Shadow Slave

Some of his warriors were going to use flight Memories to follow, others would rappel down. But Amiran himself had no need for these measures - he simply plummeted through the breach, falling into the darkness like a meteor of steel.

Reaching the main production hall, he thrust his sword forward. Invisible force flowed off the blade, forming a brittle field below him - a series of them, actually, each as thin as a sheet of paper.

Breaking through these invisible panes of force allowed Amiran to slow his fall. He landed on the floor in a roll and jumped to his feet a split second later, ready to attack and carve out a path for his men to follow.

If everything went right, the enemy would have been surprised by the collapsing ceiling and the sudden arrival of a Valor Knight. Even if their shock did not last long, a few seconds would be enough...

But he was not given a few seconds. Nothing went right from the start.

As soon as Amiran and the first of his warriors landed, they were greeted by a devastating sonic boom. He felt a powerful shockwave travel through his body, almost strong enough to cause his organs to burst. Luckily, he was resilient enough to withstand it...

The same couldn't be said for the Awakened behind him. With pained screams, they dropped down, blood flowing from every orifice on their bodies.

Dead.

It was as though the enemy had been waiting in a battle formation, ready to defend themselves.

"How dare you!"

As more and more armored Awakened poured through the breach, Amiran roared and dashed forward. There was something strange, though... at the last moment before his lunge, it was as if a drop of blood fell on his helmet from somewhere above. He did not pay it any attention.

In front of him was a loose circle of Awakened protecting something that resembled a large alloy crate. There was some kind of abominable monster inside, no doubt - bringing a Nightmare Creature inside a human city was just what the witch, Beastmaster, would do.

...And allowing the crate to be smuggled into the city despite knowing about its contents was exactly what Valor would do, if it meant leaving the assassins no chance to escape.

Amiran's gaze quickly found the leader of the Song infiltration team - a striking woman whose beauty could neither be hidden by unassuming civilian clothes nor blemished by an ugly scar running across her face.

His eyes narrowed slightly.

'Morrow...'

the world, and even fewer served the great clans directly.

powerful as he

with both his sword and his hammer, sending two horizontal waves of force

shockwave in the middle of the hall, producing a roaring explosion. Bits of

that his mind registered a few incongruities in

had already been revealed - however, the enemy did not appear to be in a hurry to

was in a sorry state even before the explosion,

full cohorts of Song infiltrators had crossed the city

there was a gruesomely beheaded body on the floor in front of Song's warriors. One of their

hell was

something else,

cloud of dust obscured the view, Amiran thought that he had noticed something. A vague silhouette that moved on top of the massive

'An archer?'

visor,

now that he knew that

main priorities are Morrow and the caged

Morrow silently cursed.

was Valor

of the King of Swords

all along, and now, the cavalry had arrived

It had to be the thrall responsible for clearing the path to the inner city...

attack, maybe because she had decided to accelerate the plan. The invisible assassin had revealed their presence too early, and instead of being surprised by the sudden breach of

of Valor Awakened the moment they landed on the

man wearing heavy armor and wielding both a sword

grew