Shadow Slaves
Chapter 5: Broken Chains
[You have killed an inactive beast, the Mountain King Larva.]
Sunny fell to his knees, panting. His entire body felt like he had just passed through a meat grinder: even large amounts of adrenaline could not take away all the pain and fatigue. However, he was very happy. The satisfaction of killing the larvae was so great that he even forgot to be disappointed for not receiving the Memory of the special item related to the essence of the Dream Realm occupants, which the Spells sometimes gave to the victorious Awakened.
A magic sword or armor would be useful at this time. Shit, he would even settle for a warm coat.
‘Three seconds. You can rest three more seconds,’ thought Sunny.
The nightmare is far from over.
Moments later, he forced himself to come back to his senses and look around, trying to ascertain the situation.
The larva's dead, that's good. However, he was still tied to her by the damn chainthe cunning slave and the scholar, both of them deathly pale, was busy letting go of her to buy them at least freedom of movement.
Furthermore, a torn body and pieces of flesh were lying on the ground. Many slaves were killed. Some somehow managed to escape and are now fleeing.
‘Stupid. They destroy themselves.’
The chain, it turns out, at one point broke into two –s that's why the chain suddenly loosened as Sunny was dragged away by a panicked mob of slaves. If their shackles had a less sophisticated locking mechanism, he could try to free himself now. However, each pair is fixed to a specific link: without opening it, no one goes anywhere.
The tyrant of the Mountain King, was probably hidden from view by the bright light of the bonfire. However, Sunny could feel his movements due to the subtle vibrations that spread through the rocks, as well as the desperate screams of the yet-to-be-destroyed slaves. One or two angry people below could also be heard, signaling that some soldiers were still alive, desperately trying to fight the monster.
However, what caught his attention the most was the fact that several deformed bodies began to move.
‘More larvae?’
Eyes widened.
One after another, four more corpses slowly rose up. Each beast looked as disgusting as the first, and was no less deadly. The nearest one is just a few meters from Sunny.
‘Damn everything!’ he thinks.
And then, weakly: ‘I want to wake up.’
As a strange click filled the air, one of the beasts turned towards the three slaves and gnashed its fangs. Shifty fell down, whispering a prayer, while Scholar was just glued to the spot. Sunny's eyes pointed towards the ground, trying to find something to use as a weapon. But there was not a single thing he could use: full of vitriol, he simply wrapped the chains around his knuckles and raised his fists.
‘Come to me, motherfucker!’
The larva shot forward at incredible speed in bursts of claws, fangs, and terror. Sunny had less than a second to react; however, before he could do anything, an agile figure moved past him, and a sharp sword flashed through the air. The monster, which was decapitated with a single strike, fell mercilessly to the ground.
Sunny blinked.
‘What was that?’
Dazed, he slowly turned his head and looked to the left. Standing there with a dashing expression was a handsome young warrior who had once offered him water. He looked calm and collected, though a little grim. There was not a speck of dirt or blood on his skin armor.
‘She is. Incredible,’ thought Sunny before catching herself.
‘Difficult issue! I mean, he's a tough guy!’
With a short nod, the soldier moved forward facing the remaining three larvae. But after taking a few steps, he suddenly turned around and looked at Sunny a long time ago. Then, with one swift move, the young soldier took something from his belt and threw it towards Sunny.
‘Save yourself!’
With that, he went to fight monsters.
Sunny reflexively caught the thing and saw the soldier leave. Then he lowered his gaze and observed the thing clasped tightly in his hand.
It was a short and narrow iron rod with a straight bend at the end.
‘Lock. That's a lock.’
His heart started beating faster.
‘That lock shackle!’
With one last look at the fierce battle that began between the young warrior and the larva, Sunny knelt down and began to move the shackles, trying to put her hands into the appropriate position to insert the key. It took several attempts to understand how the foreign key worked, but then, finally, a satisfying click sounded, and he was suddenly free.
“Wait just now.”
For a moment, images of violence and revenge filled his head.
“Nak! Here!”
Shifty waved his hand in the air, trying to attract his attention. Sunny considered letting her die, but decided not to. There is power in numbers.
Plus, despite Shifty's previous threat to kill him and the overall inconvenience, Sunny would feel bad leaving a fellow slave chained to – especially since freeing him didn't cost him anything.
He rushed over to the other two slaves and quickly opened their shackles. As soon as Shifty was free, he pushed Sunny away and danced a little, laughing like crazy.
“Ah! Finally free! The gods must be smiling at us!”
Scholar is quieter. He squeezed Sunny's shoulders in gratitude and smiled weakly, throwing a tense look towards the next fight.
Two of the three larvae are dead; a third loses an arm but still tries to tear his opponent apart. The young soldier danced around him, moving with the graceful dexterity of a naturally born warrior.
“Wait for what else?! Run!”
Shifty moves to escape, but is stopped by Scholar.
“My friend, I will ..”
“If you say ‘adaran’ again, I swear by god, I will hit your head open!”
The two slaves looked at each other with open hostility. A moment later, Scholar lowered his eyes and sighed.
“If we escape now, we will definitely die.”
“Why?!”
The older slave only pointed towards the high bonfire.
“Because without that fire, we'll freeze to death before the night is over. Until sunrise, escape is suicide.”
Sunny said nothing, knowing that Scholar was right. In fact, he realized it right after strangling the larvae. No matter how terrifying the Mountain King was, the campfire was still their only savior in this frozen hell.
As the broad-shouldered slave said, may he rest in peace. There was no need for anyone to kill them, because the mountain itself would do so if given the chance.
“Terus why?! I'd rather freeze to death than be eaten by that monster! Not to mention ugh turned into one of those creatures.”
Shifty pretended to be brave, but there was no confidence in his voice. He glanced at the darkness surrounding the stone platform and shivered before taking a step back.
At this point, the third larva was long dead, and the young soldier was nowhere to be seen. He might go to join the fight on the other side of the bonfireleaving the three slaves alone on the mountain slope section of the stone platform.
Scholar pounding.
“That monster may already be full of those he has killed. The monster might be defeated or expelled by the Empire. After all, if we stay here, we have a chance of survival, however small. But if we escape, ours apocalypse is definitely.”
“So what do we do?”
Unlike Scholar, Sunny was certain the Mountain King would not be satisfied with just killing most of the slaves. Nor did he believe that a group of humans could actually defeat him.
Even if they were not normal people but Awakened, a fight with a tyrant was not something that could easily survive, let alone win.
But if he wanted to live, he had to get rid of that thing somehow.
“Come we see.”
Shifty looked at him as if he were looking at a madman.
“Are you crazy? You want to get closer to the beast ?!”
Sunny looked at him blankly, then shrugged and headed towards the rampaging monster.