Shadow Slave

On a dark desolate highway, a black steed and its bleak rider emerged from the shadows. Adamantine hooves rang on concrete as they flew forward through the falling snow, soon catching up with a small column of battered vehicles.

Overtaking one transport after another, Sunny briefly evaluated their condition. The convoy was roughly halfway to its destination, and none of the vehicles had failed... yet. Each looked as if it had gone through a meat grinder, but whatever the technicians had done to the transports was still keeping them from breaking down on the road.

Hopefully, that would continue to be the case.

His soldiers were doing a good job of warding off the Nightmare Creatures, as well. Nothing had managed to attack the column in his absence. The refugees were all intact.

Glancing at the military vehicles, Sunny sent a short communication to Gere:

"How much ammo do you have left, Sergeant?"

The response came in a crackle of interference:

"Glad... you back, Captain... sufficient... or two... nearly spent..."

Sunny frowned. The worsening quality of the signal could mean only one thing. They seemed to be approaching a powerful Gate.

He concentrated for a moment to sense the Call, and felt that it was gradually growing louder.

'Goddammit...'

With a grimace, Sunny sent Nightmare forward and soon reached the head of the convoy, galloping alongside the Rhino. He caught a glimpse of Luster, who was concentrating on driving the APC, and then looked into the darkness ahead.

Morgan's Warbow - Abomination and Blackie were enough to deal with them. However, in the distance, still a few kilometers away, Sunny

inconsequential from distance, but had to be considerably

A Nightmare Gate.

question was... how long

into the waking world by it could have long wandered away in search of prey, or were still lingering around.'There

Sin of Solace in one of his hands. He was tensely looking at the swiftly approaching Gate, trying to notice the shapes of Nightmare Creatures that could have been hiding on the highway or the mountain slope

reason. Disturbed, Sunny studied the cliffs rising above the highway to understand what he had missed. Their

slope itself moved, unfurling long limbs and turning away from the mountain

uttered a

gargantuan. Its rough and uneven hide was almost of the same texture as the stone slope of the mountain, and its eight segmented legs resembled wide pillars. It looked

Sunny's mouth turned dry.

'...A tyrant.'

its body, no less. The towering abomination was a dire threat itself, just from

had no

and the damned whispers of the cursed sword were not making

hell do I deal

Gate and its Guardian, so that was how long he had to come

and attack the tyrant with his most powerful weapon, the Sin of Solace, to either cripple, kill,

the Rank of the giant spider, that could either be a very good or

devastating [Death Dealer] enchantment, potentially delivering a severe wound or outright killing the tyrant on the spot. The minions could be dealt with if he followed up

he would be risking the