Shadow Slave: Purgatory

As Sunny floated in the embrace of the shadow cast by the eternal eclipse, a dark and terrifying presence lunged toward him. Sunny barely dodged the attack as he used Shadow Step in quick succession.

This was his first time fighting in the shadows as a shadow while fighting another shadow. Rightfully stumped, he had no choice but to use Shadow Step to his advantage. But he couldn't continue to abuse Shadow Step forever—he had limited essence, and as a recently awakened, his essence manipulation was far from efficient, even with the Soul Serpent working in tandem.

Sunny had to come up with another direction he could take before facing essence depletion.

'Come on, think.'

Shadows were inherently formless, and this applied to Sunny in this form too. Being formless also meant his body could be molded to assume any shape, just like the shadowy shell donned by the first shadow wraith he had killed. He didn't have the ability to manifest shadows physically, so manipulating his own shadow body like the shadowy shell offered very little—but right now in this fight, they were both shadows.

So who was to say he couldn't do something similar? This idea was as good as any.

He took in a quick gulp of air as he concentrated on imagining his arms elongating, becoming sharper and thinner.

Sunny side-stepped one of the wraith's lunges as his transformed arms finally took shape into long, incomplete blades. He plunged his right arm through the wraith's chest as he felt its claws miss him by a hair's breadth.

'It worked!'

Sunny felt an indescribable sensation of jubilance at his accomplishment, but it wouldn't matter—these were only the recognizable actions before everything escalated into pure chaos.

The ancient wraith leapt back, pulling itself off Sunny's blade with complete disregard for its own safety. But that wasn't even the problem—the creature was growing angry. More feral.

He could feel dark rage emanating from the ancient shadow as it once again lunged towards him with brutal intent, only this time, it had lost all semblance of its terrifying intelligence to rage.

Sunny was no slouch! He responded in kind as they clashed as shadows once more, invisibly racing each other across the dunes.

The two of them could be easily mistaken for one violent shadow, except for the uniquely distinctive burning malevolence that emitted from their cores. They slashed, bit, clawed, stabbed, and kicked at each other, moving away from their initial battleground at immense speed for an unknown number of kilometers.

They fought, flying across the desert as their bodies became bloodied and their souls battered and torn. And yet neither of them cared; they both wanted nothing more than to end the other's life.

Sunny had never fought such a violent and swift battle as someone who focused solely on assassination and scouting. Everything was happening all at once, and it hurt too much for him to understand what was happening.

With each move, Sunny inflicted more and more damage to the vile wraith.

As his body moved with violent instinct, a single hateful thought burned in his mind.

'Bastard.... I'll kill you.'

The wraith seemed to also become more enraged as the fight prolonged, its attacks turning into messy rage that resembled a rabid animal.

Eventually, it lost all semblance of sanity, recklessly surging forward and colliding with Sunny. The impact forced them both out of the shadows and propelled them skyward. As they began to dive, the two figures clashed viciously, the wraith tearing into Sunny's abdomen while Sunny retaliated with violent strikes to its face and neck.

Caught in the frenzy, they seemed to forget the rapidly approaching ground. They slammed into the crest of a dune and tumbled down, black and crimson blood spraying through the air. Without pause, they dissolved back into the shadows, continuing their harrowing battle with no regard for their deteriorating bodies.

He could sense hundreds of lesser shadow wraiths closely following and watching the fight, but they steered away, seemingly in fear of the ancient shadow he was battling.

Finally, realizing Sunny's unfair advantage as a divine shadow in a battle of shadows, the wraith jumped out of the darkness and skidded across the sands. Unfortunately for the creature, Sunny had already anticipated this outcome.

He shadow-stepped and jumped from the creature's back, grabbing onto its neck.

The wraith let out a terrifying screech upon realizing their position. The creature thrashed, trying to throw off the repulsive human, but Sunny didn't budge. His face contorted uglily as his eyes burned with murderous fury. His nails clawed at the creature's shriveled, rotting skin as he augmented himself with his shadows and an unholy surge of essence.

It felt like trying to tear apart solid rock with bare hands, but he didn't care. He simply pulled and pulled as the shadow abomination's neck ripped open, and it screeched in rage, thrashing more violently.

Sunny laughed in euphoria at the creature's pain.

"Ah, die, bastard, die!" He roared in pain and anger.

His body screamed as every muscle fiber in his body was being pushed way beyond its limit, the tendons and ligaments across his body threatening to snap at any moment. But Sunny didn't care.

Through his bloodied vision, he focused on only one thing: the horrific screams of the creature as his bare hands tore open the gaping wound on its neck. Putrid, tar-like blood sizzled and ate away at the surface of Sunny's skin, mercilessly revealing the bone and muscle beneath.

Finally, the wraith made progress against the puny human as its jagged claws dug into Sunny's right leg.

He screamed as its claws grabbed his calf tightly, scraping his bone and pulling. The force was too much—it tore Sunny's skin and pulled him off its body, his arms no longer able to maintain their grip. Sunny had no choice but to go with the motion.

The creature violently slammed his body into the sand, knocking the air out of him and mangling his right leg in the process.

An injury like that would cripple Sunny for life without a good healer, but he didn't care about something so trivial. He simply wanted that bastard to suffer more.

Overcome with dark fury to inflict more pain, Sunny tried to stand despite his broken leg. His arms dangled limply as he stood up like a corpse.

The wraith whined, holding its neck, and seeing that brought him more joy than anything. What sounded like a gurgled laugh escaped Sunny's lips as blood trickled from his hideous wounds.

Enraged by his laugh the wraith rammed him with its body, sending them both flying and plunging into the black sands.

They rolled with terrifying speed, displacing black sand all around them in a jagged trail as they tumbled down a dune. They came to a stop meters away with the wraith straddling Sunny's chest, its claw trying to choke him. Sunny held the claw open with his bare hands, a surge of essence preventing the wraith from crushing his neck with sheer force.

This situation would have been almost romantic if not for the fact that the creature wanted to murder him in the most torturous way possible.

As Sunny fought against time and his dwindling strength, grunting with the effort to keep the claws from closing, the wraith's pressure grew stronger and more desperate. It screeched in his face, but Sunny remained unfazed, continuing to push back.

Finally, seeing its lack of progress, the wraith growled in frustration. In one swift motion, it grabbed the last black arrow from its quiver and brutally plunged it into Sunny's left lung. He screamed as it slowly, torturously twisted the arrow with malevolent glee.

Sunny tried to yelp in pain as the air escaped his punctured lung. He fruitlessly pushed against the creature, but it was futile—the wraith was too heavy, its strength overwhelming. He could do nothing but squirm and writhe in agony as the creature cackled mockingly, relishing his suffering.

'Argh... Screw you.'

Seeing no way out, Sunny gritted his teeth and plunged the moonlight shard into the creature's neck where he had originally torn it open. The wraith let out a distorted screech and leapt back, skidding across the sand. Its eyes burned with murderous intent.

Sunny tried to feebly crawl away with his mangled arms, like a cockroach that wouldn't die. He tilted his head up, his vision swimming and bloodied, trying to focus on the looming figure.

The wraith, at the pitiful sight of Sunny, responded with a daunting cackle. While he couldn't understand the creature, he could feel its mocking joy at the behest of his sorry state.

Sunny stared up through pain-glazed eyes, a broken laugh escaping him as desperation turned to madness.

"What are you waiting for, bastard? Come. I'll kill you."

Almost as if indulging him, the wraith exploded forward with terrifying speed.

With an agonized moan, Sunny dissolved into the shadows. The wraith pursued, and they became formless once again, tearing through the shadow of the eclipse. Their very souls shredded against each other with each slash.

In their shadow forms, they were barely on equal terms—at least Sunny was no longer the victim. But, as always, the world was ridiculously unfair.

Sunny ran out of essence and was thrown violently from the shadows, rolling across the black dunes like a ragdoll as blood from all sorts of wounds painted the inky sand.

Before he could even orient himself, the wraith's humanoid body rammed into him. The creature's oily dagger slashed at his neck, cleaving through where his vocal cords should have been.

All he could do was moan, the attack stealing his ability to speak. Luckily for Sunny, that dagger didn't have the [Destined Death] enchantment, so blood weave could still attempt to seal this specific wound. He would be able to talk again if he lived for a few more hours.

But why would that matter? He just wanted to kill the wraith.

In desperation, Sunny dismissed the puppeteer's shroud. The tiny bit of essence gained from the action was enough for him to be a shadow for a few more seconds. The soul serpent worked in tandem to preserve and help him efficiently guide essence as he once again dissolved into the shadows.

But all of that was just a desperate move for inconsequential soul damage. This time the creature didn't follow him into the shadows—it had realized his state. He was done.

With no choice, Sunny materialized once again, naked as he slumped down in the sand.

'Argh... I'm so tired...'

Sunny could do nothing as the creature's claws grabbed his head, lifting him off the ground before twirling and slamming his body face-first into the sands.

BAM! Black sand exploded from the force.

This time, Sunny was truly done for. He could feel something wet seeping across his forehead, and a disgusting gurgling sound escaped his lips. He couldn't breathe anymore.

Sunny was drowning in his own blood for the second time.

***

Honest thoughts? Am I cooking lol?