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.

and Blackie were enough to deal with them. However, in the distance, still a few kilometers away, Sunny saw a hint of wrongness hidden in

of reality there, one that seemed small and inconsequential from distance, but had to be considerably wide and tall up

A Nightmare Gate.

was... how long

have long wandered away in search of prey, or were still lingering

one of his hands. He was tensely looking at the swiftly approaching Gate, trying to notice the shapes of Nightmare Creatures that could

feel tense, for some reason. Disturbed, Sunny studied the cliffs rising above the

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

a

hide was almost of the same texture as the stone slope of the mountain, and its eight segmented legs resembled wide pillars. It looked like a giant

Sunny's mouth turned dry.

'...A tyrant.'

did not know what Rank the creature was, but it had to be a tyrant... one that carried an army of minions within its body, no less. The towering abomination was a

had no choice but to

damned whispers

I deal

its

tyrant with his most powerful weapon, the

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

potentially delivering a severe wound or outright killing

he would be