Shadow Slave

"Glory! Glory! Glory!"

Sunny growled, falling to the ground, the heavy body of a stone gargoyle pressing him down, its claws buried in his chest. A dark radiance rose from his skin, the scales of a coiling serpent becoming more visible, and then, one of the forearms of the abomination shattered, pulled apart by his hands.

The creature roared, its tail shooting forward like a spear. He had no time to dodge or deflect the blow, so instead, Sunny simply endured the blinding pain of the stone spike piercing his shoulder, and pushed with his feet, straining to jump up.

As the result, his horns struck the gargoyle in the chin, impaling it through the skull.

Something cold streamed down his face, and, momentarily blinded, Sunny struck the abomination in the chest with all his might, sending the stone goliath flying back.

The gargoyle exploded into a rain of stone shards when its body struck the floor of the arena.

Sunny breathed heavily, his torso a mess of torn flesh, and then tiredly searched for the remaining enemy, which was supposed to be fighting the Awakened youth… if he was still alive.

His second day in the coliseum had been both easier and more harrowing than the first.

It was easier because Sunny was slowly growing accustomed to his new inhuman body. For someone else, this process might have taken longer, but he had always put adaptability and control of his physicality first.

Both the flowing battle style Nephis had taught him and Shadow Dance were meant to make the practitioner as flexible and versatile as possible, the latter especially being the pinnacle of malleability.

So, he had plenty of practice to prepare himself for waking up in the body of an actual demon, ironically. Who would have thought?

…But this day's battles were also much more lethal. At first, Sunny had thought that his luck was just this bad, but after he and the young Awakened had barely survived the first two boxes, the youth shared a bit of knowledge that put everything into perspective.

Apparently, by surviving the previous day's slaughter and making their way to the center of the arena, the two of them earned the privilege of being added to the main herd of gladiators. In other words, everyone — and every thing — they faced today had won seven consecutive fights in the past, as well.

This was the creme of the crop of the enslaved combatants, more or less.

And the final stage was also going to be different…

'Damnation…'

He sensed two swift shadows some distance away, then finally saw them. His eyesight wasn't the best in daylight, so Sunny relied on shadow sense more and more…

The kid was still alive, wielding a simple sword and a rusty shield that he had picked up in their second fight. He was dancing around the gargoyle, showing a good grasp of combat technique and more that a little bit of talent.

The young man was inexperienced, but incredibly talented. His battle prowess was perhaps on par with what Sunny himself had shown on the Forgotten Shore. Or even greater.

…Not that it was going to help the youth. What was the point of knowing how to wield a sword, when that sword had no chance of piercing the enemy's stone skin?

"D—demon! I can't hold it off much longer!"

Sunny sighed, then stepped through the shadows, appearing behind the gargoyle in a whirlwind of claws. With a loud roar, he crashed into the towering creature and caught it in a deadly embrace. The steel cables of his muscles moved under the obsidian skin, and with a low growl, Sunny lifted the heavy abomination into the air.

'Gods… is this how much Saint weighs?'

Even for his demonic body, the burden of a monster of similar proportions, made entirely out of stone, was almost too much.

Almost…

Without stopping his lunge, Sunny carried the gargoyle forward like a speeding train, and smashed the creature against the spikes mounted on the wall, impaling it on them.

The crowd roared, expressing their joy and admiration of his brutality.

Sunny watched as mad light was extinguished in the eyes of the abomination, then took a step back on fell heavily to one knee.

'Can… can you shut up for a moment… you bastards…'

Today, he hated the spectators even more than he had yesterday.

The Awakened youth was already beside him, staring at the dead gargoyle with a dark expression. Then, he glanced at his sword, and finally at the four-armed monstrosity near him.

"Demon, you… you don't look too well."

Sunny slookws at him with his black eyes, no recognizable human expression on his strange, bestial face.

'No way, you noticed? Damn, what a fool…'

Sunny, indeed, did not look too well. In fact, he looked terrible, with his obsidian skin torn in many places and sliced muscle tissue visible beneath. The most disturbing thing about it was the fact that his mangled flesh was awash with crimson blood, but none of it flowed out of the wounds, as if possessing a will of its own.

He had not faired as well as he had thought he would in the battle against the gargoyles, in large part because the monsters had turned out to be much more powerful and swift than the similar creatures he had fought before… in the future.

Although Sunny was reluctant to do so, he suspected that he would have to reveal at least one of his two hidden cards — the Soul Serpent or Saint — before too long.

The youth hesitated for a few moments, then suddenly stepped forward and put his hand on Sunny's torn chest.

Sunny hissed, shocked by the unexpected gesture.

"Don't move, demon… I'm trying to help you…"

'What the hell…'

Suddenly, the young man's light blue eyes shone with cerulean light, and his curly blond hair moved, as if brushed by an otherworldly wind.

A warm sensation spread from his palm into Sunny's aching body. Slowly, the pain receded, and at the same time, the torn fibers of his flesh started to repair themselves, growing back together.

In a dozen seconds or so, miraculously, the terrible wounds on his body had almost closed. The young man, however, paled considerably and stepped back, his breathing fast and rugged. It seemed as though his soul essence was largely drained.

'Well, I'll be damned…'

The fool... was a healer.

Sunny couldn't know whether to laugh or cry. On one hand, Awakened healers were incredibly rare, and having one as his only ally was of tremendous benefit.

On the other hand, his only ally in the battle arena also turned out to possess an Aspect that was absolutely useless in a fight… so there was that, as well.

The iron gates rattled, opening the path to the next killing box.

Sunny hesitated for a few moments, and then rose to his feet.

'No, this is good… I can kill anything the slavers throw at us. He just has to keep me alive.'

He glanced at the pale youth, then nodded curtly and headed toward the gates.

Before walking through them, however, he stopped and tore off the long tip of the dead gargoyle's tail, then handed it to the young man.

The stone spike of an Awakened Nightmare Creature was bound to perform better than a mundane weapon, at least.

The Awakened stared at him for a bit, then sighed and dropped the sword onto the ground.

They walked through the gate, and Sunny's face instantly darkened.

'I know that smell…'

The Chain Worm he had seen before in the dungeon was already crawling through the other gate, its terrifying maw dripping with black blood.

The crowd began its chant again, ecstatic to see the Fallen Demon advance to the next box.

"Glory! Glory!"

He sighed, full of dread and hatred.

'Alright. Alright, bastards. I'll show you glory…'