Shadow Slave

Sunny studied the swarm of abominations that flooded the small valley. These ones didn't seem as dangerous as the primal hunters he had once fought in front of Rain's school. The creatures had bestial bodies, with four bony limbs that ended in sharp claws and long, slithering tails. Ridges of jagged spikes rose from their spines, and their maws were full of sharp fangs.

Most disturbingly, all except for the Fallen ones seemed to have had their eyes violently torn out. Now, only darkness nestles in the empty, gaping holes of their eye sockets. The abominations did not move as if they were blind, though. There was a strange, predatory precision to their subdued motions.

…The Devil was different from the eyeless beasts, though. It resembled them outwardly, but possessed a more humanoid body. The creature stood on its hind legs, while his front limbs resembled human hands. Its eyes were closed, and even seemed sewn shut. Something constantly moved behind the eyelids, giving Sunny the creeps.

The powerful abomination towered above its ilk, reaching almost three meters in height.

Two hundred and seventy-four Nightmare Creatures… was a lot. Most cohorts of Awakened would not have even considered attacking that many abominations, and quietly retreated instead.

'I need to be careful about this.'

Sunny thought for a few long moments, and then spoke:

"Samara, move forward and assume a position higher up the slope, where you'll be able to shoot over the crest of the road. Vanguard, prepare to advance and secure the crest. Kimmy… work your magic."

His words reached the melee fighters of the cohort without any problem. Of course, he could have used the usual technological solutions to ensure good communication… but with how unstable tech was near Nightmare Gates, it was always good to have a backup.

For that reason, Luster was currently in possession of an extremely ordinary, very unassuming rock… which, nevertheless, was somehow able to speak with their captain's voice.

vanguard, as well, so

off the Rhino, the melee vanguard crept forward. Quentin served as the center of the formation, with Belle and Dorn flanking him. Luster stayed behind, to cover their backs and prevent

wielding a beautifully etched halberd in his hands, which both gave him some range and allowed the young man to support the three fighters from the back, should the need arise. Its versatility also gave him a lot of options on how to engage

of his attention, but he also augmented their armors by transplanting the [Tenacious]

been entrusted to Quentin. Sunny also transferred the Blood Blossom to Belle… with much reluctance, of course. With his current strength, the augmentation granted by the morbid charm

cohort was additionally protected by a charm that gave them slight resistance to cold, which is why they were able to all but ignore the slowly falling snow and the

wielding a round buckler, a sharp rapier, and had a snub-nosed automatic carbine slung around

sight. This also allowed her to see what his shadows saw, even though receiving so many different perspectives put an immense strain on her mind. Then, she used her Dormant Ability to concentrate on the Fallen Devil and find

shadows did not see color, so to him, the body of the towering abomination became painted in different shades of

center of the

was where

around his body and strained his muscles, the black bow bent... despite possessing an enchantment called [Unbending]. Because of it, Morgan's Warbow required a

strong, even

turned into a black arrow with dark fletching a narrow arrowhead that seemed to have been crafted from a long, sharp

and moved the bow higher. Aiming at an abomination that was more than a kilometer away and was only seen by his shadow was not an easy task, but he had not trained with Kai for nothing. He held his breath, and then corrected his aim by a couple millimeters when the

four cores. The

it was

the string to slide off them on its own. The black arrow noiselessly disappeared into the sky, so fast that it was hard