The shadow archer was still alive.
…And full of fury, it seemed, glaring at Sunny through the wisps of ghostly smoke with chilling malice.
Half-paralyzed by the dreadful pain of his soul being torn apart by the emerging shadow core, and his very being changing, Sunny shifted his weight and kicked the archer with as much strength as he could muster.
For a moment, he felt like his neck would break, but it slipped from the enemy's iron grip instead. Sunny was pushed away and fell on the black dust, rolling further down the slope of the dune.
The archer pursued.
Crashing into a towering rib of a dead Soul Serpent at the foot of the hill, Sunny groaned weakly and tried to crawl away.
"Aaargh!"
Damn! Why did it hurt so much!
The archer caught him after a few moments. Sunny rolled, avoiding the foot that would have crushed his skull otherwise, and raised his arms to defend himself. A devastating blow descended upon him, almost caving his ribcage in, and a moment later, a harrowing kick sent him flying into the air.
Sunny landed in a heap and rolled a couple of times, coming face to face with the human skull he had noticed earlier.
The skull stared at him with gaping black holes of its empty eye sockets, making Sunny shiver.
Would his own skull be left laying here, forlorn and forgotten, as well?
Rolling onto his back, he rose a little and caught the archer's foot, which had almost reached his head by then.
No… considering how vicious this bastard was, there was no chance in hell that his skull would be left intact.
Sunny had saved his head from being kicked straight off his shoulders, but in the next moment, he was punched in the face instead.
Flying back, Sunny crashed into the spine of a dead Soul Serpent and fell to his knees. His vision was blurred, and he tasted blood on his tongue.
'I'm actually bleeding… wow…'
He was practically drowning in blood.
The pain was subsiding, at least.
Raising his head to look at the blurry figure of the approaching archer, Sunny spat a mouthful of blood...
And smiled.
"Hey, fool…"
The archer did not pay his words any attention, raising their fist to deliver the final strike.
Sunny tensed his muscles, preparing himself.
"...Behind you."
The murderous shadow froze for a split second, then spun around.
But it was already too late.
Because there, behind them, another Sunny was already bringing down his fist with all the dreadful power of a Transcendent Titan.
It was the long-awaited seventh shadow.