Shadow Slave

There were several ancient archers aiming at him already, and more and more of the hunters were appearing from the darkness. Some wielded bows, some spears with jagged flint blades and crude axes.

Those were Awakened Monsters, each and every one — equal in Rank and Class to Carapace Centurions Sunny had fought once, a long time ago, on the Forgotten Shore.

And to Sunny himself, technically.

…A much tougher enemy for him to slaughter.

Luckily, unlike the massive centurions, the hunters werenʼt covered in adamantine chitin from head to toe.

Ducking under the flying arrow, Sunny lunged forward and thrust the tip of the odachi into the desiccated flesh of one of the bowmen. The black, bark-like skin offered a lot of resistance to the shadow-honed blade, but the force of the blow was terrible enough to rip through flesh and bone, allowing it to pierce the body of the hunter and emerge from his back.

Sunny just hoped that these bastards had anatomy similar to humans, and that their hearts were located in the same place.

From the look of it, they were… however, the monster did not react to having his heart destroyed as a human would. Instead of dying, he simply grabbed the blade of the Shadow Serpent and took a step forward, skewering himself deeper onto it, in an attempt to reach Sunny with the other hand.

ʼCurses!ʼ

Sunny twisted the blade, severing the monsterʼs fingers, and then pulled the odachi upward, slicing through his ribcage, neck, and skull.

This, finally, caused the bowman to die.

[You have slain an Awakened Monster, Ancient Barrow Wraith.]

ʼRevenants… great! Simply great, damn it!ʼ

So he was fighting corpses that were possessed by some sort of a murderous spirit… as such, the hunters werenʼt fully sentient. That didnʼt stop them from remembering some of their craft, though. Not only were they able to wield their stone weapons with deadly skill, they also seemed to coordinate their attacks, herding Sunny like prey.

The archers moved apart so that he would have no choice but to show his back to one while attacking another. Those with melee weapons rushed forward, aiming to surround him. The situation was quickly turning desperate.

Sunny gritted his teeth, dodged a strike of a stone axe, saw it shatter the asphalt into dust, and lashed out with the Shadow Serpent. Just a moment after the blade of the great odachi severed the attackerʼs legs, another arrow hit him in the shoulder, causing Sunny to stagger and almost lose his balance.

He glanced around him, noticing that the enemies had succeeded in positioning themselves in a way that would have doomed a normal enemy. He was surrounded from all sides, with archers hiding behind mighty hunters wielding spears and axes.

ʼDamn it. I didnʼt want to do this…ʼ

As a dozen arrows streaked through the air to bite at his armor… Sunny suddenly disappeared.

A moment later, he appeared behind one of the archers and decapitated him with one terrible strike.

Before others even had time to register what had happened, Sunny was inexplicably at the opposite side of their formation, his odachi piercing the head of another archer.

Almost leaving afterimages behind, the figure of the warrior in the menacing onyx armor seemed to blink between half a dozen monsters in the span of a few seconds. Each time it appeared, one of the creatures died, their black bodies crumbling into piles of severed limbs and shattered skulls. The blade of the great odachi shone with dark radiance, cutting through the ancient hunters like a reaperʼs scythe.

A few moments later, Sunny slid backward on the broken asphalt, leaving a bloody trail behind.

A low growl escaped from beneath his mask.

Enhanced by the [Underworld Armament], the enchantment of the Blood Blossom was behaving strangely. It was supposed to augment his Memories, Echoes, and Shadows, but with so much blood flowing to the ground, Sunny found that even his body and mind were being affected by the morbid charm a little.

He felt both exhilarated and frustrated — exhilarated by the slaughter he was perpetrating, and frustrated because he wanted… needed… to kill more, cut more, make them bleed more, more, more, so much more…

ʼBlood... blood... more!ʼ

Sunny basked in the ecstasy of bloodshed for a split second, and then lashed out at himself, making the rabid thirst recede.

He needed to be careful. This bloodlust was beneficial, but could easily blind him. He had to maintain clarity… that was the only way to control the flow of the battle and survive. Thankfully, he knew how to keep a cool head better than most.

…Regardless, although using Shadow Step so many times in rapid succession cost him a lot of shadow essence, he had managed to break the enemy formation and eliminate most of the archers. The rest were going to be much easier to deal with now.

But of course, the Gate was not done with him. It continued to spew more and more enemies, making any progress he had made meaningless.

As a new wave of hunters emerged from the darkness, a frenzied mass of hounds rushing between the wraiths, he paled a little.

ʼ...Too many!ʼ

No matter how superior his armor, weapon, and skill were, he was going to get buried under the tide of Nightmare Creatures due to their momentum.

And even if he managed to cut a hole in the wall of abominations, the rest were going to move past him and descend upon the six Awakened, and then, inevitably, escape into the streets of the city.

Toward Rainʼs school.

ʼDamn! This is going to suck!ʼ

As the new wave of creatures lunged forward, joining the survivors of the previous one, Sunny shifted his Memories around. For a brief second, the Broken Oath took the place of the Blood Blossom, its soul-eroding aura being inherited and enhanced by the Mantle of the Underworld.

A wave of nausea washed other Sunnyʼs mind.

ʼArgh!ʼ

A mental scream rang in his head.

Luckily, he was prepared for the pain. His armor provided him with a solid defense against soul attacks, too… even ones coming from the Mantle itself. The attacking Nightmare Creatures, on the other hand, had no resistance to it at all…

Sunny had only kept the Broken Oath active for a second before changing the slotted charm back to the Blood Blossom, but it was enough to break the momentum of the tide of abominations.

The hunters staggered, the hounds stumbled and slowed down. For a brief moment, the whole mass of monsters seemed disoriented.

Sunny used this opportunity well.

The dark figure wearing a fearsome mask suddenly appeared in the very middle of the enemies, and before the Nightmare Creatures could regain their bearing, the great blade of the odachi turned into a whirlwind of darkness, leaving clouds of bloody mist and severed corpses everywhere he went.

Sunny had abandoned Saintʼs grounded style, reduced the weight of the Mantle of the Underworld to that of a feather, and turned to pure offense, dancing between the enemies like a dark, slaughtering demon.

For now, he was still at his peak…

But exhaustion was already not too far behind. As he fought, his breath was slowly becoming hoarse and labored.

ʼHow… how long has it been?ʼ

He thought back to what had happened until now…

And felt the first hint of desperation.

Just a couple of minutes.

The whole battle took slightly more than two minutes.

And he had to continue for at least eleven more…

😉