99 Pursuit

Sunny had dropped the throwing dagger near the monster's body in advance and then took all those steps back to make this exact situation possible. As soon as the Parrot Rock spoke, he pulled on the invisible string, sending the kunai flying back in his direction. The tall bastard didn't just happen to be in its path, either.

[You have slain…]

The leader of the hunting party really should have listened to that rock.

[... shadow grows stronger.]

Before the Sleepers even had time to react, Sunny was already moving. The shadow had been wrapped around his body a long time ago, making him that much faster. Summoning the Midnight Shard, he fluidly slashed at the nearest enemy, severing the man's arm at the elbow.

The blade struck right between the vambrace and the couter of his enchanted plate armor.

To Sunny, these people we slow and clumsy, their power level and technique severely lacking. He had already been more experienced than them after the harrowing journey through the crimson labyrinth, learning how to wield the sword in combat from Changing Star herself.

The three months he had spent hunting and surviving alone in the cursed city only made the gap that much wider. Despite looking like easy prey, Sunny was anything but.

However, he wasn't foolish enough to challenge all five of them. People might have been weaker than Nightmare Creatures, but what made them really dangerous was their unpredictability. Each Aspect was unique, arming humans with a formidable arsenal of inexplicable Abilities.

Facing something you couldn't understand was the surest way to end up dead.

With his advantage of surprise gone, Sunny decided that it was time to retreat.

Turning around, he jumped out of the circle of light and ran. It was really hard to pursue someone who could see in the dark on these narrow streets, so there was a real chance of escaping unscathed.

However, the kunai was still attached to Sunny's wrist. Sliding out of the dead leader's skull, it fell to the ground and clinked loudly against the stones, then jumped a few meters away and hit the pavement again, creating more noise.

"Get the bastard! He killed the chief!"

Following the sound of metal striking against stone, the Sleepers lunged forward, following in Sunny's footsteps.

'What a persistent bunch.'

Even the guy who had lost his arm was on his heels, either having a way to stop the bleeding or simply unwilling to let the attacker escape even if it cost him his own life.

This part of the city was Sunny's hunting ground. He knew every nook and cranny of these streets like his own five fingers. Honestly, he was unsure what these guys were even thinking. If it wasn't for him carefully choosing the path, they would have ended up disturbing some terrifying Fallen creature and becoming its dinner a long time ago.

Something wasn't quite right here. Gunlaug's people might have been thugs, but they were experienced and accomplished hunters. They feared the city and knew how to behave while outside the castle walls.

Otherwise, all of them would have been dead a long time ago.

Come to think of that, it was extremely rare to see them going anywhere near the city at night.

Were these fools even real hunters? If not, what were they up to?

Sunny briefly considered leaving one of them alive to interrogate later, but then decided against it. To be honest, he wasn't really curious. Human business had long ago lost its allure in his eyes.

He had much more interesting things to do.

Finally reaching his goal, Sunny lingered on the steps, pretending to be in a panic.

The five Sleepers were once again able to lay eyes on their victim. The scrawny kid was hesitating in front of the entrance to a large ruined building, fear clearly written on his dirty, pale face. It seemed as though he didn't know where to go, afraid to run into a dead end.

Noticing them, he flinched and dove into the building with desperation in his eyes.

"You have nowhere to run now, rat!" hissed the man who had lost his hand to Sunny's blade.

Full of killing intent, the Sleepers followed the crazy young man into the building.

…However, once they got inside, they saw no sign of the scared kid. The only thing they saw was a simple rock lying on the floor.

As the one-armed man belatedly realized that something was wrong, the rock said in an ominous tone:

"... say goodbye to your lives!"

A second later, a massive silhouette stepped out of the darkness.

The man's eyes widened as the figure of a regal knight clad in a menacing black armor reflected in them.

The creature was more than two meters tall, his gothic armor forged from a lusterless, anthracite steel. Every part of the armor was decorated with intricate engravings that told a tale so horrifying that anyone would go insane from looking at them for too long.

The helmet of the Black Knight was crowned with curved horns that might have been wings once. In the narrow fissure of his visor, two ghastly red flames were burning with indescribable menace.

Before the Sleeper had time to react, a heavy black blade fell from above, effortlessly severing his body from head to groin, cutting through flesh, bone and armor with similar ease.

A torrent of blood surged to the floor.

…Climbing onto one of the supporting beams of the ruined cathedral, Sunny sat down and looked at the slaughter that was happening below.

'Huh. The bastard is in a really bad mood today. Well, have fun!'

Some time later, as the echoes of screams began to fade away, he sighed and counted the corpses lying on the distant floor.

It was hard to count, because most of them were in pieces.

Making sure that not one of the pursuers got away alive, Sunny frowned and shook his head.

'Six people… their disappearance won't go unnoticed. Especially if they were really up to no good. Huh... why do I feel like I had just gotten myself in trouble?'