Shadow Slave novel Chapter 1710

Chapter 1710: Daring Escape

The Chalice Knight resembled a human wearing a tattered suit of ancient armor that had turned green from rust. He towered at around two and a half meters of height, but seemed even taller because of the deer antlers attached to his closed helmet. The rusty helmet itself was fashioned to resemble the snout of a snarling beast, with deep darkness nestling in the crack of its visor.

There was moss growing here and there on the battered armor, and a ragged cloak, too weathered to retain any color, hanging from his shoulders like a torn banner.

The creature was holding a frightening battleaxe in his hand, its blade large and heavy enough to easily split a human in two.

The Huntsman... was like a dead knight that had crawled from under the roots of the forest that had claimed an ancient battlefield, ghastly and imposing enough to make Rain shudder.

Worse than that, the dark crack of his visor was already staring directly at her.

Her souls seemed to squirm under that gaze.

'Crap.'

Rain nocked another arrow on the string and prepared to draw her bow...

But before she could, the Huntsman had already reached the base of the tree that served as her sniper nest.

His dreadful battleaxe rose and fell. That dreadful strike was enough to make the mighty trunk of the ancient tree explode into a hurricane of splinters, obliterating a whole swath of it.

But, a moment later...

A sharp arrow fell from above and lodged itself into his knee. It struck precisely at the narrow gap between the bottom of the abominations's cuisse and the top of his poleyn — which were the armor elements responsible for protecting one's thigh and knee, respectively.

A pretty decent shot, considering the situation.

But Rain did not have any time to celebrate, because the tree was already toppling... and she was falling with it.

After a moment of weightlessness, the rope tied around her chest drew taut, and she found herself flying through the air.

If there was one thing her teacher had told her, it was that one should always leave themselves a path of retreat. Rain had never considered that climbing a tree would protect her from an Awakened Demon, so she naturally prepared a way to escape.

In this case, that way was swinging on a rope and flying between the trunks of terribly tall trees at breakneck speed. She had not carried a sizable length of silk rope all the way here in vain, at least.

As the wind whistled in her ears, Rain thought:

'This is going to hurt...'

Struggling to control her body, she spun at the last moment and used her legs to dissipate the shock of colliding with another tree at great speed. The other end of the rope was tied around one of its highest branches, which allowed her to swing like a pendulum... well, a badly designed pendulum, maybe.

She did not break her neck or crack her skull, which was a relief, but her feet were in agony. Ignoring it, Rain immediately cut the rope with her dagger and plummeted down, landing softly on the frozen ground.

There, leaning against the trunk of the tree, two things were waiting for her: her javelin, and another arrow.

Sheathing the dagger in one smooth motion, Rain grabbed the arrow and spun around, already drawing the bow.

The Huntsman was barreling toward her, so fast that it was hard to track his movements...

But still, he wasn't faster than her arrow.

With her mind clear, she could sense the movements of her enemy. So, she did not aim at where the abomination was, but at where it would be.

Another arrow pierced the air, striking at his other knee.

Sadly, this time, Rain's aim was a few millimeters off. The precious arrowhead struck the edge of the Huntsman's cuisse and shattered, only managing to slice some moss off the rusty green metal.

Verify captcha to read the contentVerify