Shadow Slave

In the vast empty darkness, myriads of distant stars were shimmering with ethereal light. The vista of the night sky was boundless and stark, full of promise and mystery.

Above it was another sky. This one blue and bright, full of sunlight and gentle winds. White clouds flowed across it, telling enchanting stories with their movement and shapes.

Between the bright sky and the dark sky, an island floated in the air. It was surrounded by freely levitating pieces of rock and ancient masonry, its surface awash in the soft radiance of the sun, its underbelly veiled by impenetrable darkness.

Several gargantuan chains stretched away from the island, cracking thunderously as it slowly rose and fell.

The clangor of iron was almost loud enough to drown Sunny's voice… almost.

"...Argh! Drop dead, bastard! Damn you! Crap!"

Sunny had a good reason to be screaming bloody murder, because he was seconds away from being eaten alive.

Near the edge of the flying island, where the forest covering its surface made way for a narrow expanse of patchy grass, a massive wolf-like beast was currently trying to swallow him whole.

The Nightmare Creature was the size of a small truck, with fur as tough as steel wire and a long, terrifying muzzle. Its jaws were wide enough to bite a human in half, and strong enough to crush both bones and armor into dust.

Currently, those jaws were trying to close on Sunny, and the only thing preventing them from doing so were his hands — he held the upper jaw of the beast with one, and the lower jaw with another, trying with all his strength to keep them open.

His muscles felt as though they were about to explode.

The abomination was also trying to bite down on the hateful human with all of its tremendous might, but for the moment, neither of them could overpower the other.

It was just a matter of time, though.

Sunny was burning through his essence to augment his physical strength, and those reserves were not endless. When the well of power ran dry, he would lose this contest.

'Not good…'

About two months had passed after he had chosen to come to this place, and now, Sunny was starting to seriously doubt his decision.

Why didn't he just go to Bastion? He would be safe and sound behind its walls right now. Maybe even in the embrace of a beautiful...

As though trying to add insult to injury, the Nightmare Creature interrupted his thought by leting out a deafening growl and doubling its efforts to devour him. Sunny felt a putrid wind brush past his face and grimaced miserably. The stench coming out of the beast's maw was unbearable.

'Just... don't feint...'

His hands trembled, and the terrible fangs of the beast came a few centimeters closer to sinking into his flesh. Sunny gritted his teeth, and then yelled:

"Saint! A little help here, dammit!"

But the taciturn demon was nowhere to be seen. She was a good couple hundred meters away, standing atop a low hill.

Sunny groaned and tried to push the jaws of the abomination away, but it was useless. The damn creature was just too strong...

A few seconds later, though, something hissed past his shoulders, and two menacing black arrows sunk into the feral eyes of the beast. They arrived almost simultaneously.

'Thanks!'

Using the momentary shudder that ran through the wolf's body, Sunny pushed the jaws sideways, allowed them to close with a loud crack, and poured as much essence as he could into a vicious throw.

The massive body of the Nightmare Creature flew for good ten meters and crashed into a trunk of an ancient oak, plowing straight through and turning it into splinters.

Sunny fell to his knees and drew in a shaky breath. Then, he quickly glanced back.

Far in the distance, a graceful dark silhouette was outlined against the bright sky. Saint held a powerful Memory bow in her hands, its limbs made out of horn and polished black wood. Two ruby eyes burned behind the visor of her helmet, and a crimson coral gem was set into the center of her obsidian breastplate.

'Nice shots…'

She wouldn't be able to help him any further, though, at least not for a dozen seconds. Sunny was pretty sure that the Shadow had spent all of her arrows while they were fighting with the pack, and now, she had to dismiss and summon them anew.

At least the leader of the monstrous wolves was now blind… probably. Not that it was going to stop the bastard.

The Nightmare Creature was already rising from the ground, howling furiously.

'Curse you…'

Panting, Sunny crawled a few steps and picked up the Midnight Shard. The austere tachi was as sharp and deadly as ever…

The problem was, that the last remaining abomination was clearly of the Fallen Rank, so the stalwart blade was having trouble breaking through its hide.

Still, Sunny had to work with what he had.

Making sure that the sun was behind him, he stood up and leaned on his sword, watching tiredly as the massive beast turned its ugly head and faced him.

The dreadful wolf lowered its muzzle to the ground, then growled with murderous rage. Bits of saliva flew from its maw and fell to the ground. Then, pushing with its mighty hind legs, the Nightmare Creature lunged at Sunny.

Covering the distance between them in an instance, the beast brought its terrible jaws on the tiny human once again… and bit on emptiness.

In the place where Sunny stood just a moment ago, there was now nothing but air, light… and shadows.

Appearing from the Nightmare Creature's own shadow, Sunny dove between its hind legs and thrust the Midnight Shard upward, aiming at the soft belly of the fearsome beast. The tachi pierced the pale skin without much problem and sunk into the flesh of the abomination.

As blood poured to the ground, the creature staggered and fell. A low whine escaped from its mouth.

Very soon, it was all over.

Falling onto the ground in complete exhaustion, Sunny tried to catch his breath and listened to the silence. Soon, he heard the sweet sound of the Spell whispering:

[You have slain a Fallen Monster, Dread Wolf.]

[...Your shadow grows stronger.]