Shadow Slave: Endless Souls

'Roll, you creaky piece of shit!'

Sunny pressed himself against the wagon, pushing with all he had. Four powerful oxen that used to pull it were now dead, and instead of them, a single very tired slave was trying to do the job. Even with the slope of the road helping them, the speed of the wagon was agonizingly slow. The tyrant, in comparison, was moving much faster.

Pushing Auro back with a deadly swipe of his lower arms, he raised the other two to its neck and tried to grab the chain that was wrapped around it like a noose. However, this time Mountain King's fearsome physique turned into a disadvantage: its long, terrifying bone claws were perfect for tearing flesh apart, but they weren't the best tool for precise manipulations. It took the tyrant some time to get a hold of the chain without slicing its own neck open.

By then, the wagon was nearly at the edge of the cliff.

'Come on! Just a little bit more!'

Edward lets out a soft chuckle since he had enough fun he decided to help the plan his own way. He quickly jumped off the wagon and slashed the beast's knees force behind his strike scratched it lightly but still scratched it. Causing it to let out a surprised shriek and turn its attention towards Edward who rushed towards the wagon chased by Mountain King.

Startling the struggling Sunny as the giant and psychotic soldier headed towards him, he wanted to jump away from their way but he was a moment too late. Edward kicked the wagon with all his strength which was enough to do the push it was lacking.

What followed happened very quickly. The wagon's rear wheels finally slid from the road, hanging over the dark, seemingly bottomless pit beneath. The wagon finally lost its balance and rolled over the edge, scraping its underside deafeningly against the jagged rocks. Sunny fell forward and landed on his knees, narrowly saving himself from tumbling down the cliff with it. Turning his head to the soldier, he gave him a hateful glare.

Mountain King who was rushing towards the soldier was a little too late. Especially the move up and jumping towards him was its worst mistake. A moment later, the chain on his neck drew tight, and he was yanked towards the cliff with tremendous force, flying over the edge of the cliff like a rag doll. The creature fell into the darkness silently, as though refusing to believe that it was defeated by a tiny human.

'Go and die, bastard.' Sunny thought.

Then he took one deep, ragged breath and dropped to the ground, utterly exhausted.

"Clever boy, you did a pretty well."

Sunny decided to ignore Edward's relentless teasing, as he was too tired to react to them.

'Is this it? Did I pass the trial?'

He rested on the cold stones, staring at the night sky, and waited for that faintly familiar, but elusive voice to announce his victory. But instead of that, wave after wave of pain that he had earlier chosen to ignore finally started to catch up with his abused body.

Sunny groaned, feeling hurt all over. The skin on his back, slashed by a slaver's whip and pierced by the bone spikes of a newborn larva, especially, was in agony. He was also starting to shiver, once again consumed by the dreadful cold.

'I guess not.'

His thoughts were slow and muddy.

'What else am I supposed to do?'

A dark figure appeared above him. It was Auro, looking calm and as handsome as ever. There were dirt and scratches on his armor, but otherwise, the young soldier appeared to be fine. He extended one arm to Sunny.

"Stand up. You'll freeze to death."

Sunny sighed, accepting that his First Nightmare was not over. Then he clenched his teeth and slowly rose to his feet, ignoring Auro's helping hand.

"C'mon let the boy rest Auro. He earned it." Edward said while looking at their surroundings ignoring Auro's deathly glare.

Around them, there was a scene of utter carnage. Except for Sunny, Edward, and Auro, every member of the caravan was dead. Their bodies were littering the ground, horribly maimed or torn into pieces. Here and there, a repulsive carcass of a larva could be seen. Shadows cast by the bonfire were dancing happily across the stone platform, seemingly unperturbed by this morbid view.

Sunny was also too tired to care.

Auro looked at Edward with a demanding look on his face, probably wanting to know why he didn't help support him when fighting against Mountain King. Edward acted like he didn't understand what he wanted making him sight in defeat.

"Let's get close to the fire. We need to warm ourselves and discuss what to do next."

Without waiting for their response, Auro turned around and walked away. Sunny and Edward followed after him soon enough.

A bit of time later, the trio were seated around the bonfire, soaking up pleasant heat. All three of them sitting on three corners of the bonfire, Auro no longer trusted Edward and was distancing himself from him while Sunny just didn't like the people in general. He especially wanted to stay farther from Edward.

Growing up, Sunny was always a misfit. It's not that he had never tried to become close with someone, it's just that he seemed to lack the ability. Like there was an invisible wall between him and other people. If he had to put it in words, Sunny would say that he was born without a small, but important gear in his brain that everyone else seemed to possess.

As a result, he was often baffled and stumped by human behavior, and his attempts to imitate it, however diligent, inevitably fell flat. This strangeness made others uncomfortable. In short, he was a bit different — and if there was one thing people hated, it was those different from them.

Then again he isn't in a normal situation, the people surrounding him aren't exactly the normal people either. Auro looked and acted like a white knight from fairy tales and Edward was a total nut job. Yeah, he would like to get as far as possible from them.

After a few minutes, Auro's voice finally broke the silence:

"Once the sun rises, we will gather whatever food and water we can find and go back down the mountain."

He then looked at Sunny and then Edward.

"We can go our separate ways once we leave the mountains. We can't continue up the road since the way over the mountain pass is long and arduous. Without the supplies that were stored on the wagon, our chances of making it were not high. What do you guys think?"

Auro was sure that Edward and Sunny would agree with him. But to his surprise, Sunny was against the idea.

"We can't go down."

Auro frowned at Sunny's word, Edward's face didn't change always keeping that strange smile of his.

"I for one would like to hear his reasoning. Tell me, why can't we go down?"

Sunny shifted, uncomfortable in the center of the two soldier's attention.

"Because the monster isn't dead."

***

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