Shadow Slave

After wielding a gun for the first time in his life...

Sunny was highly amused.

‘Wow. What a refined and lofty experience!’ He had already shot half a dozen enemies dead, and he wasn’t even out of breath. All he needed to do in order to kill someone was point the gun in their general direction and pull the trigger. Sure, there was a lot of noise, some recoil, and he had to run around and crouch from time to time, but overall, Sunny had not broken a sweat yet. It was in such stark contrast with how he usually fought battles. Out there in the real world, Awakened almost always engaged their enemies in melee — it was an intense, demanding process that put a dire strain on the entire body. Every blow reverberated in their very bones, and every clash left them feeling bruised and battered even if they had not sustained any injuries.

It was utterly exhausting.

Even ranged weapons such as bows, slings, and javelins required one to exert themselves until their muscles were on the verge of tearing.

Compared to that, using a gun was like a leisurely walk in the park. So, Sunny was slowly developing a very positive opinion of this quaint weapon...

That was until he got shot in the chest, of course.

“O-oof!”

Before Sunny knew it, he was thrown back. The air had been pushed out of his lungs, and his entire body went numb for a few seconds. The pain of the impact had not arrived yet, but he could already tell how much it was going to hurt all too soon. The bulletproof vest seemed to have caught the bullet, and yet...

Sunny felt like he was back in Antarctica, being kicked by Goliath all over again. ‘Damn it!”

He staggered back into the guard tower and almost rolled down the stairs — he would have, if not for the fact that Morgan caught him calmly by the collar. Her fingers sliced through the fabric of his jacket and left shallow cuts on his skin, but it was better than breaking his neck on the stone steps. The Other Mordret hurriedly pulled Sunny back to the landing.

”Detective Sunless! Are you alright?”

Sunny gave him a pained look and finally managed to push some air into his lungs. His entire chest felt like one big bruise, and his ribs were pulsing with pain.

He missed Bone Weave.

“Alright... is a strong word. I’m some right.” ‘Lhate guns!”

Looking at his own revolver in utter disgust, Sunny suppressed a pained groan.

What a barbaric, vulgar weapon it was. Truly something that only shameless people would use — talentless hacks who lacked taste and discernment, let alone the training and dedication needed to wield more deserving weapons.

Cursing under his breath, Sunny leaned into the doorframe of the guard tower, hurriedly discharged his remaining rounds into one of the mercenaries, and ducked back.

Effie retreated into the protection of the tower at the same time, breathing heavily as she pressed herself into the cold stones. A rain of bullets hit the opposite wall a split second later, showering them in stone dust.

”There’s... really a lot of them there.”

Sunny cursed again while reloading his gun. They tried to open fire once more, but had to retreat behind cover almost instantly. The narrow entrance to the battlements was a natural bottleneck that made for a deadly firing range — with how many henchmen there were on the castle wall, advancing further seemed like an impossible task.

There was a silver lining to their difficult situation, though. As long as the mercenaries were concentrating their fire on Sunny and Effie, they were not shooting Saint.

“I think we need a plan.”

Effie glanced at him, then at the doorframe of the guard tower.

Then, she holstered her revolver and grinned.

”One plan, coming right up!”

Sunny raised his eyebrows.

”What are you...”

Before he could finish the sentence, Effie left her cover and stepped into the open. A bullet grazed her forearm, but she ignored it and grabbed the handle of the door they had thrown open a little earlier, then slammed it shut. ℞άΝȱＢĘs̩

Then, still holding the handle, Effie took half a step back...

And slammed her shoulder into the heavy wooden door, taking it clean off its hinges. As Sunny’s eyes widened, both Effie and the door continued moving, flying into the open — before the door fell, however, Effie grabbed its side with her other hand and held its massive weight in front of her.

It was as if she was holding an oversized tower shield, using it to repel the barrage of bullets.

”.doing, you lunatic?!”

Using the momentum to propel herself, Effie dashed forward. He could see her muscles straining to bear the weight of the heavy wooden door, but even though it was being pummeled by a barrage of bullets, Effie did not drop it.

Neither did she slow down.

A few moments later, Effie crashed into the mercenaries like a bowling ball, sending several of them flying off the tall wall into the courtyard. A few more were either thrown to the ground or incapacitated, with too many broken bones between them all to count.

Finally losing balance, Effie dropped the door and fell down, as well. Devoid of her improvised tower shield and sprawled on top of it, she was a perfect target for the remaining mercenaries...

However, none of Madoc’s henchmen received a chance to shoot her while she was down.

Because Sunny had not been just watching Effie’s mad dash with an open mouth. Almost immediately after she dashed out of the guard tower, he followed.

Now, jumping over her, he found himself standing between the remaining mercenaries.

They were in the process of raising their guns to aim at him, but to Sunny, it seemed like they were moving in slow motion.

He grinned.

‘Let me impart some culture to you, savages.’ Pulling his knife out of a hidden sheath on the small of his back, he held it in his left hand while the revolver was in his right. Then, Sunny raised his gun and shot the first of the mercenaries in the face.

‘Let me teach you the real meaning of savagery, as well...’