Shadow Slave

"Draw! Aim! Endure!"

Just as Night shouted these words, Aiko tripped and fell. The bundle of arrows she was carrying in her arms scattered on the ground.

"Ouch…"

Picking herself up from the coral, she hurriedly gathered the arrows and dashed to the nearest archer, then placed them near his feet.

In this battle, the role of people like her — those who were too weak to fight and did not possess a useful Aspect — was simultaneously the most simple and the most chaotic. They were charged with supplying the Sleepers participating in the battle with everything they needed, be it arrows, crossbow bolts, stones for their slings, or anything else.

There were several teams of runners doing different things. Initially, she was supposed to help carry the wounded from the first and second lines to the makeshift hospital at the back of the formation. There, a few people with Aspect Abilities having to do with healing waited, ready to help. Her friend Stev was one of them.

…But as it turned out, there wasn't a lot of wounded in this battle. Most simply died on the spot. So she was left with nothing to do and ended up here, helping to supply the archers.

She had just brought two quivers to Night, and was on her way…

…Wait, how crazy was that?

Trying to catch her breath, Aiko glanced around and shivered.

'Crazy, this is crazy…'

The scene in front of her was just too bizarre to be true. Several hundred Sleepers were besieged by a horde of Nightmare Creatures on the ground, with another falling on them from above. All that in front of an ugly, endless tower of crimson coral. Surely, she was dreaming…

'Of course you are! This is the Dream Realm, you dimwit!'

her age back home. Despite the fact that the two of them had known each other for more than a year and were even… uh… on friendly terms, this fact was the one

exactly the kind of weird dream a teenage girl like her would

of a muffled curse, Aiko saw Stev and another Sleeper carrying a crude stretcher. On it was a young woman, covered in blood and pale as a ghost, her leather armor

moment before, Stev's partner had tumbled down. It appeared as though he was wounded himself, albeit not too seriously. Running up to them, Aiko took over and helped the ample giant keep the

with her tiny body was not easy, but she gritted her teeth and

to the back of

way, they had to run past the desperate archers and the exhausted crews of the siege engines, who were slowly but surely running out of the massive lances to

weren't going

much longer those poor people would be able to hold. The second line was now entangled with the Nightmare Creatures, too.

on the invisible iron net. Despite that, the number of the flying abominations did not seem to diminish at all. The metal wires were groaning,

all going to

to the tallest point in the Dreamer

The other

what is that guy doing

none other than Sunny, the strange young

what positions

…Except for Sunny.

him a member of Lady Nephis's cohort, but Sunny himself always insisted

bragging, and carefree attitude. They simultaneously respected him for being Changing Star's

did not think that Sunny was harmless. She had seen him appear from the shadows and kill the Guard who

Sunny was very mysterious.

now, she suddenly felt

Star had a

going to survive,