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Chapter 948: Dire Marathon
Shadow Slave

There were all kinds of Nightmare Creatures who had apparently decided to take a nap on the flat concrete surface of the coastal highway. Bestial maws opened in vicious snarls, sharp mandibles dripping with viscous saliva, jagged claws, curving bone scythes, and various implements of death that Sunny did not even know how to describe... all of it was flying toward the convoy, drawing closer and closer with each second.

The faster the vehicles moved, the faster the abominations converged on them.

'Damnation...'

Sunny was standing on the vibrating roof of the Rhino, drawing Morgan's Warbow time and time again. In a short span of time, he had let loose a veritable rain of arrows, slaughtering at least a dozen of the approaching Nightmare Creatures. His muscles were already protesting the unforgiving pace, but augmented with all four of his shadows, Sunny knew that he could keep the same rate of fire for much longer.

The battle was only starting, anyway. Although the menagerie of monsters rushing toward the convoy seemed ghastly and dangerous, these were only the dregs of the Chain of Nightmares. They were the lone stragglers or small packs of abominations that had broken away from larger swarms and hordes, and as such, did not pose a real threat.

For now, they were also only attacking the column from the front. Very soon, Sunny and his people would be surrounded and forced to resist attacks from all directions.

To postpone that, Samara finally opened fire. Most of the Nightmare Creatures on the highway were obscured from her by the other transports and the wide shape of the Rhino, but she had a clear shot of the mountains slopes and the abominations that were rushing down the treacherous surface of the icy stone to attack the convoy from the side.

A shining slug flashed through the air, and one of the distant silhouettes ruptured, mangled remains sliding down the steep slope. Even before the echo of the first thunderous shot dissipated into the cold air, the powerful rifle was already humming with electrical whine once again, charging to spit another devastating round.

T am not fast enough to kill all of them...'

For now, Sunny was conserving his essence. He was only using one of the active enchantments of his mighty bow, [Soul Arrows], which did not demand a lot of it. The Dying Wish was also inactive, for now, since there was no need to draw the attention of abominations away from the civilian transports yet.

He considered summoning the Strike of Thunder for a moment, then decided against it. Their charge toward Erebus Field was going to be a marathon, not a sprint. They had to be frugal with how to spend their power and resources...

Instead of laying waste to the approaching Nightmare Creatures with a strike of lightning, he picked the most threatening ones and concentrated on taking down these high-priority targets first. Abomination fearlessly dove into the mass of enemies, tearing them apart with ruthless determination. Since there were very few Fallen creatures among this first wave, most were much weaker than the massive Echo.

Blackie, however, was in danger of being slain if he was not careful. The smaller hound separated and dashed to the edge of the highway, concentrating on attacking the outliers of the rushing mob.

'So far so good...'

Sunny killed most of the Nightmare Creatures that could seriously threaten the Rhino, but at that point, the APC was already only meters away from the swiftest of the attackers.

Moving at its top speed, the enormous bulk of the Rhino smashed into the lunging abomination, practically pulverizing it into a cloud of crimson haze. The second creature crashed on the concrete with an arrow in its eye, and then, the convoy was in the thick of the disorganized crowd of Nightmare Creatures.

Some of them were quick enough to change direction and dash toward the civilian transports, the others were too slow and allowed the column to flash past, then wasted precious seconds to stop, turn around, and hurry to pursue the speeding vehicles.

The turrets of the military vehicles barked, sending poisoned bullets toward those abominations that were fast enough to catch up with them, and ignoring the rest. It was not their goal, nor was it realistic, to slaughter every single Nightmare Creature across six hundred kilometers of the coastal highway - but then again, there was no need to. They only had to kill those that the convoy could not outrun.

Samara continued to fire her rifle, choosing to concentrate on the more powerful targets, just like Sunny had. On the next civilian transport, Kim was using her carbine to cut down those that managed to get close to the column, while the nameless Sleeper was sending one arrow flying after another. Belle was using a small throwing hatchet that gruesomely sliced the abominations apart, and then magically returned to his hand.

Dorn was armed with a set of iron javelins that seemed to hit much harder than they were supposed to, even with his prodigious strength.

The convoy cut through the first wave of Nightmare Creatures, leaving broken bodies and bleeding corpses behind. Its defenders continued their barrage, finishing off those Nightmare Creatures that were now gaining on the column from the back.

Sunny rotated his shoulder and winced slightly, then nocked another arrow on the string of his bow and froze for a moment. Peering into the distance, he tried to evaluate the situation. His face darkened.

'Curse it...'

A few hundred meters ahead, a stream of Nightmare Creatures was spilling on the highway from the mountain slope. And ever further away, behind them, the whole width of the road was blocked by a dark mass of monstrous bodies.

...This time, it was a proper swarm.

One of many they would have to fight their way through, most likely.

Sunny studied the swarm for a split second, then quickly glanced at the ocean.

...At least the dark waves were calm, for now.

With a contemptuous sigh, he sent the arrow flying in the direction of the mountain slope, and then drew his bow again.

This time, his fingers were illuminated by the furious light of a caged lightning.

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Shadow Slave
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Comments 23

  1. Offline
    Tounga
    + 1 ⋅ 0 -
    W chap
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  2. Offline
    ChaoticDestroyer
    + 13 ⋅ 4 -
    Everytime the slaughter happens it gives me a painful realization of how many fragments sunny is missing unable to kill lower creatures and without shadow creatures.
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    1. Offline
      LustyReader69
      + 11 ⋅ 0 -
      fr if nephis was in his place she'd already be a terror or a titan by now ts is so unfair butwhy
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  3. Offline
    Deme13
    + 11 ⋅ 0 -
    at least valor did 1 good thing in the whole freaking story... Morgan's Warbow and the Caged Lightning are coming in clutch in every single fight
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  4. Offline
    BJLADUMUP_XUNKAJLUEBU4
    + 4 ⋅ 3 -
    It's time for Sunny to borrow or ask Kai for a bloody arrow, considering how often he shoots from a bow
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    1. Offline
      criccode
      + 16 ⋅ 0 -
      That was a ascended memory I believe. It won't do anything against the corrupted
      Read more
      1. Offline
        loste
        + 13 ⋅ 0 -
        unrelated but a blood centered memory would probably have some crazy synergy with blood weave
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  5. Offline
    Awybin
    + 19 ⋅ 0 -
    Damnation
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  6. Offline
    حمد
    + 14 ⋅ 0 -
    As soon as the Strike of Thunder flashed through the darkness of the polar night and burst into blinding arcs of electricity, decimating the center of the swarm, Sunny spoke into his communication device:

    "Wedge formation!"

    He had created a rift in the middle of the mass of Nightmare Creatures, but it was not enough to clear a path through the blockade. There was the flanking force spilling from the mountains to worry about, too.

    The abominations were already dashing toward the convoy, bits of broken cement flying from beneath their sharp claws. The fastest and strongest one, however, suddenly collapsed, a golden arrow piercing its throat.

    Behind the Rhino, two military vehicles and two civilian transports accelerated and left the column, assuming positions on both sides of the convoy. From above, it would have looked like a wedge with the APC taking the point, while the other four vehicles formed its wings.

    The purpose of that formation was very simple - with the massive shape of the Rhino not blocking their view of the road anymore, both the military vehicles and the Awakened on the roofs of the two civilian transports were free to target the swiftly approaching swarm.

    Samara's rifle thundered, and Kim's carbine cracked, sending a rain of bullets into the mass of abominations. Two turrets joined the fray, clearing a path for the convoy to charge through. Sunny continued to let loose arrow after arrow, as well, taking down the most threatening of Nightmare Creatures.

    Just a few moments before the column reached the swarm, the four vehicles veered back and returned to their positions, hiding behind the bulk of the speeding Rhino.

    'Here we go...'

    The ram of the APC plunged into the mass of bodies, both dead and alive, with a violent shudder. Pieces of flesh flew aside as it cleaved a bloody trail through the mob of Nightmare Creatures, allowing the rest of the convoy to follow. They made it through, even if just barely...

    However, all was not well.

    More than a few abominations managed to lunge at the lead vehicles from the sides. Two or three were clinging to the front of the Rhino, and several more had crashed into the Belle's and Dorn's civilian transports. Their claws were already tearing into the alloy.

    The more heavily armored Rhino received a few ugly scars, but was still holding. Sunny swiftly drew his bow, finishing off the unwanted passengers. Behind him, Belle dashed toward the edge of the transport's roof and struck down with his hatchet, severing the abomination's limb before it had a chance to rip through the makeshift plate of armor and allow the beast to climb inside.

    There was a Nightmare Creature on the other side of the transport, but its body had been caught by the spikes welded along the frame of the civilian vehicle, so it did not manage to rip through the hull before one of Dorn's javelins took it down.

    The giant man himself dealt with an abomination that had leaped at his transports by pulling it down mid-jump with his Aspect Ability. The creature hit the cement surface of the road instead of crushing into the side of the vehicle, and was promptly crushed by its wheels.

    The weight of the transport loaded with close to a hundred people was not enough to kill an Awakened monster, however, so although it was severely injured, the abomination still tried to get up. Before it could, the next transport rolled over it, and then the next, ending the creature's life in a string of sickening crunches.

    Just a few moments after crashing into the swarm, the convoy was through.

    The turrets of the military vehicles instantly turned around, unleashing a barrage of bullets at the fastest of pursuing Nightmare Creatures. Samara's tungsten rounds and Sunny's arrows took care of the most resilient of the enemies, while Kim was hurriedly reloading her carbine. The nameless Sleeper had almost emptied his quiver, so he was busy summoning the spent arrows back.

    The thinned out swarm was falling behind...

    But there were already new enemies appearing from the darkness ahead.

    Letting out a frustrated sigh, Sunny spun to face north again and drew his bow.

    'This is going to get old, fast...'

    Surrounded by bloodshed, the convoy continued to devour kilometers as it sped across the wide highway. The battle never really stopped, instead stretching into one continuous, moving slaughterhouse. Even if there had not been too many Nightmare Creatures near the coast at the start, the lights and noise of the charging column mixed with the smell of fresh blood, attracting more and more of them from the mountains.

    All that ever changed was the intensity of combat.

    Sometimes the defenders of the convoy only had to repel disorganized mobs of strugglers, killing them off before the abominations could launch an attack on the vehicles. Sometimes a true swarm would appear to block off the road, forcing them to fight their way through while sustaining minor damage and desperately trying to prevent anything from getting to the refugees.

    Despite it all, the vehicles were in a good enough shape to remain operational... for now.

    The Rhino was covered in scars, and its ram - as well as the whole front section - had turned slick with blood, making it look like an infernal machine of morbid carnage. The civilian transports had chunks of flesh stuck on their spikes, with deep grooves left behind by the claws of abominations decorating their sides. The barrels of the turrets on the military vehicles were glowing red, steaming as the chilling darkness of the polar night cooled them down.

    The people were starting to get tired, but, prepared to give it their all to reach the destination, continued to perform their duties with stalwart determination.

    The highway itself was changing, as well. The further north they moved, the more Nightmare Creatures and the more signs of sustained damage there were. Wide cracks appeared in the concrete, and the column had to maneuver around broken vehicles and carcasses of massive abominations from time to time - the latter picked clean to the bone by other monsters.

    Killing the enemies before they reached the column was getting harder and harder because of these obstacles. At some point, Sunny tensed as he noticed an especially troublesome obstruction blocking off the road ahead. His face darkened.

    'What now?'
    Still some distance from the convoy, the whole width of the highway was blocked off by something that looked like a tall wall of alloy. It was surrounded by a scene of pure mayhem, with torn pieces of metal and massive chunks of concrete laying on the road in a chaotic mess.

    Sunny scowled, trying to make sense of what he saw. After a second or two, he uttered a silent curse.

    Ahead of them, the barrier between the thoroughfare and the railroad was shattered to pieces. The object he had thought to be an alloy wall was actually the roof of a train carriage laying on its side. One of the armored behemoths must have been derailed here at some point in the past, turning a whole section of the highway into a nightmare of broken concrete and mangled alloy.

    'Damnation...'

    Sunny had ridden an armored train once before, so he knew how fearsome these moving fortresses were. What could have even destroyed an alloy beast like that? He wasn't sure that an earthquake would be enough to derail one of them, even though it was the most reasonable theory he had.

    In any case, Sunny had more pressing problems than guessing the fate of the crashed train.

    The convoy was not allowed to slow down... the fragile equilibrium they had been able to create was all dependent on the assumption that the column would keep moving. If they lost speed or, even worse, were forced to stop, there would be no escape from death. They would simply drown in Nightmare Creatures.

    "Sam and Quentin, make the Echoes fall back to the Rhino."

    Then, he closed his eyes for a moment and reached forward with his senses.

    After becoming a Master and before coming to Antarctica, Sunny had received no opportunities to test the limits of Shadow Manifestation in combat. Now, he knew that his Ascended Ability was more powerful than he had thought... so, he was going to call upon it again.

    Before the convoy reached the wreckage, the shadows on the slope of the mountain came to life and flowed forward, forming long tentacles. These tentacles tore through the alloy of the overturned carriage, taking hold of it, and then pulled the massive structure aside. A deafening sound of metal scraping against concrete filled the air.

    'Come on... come on...'

    The carriage was moved just far enough to create an opening for the approaching Rhino. The APC pulverized several chunks of the concrete barrier with its ram, clearing the road, then maneuvered to the side and slid past the mangled alloy structure.

    Behind it, the highway was revealed to be in terrible condition, so it took a lot of skill to navigate the Rhino past the mess of broken metal. Luster was just the man to do it, though. He masterfully avoided all the serious obstacles and rammed through those that could be destroyed without ever slowing down. The rest of the vehicles weren't as large as the APC, so it was not too hard for them to follow.

    Several abominations crawled from the wreckage to lunge at the convoy, but were swiftly pierced by arrows and poisoned bullets.

    Soon, the convoy left the field of debris... but instead of being relieved, Sunny only gritted his teeth.

    Obscured by the remains of the armored train, there was another swarm of Nightmare Creatures ahead of them - this one much larger and dangerous than all the previous ones. Worse still, since they were late to discover it, there was not much time to thin the abominations out with ranged attacks.

    The convoy was under real threat.

    'Goddammit!'

    Sunny briefly glanced at the black bow in his hands, knowing that just its power alone was not going to be enough this time. The situation was dire. ...Which meant that it was time to call the cavalry.

    He considered summoning Nightmare near the Rhino and stylishly jumping into the saddle from the roof, like he had seen cool heroes do in webtoons, but then decided against such theatrics. It was not that Sunny was not capable of landing on the back of a galloping horse from a moving vehicle, it was just that Nightmare's saddle was a Memory, and had to be hoisted on the black steed by hand each time he was summoned.

    By now, Sunny was capable of riding his horse without a saddle, but using any kind of melee weapon effectively without stirrups was more or less out of the question. Stirrups were essential to mounted combat, insignificant as they might seem.

    He sighed.

    I guess I'm just not cool...

    With that, Sunny summoned Nightmare directly onto the roof of the Rhino, simultaneously calling upon the Sin of Solace and the [Overpriced Saddle].

    Soon, the fearsome black stallion was standing in front of him, looking forward with ferocious crimson flames burning in his eyes. Nightmare snarled, revealing two rows of metal fangs that resembled those of a wolf. It seemed that he had plenty of sleep, and now hungered to tear some abominations apart.

    Moonlight glinted on the dark surface of the courser's adamantine horns.

    "Don't you worry... you'll get a chance to rampage in just a few moments..."

    Sunny swiftly put the saddle on the courser's sable back, fastening it into place. Just at that moment, Samara's rifle barked, sending a shining round flashing into the darkness. A chorus of bestial howls was the reply.

    He cursed, grabbed the hilt of the Sin of Solace, and jumped into the saddle.

    Sunny closed his eyes for a moment, sensing insidious whispers assault his mind. Today, they seemed especially clear.

    He took a deep breath, then looked forward and sent Nightmare charging.

    The black steed lunged forward, jumping from the roof of the Rhino in a tall arc.

    ...Inside the APC, Luster flinched as adamantine hooves thundered right above his head, and then craned his neck to stare at the swift shape of the leaping steed.

    "Aaaa, what the h-hell!"

    He paused for a moment, and then added in a stifled voice:

    "...Damn majestic."

    Plummeting toward the mass of abominations, Sunny gripped the hilt of the Sin of Solace tighter and poured essence into the Dying Wish, activating its sole enchantment.

    'Let's teach these bastards the meaning of true fear, Nightmare...'
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  7. Offline
    TravelerOfManyWorlds
    + 35 ⋅ 0 -
    Still waiting for the escaped scavenger to make a reappearance
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    1. Offline
      Wheat
      + 20 ⋅ 0 -
      I'm still waiting for Sunny to do something about his injuries but then I remember he won't bleed to death nor will an infection be the death of him so... Ig he's fine
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  8. Offline
    Wheat
    + 17 ⋅ 0 -
    Massacre marathon
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