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.

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

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

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 is only

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

enemies in the water, and no enemies on the road. However, the mountain slopes made him feel tense, for some reason. Disturbed, Sunny studied the cliffs rising above the highway to understand what he had missed. Their shape

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

uttered a stifled

and its eight segmented legs resembled wide pillars. It looked like a giant spider with an enormous, bulbous beehive attached to its carapace,

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 dire threat itself, just from its sheer size

convoy had no choice

Sunny gritted his teeth. Ilis mind was in disarray, and the damned whispers of the cursed sword were not making it any easier for him to

do I deal

almost a minute left before they would reach the Gate and its Guardian,

with his most powerful weapon,

of the giant spider, that could either be a

finally use the wasteful, but devastating [Death Dealer] enchantment, potentially delivering a severe wound or outright

if that did not work, he would be risking