Shadow Slave

Less than a minute later, a vast swath of the frozen swamp had turned into a ravaged scene of devastation. The pure white snow was washed away, the ice was broken and shattered, its shards floating in the black water like dirty glass. The water itself was restless, boiling and rippling from the furious movements of the Huntsman and the escaping gas.

The swamp was trying to swallow the frenzied abomination, but was getting battered by him instead. The demon would sink deeper from time to time, but then tear himself from the insidious embrace of the marsh... even though that struggle allowed Rain to survive so far, it was not enough to grant her victory.

She was breathing laboriously.

Rain had continued to retreat deeper into the swamp, and the demon continued to pursue her like a demented executioner. She had delivered more than a dozen strikes to him, but none dealt any serious damage - even when her javelin pierced the cracks of the Huntsman's armor, it felt as if she was trying to cut wet fur. Rain did do some damage to the hidden flesh of the demon, but not nearly enough to matter.

At the same time, her own body was not faring well, She had not been cut by the dreadful battleaxe again, so there was little blood... relatively speaking... however, there were bruises. In fact, after being tossed around by the furlous power of the demon's blows, Rain felt like her entire body was one glant bruise, by now.

And that was even considering that she fought as cautiously and cowardly as she could.

The Huntsman had much longer limbs, and his battleaxe had much more reach than the black sword her teacher had given her. So, even if Rain was willing to risk clashing with the abomination face-to-face despite being slower and weaker than him, he would have held a great advantage.

Stories like to speak about exalted skill and unbreakable resolve, but in a real fight, the outcome was often decided by the most mundane of things. Reach trumped skill, and weight definitely trumped will.

Well, perhaps it was different for the Awakened, whose power refused to obey common sense. But for someone like Rain, having a longer weapon meant emerging victorious more often than not.

Which was why she did not draw her sword yet, relying instead on the heavy javelin.

'It's alright...'

Her javelin was crafted from the same material as her arrows, and it was not as if a mundane human could not leave a scratch on the body of an Awakened abomination - in fact, it was entirely possible to slay one, just a bit hard.

been different if Rain was facing a Fallen Nightmare Creature, but then again, she would have never allowed herself to end up in such a situation. Her teacher tasked her with slaying an

It was just that...

against his armor, but even when she managed

Something had to change.

movements just as foreboding... Rain, on the other hand, was starting to feel tired. Not only did she have to attack and dodge the

ending up shattered, staying away from the black swamp was

felt like they were on fire. And not only because she was pushing her resilient body too far - the air reeked, as well, full of foul gasses

had to

a change was coming

her, and drawing closer with each frenetic sequence of offense and retreat, was a twisted tree. The tree itself did not mean anything, but the fact that it stood in the middle of a swamp meant that there was enough soll there to support

tree, which could save Rain,

‘To hell with it'

back, but then paused and stood her ground instead. Her body tensed like a powerful spring, and surged with strength. From her feet to her thighs, through her core to her shoulder, and finally into her arm - a powerful force was transferred and multiplied, and as Rain's torso

go of the

heavy weapon flashed through frigid air, dove under the Huntsman's axe, and plunged

dire enough to give the demon

around and dashed toward the distant tree. She knew that the abomination would follow... but it was slowed down by the swamp, sinking deeper the deeper they ventured into it. By now, the dirty water was already above the Huntsman's waist, and his speed had dropped

tiny island, pursued by

was just barely

she ignored the quiver of arrows hidden beneath its branches - without a bow, they were all but useless now. Instead, she grabbed something else... a

voice suddenly resounded from

ungrateful brat? That's my most expensive

of drinking, anyway... no, really, what had he been thinking, gifting a young girl alcohol? What