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

he

third line was higher than the other two, which would allow them to continue firing long after Effie and the rest had

In theory.

command. The surviving Artisans and their assistants were busy loading the six powerful ballistae they had transported all the way from the Dark City and put together the last night. The sight of

going to survive this

"First mark!"

ears, he turned to the Artisans and waved a hand, giving them the signal to

Many of them were eviscerated, but these losses

Kai gritted his teeth.

"Second mark!"

"Now!"

voice rolled over the third line of the Dreamer Army, he

in the real world, archery was Kai's favorite hobby. Not the practical skill of shooting a bow which was taught to many in school, but the ancient practice known as kyudo, which was more of a meditative ritual than a real battle art. Its orderly

was, the

would be relying on his marksmanship to

literal horde of monsters was hard. He didn't have to worry about missing a shot with the

the air and bit deep into the body of a tall carapace demon. Its bone tip pierced the metal armor of the terrible creature with ease. Not only was it of the Ascended Rank itself, it was

creatures could resist his

firing! Kill as many as you

then fell to the ground. Kai felt the weakness that overtook him every

before the wave of abominations crashed

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

the other