Shadow Slave

...And it still raged on by the time Sunny and his cohort were done with their shift. Or maybe it was already another assault — by now, it was often hard to tell where one attack ended and a second one began.

Descending from the wall, the Irregulars passed through the busy camp below. Lumbering loaders were racing to send heavy ammunition containers up, wounded soldiers were being triaged and tended to, fresh reinforcements were waiting their turn to enter the elevators. Here and there, a damaged MWP stood, being hastily repaired by a crew of technicians.

Leaving the staging area, they soon reached the Rhino. The mighty vehicle was not in the best shape, but it could still be used to get around the city. Plus, while the members of the cohort had decided to bunk in comfortable barracks, Sunny chose to remain in the familiar APC. He had even learned how to drive it... well, more or less... from Luster.

"Are you coming with us, Captain? Oh... sorry... Major."

Kim looked away awkwardly after asking the question. Sunny simply shook his head.

"Not today. I have a couple of errands to run, so just take the Rhino to the barracks and then park it in the usual spot. Oh... and rest well. Tomorrow is going to be a long day."

Although the cohort had ended up not doing much today, everyone was still tired. They quickly drove off, leaving Sunny alone.

...Day four of their stay in Falcon Scott was coming to an end.

Circulating his essence to fasten its replenishment rate, Sunny walked for a few minutes, breathing in the cold air as the hum of distant explosions washed over him. Then, he jumped on the step of a moving transport and allowed it to carry him closer to his destination.

The vistas of a city at war floated past him, too many refugees crammed into too few buildings. Everyone was doing their best to create some sort of passable environment for themselves and their neighbors... but there were a lot of problems, too.

Most of these people were shaken and traumatized, some very close to breaking down. There were a lot of conflicts and violent outbursts, and even more dark feelings.

...There were a lot of Nightmare Creatures being born from the bodies of failed Aspirants, as well, since the Spell ran rampant among the refugees and there were not nearly enough soldiers to find all the infected before the worst happened.

A suffocating atmosphere of fear, tension, and sorrow permeated the air.

people lived on. Their resilience and adaptability triumphed over everything, allowing them to endure and even

of smiles, heard plenty of laughter, and witnessed many small details of how the refugees were handling their

'They still have hope...'

way on foot, reaching a section of the staging area where large white warehouses stood in several

materials were being processed and

met

"Major Sunless?"

nodded and allowed the man to lead

enough, so as long as you have enough contribution points, you can cut a good chunk for yourself. Not that I know what you need it for... usually, it's the mundanes we arm with processed material that dream

Sunny smiled.

carcasses — those valuable enough to be retrieved

the Corrupted Tyrant he and Sky Tide had killed — had been placed here once, for example. The incredibly durable jade carapace

was instantly used to strengthen the fortifications of the city or the First Army itself. There were all kinds of things that could be done with various parts of Nightmare Creatures, from crafting melee

a little, and spend a bunch of contribution points to receive a modest

the warehouses,

managed to breach the wall. Where

engineer stared at him for a

receive the carcasses and come up with ways of

a

me the

series of ghastly corpses, one more frightening than the

somewhere in its center. There was a carcass of something that seemed like an eight-legged metal tick, the size of a house, and a stone sphere covered with bumps that looked eerily like human

'Damn...'