Shadow Slave

Eventually, Sunny climbed out of the sleeping niche and went about the business of managing the caravan. They had made it far into the mountains and were already moving north, toward their true goal.

The blizzard was still raging, reducing visibility to almost zero. The landscape was as grim and foreboding as ever.

Surrounding areas needed to be scouted, maps needed to be updated, reports needed to be received, and a hundred other things demanded his attention.

Before getting down to it, Sunny spared a few moments to stare at the grey fabric and lusterless black leather of the Puppeteer's Shroud.

Who could have thought that he would be reduced to seriously using it again, after all that time?

'It sure is much more comfortable than walking around in a full plate of steel armor. Ah, the old me had it good...'

Actually, not really.

Sunny was ready to climb to the roof of the Rhino when he noticed Beth staring at him with a strange expression. He lingered for a moment.

"What?"

She blinked a couple of times, then pulled her gaze away.

"No, no... nothing..."

Sunny frowned.

"Just say it, will you?"

Beth remained silent for a second, then asked hesitantly:

"Are you... uh... are you wearing makeup?"

time, it was his turn

would

woman gave him a dubious look

a little different,

Sunny grinned.

I naturally have the complexion of a marble statue, no

away with a sigh and

Awakened... how is

top of the Rhino, sighing as the bone-chilling wind smashed into

was not that cold. His passive

the shadow

still sensed a slight chill, but it was in no

Huh.

Morgan's Warbow, he sat down on the roof and closed his

get used to

Scott continued. Traversing the abomination-infested expanse of the Antarctic Center was still hard and dangerous, but with Naeve

over the chain of relays in the military vehicles. Sunny was stationed at the head of the column, while Naeve stayed in

they only met face-to-face during the rare stops and when an especially dire threat demanded both of them to fight side by side to vanquish it. Going

'Ah. Finally, a professional...'

long bone harpoon and a net woven out of unnaturally durable

severe restriction, though, so the scion of the

more

most Masters tended to be. Not overly so, but enough for Sunny to notice the difference between the two of them. It was understandable... after all, the Nightwalker had a family to come back to. He carried

new to Sunny, and made him think about things that he had

that, things were going... as expected. The caravan continued to grow, several more groups of Erebus Field survivors joining it. By then, Sunny was secretly starting to thank the gods that Naeve's ship had suffered catastrophic damage. Without the additional

though, he had enough to feed everyone and arm those who could

the end, the only other person other than Beth who showed any reaction was Kim.