Shadow Slave

Sunny gritted his teeth and groaned, feeling his whole body being slowly crushed by the monstrous chieftain of the Barrow Wraiths. One of his arms was pressed against his body, and the other one was, too… but just barely.

If only he could free it…

But no matter how hard he tried, the tyrant's hold was just too strong.

…Back in the gymnasium, the terrifying beast was lunging at the defenseless children. Its maw was wide open, the red shine of the ghostly flames burning in its eyes reflecting from the jagged, sharp fangs.

It was flying directly at Rain, moments away from closing its jaw on her throat.

She felt paralyzed by fear, desperately wishing to run, but unable to move.

Was this how she was going to die? No, no… it couldn't be!

But it was...

Suddenly, a spark of a strange, dark emotion ignited in Rain's heart.

'Die? No… not like this… I refuse!'

She was holding a sword, was she not?

Even if that thing was going to devour her, Rain was determined to die fighting, just like she had been taught to. She was going to remain human, not a cowering animal only good enough to be the stronger beast's prey.

She owed that much to her parents, at least.

Knowing full well that her dull training sword was not going to stop a Nightmare Creature, Rain stubbornly made a motion to raise it. Even though her mind was panicked and her thoughts scattered, the body remembered countless hours of practice…

Not that it was going to do her any good.

hound was already so close that she could see every harrowing detail of its hideous snout and frothing

'Unfair! This is unfair…'

appeared in her mind, as it had undoubtedly appeared in the minds of countless people just before

something strange

ignited in the darkness to

a dark blade of a strange, stonelike sword flashed out of the shadows and easily sliced through the abomination's neck, separating its

made of something that resembled stone then appeared and swatted the headless body away

a graceful woman wearing menacing black armor stepped out of the darkness, two ruby flames burning behind

never seen someone so terrifying,

glanced at her with indifferent calmness, and then turned around to easily pierce another hound with her stonelike sword, then sever one more in half with a swift, vicious strike. It was as though the flesh of the

killed

them in the

'Who… who is she?'

she was doing, she heard

"Who are you?"

not answer and simply stood between the children and the advancing monsters, her back

at that back, feeling as if nothing was going to

burning desire suddenly appeared in

a spirit, or a strange

to be

***

was slowly suffocating in the iron grip of the Fallen Tyrant. He was being brought closer and closer to the three burning

'What… the hell…'

to be something that he could do… some trick he could employ to wrestle free. A

how hard he

slowly starting

I… I need

He could have turned the Mantle of the Underworld too heavy for the tyrant to lift, but it was already as heavy

and then…