Shadow Slave: Endless Souls

[Ding! You gained 20 SP!]

Seeing Sunny's life and death fiasco Edward couldn't help but clap his hands in delight. Causing the young man to locate him and send a deadly glare at him, he fell on the ground driven by fatigue and breathlessness he didn't forget to send a middle finger towards him. Edward while sitting on the carriage with a smile on his face as if not affected by this whole chaos only smiled even more.

The tyrant — Mountain King, presumably — was hidden from sight by the bright glow of the bonfire. However, Sunny could feel its movements due to the subtle tremors spreading through the stones, as well as the desperate screams of those slaves who were yet to perish. An angry below or two could also be heard, indicating that some of the soldiers were still alive, desperately trying to fight the monstrosity off.

His eyes landed on the cruel young soldier who was ignoring all this carnage as if belonged to a completely different world, for some reason his smiling face and deep dark eyes made him remember the student who was beside him when he went to his First Nightmare in the real world.

'What's his deal? Is he another nightmare creature in a human skin?'

That thought made him shudder in fear, after all, what were the chances of his First Nightmare having two high-ranking nightmare creatures? For some reason, Sunny felt like slapping himself because he had a gut feeling that he jinxed himself by having that thought.

[SP: 460]

'System I should be able to buy Dormant-Rank Soul right?'

[Yes host or you can pull [Dormant-Rank Gacha]. It's only 100 SP.]

Edward ignored the gacha devil's whisper and simply opened the shopping list. Because of his own cheat system, he can't be infected by the Nightmare Spell so he can't grow strong like others of this world usually do. [Soul Store System] It's his system from it he can buy anything. [Soul] which represents the soul cores allowing him to use supernatural powers, [Echoes] which are summons he can summon, and [Memories] which are weapons he can summon at will. Well, if you ever read the original work of this world called "Shadow Slave" then he should be familiar with these settings.

Sunny slowly gets up from the ground with a dejected look on his face as if the lies he told himself to deceive himself have finally fallen apart after failing to return to the real world. What pulled his attention the most, though, was the fact that several of the maimed bodies were starting to move.

'More larvae?'

His eyes widened.

One after another, four more corpses slowly rose to their feet. Each beast looked as disgusting as the first one had and not a bit less deadly. The nearest was mere meters away from Sunny.

'Damn it all!' he thought.

While Sunny was complaining about the difficulty of his First Nightmare, Edward finished searching through the shopping list.

'System, I want this one.'

[Soul: Warrior Soul

Rank: Dormant

Powers: [Physical Enhancement], [Combat Proficiency], [Spirituality].

Description: Sequence 9 of Twilight Giant Pathway. It's an upgradable soul but upgrading it will allow it to ascend to the next sequence but doesn't exactly mean the rank of the soul will be enhanced.

Price: 350 SP]

[Physical Enhancement]: As a warrior you will possess strength and agility that greatly transcends those who are not the same as you.

[Combat Proficiency]: As a warrior you are gifted in combat you can master both weapons and martial arts at unnatural speed.

[Spirituality]: As a warrior, magic isn't what you are best at but as someone walking the pathway to godhood you can still do basic magics.

The explanation of the system wasn't detailed it probably picked that up from the Nightmare Spell which is famous for its cryptic description of basically everything.

[Do you wanna buy [Dormant-Rank Soul: Warrior Soul]?]

'Yes.'

[-350 SP.]

As strange clicking filled the air, one of the beasts turned its head toward Sunny and gnashed its fangs. Sunny quickly picked up the sword with a determined and fierce look on his face he held the sword in front of himself.

'Come at me, you bastard!'

The larva dashed forward with incredible speed in a flurry of claws, fangs, and terror. Sunny had less than a second to react; however, before he could do anything, a nimble figure moved past him, and a sharp sword flashed in the air. The monster, beheaded with one strike, fell gracelessly onto the ground.

Sunny blinked.

'What was that?'

Edward cleaned the blood from his short sword with a swift movement of its blade with a smile on his face. With a faint smile on his face which was Sunny familiar with running creeps through his body. A smile that never left his face as if it was a mask that he couldn't take off, Sunny clearly felt the dangerous nature of the young soldier. 

Psychopath. That was a term Sunny came up with to describe the young soldier, even if his helmet was always on not fully revealing his face the smile on his face was always there whether his colleagues were being slaughtered or he was killing someone as if it was an everyday thing. He was clearly a few screws loose on his head and it's something related to his ability to feel empathy.

'Crazy bastard! I must get rid of him as soon as possible.'

Edward didn't know that he become a psychopath in Sunny's head and if he knew he would have blinked a few times dumbfoundedly before simply shrugging it. Perhaps being transmigrated truly messed up his mind somehow turning him into a psychopath.

'So this is clarity.'

Edward wasn't sure what system meant by gifted in combat but now he understood, everything now was clear to him, so clear it was rather frightening. His strikes didn't carry any psychological weight like emotions it was simply swift and clean aimed to achieve one simple purpose - ensuring the death of his opponent.

Edward moved swiftly without any hesitation or fear, with clear purpose he clashed with the monsters. He can see their flaws, predict their next moves, and sense their weakness. Every step aimed to murder his opponent and calculated to lead his opponent to their inevitable end.

Sunny was stunned, he looked at Edward with awe and admiration, no matter how the monsters tried they always missed him, only a few centimeters away. As for Edward, his every strike landed on the enemy easily, cleanly cutting their flesh, his movements were swift and graceful as if some kind of ancient dance.

He subconsciously looked at the sword in his hands and the struggle he had against just one larvae, his pale face couldn't help but blush. How embarrassing his fight looked to the eyes of the young soldier? He was sure that he was probably laughing at him during his desperate struggle.

While Sunny was drowning in his embarrassment Edward had finished the last monster. He gently wiped the sweat off his face and then looked towards the Mountain King who was having a face-off with his "friend" Auro.

[Ding! You gained 200 SP!]

As expected killing it yourself gives you more SP than just collecting the leftover passively.

"So what's the plan clever boy? Any idea how to deal with the big baddy over there? After all as long it's still there he can spawn more monsters like the ones just now." Edward asked Sunny in a teasing tone.

Sunny wanted to curse at Edward his tone was just... so hateful that he wanna bash that damned smile off his face. And yet, he knew that Edward's words carried some truth. Without dealing with Mountain King only thing waiting for them is miserable death. Say the truth right now he just wanna give up. The ridiculous degree to which the odds were stacked against him from the very beginning of this delayed execution had gotten old a long time ago, so he didn't have any more energy to think about it. What was there to fear, after all? He was already as good as dead. It's not like he could get any deader.

So why worry?

But still, there was something inside him that urged him to think of a way to overcome this trial and survive. Perhaps subconsciously he didn't want to die just yet.

'How do I get rid of that thing?'

He didn't have any special powers, nor did he have an army ready to bury the tyrant under a mountain of bodies. He is sure that with whatever skill he has he will become its snack before managed to scratch the damn bastard with the sword he is holding.

Suddenly something struck his mind like lightning, why was he trying to fight the creature on his own? The creature is already distracted with the other young soldier this might be the perfect chance to use his brain rather than brawn.

'Since I can't do the bastard in myself, let's make gravity do it for me.'

"Come with me!" Sunny said as he started running toward the far end of the stone platform, where the heavy wagon was perched dangerously close to the edge of the cliff.

'Perfect.'

Sunny was running with all his speed, getting closer and closer to the wagon. Once there, he hurriedly looked around, checking if there were any larvae close by, and moved to its rear wheels.

The wagon was left at the upper end of the stone platform, where it narrowed and turned back into the road. It was turned sideways to block the wind, with its front facing the mountain wall and its back facing the cliff. There were two large wooden wedges placed under the rear wheels to prevent the wagon from rolling backward. Sunny turned to Edward who followed him and pointed at the wedges.

"When I tell you, remove both of them. Then push. Understand?"

Edward nodded his head as he saw the familiar instruction that Sunny given to him.

Auro, miraculously, was still alive. He was weaving between the creature's limbs, always just half a second away from being completely eviscerated. From time to time, his sword flashed in the air, but to no avail: Mountain King's fur was too thick, and his skin too tough to be harmed by mundane weapons. There was a hint of apprehension on the young warrior's face.

All the other soldiers except Edward, as far as Sunny could see, were already dead. So he really needed that one to live a little bit longer after all he needed him to accomplish his plan.

'Don't die yet!' he thought.

The next moment, Sunny was running again, trying to follow the chain from the brace where it was affixed to the wagon. The thing he was searching for was hard to notice due to all the bodies, blood, and viscera littering the stone platform, but for once, luck was on his side. A short amount of time later, he had found what he needed - the torn end of the chain.

Finding the nearest set of shackles, complete with a horribly disfigured body of a slave locked in them, Sunny plopped down on his knees and started to fumble with the key he picked up from his old shackles.

There was a muffled scream, and with a sideways glance, he noticed Hero flying through the air, finally caught by one of the tyrant's strikes. Incredibly, the young soldier managed to land on his feet, sliding several meters across the stones. All of his limbs were still in place; there were no terrible wounds on his body, either. Without skipping a bit, Hero rolled forward, picking up his sword from where it fell on the ground, and then rolled once more, this time sideways, narrowly avoiding a heavy stomp from the creature's foot.

"Rolling?! Who the hell rolls around in this situation?!"

Without any more time to waste, Sunny finally managed to unlock the shackles. Shaking the dead slave out of them, he then promptly locked them once again, this time around the chain itself - ending up with a makeshift slipknot and a loop.

Now everything depended on his resolve, hand-to-eye coordination… and luck.

Turning to Edward, who was still waiting by the wagon, he screamed:

"Now!"

Then, picking up a sizable length of chain, Sunny stood up and faced the tyrant.

Auro spared him half a glance. His eyes lingered on the chain for a moment and then quickly followed it to the wagon. Then, without showing a hint of emotion, the young warrior doubled his efforts, drawing the creature's attention away from Sunny.

'So he's smart, too? What a scam!'

Clearing his head of all unnecessary thoughts, Sunny concentrated on the weight of the chain in his hands, the distance between him and the tyrant, and his target.

Time seemed to slow down a bit.

'Please, don't miss!'

Gathering all of his strength, Sunny spun and threw the chain in the air, as though a fisherman casting his net. The loop opened as it flew, closing in on the position of the fight between Auro and the tyrant.

Sunny planned to place the loop on the ground close enough to them that, once one of the tyrant's feet landed in the trap, he could pull on the chain and tighten it around the monster's ankle.

But his plan… failed spectacularly.

Which is to say, it was literally a spectacle.

In the last moment, Mountain King suddenly flinched back, and instead of falling on the ground, the chain loop landed perfectly around its neck. A second later it tightened, acting as an iron noose.

Sunny froze for a moment, not believing his eyes. And then clenched his fists, holding himself back from triumphantly shaking them in the air.

'YES!' he screamed inwardly.

Moments later, the wagon would crash into the tyrant, pushing the tyrant down with it. Sunny looked back to make sure and instantly turned even paler than he usually was.

The wagon rolled indeed rolled but it was slow, slower than he anticipated. In the next second, Auro crashed into one of the tyrant's legs, throwing it off balance - and buying them some time. Sunny was already running to the wagon, cursing loudly in his mind. Reaching it, he threw himself onto the damp wood, pushing with all the strength left in his rather small, but terribly beaten and enormously exhausted body. 'Where the hell is that bastard?!'

'Fuck! Why does it always happen to me?!'

***

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