Shadow Slave novel Chapter 2323

Chapter 2323: Golden Dawn

A second later, Sunny was standing on the edge of the volcano’s vast caldera. He had stepped through the shadows while pulling Slayer and Kai with him — Slayer remained impassive, long used to such treatment, while Kai seemed a little startled.

Sunny remained silent for a moment.

"Come to think of it... that castle is a really terrible fortress, isn’t it?"

The Ash Castle stood above the main vent of the volcano, at the very heart of the caldera — which meant that its walls and towers were lower than the surrounding slopes. One could not see the snowy peaks even from the roof of donjon, while the enemy would be above the castle as soon as they scaled the volcano and reached the caldera.

It was a truly terribly designed defensive fortification...

"With respect... I don’t think now is the proper time to ponder the merits and flaws of an old castle’s design."

Kai’s voice sounded tense. Sunny looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean? We are about to be attacked, so when would there be a better time?"

Smiling faintly, he turned to face the three snowy peaks towering in the distance.

The moon had fallen beyond the horizon, and the sun was rising. Now that Sunny knew where east was, he could determine where the rest of the cardinal directions were, as well. The Ash Castle stood on the southern edge of the game board, while the three lonesome mountains — and the Snow Castle as well — were in the north.

Dawn had painted the sea of clouds below in soft shades of mauve and lilac. The world was darker above the volcanoes, where clouds of smoke and ash obscured the sky, but in the north...

Sunny frowned.

Hurricane winds were blowing above the distant mountains, and a vast snowstorm was rolling from the north, its billowing wall slowly devouring the world. A few moments later, it crashed into the three peaks, sending great plumes of snow into the air.

Infused with a dreamy radiance by the golden dawn, the plumes of snow extended south, carried by the wind like streaming tendrils.

"There is something strange about the wind."

Sunny glanced at Kai.

"How do you mean?"

The charming archer hesitated for a few moments, then shrugged.

"I’m not sure how to describe it. Awakened archers always pay attention to the wind — the speed and direction of the wind matter a lot when making long-distance shots, after all, so it becomes an instinct. And my instinct is telling me that there is something wrong with the wind."

He hesitated for a few moments, and then added with a sigh:

"Actually, we tend to rely on instinct a lot. Many things affect the flight of an arrow — altitude, temperature, humidity, even the Coriolis effect... anything that has to do with ballistics. Naturally, none of them behave reasonably in the Dream Realm, so there is no other choice than to develop an instinctual sense of all those things. If you want to hit a target from a great distance, that is."

Sunny scratched the tip of his nose.

"Really? Huh... I just sort of toss things with as much force as I can, and hope for the best. Well, I don’t rely on sight to aim, so I guess my situation is a bit different."

Then, he glanced at Slayer and smiled.

"What about you? Are you a walking encyclopedia of ballistics, as well?"

Instead of answering, his Shadow pointed to the tendrils of snow extending from the lonesome mountains.

At that moment, the first snowflakes had reached the slopes of the fuming volcano. Then something strange happened...

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