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.

pressed a button on the side of his rifle. A moment later, a powerful alloy blade slid from underneath its barrel, turning the weapon into

'Come then, wretches!'

his bravado, Ash 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 seemed too slim. The Awakened abominations were bad enough, but he at least had a theoretical chance to take down one or

also Fallen ones. Most terrifyingly of all, a creature that resembled a giant, ancient, rotting carcass of a monstrous deer had just emerged from the Gate, sending the other ghastly beasts into a frenzy. It had to be a Devil, at least…

shuddered and readied

give the supply guys time to run. These bastards are going to learn what humans are capable of! Hell, who knows! Maybe reinforcements

useless. Ash caught a lunging Dormant beast on the tip of his bayonet and grunted, feeling

'Strong…'

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

him off balance. The bayonet slid off the hide of the Awakened monster without leaving even

tempered alloy of his armor and the complicated internals of

am

the ugly snout of the monster that was going to kill him,

monster's head exploded

blinked as a visage out of a nightmare flashed past him. It was a black horse carrying

Or a demon, perhaps.

down, the demonic knight continued forward, killing numerous abominations in passing. Suddenly, the pressure on the mundane soldiers

flew through the mass of rabid creatures, slaughtering

'The sword…'

wielded a strange weapon. The sword he… she?... held was made out of black

the onslaught of Nightmare Creatures, getting closer and closer to the monstrous deer. At some point, the rider gracefully jumped off the black steed's back,

a chilling, absolutely inhuman shriek that suddenly rolled across the battlefield, so loud that the auditory systems of his exosuit failed to filter the

'Gods…'

to struggle to do anything with only one functioning leg and a torn shoulder that reduced the range of

forward and saw the dreadful black horse rampaging among the Nightmare Creatures. There was no sign of its demonic rider, but