Shadow Slave

'How… how the hell is this thing even moving?'

Defying all logic, the skeleton lunged at Effie with a speed that even Sunny himself wasn't capable of. With no muscle tissue connecting the bones together, the strange creature was still able to stand upright, run… and attack with vicious strength.

A moment before the undead monster closed the distance between them, Effie screamed:

"Stay together!"

Then, she turned her torso and slammed her shield against the lunging monstrosity. With a thunderous crack, the skeleton was thrown back. Its skull and ribcage shattered, showering the tunnel with sharp bone splinters. Like a broken marionette, it fell to the ground in a shapeless pile.

Sunny stared at the mess of broken bones with in confusion.

'Wait… that's it?'

The huntress yelled, tearing him away from these thoughts:

"Don't stop, move!"

The cohort rushed forward, following Effie into the depths of the catacombs. When Sunny was approaching the remains of the reanimated skeleton, he noticed something that made a cold chill run down his spine.

The bones were still moving, slowly assembling themselves back into the shape that resembled a human. Just as he stepped past the creature, one skeletal hand suddenly thrust in his direction, trying to claw at his leg. If not for Sunny's quick reaction, it might have succeeded in injuring him.

With one slash of the Midnight Shard, he crushed the clawing hand and threw it away. Falling on the stones a few meters back, the hand remained motionless for a moment, and then began crawling back to the quickly recovering skeleton.

The monster was being rebuilt by some terrifying, invisible force. Drawn by its unseen pull, the bones were putting themselves back together one after another. Those too damaged to be of use were simply replaced by one of the bones scattered on the floor of the tunnel. Soon, the skeleton would inevitably rise again.

A disturbing thought entered Sunny's mind.

He finally realized why Effie had told them to keep moving instead of trying to kill the Nightmare Creatures populating the catacombs.

Was it because these creatures were… immortal?

...Or rather, undying.

Sunny felt a sickening premonition that he was right. If so, things were going to turn from bad to harrowing pretty fast...

It was at that moment that his ears caught a distant rustle coming from the darkness ahead of them. For a moment, he felt fear grip his heart, thinking that the dark sea had somehow found its way into the catacombs.

But no, this wasn't the cursed sea. Instead, it was dozens… no, hundreds of skeletal feet scraping against the cold stones of the catacombs.

Maybe even thousands of them.

The hordes of undead monsters populating the catacombs were coming to rip the six humans apart.

With a grimace of dark resentment on his face, Sunny gripped the Midnight Shard tighter and hurried after the other members of the cohort.

'Come… come and get it, bastards!'

***

Pretty soon, the undead creatures were upon them. First in ones and pairs, then in small groups, the bloodthirsty skeletons assaulted them in a constant stream. Appearing from the darkness of the catacombs, they lunged at the cohort in a whirlwind of bony claws and teeth, each bearing the same eerie skeletal grin.

Effie and Nephis, who were at the front of the group, faced the brunt of the attacks. The huntress exerted her inhuman strength, bulldozing through the skeletons like an incarnation of ancient fury. Her round shield acted as a wrecking ball, shattering the undead monsters left and right.

Nephis fought with the elegant fluidity of water… but also with the crushing force of a devastating flood. She was holding the longsword by the blade, using its crossguard and pommel as an improvised mace. With white flames dancing in her eyes, she moved from one skeleton to another, skillfully deflecting their blows and crushing one skull after another.

If anything got past them, Caster was there to deliver the finishing blow. His sword shone with a ghostly green light, slicing through bones as if without meeting any resistance. The proud Legacy fought with graceful precision, always managing to immobilize the enemy with just one clean strike. The skeletons fell to his sword before even having a chance to retaliate.

The three powerhouses made paving the path through the horde of monsters seem almost easy. However, Sunny knew that it was anything but. Each skeleton was stronger and faster than a human could ever be. It took incredible skill, resolve, and coordination to cut through their ranks without slowing down even for a second.

Soon, he was forced to taste the true menace of these undead abominations for himself.

Sunny, Cassie, and Kai were relatively safe at first, but with each passing minute, their situation worsened.

The catacombs were a real maze. More and more often, the tunnels they were taking began to open into complicated crossroads and connect with other branching paths. When that happened, undead creatures could lunge at the cohort from the side, bypassing the impenetrable barrier of Changing Star and her two champions.

More than that, as the number of skeletons destroyed by them increased and several minutes passed, the abominable monsters began rising back from the ground and dashing in pursuit of the party, soon attacking it from the rear.

Eventually, the cohort was constantly assaulted from all sides.

When Sunny first had to raise his sword to repel a straggler that lunged at him from the side tunnel, he acted with calm precision engraved into him by countless hours of practice. Slashing with the Midnight Shard, he cleanly beheaded the undead creature. Augmented by the shadow, his tachi managed to cut through solid bone without that much effort.

Sunny knew that losing its head won't kill the skeleton, so he instantly shifted his balance and kicked the monster in the chest, throwing it back.

Although he expected that this would happen, the lack of the familiar voice whispering into his ear still unnerved him. Usually, he would have heard the announcement of the kill already.

But these abominations were immortal, so the Spell remained silent.

Lamenting the fact that he would not be getting any shadow fragments today, Sunny moved away from the decapitated skeleton and sighed.

'Well, at least this isn't as bad as I thought it would be.'

…But just a few minutes later, he bitterly regretted thinking those words aloud.