Shadow Slave

"Stand your ground, wretches! If anyone runs, I'll kill you myself!"

Hearing Effie's voice, Kai flinched and forced himself to look away from the terrible visage of the horde of nightmarish abominations. Glancing down, he saw that his hand was shaking and clenched it into a fist. He had to calm himself, somehow, or his aim was going to suffer.

That wouldn't do.

…But honestly, how was a person supposed to not be terrified when a literal sea of Nightmare Creatures, each stronger and deadlier than anything anyone should ever be forced to face, was approaching them so fast?

Kai prided himself on overcoming things like stage fright and social anxiety, as well as getting through many unpalatable situations with grace and elegance, not to mention managing to survive in the Dark City for three long years without losing his humanity.

But this was just too much…

'...What would Sunny say?'

Thinking of his prickly, but adorable friend, Kai couldn't help but smile a little.

'Probably something like… oh, a horde of Nightmare Creatures? Yeah I've met one a few days ago. They all died when I sneezed, though.'

The strangest part was that he would be telling the truth. If Kai decided to dig deeper, he would discover something in the line of Sunny's sneeze causing a massive avalanche that wiped all the monsters out.

…Or, more likely, that his sneeze had awakened some ancient, much more terrifying creature, which then proceeded to devour all the monsters before turning its gaze on Sunny himself.

That was just how Sunny was.

...Unpredictable.

calming Kai down. He only regretted that the cute scoundrel wasn't close by to reassure him

he sighed and

the place where Changing Star had chosen to face the guardians of the Spire. Because of that, the position of the third line

In theory.

preparing to shoot, waiting for his command. The surviving Artisans and their assistants were busy loading the six powerful ballistae they had transported all the way from

going to survive this battle, after

"First mark!"

turned to the Artisans and waved

the wall of monsters. Many of them were eviscerated, but these losses were like a drop of water in the sea

Kai gritted his teeth.

"Second mark!"

"Now!"

over the third line of the

in school, but the ancient practice known as kyudo, which was more of a meditative ritual than a real battle art. Its orderly nature, tranquil philosophy, and repetitive motions appealed to something

was, the

knew that one day he would be relying on his

literal horde of monsters was hard. He didn't have to worry

deep into the body of a tall carapace demon. Its bone tip

few creatures could resist

as

the ground. Kai felt the weakness that overtook him every time he summoned the morbid Memory dissipate, and called upon the Blood Arrow

get to take his second shot before

was stunned by the harrowing sight. The scale of the massacre that was happening below him was just too vast to comprehend. His

other people