stonelike sword and a beautiful bronze spear lashed out from behind the shields.

Black blood splashed into the air.

Meanwhile, Sunny softly landed on the ground behind the Nightmare Creatures and stealthily moved through the shadows, swiftly approaching them from the back. The Midnight Shard flashed, sending one of the spiders into the embrace of death.

[You have slain an awakened beast…]

Without listening to the Spell, Sunny used the precious moments before the enemy noticed his presence to wreck as much havoc as possible. His tachi moved twice more, severing several limbs and heavily wounding another abomination. After that, the spiders finally reacted to his treacherous attack…

'Not treacherous... just... smart!'

With Effie and the Stone Saint holding the front, Nephis and Caster attacking from the sides, and Sunny closing the trap from behind, the monstrous arachnids were now surrounded from all sides.

…Well, sort of.

Of course, a small group of dormant humans could never hope to truly surround this many superior Nightmare Creatures, not even with the help of a monster of their own. Trapped or not, as soon as the iron spiders had the time to react, they could easily overwhelm and tear them to pieces.

Especially Sunny, who was behind the line these vicious creatures and all alone. If the spiders decided to shift the focus of their attack, he would be dead in seconds.

As another black arrow hit one of the larger spiders in the abdomen, Sunny hissed and dove under a spider scythe, then thrust his sword forward, ruthlessly piercing the head of the beast through its open, salivating mouth.

[You have…]

With no time to tear the Midnight Shard from the spider's corps, Sunny let go of its hilt and jumped back, narrowly avoiding being crushed by another ironclad creature.

The few seconds of the advantage they had were coming to an end. A moment or two later, the spiders were bound to come to their senses. Even though the cohort had managed to kill ten or so in this short window of time, there were still enough of the deadly creatures to rip them to shreds.

Sunny didn't even have to look at Nephis to feel the shift in her movements. The silent understanding the two of them developed during their journey through the Labyrinth many months ago was still there, allowing them to cooperate perfectly without the need to use any words, as though they were two parts of the same whole.

In fact, despite the rift in their relationship, this bond was stronger than ever.

Perhaps because they understood each other so much better now... for better or for worse.

Ah, it was so exhilarating to fight side by side with Changing Star once again…

Just before the spiders were able to turn the tide of the battle in their favor, Effie and the Stone Saint — who was following Sunny's command — suddenly moved to the sides.

Nephis, Caster, and Sunny braced themselves.

Behind the improvised shield wall stood Cassie. She was holding a wooden staff in her hands, while an elegant rapier hovered in the air above her shoulder.

The tip of the rapier pointed directly at the spiders. As though following the direction of the Quiet Dancer's blade, Cassie moved her staff and activated its enchantment.

Immediately, a powerful gust of hurricane wind slammed into the mass of the Nightmare Creatures, sending several of them reeling and throwing clouds of dust into the air. Of course, it wasn't strong enough to truly throw these abominations off their balance or damage them in any way.

However, that wasn't the plan.

Spider kin of these creatures back on Earth had a uniquely powerful sense of hearing. Which was rather strange, considering that they had no organs that resembled ears at all. The truth of the matter was that spiders were able to feel the vibrations of sound waves.

They were also masterful architects, using the vibrations in the specially created threads weaved into their webs to sense the movements of their prey from afar.

These Nightmare Creatures were much the same. As the powerful wind threw dust into the air and made every wire of every surrounding spiderweb vibrate all at once, they were momentarily disoriented.

The members of the cohort were waiting for this exact moment. Instantly, they attacked with ferocious determination, spilling rivers of viscous black blood onto the ground. Sunny himself had already gotten his austere sword back, and now used its razor-sharp blade to gut the beast that had forced him to retreat a couple of seconds ago.

[You have slain…]

By the time the iron spiders came back to their senses, their numbers were significantly diminished.

…But there were still so many of them.

After that, the battlefield became consumed with chaos. There was no time for plans or tactics anymore. Every member of the cohort had to face off against multiple opponents, fighting with desperate resolve against enemies that surpassed them both in terms of personal power and numbers.

Only the Stone Saint was calm and indifferent, moving through the ranks of the iron spiders like a graceful incarnation of pure darkness.

The battle fell apart into several small pockets of fearsome violence. Kai was trying to support his companions from above, but with how intense the fighting got, he was having trouble finding the opportunities to take shots without risking hitting them.

He was too afraid to take a risk, knowing all too well how harrowing the effects of the Blood Arrow were. If even the Nightmare Creatures of higher rank were doomed to succumb to a torturous death after being wounded by the ghastly Memory, humans like them had no chance of surviving.

For now, people on the ground were on their own.

...Sunny was struggling against two ironclad abominations, gritting his teeth in exasperation. The damn bastards were too fast to reliably hit them in the gaps in armor and too damn powerful to face them directly. As the result, he was forced to constantly dance between the two of them, dodging the whirlwind of strikes that rained on him from all sides.

"Curses!"

Jumping back, he held the Midnight Shard with one hand and used another to throw the Prowling Thorn in the direction of one of the spiders. The creature easily dodged the kunai and continued its attack, threatening to slice Sunny's hand clean off.

He had no choice but to retreat once again.

…Behind the menacing beast, the throwing dagger continued to spin. A few moments later, it cut a smooth arch in the air and flew back, as if turning into a boomerang.

Sadly, just like the spiders back on Earth, these repulsive creatures had an almost absolute field of vision. The seconds spider simply moved its head down at the last moment without even bothering to turn it, dodging the heavy kunai that approached it from behind.

But Sunny was never trying to wound the Nightmare Creatures with the Prowling Thorn, to begin with. Instead, he wanted to let them taste their own medicine.

A moment later, the invisible string of his kunai drew taut, wrapped around two massive bodies. Just like prey used to be caught in their webs, the iron spiders were now caught by the invisible string of the Prowling Thorn, tripping over it and crashing into each other.

Sunny dashed forward and let the Midnight Shard sing. The graceful blade flashed twice, sending two ugly spider heads spinning into the air.

[You have slain an awakened beast, Iron Spider.]

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

Kicking one of the heads away, Sunny swiftly glanced around, searching for a new enemy.

But there were none.

[...You have slain an awakened beast, Iron Spider.]

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

[You have received a Memory.]

The gargantuan cocoon of steel spiderwebs was empty. Corpses of its previous inhabitants littered the ground, oozing with black blood.

The cohort had cleared the entire nest full of Awakened abominations.

No matter how incredible, this was the undeniable truth.

They had won.