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

'Unfair! This is unfair…'

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

then, something

magenta lights ignited in the darkness

the shadows and easily sliced through

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

stepped out of the

seen someone so terrifying, yet

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

just killed three Nightmare

also killed them in the span of a second,

'Who… who is she?'

knew what she was doing, she heard herself saying in a

"Who are you?"

answer and simply stood between the children and the advancing monsters,

as if nothing was going to get past

burning desire suddenly appeared

knight was a human, a spirit, or a strange Nightmare

want to be strong, someday. Strong

***

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 of him, his mind balancing on the

'What… the hell…'

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

matter how hard

was slowly starting to grow

I

were free, but they were not. He could have turned the Mantle of the Underworld too heavy for the tyrant to lift, but it was already as heavy as the [Feather of Truth] allowed, weighing as much

ready to panic, and then… a subtle