There were several ancient archers aiming at him already, and more and more of the hunters were appearing from the darkness. Some wielded bows, some spears with jagged flint blades and crude axes.
They were all Awakened Monsters, equal in Rank, and a single Class lower than Sunny.
…A much tougher enemy for him to slaughter.
Ducking under the flying arrow, Sunny lunged forward and thrust the tip of his blade into the desiccated flesh of one of the bowmen. The black, bark-like skin offered a lot of resistance to the shadow-honed blade, but the force of the blow was terrible enough to rip through flesh and bone, allowing it to pierce the body of the hunter and emerge from his back.
Sunny just hoped that these bastards had anatomy similar to humans, and that their hearts were located in the same place.
From the look of it, they were… however, the monster did not react to having his heart destroyed as a human would. Instead of dying, he simply grabbed the blade of the Cruel Sight and took a step forward, skewering himself deeper onto it, in an attempt to reach Sunny with the other hand.
'Curses!'
Sunny twisted the blade, severing the monster's fingers, and activated the [Dark Mirror] enchantment. Suddenly, the hunter exploded in a veil of incandescent flames, melting the snow below his feet.
This, finally, caused the bowman to die.
[You have slain an Awakened Monster, Ancient Barrow Wraith.]
'Ghosts… great! Simply great, damn it!'
So he was fighting corpses that were possessed by some sort of a murderous spirit… as such, the hunters weren't fully sentient. That didn't stop them from remembering some of their craft, though. Not only were they able to wield their stone weapons with deadly skill, they also seemed to coordinate their attacks, herding Sunny like prey.
The archers moved apart so that he would have no choice but to show his back to one while attacking another. Those with melee weapons rushed forward, aiming to surround him. The situation was quickly turning desperate.
Sunny gritted his teeth, dodged a strike of a stone axe, saw it pick up a cloud of snow, and lashed out with the Cruel Sight. Just a moment after the blade of the reflective sword severed the attacker's legs, another arrow hit him in the shoulder, causing Sunny to stagger and almost lose his balance.
He glanced around him, noticing that the enemies had succeeded in positioning themselves in a way that would have doomed a normal enemy. He was surrounded from all sides, with archers hiding behind mighty hunters wielding spears and axes.
'…They're here.'
As a dozen arrows streaked through the air to bite at his armor… Sunny suddenly disappeared.
No… it would be more accurate to say that he was veiled in a wave of darkness.
Sunny couldn't become undetectable in any shadow. He needed the deeper ones, those that made sight relatively difficult for the average human. Considering that it was daytime, and that he was in a snowscape with no shadows being cast, he had to search a little.
So, Sunny called up the shadows from underneath the snow. It took a few seconds, considering how many layers there were, but now, within a curtain of shadows, the Nightmare Creatures had lost track of him.
But that wasn't enough. As Monsters, they should be smart enough to assume that Sunny was simply within the veil. So, although they couldn't find his exact position, they could simply continue to attack until they get lucky.
Assuming he stayed in one spot.
A moment later, he appeared behind one of the archers and decapitated him with one terrible strike.
Before others even had time to register what had happened, Sunny was inexplicably at the opposite side of their formation, his sword piercing the head of another archer.
Leaving afterimages behind, multiple lightless zones appeared around the hunters. Each time it appeared, one of the creatures died, their black bodies crumbling into piles of severed limbs and shattered skulls. The blade of the flaming sword was like a radiant beacon, cutting through the ancient hunters as they were left in a pyre.
A few moments later, Sunny slid backward on the misplaced snow, leaving a bloody trail behind.
A low growl escaped from beneath his mask.
Enhanced by the [Underworld Armament], the enchantment of the Blood Blossom was behaving strangely. It was supposed to augment his Memories, Echoes, and Shadows, but with so much blood flowing to the ground, Sunny found that even his body and mind were being affected by the morbid charm a little.
He felt both exhilarated and frustrated — exhilarated by the slaughter he was perpetrating, and frustrated because he wanted… needed… to kill more, cut more, make them bleed more, more, more, so much more…
'Blood... blood... more!'
Sunny basked in the ecstasy of bloodshed for a split second, and then lashed out at himself, making the rabid thirst recede.
He needed to be careful. This bloodlust was beneficial, but could easily blind him. He had to maintain clarity… that was the only way to control the flow of the battle and survive.
Thankfully, he knew how to keep a cool head better than most.
…Regardless, not only had he been able to conserve Shadow Essence by using Kurt's Shadow Manipulation as cover rather than using Shadow Step constantly, but he had managed to break the enemy formation and eliminate most of the archers. The rest were going to be much easier to deal with now.
Still, the few times he did use Shadow Step pulled quite a bit out of him. His condition was still very good, surprisingly.
But of course, the Gate was not done with him. It continued to spew more and more enemies, making any progress he had made meaningless.
As a new wave of hunters emerged from the darkness, a frenzied mass of hounds rushing between the wraiths, he paled a little.
'...Screw me.'
No matter how superior his armor, weapon, and skill were, he was going to get buried under the tide of Nightmare Creatures due to their momentum.
Glancing over at Saint, who was a fair distance from him as she continued in her disastrous slaughter, Sunny let her summon the Broken Oath. He was out of range of the soul-eroding Memory for now, but he would need to watch the distance between them.
The hunters staggered, the hounds stumbled and slowed down. For a brief moment, the whole mass of monsters seemed disoriented.
Sunny used this opportunity well.
The dark figure wearing a fearsome mask suddenly appeared in the very middle of the enemies, and before the Nightmare Creatures could regain their bearing, the Cruel Sight shifted into a spear. With dextrous and nimble moves, the darkened, yet flaming blade turned into a black whirlwind, leaving clouds of bloody mist and severed corpses everywhere he went. In tandem, he shot powerful blood-fueled bullets with Evelyn, accurately hitting those out of his reach as holes appeared on their bodies.
Sunny had abandoned Saint's grounded style, reduced the weight of the Mantle of the Underworld to that of a feather, and turned to pure offense, dancing between the enemies like a dark, slaughtering demon blurring through the shadows.
For now, he was still at his peak…
But exhaustion was already not too far behind. As he fought, his breath was slowly becoming hoarse and labored. His Essence may last, but his mind and body…
'How… how long has it been?'
He thought back to what had happened until now…
And felt the first hint of desperation.
Just a couple of minutes.
The whole battle took slightly more than two minutes.