Shadow Slave

The battle was over, but the soldiers had no time to relax and celebrate their victory. They did not even have time to collect the soul shards and other spoils from the army of slain abominations. Instead, as soon as the fighting ended, everyone got busy preparing for an immediate retreat.

That was the nature of the war in Antarctica. No matter what terrible foe you defeated, a dozen more were just beyond the horizon. They were in enemy territory. The ferocious battle against the Skull Centipede had not taken a lot of time, but it had created a lot of noise.

Already, several hordes of Nightmare Creatures were flowing across the plain, converging on the location where the battle had taken place. Unless the expedition force wanted to drown in an endless flood of abominations, it needed to disappear as soon as possible.

Sunny, Jet, Effie, and Kai were gathered in front of the Skull Centipede's massive corpse, careful to steer clear of the water. They did not know what the poison was exactly, but the river was visibly tainted. Even in death, the Corrupted Tyrant continued to spread death and destruction.

They had just retrieved the five Transcendent soul shards from the ghastly carcass - that was the extent of the trophies the expedition force was going to carry back with it. The huntress looked at the hundreds of dead abominations laying on the ground and sighed.

"Damn, what a pity. That would be enough for an entire cohort of Sleepers to saturate their cores."

Sunny felt a bit regretful, too. The monetary value of all these shards would have been astronomical... granted, now that the Chain of Nightmare had flooded the waking world with abominations, the price of shards was not what it had been before. He knew it from his occasional correspondence with Aiko.

He shook his head. "That might be true, but what's the use of having all these shards if we die before reaching a siege capital?"

Kai nodded. "Indeed. We have already reaped the main benefit - preventing the Tyrant from growing stronger and reaching one of the human settlements. Our casualties were light, too... that's a win in my book. Anything else is irrelevant."

Sunny knew that his friend was right. But, nevertheless, he could not help but sigh with regret. At least his luck had been good, granting him several Ascended Memories. None seemed particularly useful, so he promptly fed them to Nightmare. That was already a good result for one day.

After a short pause, Sunny said: "In any case... good job, everyone. That went much smoother than I thought it would. Especially you, Kai - that was an insane shot!"

Sunny knew a thing or two about archery. Shooting an arrow through a thin crack in the skull of a moving target, while flying at high speed... that was one for the books. The charming archer had been the one to destroy the skeletal trees, as well.

shyly. "Thank you. Ah... to be honest, I can't quite believe it. I

wistful, as if he was recalling the past.

Earth are you talking about? Can't believe it? Says the

at him and raised an eyebrow. "A dragon? What kind of a dragon are

was just a

time, it was Soul Reaper's turn to

killed

voice sounded a little dull. Effie suddenly

one, too. A

She pointed at Sunny.

same Saint twice. Speak about

back of her

I thought my Second Nightmare

his head slightly, as if listening to something. He was most likely receiving a message through his comm. And indeed, a

We can

out a relieved sigh. The two companies had been quick to organize themselves for a rapid march, and so, they would be able to leave before any of

Sunny and Jet, then at

we going to take

"Does

grinned and answered her own

fan club even in the army. They bring him all kinds of little

away in

just concerned about their commander. I can't really refuse, either... they become sad if