Shadow Slave

There were more interesting things said that night. Sitting on a cot in a remote tent, Sunny had silently absorbed them all. There was a somber expression on his face.

'Troublesome.'

Each clan was planning to test the other during the retreat back to the siege capitals... which had not come as a surprise. From this point forward, the hostilities between Valor and Song were only going to escalate. If anything, this first confrontation was shaping out to be rather tame.

Neither of the sides was fully committing their Saints to the ambushes, preferring to bide their time and turn the conflict into a war of attrition. There were valuable assets that both clans kept under layers of protection - in terms of the ruthless economy of war, trying to take these assets off the board was not cost-effective at this point in time.

Luckily, Nephis seemed to be one such asset, as well.

However, neither Valor nor Song could keep all their people protected. Cohorts of Awakened had to be sent out into the wilderness to scout for suitable Nightmare Gates. Scouts had to enter the Dream Realm and explore the deadly desert in search of positions that were suitable for establishing fortified expedition camps. Ascended like Knight Shtad had to lead the most important of these teams.

These were the people the great clans were going to go after first - in East Antarctica, and in the Dream Realm at the later stages of the conflict.

Which Sunny did not mind one bit. The only thing he regretted was that he would not be able to get snacks and comfortably watch the soldiers of the great clans slaughter each other... as long as they limited their feud to outside the city walls.

Sadly - and predictably - that was already not the case.

Beastmaster was not satisfied with picking off Awakened cohorts in the wilderness. So, she was planning to deliver a more damaging strike to her enemies.

was headed, or

She chose the former.

an attack on her base of operations was imminent. Whether it was through some form of divination or simply through knowing her enemy and possessing a frighteningly sharp strategic mind, Sunny did not know. Regardless of the reason,

was planning to lure them into

what sort of destruction the clash of two hidden forces would wreak in the heart of a besieged city, Sunny couldn't help but feel cold fury. Neither of the great clans cared about collateral damage. All they cared about was

to care about it a

said and how they said it that did not make a lot of sense. It was as though they were under pressure...

considering a clandestine attack of her own... hers, however, was

unlike her adversary, she was sending an actual Saint instead of a team of Awakened led by a few Masters. Sir Madoc, the Whispering Blade, was going to

of clan Song, nor was it a large-scale

Mordret.

capital controlled by Song. By now, he started silently spreading the mirrors he had created throughout the city... no one on the Valor side knew what the purpose of his strange actions were, but they were determined

was going to infiltrate the siege capital and either destroy or contain the Prince of Nothing with the help of

Blade was. Sending him after Mordret meant that he would not be able to provide support for the forces of Valor anywhere else for a period

was just too

ambush staged by Song in the process. Once there, Madoc would send off reinforcements for Knight Shtad and depart, leaving Morgan to deal with the team of assassins Beastmaster was dispatching to attack

not too concerned about what Whispering Blade would do to Mordret... the man was too powerful and too precise, and the decision to activate him so early into the conflict was too unexpected. No matter if he achieved his goal or

that promised to be do a lot of harm to the refugees trapped