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!'

most girls her age back home.

kind of weird dream

someone fell to the ground a few meters away from her. Turning her head to the sound of a muffled curse, Aiko saw Stev and another Sleeper carrying a crude

moment before, Stev's partner had tumbled down. It appeared as though he was wounded himself, albeit not too seriously.

her tiny body was not

to the

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 look of it, things weren't going

still persisted in the sea of monsters, but Aiko didn't know how much longer those poor people would be able to hold. The

above, more and more corpses were falling on the invisible iron net. Despite that, the number of the flying abominations did not seem to diminish at

all

her body, Aiko trembled and involuntarily turned her head to the tallest point in the Dreamer

was Saint Nephis herself. The other was her blind oracle. And

that guy doing

the strange young man who had gotten her into this mess

faction, Aiko had quickly learned who the important people were and what positions they held in the Bright Lady's cohort. Everyone's role was clear and easy

…Except for Sunny.

of Lady Nephis's cohort, but Sunny himself always

bragging, and carefree attitude.

appear from the shadows and kill the Guard who had been strangling her with one relaxed move,

her mind, Sunny was very mysterious. He was a wild

she suddenly felt

Changing Star

were going to survive,