Shadow Slave

The creature escaped its cage. It was a revolting thing, a towering mass of grey flesh with a hundred nimble limbs and a scattering of huge, eerily human-like eyes.

All of them burned with delirious frenzy.

Its enormous body continued to unfold, occupying much more space on the outside of the container than there had been on the inside. Its limbs moved, sharp claws shooting in all directions. Morrow might have been able to resist the terrifying abomination if she had been prepared. But she wasn't. Her body had been battered and wounded, and her mind was momentarily frozen by the visage of the creature that had somehow escaped its enthrallment.

She was slow to react by only a split second, but that was all it took. Her figure disappeared in a tide of slithering grey limbs, and, just like that...

An Ascended of the great clan Song had been killed.

Amiran watched her die with an incredulous expression. 'Such irony...' The witch had been slain by her own pet abomination. The death of a powerful enemy should have brought him joy, but he felt a grim sense of dread instead... after all, the creature had to be dealt with. And Amiran, despite his pride and strength, was not confident in his chances.

He would have been a fool not to recognize the revolting monstrosity for what it was - a Corrupted. And of a high Class, from the looks of it. A Devil? No, worse than that... a Tyrant. 'These crazy wretches... they smuggled a Corrupted Tyrant into a human city? They were planning to unleash that thing within a siege capital's walls?'

knowingly allowed the Corrupted Tyrant to be smuggled into a human city, because it suited their goals. The hypocrisy of his

couple dozen Awakened left alive in the ruined production hall, all dazed by Morrow's dreadful wail. Some of them belonged to Clan

limbs shot through the air, grabbing several of the Awakened that were closest to the broken cage. Blood spilled to

was already moving.

toxin sap his speed and strength. What kind of treacherous blade had that Awakened assassin

he growled and threw his hammer with all the might of an Ascended Knight. The war hammer spun as it flew toward the Tyrant with the speed of a bullet. And, as if a path had been opened by

hammer and the torrent of force struck the massive body of the shambling horror with such fury that a sudden explosion rang out. A full-power strike from Amiran was destructive enough to shatter the gates of a Citadel... the Tyrant, however, was simply thrown back. The bodies of the Awakened

They slowly stood up. Only they did not look like humans anymore. There was a wicked, alien coldness hiding in their eyes, and

risen corpses twisted, and they awkwardly lunged toward the nearest Awakened. More blood spilled. Amiran cursed. 'A puppeteer...' Before, he had not been too worried about the creature escaping from the factory and reaching the industrial zone above - that was within the parameters of the mission. Now, however... allowing the Tyrant access to crowds of refugees was the same

he could

received an opportunity to create a legion of flesh puppets. In fact, the Tyrant had to know that there were millions of souls to be reaped right above. Intelligent as these

abomination seemed hellbent on slaying every human in the main production hall of the underground factory first. Amiran was not going to complain. "Attack, you wretches!" His bellow rolled through the hall, pushing the Awakened into action. The warriors of Valor followed the order without hesitation, while the surviving

escape. The cowards

Tyrant was not an enemy he could hope to slay alone. Especially not poisoned and drained by his fight