Shadow Slave

Sunny stared at the Gate, momentarily paralyzed by dread. Then, he snapped out of it and fought through exhaustion, rushing to kill as many abominations as he could before the Guardian came out of the Gate.

He had an inkling that after, there would not be an opportunity to pay them any attention.

'Is… is it the Guardian? How many minutes has it been?'

He had no idea. Somewhere along the way, Sunny had lost count of the time. All he knew was that it had not been long enough…

Meanwhile, a hulking figure emerged from the darkness of the Gate, and as it did, the red flames burning in the empty eye sockets of the ancient wraiths flashed brighter, their dead mouths opening to produce a litany of menacing howls.

'C—crap…'

The Guardian was more than four meters tall, his desiccated body resembling that of the primeval hunters and demons Sunny had fought, but at the same time much more frightening. He wielded a long spear, its blade cut out of a single slab of obsidian and covered in so many stains of ancient, dried blood that it seemed as if the stone itself had absorbed them and turned dark red.

The giant was wearing an intricate leather armor, much more robust and imposing than those of the lesser wraiths, with strips of strange, bluish iron woven onto it. His wrists bore dozens of bracelets made out of iron and bone, and on his shoulders was a cloak fashioned out of the hide of some terrifying monster.

The skull of the creature served as his helm, and his face was covered by a disturbing burial mask, its features twisted and bestial.

The mask — and the skull on his head — each had three eyes, all six emanating intense, malevolent red radiance.

Sunny felt a cold shiver run down his spine.

'What… what is that thing…'

He didn't know what kind of a creature the ancient chieftain was, but had no doubts that he was a Fallen Tyrant… and a very powerful one, at that. Maybe the barrow these wraiths were coming from had been built to entomb this ancient menace, to begin with.

And his mask had three eyes.

…Anything with three eyes made Sunny shudder, for reasons he did not fully understand. After the Forgotten Shore, he knew that this was a sign of something too terrible for him to know.

Could he kill a Fallen Tyrant?

Maybe if he had a lot of time to prepare and study his enemy, and attacked from the shadow.

But now, with Sunny exhausted and battered, his shadow essence running out, and hundreds of Nightmare Creatures surrounding their master in bloodthirsty exaltation, he stood no chance. None at all.

Well… maybe a very tiny one.

than try and fight, put his tail between his legs

not? Sunny was not some kind of a hero, nor had he

to

the Nightmare Creatures renewed their assault with even more frenzied rage than before, he gritted his teeth and brandished the obsidian spear, feeling

not done

had a little bit of fight

***

and fear

breached, and Nightmare Creatures

"Back! Get back!"

the walls, teachers standing between them and the terrible

the five of them were not nearly enough to stop all the abominations. It

And soon, they did.

harrowing beast that resembled an infernal wolf, jagged red spikes growing through its black flesh and drops of saliva falling from its maw, tore free of the battle and lunged

never seen something

fight such a thing? No human possibly

The teachers tried, however.

black fur of the hellhound. The headmaster tried to stop the creature with a heavy pike, but was simply thrown away,

standing between the monster

***

'God… goddamit…'

of his rope. Which, in a sense, was precisely where he wanted to

was simply impossible, with how many there were,

to draw

the attention,

that, he had to do one simple

to

hard could

'Let's find out…'

whatever that thing was called. He was just

Enough was enough...

He knew his limits.

the mass of abominations, Sunny cut a bloody path toward the hulking tyrant, and finally appeared

with three burning red eyes turned his way, Sunny suddenly felt small and weak. The pain he felt in his battered

wanted to stop and fall to the

To kneel…