Shadow Slave

\'What…\'

Just a fraction of a second before the creature sunk its teeth into his forearm, Sunny\'s other hand shot forward. The blade of the Cruel Sight slid between the falling guillotine of the chest\'s lid and the fabric of the Puppeteer\'s Shroud. A moment later, the chest closed, and Sunny screamed.

Because of his quick reaction, the creature failed to bite his whole hand off. However, its jaws turned out to be horribly powerful. With a sickening sound, the bones in his arms shattered. Neither the leather vambrace of the Puppeteer\'s Shroud nor the augmentation of the shadow managed to resist the terrible strength of the gluttonous chest.

Sunny found himself caught in the abomination\'s crushing maw, with the blade of Cruel Sight laying flat on top of his broken arm and protecting it from being pierced by the sharp teeth that protruded from the lid of the chest. From below, several triangular fangs were slowly sinking into his vambrace. There was no obvious way to free himself...

\'What the hell is that thing?!\'

As several coins fell out of the creature\'s mouth and rolled on the floor, the chest pressed down harder, making Sunny shriek from blinding pain.

"B—bastard! Let go of me, you vile piece of rotten wood!"

Instead of doing that, the chest moved closer, forcing Sunny to fall to his knees. Something wet and coarse touched his hand, and a disturbingly long and wide tongue emerged from beneath the golden coins, sliding across his arm and dripping with viscous saliva.

Then, the tongue moved toward his neck.

Sunny stared at the horrid sight in outrage, then screamed:

"What the Spell?!"

As the second shadow wrapped itself around his body, gifting him a vast boost in strength, Sunny tried to pull his broken arm out of the abomination\'s maw, but its bite was just too damn overbearing. All he accomplished was almost knocking himself out from the pain of bone shards scraping against each other.

"Argh! Crap!"

As the unnaturally long tongue of the chest almost reached Sunny\'s neck, he growled, and then commanded the Cruel Sight to turn into a spear. At the same time, he activated the [Dark Mirror] enchantment with a burst of shadow essence, embuing the silver blade with soul-destroying power.

The Memory extended inside the creature\'s mouth, hitting it in the back of the… whatever it had instead of a throat. The tip of the spear sunk into the adamantine wood only by a centimeter or two... the wound was by no means serious, but it must have hurt the chest a lot, because it suddenly let out a shrill shriek, and then spat Sunny\'s maimed arm out.

Sunny fell to the floor and rolled away, then rose to one knee.

\'Yes!\'

Before he could celebrate getting his freedom back, however, the chest suddenly swayed… and then rose into the air, revealing a gaunt and revolting body hiding beneath. More coins rolled on the floor.

The abomination must have been a masterful contortionist, because at its full height, it was almost three meters tall. Sunny had no idea how the creature managed to hide all that bony flesh inside the fake chest, even if the chest was large enough to swallow a human whole. Its long and emaciated limbs unfolded with repulsive cracking sounds, and then, it towered menacingly above Sunny, the long tongue dripping with saliva.

\'Oh, curse it a…\'

Before he could even react, the creature moved one of its long legs… and kicked him in the chest with the force of a derailing train.

Sunny\'s body shot back, smashed through the reinforced door of the armored compartment, and rolled into the corridor outside.

He tried to groan, but all the air had been knocked out of his lungs by the terrible collision. His skull seemed to be in one piece, as was his spine… barely. It did feel, however, as though his entire body had recently suffered from being stomped on by a whole herd of elephants.

In his disoriented state, Sunny couldn\'t help but think confusedly:

\'...Elephant… what the hell is an elephant?\'

Then, however, all thoughts disappeared from his head, because he noticed the vile creature falling on all fours, and then launching itself forward, the lid of the chest rising for another bite.

When the abomination landed, though, there was nothing to bite into. Sunny had used Shadow Step and fell out of a shadow ten meters further into the corridor, then landed awkwardly on his broken arm and whimpered.

\'Oh, damn… that hurts…\'

The toothy chest hovered in the air for a couple of moments, as if bewildered, then slowly turned to face him.

Sunny sighed, then picked himself up from the floor and tried to stand up.

His first attempt failed.

Gritting his teeth and hiding how much pain he was currently experiencing, Sunny threw a furious glance at the creature and growled:

"Come here, you bastard!"

With that, he used the Cruel Sight to help himself stand up, and then pointed the spear at the creature.

The chest tilted to the side.

\'How come… it seems as though the bastard is grinning? How can a chest even grin?!\'

But there was no mistaking it — the abomination was mocking him. It became especially apparent after a grating, high-pitched giggle escaped from somewhere inside it.

The sound of it was so offensive, both to Sunny\'s pride and his ears, that he would rather have his arm broken all over again that listen to it.

\'Funny, is it?\'

Sunny smiled, then unhurriedly lowered the spear…

And thrust it into one of the thick brown vines sprawled on the floorboards in front of him.

The abomination\'s giggle abruptly stopped.

It froze and stared at Sunny, as if utterly stunned.

…And then trembled.

\'Not so funny now, huh?\'

A moment later, the entire ship trembled, too.