Shadow Slave novel Chapter 194

Chapter 194 Aching Bones

'How… how the hell is this thing even moving?'

Defying all logic, the skeleton lunged at Effie with a speed that even Sunny himself wasn't capable of. With no muscle tissue connecting the bones together, the strange creature was still able to stand upright, run… and attack with vicious strength.

A moment before the undead monster closed the distance between them, Effie screamed:

"Stay together!"

Then, she turned her torso and slammed her shield against the lunging monstrosity. With a thunderous crack, the skeleton was thrown back. Its skull and ribcage shattered, showering the tunnel with sharp bone splinters. Like a broken marionette, it fell to the ground in a shapeless pile.

Sunny stared at the mess of broken bones with in confusion.

'Wait… that's it?'

The huntress yelled, tearing him away from these thoughts:

"Don't stop, move!"

The cohort rushed forward, following Effie into the depths of the catacombs. When Sunny was approaching the remains of the reanimated skeleton, he noticed something that made a cold chill run down his spine.

The bones were still moving, slowly assembling themselves back into the shape that resembled a human. Just as he stepped past the creature, one skeletal hand suddenly thrust in his direction, trying to claw at his leg. If not for Sunny's quick reaction, it might have succeeded in injuring him.

With one slash of the Midnight Shard, he crushed the clawing hand and threw it away. Falling on the stones a few meters back, the hand remained motionless for a moment, and then began crawling back to the quickly recovering skeleton.

The monster was being rebuilt by some terrifying, invisible force. Drawn by its unseen pull, the bones were putting themselves back together one after another. Those too damaged to be of use were simply replaced by one of the bones scattered on the floor of the tunnel. Soon, the skeleton would inevitably rise again.

A disturbing thought entered Sunny's mind.

He finally realized why Effie had told them to keep moving instead of trying to kill the Nightmare Creatures populating the catacombs.

Was it because these creatures were… immortal?

...Or rather, undying.

Sunny felt a sickening premonition that he was right. If so, things were going to turn from bad to harrowing pretty fast...

It was at that moment that his ears caught a distant rustle coming from the darkness ahead of them. For a moment, he felt fear grip his heart, thinking that the dark sea had somehow found its way into the catacombs.

But no, this wasn't the cursed sea. Instead, it was dozens… no, hundreds of skeletal feet scraping against the cold stones of the catacombs.

The catacombs were a real maze. More and more often, the tunnels they were taking began to open into complicated crossroads and connect with other branching paths. When that happened, undead creatures could lunge at the cohort from the side, bypassing the impenetrable barrier of Changing Star and her two champions.

More than that, as the number of skeletons destroyed by them increased and several minutes passed, the abominable monsters began rising back from the ground and dashing in pursuit of the party, soon attacking it from the rear.

Eventually, the cohort was constantly assaulted from all sides.

When Sunny first had to raise his sword to repel a straggler that lunged at him from the side tunnel, he acted with calm precision engraved into him by countless hours of practice. Slashing with the Midnight Shard, he cleanly beheaded the undead creature. Augmented by the shadow, his tachi managed to cut through solid bone without that much effort.

Sunny knew that losing its head won't kill the skeleton, so he instantly shifted his balance and kicked the monster in the chest, throwing it back.

Although he expected that this would happen, the lack of the familiar voice whispering into his ear still unnerved him. Usually, he would have heard the announcement of the kill already.

But these abominations were immortal, so the Spell remained silent.

Lamenting the fact that he would not be getting any shadow fragments today, Sunny moved away from the decapitated skeleton and sighed.

'Well, at least this isn't as bad as I thought it would be.'

…But just a few minutes later, he bitterly regretted thinking those words aloud.