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.

harrowing detail of its hideous snout and frothing

'Unfair! This is unfair…'

in her mind, as it had undoubtedly appeared

then, something

the

out of the

made of something that resembled stone then appeared and swatted the headless body away from Rain, not allowing

out of the

had never seen someone

her stonelike sword, then sever one more in half

she just killed three

killed them in the span of a second, with

'Who… who is she?'

doing, she heard herself

"Who are you?"

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

nothing was going to

suddenly appeared in her

black knight was a human, a spirit, or a strange Nightmare Creature. But she knew one

be

***

gate, Sunny was slowly suffocating in the iron grip of the Fallen Tyrant. He was being brought closer and closer to the three burning red eyes, and as he did, it felt as if life itself was being sucked out

'What… the hell…'

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

how hard he tried,

slowly

I… I need

have summoned the Cruel Sight if his hands were free, but they were not. He could have turned the Mantle of the Underworld too heavy for the tyrant to lift, but

was almost ready to panic, and then… a subtle change