Shadow Slave

During the Dark Times, humanity had come to the brink of destruction. A series of cataclysmic natural disasters had brought it to its knees, causing several waves of mass migrations, each of them accompanied by plagues and famine. Previously arable lands had turned into wastelands, and many resources that had previously been the lifeblood of civilization were suddenly running dry.

There had not been enough food for everyone, not enough livable space for everyone, and not enough power source for everyone. So, humans had done what they knew best.

They had turned to war.

...The marks left by those devastating wars still haunted the planet. From the polluted air to the derelicts of broken military machines, they littered the Earth like scars caused by a deadly infection. The old bunker Sunny was facing right now was one of those scars.

He knew neither what army had built it and for what purpose, nor what had happened to those people and why the bunker now stood abandoned. He also did not care.

There were always stories about terrifying doomsday weapons hidden in such places, waiting to be unleashed by a carefree explorer, but most of them were just that - stories. In reality, places like that one were usually empty for one simple reason: everyone had died or left, and those who survived had no need and no capacity to return.

Plus, the bunker had already been unsealed a long time ago. Its massive blast doors stood open, covered with snow.

Sunny was much more worried about the present than the past. Anything could have made its way inside during the Chain of Nightmares. If a tribe of Nightmare Creatures had made a nest in the narrow underground passages, laying siege to the bunker would not be easy. In fact, it was as tough of a task as a military unit could get.

But he could not turn back.

The civilian transports were crowding the mountain road behind him, with nowhere else to go. The vehicles needed maintenance and repair, and the people inside needed rest. It was his obligation to provide for them.

Looking at the dark entrance gloomily, Sunny turned and addressed his cohort:

us will enter the

Gere, who stood nearby,

what if there are Nightmare

be entrusted to a much larger and better

"There are. So what?"

scouting its many chambers and passages. There were indeed abominations hiding underground... a lot of them. They had turned the abandoned complex into their lair some time ago, and its nature was going to make any potential

regular military

elites. He was confident in their ability to clear out the bunker without

his confidence, though, came

his communicator to project an image on the snow and started to slowly fill it out as

a rough figure of a snake-like monstrosity and drew several red dots on its body.

at

paying him any attention, Sunny addressed the

are ninety-four Nightmare Creatures inside the bunker, as well as several hundred... eggs. The plan is simple. We'll go in and clear them all out, level after level. The first two levels only have Awakened abominations, and the heart of the nest seems to be situated on the fourth, with several Fallen protecting it. There's not a lot of room to move, so mind the walls. Sam,

the remainder of the fifteen minutes going over the important points and explaining what

brandished their weapons and entered the bunker, disappearing into the darkness without a single radiant

in the shadows, Saint and Nightmare remained outside to guard

lead to an ambush at any second, the limited space that made it hard to move and fight... it was a nightmare for a cohort of Awakened, especially if the abominations had both the numbers and the

the Irregulars, though, because they knew where the enemies were, what the lay of the land was, and had already developed an optimal plan of attack. Even if something unexpected happened, Sunny's shadows were keeping

lair, it appeared as though the abominations had found themselves inside an enemy stronghold instead. The Awakened seemed to know the structure of the bunker better than its current inhabitants, as well as how to separate, flank and