As Sunny rushed to reach the colossal shadow of Condemnation, he almost turned into a shadow to increase his speed and hide himself from view, acting on instinct. However, he did not — doing so would allow the Shadow Realm to ravage his soul and set him far back in the race against time.
Of course, there was the other facet of Shadow Step, as well — the instant teleportation between shadows. However, Sunny was not sure that he could use it.
Only now that he was in the Shadow Realm did he start to wonder how Shadow Step actually functioned. Did Sunny travel physically between shadows, or did he turn into a shadow when falling into their embrace, then was returned to his tangible form on the other side — all in an instant?
There was one way to find out…
Sunny dissolved into the shadows, then rolled out of them a few hundred meters further, pale and leaving a trail of essence particles in his wake. There was a pained grimace on his face.
'I guess that answers the question. Maybe?'
Using Shadow Step to teleport was even more harmful than turning into an incorporeal shadow. He had lost too many shadow fragments in that short moment.
Muttering a stifled curse, Sunny jumped to his feet and continued running.
Stripped of most of his powers, he felt like a caveman.
But then again, cavemen had been great masters of violence themselves. He would just have to use simpler tools to accomplish his goal, and be more inventive about how he used them.
As Sunny ran, the great beast of darkness lowered its wolf-like snout to the ground, and then suddenly exploded with motion. The long tendrils of darkness billowed behind it like a tattered mantle, and black dust flew into the air like mist from beneath its mighty paws.
The dark drifter looked like a hound of the Underworld who had caught the scent of its prey.
That prey, without a doubt, was the mysterious archer.
However, they were not easily caught. freewёbnoνel.com
As the great beast flew across the desolate expanse of black dust, a dark arrow silently shot at it from the shadows. As astonishing as its speed was, the massive being was faster — it veered off to the side, raising a cloud of dust and causing a tall dune to collapse.
However, that was a mistake.
Just there, the ground crumbled beneath it, and the monstrous being fell into an enormous pit. On its bottom, jagged pillars of obsidian were embedded into the dust, facing upward with sharp tips. The great beast plunged into the pit and was impaled by the spikes, making the world quake and letting out another chilling wail.
It was not dead by any means. But it did sustain several deep wounds, and more importantly, fell behind — for a few moments, at least.
The shadow of Condemnation marched forward, and the remaining dark drifters continued to dodge its attempts to crush them while tearing pieces of its titanic body with hungry maws.
Sunny continued to chase them… the mysterious archer was doing the same, no doubt.
The problem was that he still couldn't see the elusive hunter.
'I have to get these things off Condemnation soon, though. At this rate, they'll swallow my prey whole.'
Just at that moment, the archer finally revealed themselves.
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