Shadow Slave

[You have slain a dormant beast, Mountain King's Larva.]

Sunny fell to his knees, breathless. His whole body felt as though it just went through a meat grinder: even large amounts of adrenalin could not wash away all the pain and exhaustion. And yet, he was exhilarated. The satisfaction of killing the larva was so vast that he even forgot to be disappointed about not receiving a Memory — the special item tied to a Dream Realm inhabitant's essence, which was sometimes awarded by the Spell to the triumphant Awakened.

A magic sword or a suit of armor would have come in handy right about now. Damn, he would even settle for a warm coat.

'Three seconds. You can rest for three more seconds,' Sunny thought.

After all, the nightmare was far from over.

A few moments later, he forced himself to come back to his senses and looked around, trying to ascertain the situation.

The larva was dead, which was great. However, he was still tied to it by the damn chain — the shifty slave and the scholar, both pale as death, were busy untangling it to buy the three of them at least some freedom of movement.

Further away, torn bodies and pieces of flesh were lying on the ground. Many slaves were killed. A few had somehow managed to escape and were now running away.

'Fools. They're dooming themselves.'

The chain, as it turns out, was at some point broken in two — that's why it suddenly slackened when Sunny was being dragged by the mass of panicking slaves. If their shackles had a less sophisticated locking mechanism, he could have tried to free himself now. However, each pair was fixed to a specific link: without unlocking them, no one was going anywhere.

The tyrant — Mountain King, presumably — was hidden from sight by the bright glow of the bonfire. However, Sunny could feel its movements due to the subtle tremors spreading through the stones, as well as the desperate screams of those slaves who were yet to perish. An angry below or two could also be heard, indicating that some of the soldiers were still alive, desperately trying to fight the monstrosity off.

What pulled his attention the most, though, was the fact that several of the maimed bodies were starting to move.

'More larvae?'

His eyes widened.

One after another, four more corpses slowly rose to their feet. Each beast looked as disgusting as the first one had, and not a bit less deadly. The nearest was mere meters away from Sunny.

'Damn it all!' he thought.

And then, weakly: 'I want to wake up.'

in place. Sunny's eyes darted to the ground, trying to find something to use as a weapon. But there was not a single thing he could use: full of vitriol, he simply wrapped a length of

me,

with incredible speed in a flurry of claws, fangs, and terror. Sunny had less than a second to react; however, before he could do anything, a nimble figure moved past him, and a sharp sword flashed in

Sunny blinked.

'What was that?'

a valorous expression was the handsome young soldier who had once offered

Awesome,' Sunny thought

mean he's

soldier moved forward to face the remaining three larvae. But after taking a few steps, he suddenly turned around and gave Sunny a long look. Then, with one swift motion,

'Save yourself!'

he was gone to fight the

go. Then he lowered his gaze and studied the thing

narrow iron rod with

It's a

heart began

the key

Sunny dropped on one knee and began to maneuver the shackles, trying to get his hand into a suitable position to insert the key. It took him a few tries to understand how the unfamiliar lock worked, but then, finally, there was a satisfying click,

his bloodied wrists. Sunny rubbed them and smiled with

'Just you wait now.'

a moment, visions of violence

"Boy! Over here!"

his attention. Sunny briefly considered just leaving

Shifty's previous threats to kill him and overall unpleasantness, Sunny would have felt bad leaving a fellow slave in chains —

other two slaves and quickly unlocked their shackles. As soon as Shifty was free, he pushed Sunny

last! Gods must be smiling upon

gratitude and smiled weakly, casting a tense look in the direction

to tear its opponent apart. The young

are you waiting for?!

a move to run away, but

"My friend, I would…"

say "advise" again, I swear to gods, I will

with open animosity.