Shadow Slave

As a hundred souls plummeted to their deaths in a rain of wooden debris, the four-armed devil who had doomed them to death laughed madly.

Of course, he was falling with the rest… but, unlike most of the warriors on the broken ship, the devil had long grown accustomed to plummeting from great heights. After all, he had once spent a whole month falling into the endless darkness of the Sky Below.

Dissolving into the shadows, Sunny appeared on the deck of the nearest ship. His sword flashed, ending the life of a Sun Legion soldier that stood in his way and sending blood spraying into the night air. There was only a moment before the enemies would shrug off the shock of his sudden arrival… and so, he did not waste any time.

Lunging forward, Sunny struck another warrior in the back with the Cruel Sight, slashed the Midnight Shard across the throat of an enemy archer, and wrapped his tail around the neck of a third soldier. Sending the last one overboard with a powerful throw, he bared his teeth and briefly glanced into the night sky.

Out there in the lightless void, Effie and Kai had managed to slaughter the entire crew of one of the ships and sent the vessel crashing into the rest of the formation. The little girl jumped off the rails at the last moment, and the swift archer caught her, carrying both of them away, toward the next target.

The ship where Saint and Nightmare landed was silent and dark, with not a soul moving on it. Everyone was already dead, and the vessel was careening to the side, ready to plummet down. The black courser galloped across the bloody deck and soared into the sky, breaching a gap of a hundred meters with a single jump and landing among fearful Awakened on a different ship. Saint's scarlet odachi flashed…

The Soul Serpent crashed on the deck of another flying vessel, the previous one he had visited breaking apart as it fell into the darkness. Before the warriors could react to the appearance of the ghastly abomination, its shape suddenly shifted, turning into a mass of liquid darkness. Then, the darkness flowed into a figure of a menacing knight, his black armor forged from a lusterless, anthracite steel and decorated with intricate engravings. The great sword of the knight rose and fell like a guillotine, severing flesh and bone.

Sunny grinned.

'Not bad…'

Effie and Kai had taken out two ships, while he and his Shadows took out four. The gargoyles had destroyed even more… at this rate, obliterating the entire fleet was not going to be as impossible as it had seemed.

But, of course, that was just an illusion.

The main reason for that was a simple but inescapable fact… that their reserves of essence were not going to last that long. Every time Sunny used Shadow Step to travel between ships, he wasted a big chunk of his… not to mention the fact that using multiple active enchantments at the same time was constantly draining it, as well. The Shadow Lantern was especially gluttonous.

Every time Serpent killed an enemy, a small amount of essence flowed into Sunny's cores. However, the formless Shadow was consuming its own essence at a terrible speed — not only did it have to expend it to maintain the form of other creatures, but using their Abilities had a cost, too. The Soul Serpent was not going to be able to keep it up for long.

The second reason was that for now, the cohort had the element of surprise on their side. As soon as the fleet realized what was happening, taking down the ships were going to grow much, much harder.

So, all Sunny could do was deliver as much damage as he could, as fast as he could… and then hope for a miracle.

Of course, with his luck, chances were that he would have to create that miracle himself.

…Killing another enemy, Sunny threw his corpse aside and dashed toward the captain of the ship, hoping to slay him and sow discord in the coordination of the vessel's crew. However, this time, he failed to behead the snake with one swift strike — the officer of the Sun Legion that commanded the ship deflected his attack with frightening ease, and then delivered a blow of his own, throwing Sunny back.

An angry hiss escaped from his lips.

'Damnation!'

The captain… was an Ascended, and one of remarkable might, as well.

Throwing a quick glance at the dozens of warriors surrounding him, Sunny gritted his teeth…

And fought.

He fought, fought, fought… as he had in front of the Gate in the waking world, surrounded from all sides by Nightmare Creatures… using everything he had, every trick and deception he could muster, and every little bit of skill and experience he had earned in the past years.

Soon, the deck of the ship grew slick with blood, most of it human, but not all.

There were a few drops of his own mixed into it, as well, shining with the invisible light of divinity.

Sunny killed as many enemies as he could, and then killed even more. The Mantle of the Underworld rang as a rain of blows landed on it, a few blades finding their way through the thin cracks and biting into his flesh. He spun and danced, reaping lives and jumping through shadows to avoid being entirely surrounded. The Awakened warriors were bad enough…

But their Ascended captain was simply a menace. No matter what Sunny did, the man simply shrugged off all the attacks and pursued, closing distance in a split second no matter how far away from himSunny jumped. This could not go on any longer…

'I… I need to kill this bastard… now…'

Once again forced to cross blades with the Ascended and struggling to withstand the blow, Sunny activated the [Gates of Shadow] enchantment, drowning his immediate surrounding in darkness. The soldiers stumbled, failing to adjust in time. The Ascended, however, had already learned of this ability of his and continued to attack, as though his eyes could adapt to the lack of light.

This would have been very bad for Sunny... if he had not counted on exactly that fact.

Deactivating the enchantment abruptly, he poured his essence into the Cruel Sight instead. Instantly, the darkness was replaced by a flash of brilliant sunlight. The captain might have been able to adjust his eyes to see in the dark… but could he do the reverse in an instant?

Surprised by the sudden burst of radiant light, the Ascended was blinded for a second. And a second was all Sunny needed…

Guided by shadow sense, his spear shot forward, and pierced the man's heart. A pulse of divine flame was all it took to make the terrible wound inescapably lethal.

The rest was if not easy, then at least simple. Sunny faced the remaining soldiers of the crew and slaughtered them one after another. He was this close to victory when his shadow noticed something streaking through the air, aimed at his back.

Sunny flinched, then fell sideways. In the next moment, a massive bolt flew past and struck one of the warriors in the abdomen, throwing the man back like a rag doll and pinning him to the mast, which then exploded into splinters and toppled.

Sunny's eyes grew wider.

...It seemed that the defenders of the Ivory City had finally understood the nature of the threat facing them and responded to it.

Two more ships were hovering some distance away, both aiming their ballistae, as well as numerous arrows, at one spot…

Him.

Sunny gritted his teeth, and then dashed forward as fast as he could…

'Crap!'