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.

else was he going to do other than try and fight, put his tail between his legs and

hell not? Sunny was not some kind of a

to run away just

renewed their assault with even more frenzied rage than before, he gritted his teeth and

was not

a little bit of

***

the gymnasium, silence and fear gave way

breached, and Nightmare Creatures crawled inside, madness

"Back! Get back!"

children were pushed against one of the walls, teachers standing between them and the terrible monsters with mundane weapons in their trembling

battle, but just the five of them were not nearly enough to stop all the abominations. It was inevitable that sooner or later, some of the abominations were bound to

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

seen something

supposed to fight such a thing?

The teachers tried, however.

off the mottled black fur of the hellhound. The headmaster tried to stop the creature with a

then, there was no one else standing between the monster and the

***

'God… goddamit…'

at the end of his rope. Which, in a sense, was precisely where

stop the flood of Nightmare Creatures by killing all of them anymore. That was simply impossible, with how many there were, and how many were coming from the

draw as much attention as

of the

accomplish that, he had

to attack

hard could

'Let's find out…'

was just going to exchange one… maybe two strikes with the scary bastard, hopefully deal him a tiny wound,

Enough was enough...

He knew his limits.

cut a bloody path toward the hulking tyrant,

Sunny suddenly felt small and weak. The pain he felt in his battered body surged, and an involuntary

just wanted to stop and fall

To kneel…