Shadow Slave

A soldier named Ash was not having a great day. Early into the battle, his powerful exoskeleton armor suit sustained damage to one of its knee joints. Although he could still fight and shoot his rifle, not to mention more than willing to face the abominations despite having his mobility severely reduced, the command judged that the risk was not worth it.

As a result, he had to abandon his fellow infantrymen and retreat to the supply train of the division, where a team of techs tried to repair his suit as fast as possible.

…Sadly, they weren't fast enough.

Who knew that a bunch of new Gates would open, with one of them appearing almost on top of the scarcely defended supply train?

While the techs and other non-combatants desperately tried to retreat closer to the main formation, Ash and a small number of soldiers that happened to be nearby had no choice but to face the advancing Nightmare Creatures alone.

They unleashed a torrent of bullets at the monsters, but there were just too many of them. Even when he emptied his shoulder-mounted launcher to send a hail of miniature rockets into the mass of rabid abominations, the surprisingly potent explosive load his missiles carried failed to make any difference.

He had managed to slaughter a number of Dormant bastards with that salvo, but those of them that were Awakened…

You needed an Awakened to kill another Awakened. All mundane soldiers knew that, more or less.

Slowly, Ash's blood turned cold in his veins.

'Bad, bad, bad…'

An officer's shout reached his ears through the communication system of the armor suit, barely legible because of all the distortion produced by the mass of Gates:

"...tach… bayonets!"

Attach bayonets…

That was the order that every soldier dreaded.

moment later, a powerful alloy blade slid

'Come then, wretches!'

felt more and more like he was not going to live to see the next day… or whatever it was that counted as a day in the damned Southern Quadrant. The odds just

resembled a giant, ancient, rotting carcass of a monstrous deer had just emerged from the Gate,

shuddered and

time to run. These bastards are going to learn what humans are capable of!

Creatures closed in on the thin line of soldiers, making ranged fire useless. Ash caught a lunging Dormant beast on the tip of his bayonet and grunted, feeling his powered armor suit

'Strong…'

back of the heavy exoskeleton ignited, pushing him forward. Ash sliced through the flesh of the revolting creature, then tried to land a

joint of his armor finally gave out, throwing him off balance. The bayonet slid off the hide

closed on his shoulder, easily crushing the tempered alloy of his armor and the complicated internals of the powered suit. A

am going

of the monster that

then, the monster's head

a black horse carrying a

Or a demon, perhaps.

crushed the Nightmare Creature's head. Without ever slowing down, the demonic knight continued

and his… hers?... nightmarish steed flew through the

'The sword…'

he… she?... held was made out of black stone, and

the monstrous deer. At some point, the rider gracefully jumped off the black steed's back, soaring high into the air and

the mass of Nightmare Creatures. All he perceived was a chilling, absolutely inhuman shriek that suddenly rolled across the

'Gods…'

managed to raise himself from the ground. The battle was still not over… in fact, it was only starting. Even though Ash would have to struggle to do anything with only one functioning leg and a torn shoulder that

black horse rampaging among the Nightmare Creatures. There was no