Shadow Slave

The Chalice Knight resembled a human wearing a tattered suit of ancient armor that had turned green from rust. He towered at around two and a half meters of height, but seemed even taller because of the deer antlers attached to his closed helmet. The rusty helmet itself was fashioned to resemble the snout of a snarling beast, with deep darkness nestling in the crack of its visor.

There was moss growing here and there on the battered armor, and a ragged cloak, too weathered to retain any color, hanging from his shoulders like a torn banner.

The creature was holding a frightening battleaxe in his hand, its blade large and heavy enough to easily split a human in two.

The Huntsman... was like a dead knight that had crawled from under the roots of the forest that had claimed an ancient battlefield, ghastly and imposing enough to make Rain shudder.

Worse than that, the dark crack of his visor was already staring directly at her.

Her souls seemed to squirm under that gaze.

'Crap.'

Rain nocked another arrow on the string and prepared to draw her bow...

But before she could, the Huntsman had already reached the base of the tree that served as her sniper nest.

His dreadful battleaxe rose and fell. That dreadful strike was enough to make the mighty trunk of the ancient tree explode into a hurricane of splinters, obliterating a whole swath of it.

But, a moment later...

A sharp arrow fell from above and lodged itself into his knee. It struck precisely at the narrow gap between the bottom of the abominations's cuisse and the top of his poleyn — which were the armor elements responsible for protecting one's thigh and knee, respectively.

A pretty decent shot, considering the situation.

But Rain did not have any time to celebrate, because the tree was already toppling... and she was falling with it.

After a moment of weightlessness, the rope tied around her chest drew taut, and she found herself flying through the air.

leave themselves a path of retreat. Rain had never considered that climbing a tree would protect her from an Awakened

a rope and flying between the trunks of terribly tall trees at breakneck speed. She had

wind whistled in her ears, Rain

is going to

she spun at the last moment and used her legs to dissipate the shock of colliding with another tree at great speed. The other end of the rope was tied around one of its highest branches, which allowed

not break her neck or crack her skull, which was a relief, but her feet were in agony. Ignoring

leaning against the trunk of the tree, two things were waiting for her: her javelin, and another

motion, Rain grabbed the arrow and spun around, already drawing the

Huntsman was barreling toward her, so fast that it was hard to track his

he wasn't

mind clear, she could sense the movements of her enemy. So, she did not aim

arrow pierced the air,

was a few millimeters off. The precious arrowhead struck the edge of the Huntsman's cuisse and shattered, only

of Rain's arrows were made from the bones of Awakened

Rank... but she herself

on the details, but what it meant in practice was that she had

not waste

javelin, Rain... spun, and

as fast as she

no such thing on the battlefield,

outrunning an Awakened Demon would have been impossible, but there was currently an arrowhead lodged in one of his knees. It didn't matter that such a small wound was not at all dangerous for a creature of his Rank

take a sizable chunk of flesh out with

if both of

Because, now...

able to escape his

'Run... run!'

her teeth, Rain did the unthinkable... she tossed away her bow. That was a terrible loss — not because he was afraid to lose it, but because the quiver of arrows she had hidden up ahead would be useless without it. But she had to sacrifice something, and her javelin seemed much more useful in