Shadow Slave

From what Sunny could see — and he rarely got the chance to glance in that direction, embroiled in a furious and lethally dangerous battle of his own — the Corrupted creature and the Saint were at an impasse of sorts.

The Terror did not seem to have a lot of physical power. His graceful petals possessed a harrowing strength, of course, but not enough to threaten the Transcendent in his bestial form. Not all Saint transformations were those of beasts, and out of the ones that were, not all possessed overwhelming physical might.

But Bloodwave certainly did.

The monstrous killer whale attacked again and again, and the pallid blossom avoided his teeth and fangs again and again. Its shorter petals danced, making the Terror glide away, moving in irrational and mesmerizing patterns. The sight of it was eerily beautiful.

Its longer petals, though — some of them hundreds of meters long — slithered through the crimson darkness like white tentacles, battering the great predator and trying to wrap themselves around his enormous body. Nevertheless, Bloodwave did not seem hindered.

A few of them were already torn apart, swathes of billowing white cloth drifting silently into the dark depths.

...Some distance away from the two clashing giants, Sunny and Naeve were feverishly battling the legion of hollow-eyed thralls. The cold abyss was littered with blooming clouds of blood and sliced remnants that floated around them like a morbid veil. Almost a hundred abominations had already been slain, but twice as many still remained.

\'Curse it...\'

The Nightwalker was a good partner in this battle, perhaps even the best Sunny could have hoped for. And yet, he still missed his Shadows... granted, neither would have been of much help in the depths of the ocean. Stone knights were not exactly the best divers, and neither were horses, as far as he knew.

Sunny, meanwhile, had grown somewhat confident about fighting underwater. He had managed to learn a few things by observing Naeve, and understood how to deal with the unbearable pressure by borrowing from his experiences with the Crushing.

Everything was going well...

Sunny decapitated another thrall, then spun, bringing the Sin of Solace in front of him. A creature that had been hidden by a cloud of blood suddenly lunged forward, only to impale itself on the jade jian — he had sensed its shadow long before the abomination appeared in view.

His lungs were burning, which was a concerning thing when one was deep, deep below the surface of the ocean. However, Sunny knew that it was just a sign of physical exertion. The Essence Pearl was still supplying him with a steady stream of air to breathe, and although he felt tired, that tiredness was nowhere near being debilitating.

With every kill they made, the number of thralls attacking Sunny and Naeve diminished. They had already survived the assault of the full three hundred, so fighting against the remaining two was much more manageable, and it would only grow more manageable soon.

\'So why do I feel so uneasy?\'

Sunny shivered, allowing himself to drift down for a brief moment.

Indeed, despite the fact that they seemed to be prevailing, his heart was growing heavier with each kill. It did not make any logical sense, but nevertheless, Sunny\'s intuition seemed to be telling him that he was missing something.

But what?

There was not much time to think between the clashes with the abominable thralls, mostly because Sunny had to spend that time observing the dark waters around him and frantically calculating how and where to move in order to survive, as well as put himself in position for the next attack.

And yet, the longer the battle went on, the more it felt as though something was not right.

\'What is it?\'

He would have said that it was too easy, but it was not — fighting hundreds of menacing thralls underwater was one of the hardest and most demanding battles he had the misfortune of going through in the Southern Quadrant. Sunny was not only pushing his limits, he had ventured well past them, going so far as to learn an entirely new dimension of combat. Even then, it was barely enough to keep him alive.

Perhaps... perhaps it was the fact that the Terror of LO49 had yet to launch a devastating mental assault on them, or pull some other diabolical trick.

Not that it was not already doing more than enough — in fact, the powers that the pallid blossom wielded were truly harrowing.

It was controlling thousands of thralls that laid siege to the port, spreading its hex through the garrison of the fortress and the First Army soldiers manning the northern section of the wall, puppeteering hundreds of abominations that sought to kill Sunny and Naeve, and fighting a powerful Saint... all at the same time.

It was just that Sunny had expected... something more. The bitter defeat he had suffered at LO49 left a mark on his heart. Although he did not want to admit it, the truth of the matter was that Sunny was afraid of the Terror.

Was that fear irrational?

\'The Marble Shell gives me high protection against mental attacks. It is currently an Ascended Attribute, one Rank below the Terror, but it is also augmented by my shadows.

Bloodwave and Naeve... I don\'t know what tools they have to defend their minds, but anyone from a great clan has to have a great arsenal of Memories at their disposal...\'

Maybe the truth was just that simple — the three of them were too tough to be affected by the Terror\'s greatest weapon.

As he dispatched another thrall and briefly met Naeve, the two of them grasping hands to propel each other in different directions, the Sin of Solace sighed.

"Such a fool..."

Sunny grimaced, raising the jade jian to meet another enemy.

He had grown accustomed to the cursed sword striking at all his deepest insecurities, the lack of education and intelligence — mostly emotional — being one of them.

However... why had the Sin of Solace spoken now?

\'What was I thinking about?\'

The three of them being highly resistant to the Terror\'s most powerful means of attack... and before that, about how many things the creature was doing at the same time, from fighting Bloodwave to controlling the assault on the port fortress.

He continued to slay one thrall after another, becoming more and more distracted by the feeling of impending doom. His intuition was almost screaming now.

\'I don\'t get it... I don\'t get it, damn!\'

Sunny tore through a group of abominations, gritting his teeth. Luckily, there were much fewer of them left, so he had some space to think. Because of that, a random thought found its way into his mind.

\'I wonder how Dale is doing...\'

Then, he froze, which almost cost him an eye.

Dale, and the other defenders of Falcon Scott, must have obliterated a lot of the thralls on the shore by now.

And here in the depths of the ocean, Sunny and Naeve had killed their share, as well.

·?θm And the Terror... which had been spread thin, controlling all of them... was freed from the burden of commanding the thralls.

With each of its puppets the humans destroyed, the creature was gaining back the ability to concentrate all its powers into a single point.

Suddenly chilled to the bone, Sunny turned around to see the battle between the Terror and the Saint.

But he was a few moments too late.