Shadow Slave

A black arrow noiselessly flew through the darkness of the moonless night and disappeared into white snow without a trace. Then, another. Sunny tried to send as many arrows flying as he could before the swarm arrived.

In the end, he managed to draw his bow fourteen times.

Knowing that he would have to - and, hopefully, have time to - rescue Saint, he had chosen to wear the Mantle of the Underworld into the upcoming battle. The Dying Wish was already fused with it, but Sunny had not poured his essence into the Transcendent charm yet, not wishing to draw attention to himself.

For now, he was just a black silhouette on the dark backdrop of the night, almost unnoticeable if not for the pale radiance of the crimson aurora that swirled above, devouring the skies with its ghostly light.

Soon, the swarm descended into the valley.

The Nightmare Creature were bestial in appearance, with dirty fur and emaciated, gaunt frames that brimmed with feverish power. Their snouts were long and narrow, revealing hungry maws with black tongues and countless fangs, all sharp enough to cut through metal.

The Fallen abominations were especially ferocious. Their lean bodies were twice the size of Nightmare and had bloody bone protrusions rising from the patchy fur, like morbid armor.

Their tails resembled slithering snakes, and their long black tongues were dripping with venomous saliva.

Sunny had not encountered this type of abomination before.

Two months into the Antarctica campaign, the First Army had learned a few things about the Chain of Nightmares. Despite all the precautions, many Awakened had been pulled into the Dream Realm by the Call... most of them never returned, but two or three managed to locate the Seed and survive its trial, thus becoming Masters.

They had all brought the same story back. There was a previously unknown region of the Dream Realm where countless Nightmare Seeds seemed to be blooming, sending myriads of Nightmare Creatures into a frenzy. It was a vast desert covered by eerie ruins, with a giant black pyramid sometimes appearing on the horizon like a terrible mirage.

Considering that most of the Gates originated from the same cursed land, it was no surprise that the Nightmare Creatures arriving into the waking world through them were also often similar. The First Evacuation Army had battled the same tribes of abominations many times. The Eyeless, for example, were a common sight throughout Antarctica, so humans had developed methods of dealing with them.

...But these Black Tongues were new. Sunny had never seen or heard about them before.

'Come down, you bastards.'

was all but invisible... which was good, because he did not want the abominations to notice

the opportunity to bombard the Nightmare Creatures with ranged attacks during the approach, Sunny had ordered them to wait

the mountains, bringing with it the fetid smell of blood and rot. Cursing silently, he gritted his

and Nightmare must have already engaged the second swarm. Sunny had expected to hear a litany

bow, while the fourth one was with the convoy, so Sunny could not ever see what was happening behind

and his muscles

following the plan, he forced himself to

needed the whole swarm of Black Tongues to descend into the valley before he launched

is no way you have not seen, heard, or smelled the convoy! Aren't you hungry for some delicious

so, the last of the abominations finally reached the flat surface valley. The mass of bestial bodies flowed south, aiming to cross the frozen lake. They're

'Nearer than you think...'

swarm reached the middle of the lake,

Warbow. However,

[Burden of Peace] enchantment, causing the fourteen arrows he had sent flying earlier

many arrows at the same time was not an easy task, even for him. Sunny had to test the limits of his essence control and concentration to achieve what he wanted. It

in the end, Sunny had passed

of the arrows had sunk into a weak spot of the ice sheet covering the lake, which he had found with Kim's help. Now that all fourteen of them

ice started to

first, and then faster and faster, a net of cracks spread under the snow, as if a massive pane of glass was breaking. An indescribably beautiful wholesome of shattering ice drowned the howls of the wind for a few moments, and the

was too

anything, the surface of the lake beneath their feet broke, sending hundreds of abominations into freezing cold water. Instantly, the vast space of pristine snow was no more, replaced instead with a scene of utter havoc. Massive pieces of ice were collapsing and overturning as countless Nightmare Creatures fell into the utterly black, unbearably

climb back onto something solid, but there was nothing to support their weight

course, cold water was not going to kill a Nightmare Creature. They weren't going to drown, either. If need be, the abominations would swim to shore or simply walk on the bottom of the lake until they reached the surface again, breaking through the ice on the other side. For monsters like