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.

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

'Unfair! This is unfair…'

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

something strange

lights ignited in the darkness to

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

something that resembled stone then appeared and swatted the headless body away from Rain, not allowing even a drop of blood to fall on

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

never seen someone so terrifying,

hound with her stonelike sword, then sever one more

she just killed three Nightmare

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

'Who… who is she?'

she heard herself saying in a small

"Who are you?"

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

back, feeling as if nothing was going to get past

suddenly appeared in her

human, a spirit, or a strange Nightmare Creature.

I want to be

***

the three burning red

'What… the hell…'

be something that he could do… some trick he could employ to wrestle free. A Memory he could summon, an enchantment he could

no matter how hard he tried, nothing

vision was slowly starting to grow

I need

the tyrant to

almost ready to panic, and then… a subtle change suddenly happened