Shadow Slave

On the second to last day before the departure of the First Evacuation Army, Sunny and his cohort had nothing much to do. The gymnasium they used had actually been dismantled the previous night, so it was impossible for them to continue training.

Of course, Sunny could have come up with an inventive way to put his soldiers through more grief, but he eventually decided against it. Instead, he gathered them on the wall of the port fortress for an improvised picnic.

Leaving the Northern Quadrant was a big occasion, especially considering that they were going to war. This was probably going to be their last chance to relax and enjoy themselves in complete safety, so it would have been a shame to miss it.

The cohort enjoyed a lavish meal consisting of various tasty dishes Sunny had commandeered from the officer's mess hall. There were even beverages that were technically prohibited by army regulations, even though they had very limited effect on Awakened.

The seven of them watched as heavy containers were being loaded on the massive ships in wistful silence. Well… at least six of them did. Luster, meanwhile, was secretly ogling Samara.

After a few moments of silence, the tall woman suddenly said in an even tone:

"What are you staring at?"

The young man flinched and awkwardly looked away.

"That… uh… that's a wicked scar you have! How did you get it, Sam?"

Samara, indeed, had a prominent scar that stretched all the way from her shoulder to her forearm. Since the sleeves of her bodysuit were currently rolled up, a part of it was on display.

She briefly glanced down at her arm, then shrugged.

"When I was around your age, there was a Gate that opened on top of an unfinished city barrier. As one of the closest Awakened to the site, I was among the first responders. We held the Nightmare Creatures off while the construction crews were evacuating. Anyway… there was an explosion, and I was thrown over the edge. Luckily, my arm got caught on some scaffolds. It hurt like hell, but at least I didn't fall all the way down to the ground and turned into a puddle."

blinked a couple

worm somehow tunneled under the Citadel I was anchored in, and then emerged from underground, swallowing the Gateway in one

He paled a little.

safe as long as we remained on top of big chunks of stone. We did so for a couple of weeks. But when our food and water were gone, we had to make a run for it. I killed an entire worm myself…

was fortunate that he had lost his limb in the Dream Realm. Although it must have caused a lot of damage to his physical body, he had not

and gave Belle

about you? What's the worst you've been hurt,

thought for

open nearby, and the entire facility ended up being overrun. I was pretty much the only one to survive, but the Nightmare Creatures were on my heels. I had no means to contact

smile appeared on his

took me about a month to reach it on foot. The pursuing abominations were easy enough to deal with, but the air… suffice it to say, by the end of it, I was constantly coughing out chunks of my lungs. That was the worst I have

disturbed silence settled over the cohort.

through the mud for two entire weeks of slow, painful crawling to get to the nearest Citadel. That was many years ago, of course, but no abomination

seemed in the mood to boast about their battle scars, Quentin hesitated for a bit and then decided to

and filled it with digestive fluid, to turn me into an easily consumable slushy… as spiders do. The problem was, I was able to heal myself a little bit faster than the acid was dissolving me. Still, after several weeks of

at

how did you

The gallant man smiled.

fortunately. However, I failed to avenge the other victims and kill the spider… it

down,

never hurt too badly. There was this one time when my entire cohort contracted a strange plague, though. It was a… a really torturous disease, and it quickly spread to the entire Citadel. Many people died in agony. Eventually, we found out that the plague was a manifestation of a bizarre Terror. Once we did, a Saint of the great clan Song arrived, and somehow managed to

young woman