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.

she could see every harrowing detail of its hideous snout and frothing

'Unfair! This is unfair…'

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

something strange

in the darkness to the side of the lunging

of the

and swatted the headless body away from Rain, not allowing even a drop of blood to fall

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

seen someone so

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

she just killed

that, but she also killed them in the span of a second, with a confident, relaxed

'Who… who is she?'

she was doing, she heard herself saying in

"Who are you?"

the children and the advancing monsters, her back straight

nothing was going to get past this frightening,

desire suddenly appeared

whether the menacing black knight was a human, a spirit, or a strange Nightmare Creature. But she

be strong, someday.

***

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

'What… the hell…'

do… some trick he could employ to wrestle free.

matter how hard he tried,

was slowly

I… I

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

panic, and then… a subtle change suddenly happened