Shadow Slave

The spiders were about the size of a human, incredibly fast, and had plates of something that resembled iron covering parts of their repulsive bodies. They looked like armored battle machines created for the sole purpose of slaughtering living things.

They also looked strangely familiar. With a little effort, Sunny realized that these abominations looked a lot like lesser, much smaller versions of the giant Fallen Beasts that had destroyed the original Stone Saint and her kin.

It's just that their size and armor weren't nearly as formidable.

If so…

'I have bad news for you, fools.'

As soon as the spiders attacked, the members of the cohort reacted with the deadly calmness of experienced Dark City hunters. Weapons flashed in the air, severing limbs and piercing through iron as though it was paper. Effie straight up flattened one of the creatures with a devastating strike of her battered shield. The poor beast didn't even have time to understand what a huge mistake it had made.

The others were no less efficient. Sunny himself threw the Prowling Thorn and pulled on the invisible string as soon as it sunk into the flesh of one of the spiders, bringing its jump to an abrupt end and sending it crashing to the ground. Before the beast could stand up, Quiet Dancer streaked through the air and pierced its head clean through.

Just a few short seconds after the spiders had tried to ambush the group of humans, the battle was over. Three dead Nightmare Creatures were sprawled in the mud, while the fourth one ended up pinned to a coral wall with several arrows.

They could have even shaved a second or two if it weren't for the need to look out for the spiderwebs.

Sunny shook his head.

'Disappointing.'

Wait.. why was he disappointed? Great! This was great! Not every victory had to almost cost him his life.

of

cleaned the blade of her sword with a piece of cloth, listened to the silence for a few moments to make sure

were cut, cleaned, and put into Effie's enchanted bag. Everything was done

could only shake his head

far as Nightmare Creatures went, these ones were not on the

on their webs and battlefield advantage to defeat the prey. Because the cohort had

was sure that at least four of them could kill a Pathfinder of the Host in single combat… if not one of the lieutenants

the best and the brightest the outer settlement could offer, after all. Effie had been right when

all, the six of them were more than equipped to handle just three awakened beasts. The Labyrinth was

Sunny chuckled.

three awakened beasts… yeah. How crazy

it

with the dead spiders, the cohort indifferently left their eviscerated bodies behind

***

more minor skirmishes with the iron spiders, they had finally reached their destination. Not too far away from them, colored

and made from the same stone. It looked like a much larger sibling of the pristine arch that guarded the entrance

was much more weathered, bleak, and damaged. Signs of corrosion and deep cracks covered its surface, with one of its sides being partially

studied the arch and looked

our stop for the

nod and said after a

The night is close, and we might have to fight to clear the