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."

… A few minutes later, he was standing on top of the rocky ridge, looking down at the deadly monster. The shadow was wrapped around his body, enhancing Sunny's physical abilities. Their plan was pretty solid and had a high chance of working.

However, he still couldn't get rid of the ominous feeling that this was not going to end well.

'I don't like this.'

With a sigh, Sunny raised his hand and summoned the silver bell.

Then, he lightly shook it, causing the clear melodic ringing to resound amidst the storm.

***

Immediately, the monster below moved, turning its massive torso around and looking for the source of the sudden noise. As he saw Sunny, a mad crimson flame ignited in its eyes.

However, Sunny did not see any of this, because he was already facing the other way. As soon as the bell rang, he turned around and jumped down from the ridge without a second of hesitation.

The ridge wasn't very tall, but there was still a considerable distance to the ground. Sunny hit the rocks hard and rolled, trying to disperse the force of the impact. As soon as he got back to his feet, he ran, trying to get as far away as possible.

A moment later, the ridge exploded behind his back. The monster simply crashed into it with its hulking body, breaking through the layers of rocks as though they were paper. Simultaneously, there was a flash of lightning and a thunderclap, drowning the loud rumble of the falling debris.

The creature locked 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 its spiked carapace.

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

The picture 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 his head.

After all, he was the bait.

Half a dozen meters away from him, the monster finally reached their trap.

Almost unnoticeable in the darkness and the pouring rain, the golden rope was strung between two massive boulders at the height of the creature's leg joints. Earlier, Sunny had lowered his body to run beneath it.

Overwhelmed by bloodlust, the monster did not notice the tautly drawn rope and ran into it at full speed. If it was a normal rope, it would, without a doubt, immediately snap. However, the golden rope was a Memory, and being incredibly sturdy was one of its attributes.

The rocks it was tied to, unfortunately, were quite mundane. They shattered almost immediately.

But the damage was already done.

With its front legs suddenly jerked backward, the scythe slayer lost its balance and crashed into the ground face-first, sliding forward on wet stone and leaving behind a shallow trench. Sunny jumped away.

The monster was unperturbed. 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 size, it was already beginning to rise.

If it was allowed to stand up, their fates would be sealed.

Fortunately, Sunny's Echo was faster.

The moment the 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 on its carapace from behind, pinning the creature down with its weight, and locked its pincers on the creature's arms just beneath the point where the bone scythes began.

Despite the fact that the Echo was wounded by the spikes growing from the monster's carapace, it succeeded in immobilizing it, at least for a second.

A second was enough.

As though out of nowhere, Nephis, who was lying in ambush, appeared in front of the monster. Darting between its terrifying scythes, she leaned forward and delivered a devastating thrust with her longsword, putting her whole weight behind it.

They didn't know if the awakened monster had the same weak spot on its back as its lesser relatives, the scavengers, had. However, there was no reason to assume that there was no gap between its carapace and torso armor. It was a mechanical issue.

Anything that had to be flexible could not be too rigid.

The tip of Changing Star's sword plunged into the narrow gap. Then, the sword disappeared into the monster's body, penetrating so deep that its hilt ended up brushing against the chitin.

'Hell yes!' Sunny thought, triumphant.

However, in the next second, his expression dimmed.

Because the creature didn't even seem to notice the wound that was supposed to be if not fatal, then at least heavily debilitating. Straining its body a little, it suddenly twisted, throwing the Echo off its carapace, and rose to its feet. The bone scythes scraped against the rock as it pulled them out from the ground.

Defenseless, Nephis was right in front of it, her sword still stuck in the monster's flesh.

'Oh no!'

Sunny was too far away to do anything, circling around the massive creature to attack it from behind. The Echo was on the ground, still reeling from being thrown off the enemy's back. It didn't seem like it could help either.

For the moment, Changing Star was on her own.

The scythes pierced the air, aiming for her flesh. At the last moment, however, a pair of pincers locked one of them into an iron grip. That gave Nephis another fraction of a second to react.

Letting go of the sword, she dove under the creature's body, hiding in the blind spot of the remaining scythe's attack range. As far as hiding places went, this one wasn't optimal, since all the monster had to do to crush her into a bloody pulp was to lie down. However, in that moment, Nephis had no other choice.

'This is bad, this bad...'

By then, Sunny was already behind the creature. Hoping to buy Neph some time, he brandished the Azure Blade and slashed down. The sword connected with the joint of one of the monster's rear legs, drawing azure blood. However, unlike how it was in the battle against a scavenger, he failed to completely sever the limb. It was too tough and thick.

In the next moment, the leg disappeared from Sunny's field of vision.

'Crap.'

As that thought appeared in his mind, Sunny raised his head and looked at the monster. Somehow, it had already turned around and was now facing him, two crimson flames burning with bloodlust in its eyes.

Before Sunny could properly react, the sharp tip of a bone scythe hit him in the chest with the force of a siege ram. The only thing he managed to do was to transfer the shadow from his body to the Puppeteer's Shroud.

Because of this lightning-fast decision, the armor held. He wasn't pierced through the heart and impaled on the scythe.

However, it was a small consolation.

The force of the blow was still enough to make his ribcage cave in and send his body flying through the air like a rag doll.

… Somehow, Sunny found himself lying on the ground. His body felt weird, and he couldn't breathe. Something bitter was flowing from his mouth, making him choke.

It was blood. He was drowning in his own blood.

Weakly, Sunny tried to move, but his limbs wouldn't listen to him. Only the shadow listened, enveloping his body and delaying the inevitable a little.

'I'm hurt...'

With his thoughts moving slower and slower, as though submerged in a dense fog, he looked up, hoping to see the stars.

Instead, he saw two burning crimson eyes approaching him from the darkness.