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.

were not enough stragglers on the road to make him summon back Morgan's Warbow - Abomination 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 the

one that seemed small and inconsequential from distance, but had to be considerably wide and tall up close, blocking most of

A Nightmare Gate.

was... how long ago had it

answer, the abominations brought into the waking world by it could have long wandered away in search of prey, or were still lingering around.'There is only one way to find out, I

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 nearby... even in the cold waters of

made him feel tense, for some reason. Disturbed, Sunny studied the cliffs rising above the highway to understand what he had missed. Their shape was somewhat irregular,

was until the slope itself moved, unfurling long limbs

uttered a

texture as the stone slope of the mountain, and its eight segmented legs resembled wide pillars. It looked like a giant spider with an enormous, bulbous beehive attached to its carapace, and there were hundreds of

Sunny's mouth turned dry.

'...A tyrant.'

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 alone, and there was no telling how strong

all, the convoy had no choice

the damned whispers of the cursed sword were not making it any easier for him to

do I deal with that

still almost a minute left before they would reach the Gate and its Guardian, so that was how long he had to

He could send Nightmare charging forward and attack the tyrant with his most powerful

spider, that could

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

he would