Shadow Slave novel Chapter 2209

"She's coming back!"

The dark water boiled as the gargantuan horror rose from below. Its translucent carapace glistened like obsidian in the bright light of the luminous Memories, and the battered ships scattered, pushed aside by the turbulent waves.

The creature was too large to discern its full shape. The people struggling to stay on the splintered decks could only catch glimpses of its harrowing visage: the enormous black eyes, the jagged line of a dreadful mandible, the forest of titanic limbs, the flexible antennae that reached almost a kilometer into the air...

However, the ghastly depth dweller was not what made the people weary — they had battled plenty of terrifying abominations while sailing through the darkness of the Spine Ocean already, many of them far more dreadful and eerie than this one. The punitive expedition had lost most of its ship in the process, and plenty of warriors... but dying in a battle with Nightmare Creatures was a familiar thought to Awakened.

The murderous demon that hid in the darkness above was far more unnerving.

As the remaining forged Echoes tore into the dweller of the depths, breaking its carapace with steel fangs, their riders unleashed a barrage of harpoons and arrows into the cracks. Each was a powerful Memory capable of dealing immense harm — the Nightmare Creature sustained some damage, and while it was not seriously wounded yet, they managed to keep it away from the ships.

"There!"

Several brilliantly shining arrows shot into the air from the decks, chasing away the darkness.

All darkness but a small formless mass of it.

The mass of darkness was falling as it twisted to avoid one of the arrows, and was then torn apart by a bright beam of incinerating energy that shot from one of the decks.

From within it, an enchanting figure was revealed.

A beautiful fiend with alabaster skin and obsidian hair plummeted from the sky, her black wings folded to increase the speed. Her armor was torn and broken, and her mesmerizing face was painted by blood. Several arrows protruded from her sides, slowly collapsing into a rain of sparks.

And yet, there was a chilling, cruel glint in the winged demon's onyx eyes.

"Don't let her reach the ships!"

But it was already too late.

Revel was too close.

She fell on the deck of the ship that had been washed away from the others at terrible speed, summoning her darkness at the last moment.

The Ascended warriors scrambled to assume a defensive formation, the melee fighters rushing forward as their less resilient comrades stepped back. A wall of shields and a palisade of spears barred her path, sorcerous flames dispelling true darkness that shrouded her like a veil. 𝘳ã𝐍𝖔ʙĘ𝙨

The pursuers had long learned how to deal with her ambushes. She had managed to cull many of them at the start, eventually killing two of the Saints, but by now, every attack was a deadly gamble.

It was too easy to get bogged down, surrounded, and cut down...

However, that was alright. Because Revel was learning too.

Usually, she would have shot past the deck, either severing bodies or catching an enemy or two to throw them overboard before disappearing into the darkness. But this time, she did not — instead, she simply crashed into the damaged deck like a cannonball, piercing it in a cloud of splinters.

She pieced the entire ship.

As cold water washed over her, a litany of shouts bloomed above the damaged ship.

"She's gone!"

"Damn it, the hull is breached!"

"The cargo hold is flooding!"

"She's in the water!"

Revel spun and used her wings to push herself through the dark waters. Reaching the shattered hull of the ship, she used her claws to widen the breach, then spun again and pushed herself off the enchanted wood, into the depths.

Usually, the warriors of the Sword Domain would have been easily able to repair such damage to one of their ships. She would not have risked falling into the water, either, where the forged Echoes were waiting to tear her apart.

But the battered fleet was currently being besieged by the underwater horror. The Echoes were away, trying to breach its thick carapace, and the ships were scrambling to stay at a distance.

The vessel she had damaged would not sink, most likely... but they would take a lot of water, which would slow them down.

And make them a sitting duck.

Then, one of the four remaining Valor Saints would have to make a decision. They would either have to risk themselves to protect the damaged ship, or sacrifice it.

Either way, Revel would get a chance to take down one more Transcendent.

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