Shadow Slave

‘Crap!’

Jumping into the bottomless dark abyss, Sunny briefly regretted every decision he had ever made in his life.

How did he end up in this situation? Where did he go wrong?

However, there was no time for self-reflection. He wasn’t ready to see his whole life flash before his eyes yet.

There were more pressing matters.

Before the momentum of his jump waned, Sunny summoned the Prowling Thorn. By the time the triangular dagger materialized in his hand, he was already beginning to fall. Not wasting any time, Sunny threw it with as much power as he could while simultaneously sending the shadow from his hand onto the blade of the kunai.

The throwing dagger flashed in the darkness of the underground cavern, streaked the wide chasm, and embedded itself into the hard rock on the other side of it. Because of the enhancement of the shadow, it got deeply lodged in the stone.

‘Yes!’

A moment later, the invisible string connecting the Prowling Thorn to Sunny’s wrist drew tight. Instantly, his hand was violently jerked forward. Holding on for his dear life, Sunny swung through the darkness with incredible speed. Behind him, dozens of skeletons plummeted into the chasm, with more being pushed down with each second.

However, he was already far away.

‘Ha! Bite it, you bastards!’

A couple of seconds later, all humor was smashed out of him by the hard impact against the opposite wall of the crevice. Sunny tried to soften the blow a little, but it still hurt like crazy. His bones groaned, on the verge of breaking apart.

A couple of them probably did.

Sunny blacked out for a moment or two. When he came back to his senses, his wrist was in agony, with the invisible string of the Prowling Thorn slowly cutting deep into its skin. Hissing, Sunny gripped the thin string with his other hand and relieved a part of the pressure.

Then, he looked up.

Ten or so meters above him, five pale faces hovered above the edge of the cliff. On them were written expressions of horror, shock, and astonishment.

‘Oh. Right. I guess they don’t know about this Memory of mine.’

To the cohort, his desperate trick must have looked like… simple suicide. From the perspective of people who didn’t know about the secret enchantment of the Prowling Thorn, Sunny just took a running start and jumped into the abyss, only to disappear into its darkness without a trace.

It was as though he had chosen to sacrifice his life to give the others a chance to escape. Like some sort of a stupid hero would.

‘Do they even know me? Like I’d ever do something like that…’

Swinging on the invisible string, Sunny strained his aching chest and yelled:

“Hey, idiots! I’m down here!”

Slowly, four of the five faces turned to look straight down. Their expressions were rather comical.

Cassie simply tilted her head.

…But her expression was priceless as well.

Grinning, Sunny began to climb up. Since the string of the Prowling Thorn could change its length at will, he commanded it to shorten and rode comfortably all the way up, stepping lightly on the vertical wall of the chasm from time to time to make the process faster.

Soon, he climbed over the edge of the cliff and sprawled on the cold ground, breathing heavily.

The rest of the cohort just stared at him.

“…What?”

Effie was the first to speak:

“Uh… glad you’re alive, Sunny. But also… what the hell? How did you do that?”

He simply threw her the kunai. Once the huntress bent down to pick it up, Sunny pulled on the invisible string and made the dagger fly back into his hand.

“Oh, that? That was a piece of cake. Nothing that a knife and a piece of string can’t solve… more or less.”

He decided to omit the fact that he had almost soiled his pants in the few short moments between jumping off the edge of the chasm and successfully embedding the Prowling Thorn into the rocks on the other side of it.

Effie blinked a couple of times, then slowly straightened herself up.

“…Cool Memory. Where did you get it?”

Sunny dismissed the kunai and tiredly waved his hand.

“You know those porcupine monsters back in the city? I got it off one of those.”

Nephis made a move to try and heal them, but was stopped by Effie. The huntress darkly shook her head.

“Not yet. There’s one last hurdle to overcome. We’ll need you to be at the top of your game.”

Changing Star glanced at her, lingered for a few moments, but then sat back down. Out here, the word of the pathfinder was the law. If Effie said that Nephis needed to save her strength, then she had to obey.

Sunny was too exhausted to care. He knew that he was not going to bleed out thanks to the Blood Weave, and that was enough for now.

He just wanted to rest.

Some time later, he heard a shuffling sound and looked up to see Kai sitting down near him. The charming archer looked way too pretty and put together for a person who had just lived through the same mayhem as them, but Sunny was starting to suspect that this infuriating trait was just something he would have to come to terms with.

Maybe Kai had some weird Attribute that made him look good no matter the circumstance.

Looking at the beautiful young man, Sunny sighed and said:

“Hey, Night. How are you doing?”

Kai scratched the back of his head and answered:

“Ah… alright, I guess. That was intense back there, huh?”

Sunny nodded.

“Yeah. So… what’s up?”

The charming archer hesitated for a bit.

“Nothing, really. I just wanted to say three things to you.”

‘What a strange guy.’

“Oh? Alright, go on.”

Kai looked at him thoughtfully and said:

“Well, first of all, I now fully understand what you meant when you said that you are crazy. Because that jump of yours… that was really crazy!”

Sunny chuckled.

“I guess so. I’m alive, though, aren’t I?”

The archer gave him a nod and smiled.

“Another thing I wanted to say is that I also understood how you managed to survive all those months in the ruins. Your swordsmanship… I’ve never seen anything like it. I think that very few people in the Dark City would survive a clash against you. So, everything makes more sense now.”

Sunny didn’t know how to feel about that praise. On one hand, it was nice to be acknowledged for something he worked so hard on. On the other hand, he still preferred being considered a cowardly weakling.

It made killing fools far easier.

He shrugged.

“Thanks, I guess. What is the third thing?”

Kai was silent for a long time, as though trying to find the right words. Finally, he shook his head and cautiously said:

“Right. About that jump of yours… you do remember that I can fly, right? So I could have carried you over the chasm, no problem. So, uh… why did you do it?”

Sunny stared at him silently for a while, an inexorable expression on his face.

‘…Goddamit.’

To be honest, in the chaos of it all, he did forget about this crucial detail.

After a long stretch of awkward silence, Sunny opened his mouth and said in a flat tone:

“Oh, you know. It just seemed like a good idea at the moment.”

Kai blinked and gave him a strange look.

“A… a good idea?”

Sunny cleared his throat, then glared at the charming young man.

“It worked, didn’t it? So… let’s not talk about it again… ever. Okay?”