Shadow Slave

As soon as the Strike of Thunder flashed through the darkness of the polar night and burst into blinding arcs of electricity, decimating the center of the swarm, Sunny spoke into his communication device:

"Wedge formation!"

He had created a rift in the middle of the mass of Nightmare Creatures, but it was not enough to clear a path through the blockade. There was the flanking force spilling from the mountains to worry about, too.

The abominations were already dashing toward the convoy, bits of broken cement flying from beneath their sharp claws. The fastest and strongest one, however, suddenly collapsed, a golden arrow piercing its throat.

Behind the Rhino, two military vehicles and two civilian transports accelerated and left the column, assuming positions on both sides of the convoy. From above, it would have looked like a wedge with the APC taking the point, while the other four vehicles formed its wings.

The purpose of that formation was very simple - with the massive shape of the Rhino not blocking their view of the road anymore, both the military vehicles and the Awakened on the roofs of the two civilian transports were free to target the swiftly approaching swarm.

Samara's rifle thundered, and Kim's carbine cracked, sending a rain of bullets into the mass of abominations. Two turrets joined the fray, clearing a path for the convoy to charge through. Sunny continued to let loose arrow after arrow, as well, taking down the most threatening of Nightmare Creatures.

Just a few moments before the column reached the swarm, the four vehicles veered back and returned to their positions, hiding behind the bulk of the speeding Rhino.

'Here we go...'

Pieces of flesh flew aside as it cleaved a

was

from the sides. Two or three were clinging to the front of the Rhino, and several more had crashed into the Belle's and Dorn's civilian transports. Their claws were already tearing into the

edge of the transport's roof and struck down with his hatchet, severing the abomination's limb before it had a chance to rip

a Nightmare Creature on the other side of the transport, but its body had been caught by the spikes welded along the frame of the civilian vehicle, so it did not manage to rip through

leaped at his transports by pulling it down mid-jump with his Aspect Ability. The creature hit the cement surface of the road instead of crushing into the side of the vehicle, and was promptly crushed

was severely injured, the abomination still tried to get up. Before it

a few moments after crashing into the swarm, the

turrets of the military vehicles instantly turned around, unleashing a barrage of bullets at the fastest of pursuing Nightmare Creatures. Samara's tungsten rounds and Sunny's arrows took care of the most resilient of the enemies, while Kim was hurriedly reloading her carbine. The nameless Sleeper had almost emptied his quiver, so he was busy summoning the spent

swarm

new enemies appearing from the darkness

spun to face north

to get

really stopped, instead stretching into one continuous, moving slaughterhouse. Even if there had not been too many Nightmare