Shadow Slave

Sunny was sitting on the battlement of the defensive wall, looking at the apocalyptic sight of a giant horde of Nightmare Creatures advancing on the city. There were so many of them that it seemed as though the ground itself was moving, flowing forward as it seethed and churned.

The darkness surrounding the city was chased away by dozens of flare rockets, which slowly drifted down from the black sky like bright falling stars. On the ground, rivers of flame were devouring the carcasses of the abominations that had been slain in the previous assaults. The incendiary mixture burned long and hot, but luckily enough, the stench of scorched flesh could hardly reach the top of the wall.

Pillars of smoke rose into the sky, twisting as they struggled to support its weight. And above it all, obscured by dark clouds, ghostly lights of the aurora swirled with shades of crimson.

The battle was about to begin.

As the advancing sea of Nightmare Creatures crossed an invisible line, the powerful mass drivers installed on the bastions of Falcon Scott came to life, flashing with electric light as they sent heavy tungsten rounds flying forward with terrifying speed. The rail gun fire was accompanied by deafening thunderclaps, making the whole wall shake and vibrate.

Even though the tungsten rounds were not explosive, they impacted the horde with enough force to produce flashes of light and a devastating shockwaves that pulverized dozens of Nightmare Creatures and cut bloody swathes through their mass.

The horde, however, continued forward unperturbed. A moment later, the breaches created by the first salvo of the rail guns were entirely gone, and the abominations rushed forward with murderous frenzy.

As the mass drivers accumulated new charges, the heavy- caliber turrets placed along the wall joined the fray. Long tongues of fire bloomed from their barrels, and thousands upon thousands of bullets filled the air. The shining streams of them twisted as they slid across the horde, decimating countless creatures. The noise of the turret barrage was dire and cacophonous.

Sunny winced unhappily.

a lot of things, but

as if performing an elaborate dance. From the side, it looked as if Sunny

was weaving shadow strings - it was

accustomed to their leader's eccentric antics, so they

the hundreds of MWPs stationed on top of the wall braced themselves and opened fire, Samara placed the barrel of her rifle on the battlement and leaned into the scope. Before she could charge a shot, however, Sunny

currently using four two of them made of flesh, two of them made of shadows. Samara glanced at

"Sir? Why not?"

to weave shadow strings as he

situation under control, for now, so don't get involved unless the

for a moment,

reports, the Devouring Cloud is only one day away from reaching Falcon Scott. We are going to need

uncomfortably, remembering their last brush with the flying swarm. Sunny, meanwhile, disregarded his own advice and turned his attention back to the invisible threads

losses, and not long after the MWPs unleashed a hail of rounds and missiles into the mass of abominations, the mundane soldiers joined, followed by

of the defensive measures of the city were only able to deal with Dormant and Awakened Nightmare Creatures. To slay the Fallen ones, Awakened fighters had to abandon the safety of the battlements and sortie out, emerging either

also used to intercept those abominations that were capable of burrowing through the ground, and could be easily collapsed in case the enemy took

the Masters were sent out

and mayhem. Abominations possessed all kinds of vile powers, so each assault was unpredictable and dangerous. Each victory took

a glimpse of Dale's heavy armor, which meant that something truly dangerous had emerged. Army Command was strangely protective of the Irregulars, mostly keeping them in reserve for now. They were probably meant to do their part of the dying once the priority