Shadow Slave

’Why… is this happening to me… twice in a row? W—what is this crap?!’

Sunny was being strangled and drowned, with his mutilated side on fire because of seawater getting into the ugly wound. The hateful Scavenger had turned out to be astonishingly strong for his demure size… or maybe it was Sunny who was too weak.

He was utterly drained of essence, still recovering from being stomped on by a titan, and had a powerful toxin coursing through his veins on top of everything, after all.

In any case, no matter how desperately he tried to shake the little bastard off his body, it was all in vain.

’Argh!’

The thought of surviving an encounter with a Fallen Titan, only to be killed by this pathetic waste of an abomination, made him feel bitter and slighted. Especially because the damned gremlin was barely half his size…

”Just give up. Your life is meaningless, anyway.”

Feeling his consciousness starting to slip, Sunny tried to snarl.

’Shut… the hell… up!’

The Sin of Solace remained silent for a moment, and then laughed.

”...It is amusing how desperately you are trying to survive, knowing that all that is waiting for you is a lifetime of being a slave.”

That was the last drop… no, actually, being ambushed by the odious little goblin had been the last drop. After months of suffering setback after setback and enduring the stress of guiding men through a disastrous war campaign, having to restrain himself to project the image of a capable and composed leader, Sunny had finally had enough of it.

Suddenly, he was very, very angry.

He was positively furious.

Sunny was furious at the world itself, but since the spiteful gremlin was the only creature near him, the bastard was going to have to be the sole target of his anger.

’Come here, you wretched waif…’

Letting go of the two thin, but surprisingly strong hands that were currently strangling him, Sunny reached up and found the creature’s face. The Scavenger immediately tried to bite his fingers off, and a sharp pain pierced Sunny’s right thumb.

Luckily, the scrawny abomination was no Goliath. Bone Weave might have surrendered to the titanic blow of the giant’s stone foot, but it did not give in to the Scavengers unreasonably sharp teeth. So, Sunny had kept his finger, even though it got cruelly mangled.

Not even noticing the pain, he grabbed the hateful gremlin’s face, and then pressed his left thumb into the creature’s eye as hard as he could.

That, at least, got a reaction.

Shocked, the Scavenger recoiled… and even if it was only for a moment, his grip on Sunny’s neck weakened.

That was all he needed.

Shifting beneath the abomination, Sunny managed to bend his knee, insert it between their bodies, and then throw the bastard away. The gluttonous goblin might have been far stronger than he had any business being, but he was still comparatively light. His scrawny body flew away, landing back on the stone shore.

’Where do you think you’re going… I’m not finished with you yet, damned pest…’

Rising from the water, Sunny sucked in a hoarse breath, and then glared at the Scavenger with bloodshot, murderous eyes.

”Come here…”

The spiteful creature was happy to oblige. He jumped back to his feet and lunged forward, but then stumbled and grabbed his abdomen with a confused look.

Sunny grinned.

”What, do you have a stomach ache?”

That was probably Blood Weave doing its thing.

Sunny’s blood was not really poisonous, but it had a disturbing propensity of trying to return to its source when separated from it. So, swallowing a chunk of his flesh was almost like swallowing a handful of metal shavings, and then walking to stand in front of a powerful magnet.

The bastard had to be in a world of pain…

’No... not yet, he isn’t...’

Sunny dashed toward the vile goblin, and used the momentary lapse in their battle to shift his vision and get a look at his enemy’s soul. What he saw surprised him.

The Scavenger, who had started as a tiny pipsqueak of a Nightmare Creature, had not only grown many times its size physically, but also spiritually. Judging by the hideous darkness spreading through his soul, he was now a Fallen Demon… Sunny was pretty sure that the pathetic abomination he had failed to kill at LO49 was both of a lesser Rank and a lower Class, so it was a bit startling.

’Well, no matter. He’ll die all the same…’

The two of them clashed at the edge of the water. The Scavenger was strong, fast, and vicious, but Sunny was augmented by four shadows.

Sadly, the augmentation of the shadows was not set in stone, instead enhancing his own physical state. And since his physical state was currently at the rock bottom, Sunny was still far away from being able to perform at his peak. Weakness multiplied by five might have transformed into a kind of strength, but not the sort he was used to.

Still… he was both bigger and stronger than the feral gremlin, even if the gap was not as large as it was supposed to be. The creature only had a slight advantage in speed.

Wishing to crush the bastard with his own two hands, Sunny tried to grapple the Scavenger and bring him to the ground, but the hateful imp managed to slip from his grasp at the last moment and lashed out with his maimed hand… delivering a vicious blow right into Sunny’s wounded side.

The explosion of pain made stars appear in his eyes. A strange wheezing sound escape from between the abomination’s sharp teeth, sounding almost like… almost like hoarse laughter.

”You wretch!”

Hissing, Sunny caught the abomination’s arm and twisted it. The familiar sound of snapping bones made a smile appear on his face, but a moment later, it was replaced by a pained grimace. Without skipping a beat after having his arm broken, the Scavenger sunk his teeth into Sunny’s forearm, making more blood splatter on the rocks and more venom to enter his system.

”Goddammit!”

Livid, Sunny slapped the scrawny fiend across the head, sending him flying away. Even before the abomination landed, he was already closing in, prepared to annihilate the little bastard.

However…

The Scavenger just happened to fall on a very particular spot on the stone shore. His maimed hand ended up mere centimeters away from the hilt of Sin of Solace, which was still laying on the wet rocks.

The familiar voice laughed coldly.

”Well, would you look at that. What a turn of events…”

Before Sunny could reach the evil goblin, the creature hurriedly reached forward, grabbed the cursed sword, and swung it fiercely in Sunny’s direction.