Shadow Slave

Sunny's shadow swiftly glided through the darkness, climbing the steep slopes above the vast river of Nightmare Creatures. Sunny was trying to gauge the true size of the horde, but no matter how hard he looked, there was simply no end to it. All kinds of abominations were gathered in a tremendous mob which spilled over the cliffs, undulating and crawling over the landscape.

The horde was stretched into a long line, moving from east to west... toward the coast. The width of it was somewhat bearable, making the thought of trying to cut through the mass of Nightmare Creatures appear tentatively in his mind. However, the length of the horde was simply too oppressive.

The caravan was very large now, and even if Sunny managed to create a breach in the river of monsters, not all vehicles would be able to pass through before a tide of abominations ripped them apart.

...It was still an option, though. He had to think strategically.

To the east, the horde stretched for as fast as his shadow could see. To the west, there was still some space between the front ranks of the mob of Nightmare Creatures and the coastal highway. If the column of vehicles sped up while the abominations maintained their pace, there was a good chance that they would narrowly miss each other.

If not, the caravan would be caught between the horde and the ocean, potentially suffering even more casualties. That was not even considering that something could attack them from the water, as well.

Sunny sighed.

'...Crap.'

The first option all but guaranteed that people would die, but had a lower damage ceiling. The second promised a small chance that no one would be killed at all... but had the potential to turn really disastrous if things went wrong.

He hesitated for a few moments, then contacted Gere.

"Yes, Captain?"

Sunny gritted his teeth.

ahead. Full forward, and we will be taking a detour via the highway. Inform everyone to prepare for a

at least the caravan stood a chance of escaping unscathed. He was not ready to callously send people to die yet, even if

the end of it, Sunny would know that he at

keep up, but eventually adjusted to the increased pace. The military vehicles comprising the caravan followed suit, and soon, the whole

'Do not break.'

of the charge, there would be no saving its passengers... a faulty transport could also potentially slow down everyone behind it, which would be a complete

coast was one of the reasons he had chosen the second option, so if anything, leaving the mountains for

it, Sunny tensely observed the horde and tried to calculate if they were going to make it past the advancing mob of abominations before

now, it seemed that there was still a narrow

as they reached the

the front ranks of the horde suddenly went into a frenzy and rushed forward, with the rest of the mob soon following in an avalanche of flesh. Sunny was sure that the Nightmare Creatures could not have sensed the caravan yet, so

much faster now, any chance of passing by without a battle the

'Curses!'

be assaulted from one side. Their left flank would be

the hell spooked these

abominations spilling onto the highway

'...Oh.'

there ahead of them, laying on the shore like a mountain of white flesh, the corpse of a colossal abomination towered above the highway. It looked like a monstrous jellyfish of mind-boggling proportions, some of its lifeless

depths was torn and scorched, with large chunks of it missing. Strange organs could be seen beneath it, and a lake of freezing slime covered a long stretch of the highway around it. Something had thoroughly savaged the