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.

every harrowing detail of its hideous snout and frothing maw. There

'Unfair! This is unfair…'

in her mind, as it had undoubtedly appeared in the minds of

something strange

ignited in the darkness to the side of the lunging

a strange, stonelike sword flashed out of the shadows and easily

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

she froze in shock, a graceful woman wearing menacing black armor stepped out of the darkness, two ruby flames burning behind the visor of her

had never seen someone so terrifying,

sword, then sever one more in half with a swift, vicious strike. It was as though the flesh of the

she just killed three Nightmare

she also killed them in the span of a second,

'Who… who is she?'

knew what she was doing, she heard

"Who are you?"

simply stood between the children and the

if nothing was going

burning desire suddenly

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

want to be strong, someday.

***

was being brought closer and closer to the three burning red eyes, and

'What… the hell…'

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

hard he tried,

was slowly starting

I need

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 panic, and then… a subtle change