Shadow Slave

The convoy stopped soon after entering the tunnel. For a few' moments, nothing apart from the muffled blows that continued to rain on the wall of shadows could be heard. Scared and exhausted, the people were all lost and slightly disoriented.

Sunny's voice brought them back to reality.

Glancing into the depths of the tunnel to make sure that nothing was attacking them from that direction - at least not yet - he backed up a little and studied the cold stones above him.

Surely, detonating a part of the tunnel's roof was not the smartest of ideas, considering how old it was. However, the alternative was even worse. They had to stop the Brood beasts from following the convoy inside, and his wall of shadows was not going to last long, considering how little essence Sunny had left.

He had truly burned through a lot of it during that last desperate dash to save the rear vehicles. Actually, Sunny had not even known that he was capable of doing something like that. The scope and scale of that complex use of Shadow Manifestation was unlike anything he had been able to achieve before. The urgency of the situation and the raging adrenaline had helped him achieve a new level of mastery over his Aspect... And now, he was exhausted. So, the entrance of the tunnel had to go.

'I'll feel really awkward if there's a collapsed section of it further ahead.'

Still, the convoy could find a way to dig through stone debris. They would not be able to resurrect from dead if the Devouring Cloud swallowed them whole, though.

...With the help of explosives that Sergeant Gere provided, Kim's ability to see weak points of both living and inanimate objects, and Professor Obel's knowledge of mundane science, they were able to detonate a few small charges and collapse the entrance of the tunnel, cutting themselves off from the outside world.

Now, there was no way back. Only forward, deeper into the darkness.

Nevertheless, the people were finally safe... relatively speaking, of course. They still did not know what awaited them ahead, in the eerie expanse of the old tunnel, so Sunny, posted plenty of sentries in front of the Rhino. Only then did he have time to assess the state of things.

splattered with blood of the Nightmare Creatures that the Irregulars and

was the rear military vehicle that Sunny had saved. That one was a complete goner. In fact, it looked more like a heap of scrap metal than a working machine now

crew had suffered,

the rest were seriously wounded. A few of them would have died from those wounds, too, if

one glance at the terrible mess of torn flesh and splintered bones, Sunny knew that it would have to be

but now, it turned even darker. Perhaps he should be thanking the dead gods that only one of his men had

he remembered the brazen claim he had made to Professor Obel not too long ago... a promise

had been outside his control, but the fallen soldier... that one was a direct result of

past, but he had never been responsible for someone's death... or rather, had never experienced the death

bitter, scathing feeling. Why did he have to bear the burden of some stranger's death? Who asked

Sunny clenched his fists.

'So... annoying.'

for a

was painful, but not impactful. Losing another civilian transport would have been much more

few days or longer, depending on the

after finding out about the approaching

not

it would not be very safe. In fact, his decision to seek shelter inside could potentially result in a fate similar, or even far worse, than being quickly gobbled up by the

optimism, am

could have built a