Shadow Slave

Sunny and his soldiers held back the abominations while the long column of vehicles drove through the cleared corridor. The pressure the horde was exerting on them was dire, but not impossible to overcome thanks to the artillery support from the mangled battleship.

The Awakened and the mundane soldiers worked together, aided by the lumbering MWPs and assault vehicles. Soon, the whole mountain slope was torn apart and enveloped in flames. An angry red glow spread through the blizzard, making it seem as though the snow itself was aflame, and the sounds of firing armaments, detonating explosives, and bestial howls fused into an ugly, deafening litany.

The battleship grew quiet, and the rain of artillery shells stopped. Either the vessel had run out of ammunition, or the stress of sustaining the heavy barrage had turned out to be too much for its already failing hull, causing it to sustain even more damage.

In any case, by that point, most of the caravan had managed to pass the advancing horde. With artillery bombardment gone and no killing field between them and the highway anymore, a flood of Nightmare Creatures rushed forward, aiming to slam into the defensive line of humans and rip them apart.

That was when Sunny finally utilized Shadow Manifestation. He had not used it before in order to conserve essence for this exact moment, but now there was no point in holding back anything anymore.

Rows of dark spikes rose from the ground, obstructing the advance of the abominations and forcing some to impale themselves on their sharp tips. Pushed from behind by the frenzied mob, more were run through, perishing right there and then. Others were simply slowed down.

The spikes were soon destroyed, but their job was already done-the momentum of the horde was stalled, and the MWPs were able to create a wall of fire in its way.

A few moments later, burning monsters burst through the flames, lunging at the defensive line with rabid rage. They were met by sharp steel and a rain of bullets.

"Hold! We are not done yet!"

Following his command, the soldiers held. The Awakened were burning through their essence, while the mundane fighters were exhausting their ammunition, but they held. One minute, then two...

Finally, the last of the vehicles drove past and disappeared into the haze of the snowstorm.

not over yet, but at least

"Infantry, retreat!"

furious engagement was not an easy

into the personnel carriers. After the massive vehicles drove off,

did, the MWPs fired clusters of remote-controlled landmines, leaving hundreds of them in the wake of the retreating human force. Once enough of

battle. The Awakened jumped onto the roofs of waiting vehicles, which then sped away. The MWPs followed, turning

alone to face the

not quite. Nightmare emerged from the shadows with fury and bloodlust burning in

approaching tide of abominations,

"Come at us, bastards..."

surged around him, shooting forward like

as he could with his spear. Nightmare rampaged in their midst, too swift

to linger for long. All Sunny had to do was buy his soldiers time to put some distance between

his defenses were obliterated, and it seemed like he and his Shadow were going to

was when both of them turned into

the battle was

some abominations lunged in pursuit of the caravan, most remained, seemingly