Shadow Slave

Morrow stared at the severed head for a split moment, feeling cold terror creep into her heart. The clean cut, the hollow emptiness of his dead eyes, the dark entrance into the tunnel behind...

Were... were they all dead? A whole cohort of experienced, battle-hardened Awakened warriors of the great clan Song, wiped out in such a short span of time without making even a single sound? Had a human done that? No, that was impossible. Only Whispering Blade would have been capable of slaughtering them in such a manner. But then, Madoc would never lower himself to play with his prey...

What kind of abomination was it, then? How had the dogs of Valor allowed a monster like that to live freely under their city?!

Then, Morrow scowled. Why was she scared? What was there to be scared of? Neither death nor Nightmare Creatures had ever frightened her before. Her people seemed to be shaken, too, so unbecoming of the elites of a great clan.

'A mental attack.' The creature must have been employing some kind of beguilement. She growled: "Activate the mental resistance enchantments!"

At the same time, she raised her hand and clicked her fingers, sending a devastating sonic shockwave into the tunnel. A deafening boom rolled through the production hall, and a fountain of stone dust and debris shot out of the dark entrance.

The Awakened of Song poured essence into the protective charms they carried. Instantly, it was as if they could breathe again... the memory of terror still lingered, though, gnawing at their willpower. There were twenty of them left, gathered in a circular defensive formation that had no blind zones, with the massive cage placed in the center. Morrow stared in the direction of the tunnel tensely, wondering whether her attack caught the creature or not.

Instead of relying on natural vision, the messengers of Song

nothing within its dark expanse except for old

brought her thumb and middle finger

silence. And then a moment more. And then, the severed head laying in

threw unsettled glances at the head of Rikas, which stared back at them with hollow eyes.

a distraction!" She snarled, then looked away from the morbid visage of the speaking severed head and concentrated on the production hall, trying to

too. ...Except for one. The man who had been the furthest from the entrance to the tunnel swayed slightly. Then, his head slid from his shoulders and fell to the floor, rolling through the dust as the body toppled behind it. In

a ring from the formation of the Awakened, obliterating a large swath of the production hall. The concrete floor cracked, the old machines were torn apart, the still conveyor belts were ripped, and shreds of alloy flew away like jagged bullets. Nothing within the circle of destruction

silence that followed... The severed head of

its capabilities? There was something else beneath her calmness, though. A slither of fear. This time, one that

loud metallic click came from somewhere within the defensive formation... from the massive cage that contained

in the middle of a wide corridor. He was surrounded by Awakened of Valor, who were stealthily moving forward.