Shadow Slave novel Chapter 2329

Sunny had faced seven Saints as a Transcendent, and now, he had to face a swarm of Great Beasts as a Supreme. The crystalline bodies of the eerily radiant abominations were shining blindingly with imprisoned sunlight, and shadows danced as they moved.

Flakes of ash swirled in the air.

'Ash…'

Moving between shadows, Sunny suddenly had an epiphany. He had noted that the Crystal Wasps seemed weakened, and now, he suddenly understood why. The answer lay in the rules of Death Game.

As Seishan had mentioned, positioning and territorial conquest played an important role in this ancient game - that way, the power of Domains was expressed through rules. Figures had an advantage while defending squares of the same color… and were disadvantaged when attacking squares of the opposite color. The disadvantage diminished the more the besieged square was surrounded by the adversary Domain.

Ariel's Game was based on the same rules, so… The Ash Castle bordered two volcanoes and one snowy mountain… actually, was it three snowy mountains? Did diagonal borders count? In any case, it was not entirely surrounded by the Snow Domain, which meant that Sunny was supposed to have some kind of advantage.

He had not felt any boost to his power, though, which meant that his advantage lay elsewhere - to be precise, it was the abominations of the Snow Domain who were weakened by the surrounding ash.

'That is good to know.'

Another piece of the puzzle was solved, and armed with that knowledge, he would be able to plan his subsequent moves better.

For now, however, Sunny had to survive the enemy move. His mastery of Shadow Step, which had long been woven into his battle art, allowed him a supreme degree of mobility on the battlefield.

That was why the Crystal Wasps could not immediately overwhelm him despite their superior numbers… Sadly, Sunny was not entirely free to move however he wanted, either - after all, he was supposed to serve as an impenetrable wall between the abominations and his allies. Therefore, he could not allow the Great Beasts to advance too far into the interior of the Ash Castle, meaning that he had to spend most of his time in front of the advancing swarm.

The issue was further exacerbated by the fact that in a battle between Great Nightmare Creatures and a Supreme being, the distinction between tangible and intangible was less meaningful than it would be for weaker creatures. In other words, the attacks of the Crystal Wasps were imbued by their rabid will and could therefore pursue him into the shadows.

'Curse it!'

The shadows shifted again, pushed around by the radiant abominations, and Sunny was forced to step out of them a few meters away from where he wanted to be. Unwilling to let the opportunity pass, Sunny transformed his odachi into a long spear and thrust it forward, piercing the joint of a Crystal Wasp's leg. He wrenched his spear, destroying the joint completely, and immediately leaped back.

In the next moment, another Nightmare Creature was already in the spot where he had been before, its terrifying mandibles closing on nothing but emptiness.

Sunny did not miss the chance to bring the butt of his spear upward, slamming it with ferocious force into the underside of the creature's head. Its skull cracked, and one of the mandibles shattered. Continuing to retreat, Sunny turned his torso and pushed his spear forward, piercing the eye of a different enemy, then spun it to drive two more a step back. With how overwhelmed he was by the enemy numbers, Sunny only managed to kill two more Crystal Wasps after the initial four.

The rest of them were battered and bore gruesome wounds, but were very much alive - and more were already entering through the breach, as well. Just then, however, a black arrow slid into the crack on the skull of the Nightmare Creature he had struck with the back of his spear. The Great Beast died instantly, Another arrow struck the Crystal Wasp who was moving slower than the rest due to the joint he had destroyed, making its massive body explode violently into a cloud of glass shards.

[You have slain an enemy.]

Having already finished off a few abominations, Kai and Slayer were helping as best they could.

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