Shadow Slave

Still some distance from the convoy, the whole width of the highway was blocked off by something that looked like a tall wall of alloy. It was surrounded by a scene of pure mayhem, with torn pieces of metal and massive chunks of concrete laying on the road in a chaotic mess.

Sunny scowled, trying to make sense of what he saw. After a second or two, he uttered a silent curse.

Ahead of them, the barrier between the thoroughfare and the railroad was shattered to pieces. The object he had thought to be an alloy wall was actually the roof of a train carriage laying on its side. One of the armored behemoths must have been derailed here at some point in the past, turning a whole section of the highway into a nightmare of broken concrete and mangled alloy.

'Damnation...'

Sunny had ridden an armored train once before, so he knew how fearsome these moving fortresses were. What could have even destroyed an alloy beast like that? He wasn't sure that an earthquake would be enough to derail one of them, even though it was the most reasonable theory he had.

In any case, Sunny had more pressing problems than guessing the fate of the crashed train.

The convoy was not allowed to slow down... the fragile equilibrium they had been able to create was all dependent on the assumption that the column would keep moving. If they lost speed or, even worse, were forced to stop, there would be no escape from death. They would simply drown in Nightmare Creatures.

"Sam and Quentin, make the Echoes fall back to the Rhino."

Then, he closed his eyes for a moment and reached forward with his senses.

After becoming a Master and before coming to Antarctica, Sunny had received no opportunities to test the limits of Shadow Manifestation in combat. Now, he knew that his Ascended Ability was more powerful than he had thought... so, he was going to call upon it again.

the convoy reached the wreckage, the shadows on the slope of the mountain came to life and flowed forward, forming long tentacles. These tentacles tore through the alloy of the overturned carriage, taking hold of it, and then pulled the massive structure aside. A deafening sound

'Come on... come on...'

for the approaching Rhino. The APC pulverized several chunks of the concrete barrier with its ram,

to do it, though. He masterfully avoided all the serious obstacles

to lunge at the convoy, but

convoy left the field of debris... but

this one much larger and dangerous than all the previous ones. Worse still, since they were late to discover it, there was

was

'Goddammit!'

bow in his hands, knowing that just its power alone was not going to be enough this time. The situation was dire. ...Which meant that

was not capable of landing on the back of a galloping horse from a moving vehicle, it was just that Nightmare's saddle was a Memory, and had

weapon effectively without stirrups was

He sighed.

guess I'm

Sunny summoned Nightmare directly onto the roof of the Rhino, simultaneously calling upon the Sin of Solace

eyes. Nightmare snarled, revealing two rows of metal fangs that resembled those of a

on the dark surface of

a chance

Samara's rifle barked, sending a shining round flashing into the darkness. A chorus of bestial