Fate's Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail

Sunny gritted his teeth and groaned, feeling his whole body being slowly crushed by the monstrous chieftain of the Barrow Wraiths. One of his arms was pressed against his body, and the other one was, too... but just barely.

If only he could free it...

But no matter how hard he tried, the tyrant’s hold was just too strong.

Under Weaver’s Mask, Sunny grinned through the pain.

Suddenly, two beautiful magenta lights ignited in the darkness to the side of the Tyrant.

A moment later, a dark blade of a strange, stonelike sword flashed out of the shadows and easily sliced through the abomination’s arm, allowing Sunny to fall freely.

Clamoring out of the thick fingers of the Tyrant’s hand as it howled in pain, he immediately used Shadow Step to retreat a distance away. He was officially out of the fight, and could only rely on Saint to take the rest of the Nightmare Creatures down.

’Kill that bastard...’

Just as Saint initialized a follow-up attack, one of the hounds lunged to her as the Tyrant regained his focus. With a glimmer of annoyance, she spun, cleaving right between the upper and lower jaw of hound as it bared it’s teeth. The blade cut right through, separating the upper and lower half of the Beast’s body.

With a flourish, she lunged towards the Fallen Tyrant, augmented by all three of Sunny’s shadows.

Curiously, Sunny’s Shadows — like Saint and Serpent — were able to recieve more power from being augmented than Sunny was able to do himself. While Sunny could multiply his own power by two, augmenting Saint was closer to tripling her strength, but not quite. In any case, against a Fallen Tyrant, who was only two Classes stronger than her, it would be ridiculous if she couldn’t match his strength — if not surpass it.

But that was only when it came to physical abilities. Saint was only a Demon, and didn’t have any frightening abilities that a Devil would have. Meanwhile, the chieftain was a Tyrant, and wielded both mental attacks as well as his troops.

But... Saint did not stop.

Wielding the massive greatsword that seemed to grow as tall as a house, she easily cleaved through swathes of hunters and beasts as she rushed towards the Tyrant. At the same time, he lunged forward with the flint spear he held, his three eyes gleaming with madness as he aimed to skewer the knight that dismembered him.

As their weapons clashed — emitting fearsome shockwaves as snow exploded into the sky, creating a false blizzard — another, undetectable battle was raging beyond the physical realm.

A battle of the soul and mind.

The Tyrant’s three eyes glowed with dominance, creating a pressure to force Saint into submission. To kneel. To surrender. To die.

And yet, the onyx knight’s flaming eyes shone with defiance, with not a single ounce of hesitation nor doubt. At the same time, the soul that held up the Tyrant’s being was slowly crumbling under the Broken Oath’s enchantment.

The same could be said for the countless creature’s that tried to pile upon Saint.

Disengaging from the Tyrant with a powerful push of her blade, Saint bashed her shield through a hunter, who aimed to pierce her armor as she was locked with the Wraith Chieftain. With a beautiful display of footwork, Saint danced around the countless hunters and hounds, avoiding their flint axes, flying arrows, and ravenous maws.

At the same time, she kept a close eye on the chieftain, avoiding his disastrous strikes while maneuvering around — and even through the lesser Nightmare Creatures. Despite the chaos around her, her murderous intent never ceased as she crushed, cut, and stabbed all those in her path.

Like an advent of death.

Sunny, who had been hiding in the shadows at the edge of the conflict, sighed in relief. Saint’s immunity to mind attacks served as a great boon against the Tyrant, not hindering her in the slightest. Not only that, but the Gate was starting to run out of Nightmare Creatures to spill out, with only five having exited in the past ten seconds.

He swiftly moved through the shadows, waiting for an opening.

Twisting herself, Saint changed the trajectory of her sprint towards the Tyrant, barreling through the horde. She leaped above a charging bison, landing on it’s back as she stabbed her blade into it. At the same time, her greatsword extended, piercing all the way through until it broke into snow.

She didn’t waste a moment to observe her kill, leaping off the corpse as she twisted out of an arrow’s trajectory. She landed on a hunter, crushing his body underneath as she continued her assault.

Countless spears pointed at her, only to be broken by a mere swing of her shield. She didn’t bother to finish off the insects, her gaze locked on to the hulking giant, the blade of his spear glinting with ancient blood. With a shrug, the one-armed hunter removed the fur cape he wore, readying his weapon for a lunge as the three eyes of his burial mask — as well as the skull on his head radiated malice.

Then, in less than a millisecond, the Wraith Chieftain darted forwards. Saint met his blow with an equal amount of ferocity.

The moment the spear was batted away by her shield, their ceaseless battle began.

Each blow sent shockwaves through the area, displacing snow and blowing away the weaker thralls. They splattered in a brutal display of gore, destroyed by the deadly dance of predatorial revenant and a prideful stone knight.

Both Demon and Tyrant flashed across the snowfield, with Saint using her balanced fighting style against the ruthless might of a predator that stood atop the food chain. In the three eyes of the Wraith Chieftain, Saint was like another animal that needed to be put down and devoured.

’A hunter...’

From the shadows, Sunny’s gaze seemed to be stuck in a trance as he greedily absorbed the chieftain’s every move. There was something hidden behind his attacks, but Sunny couldn’t quite detect it.

’Strange...’ 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Despite having only a single arm, the chieftain was able to survive the onslaught of attacks unleashed by Saint as they clashed under a curtain of displaced snow. The taciturn knight tried to use the incoming attacks from the other Nightmare Creatures to her advantage in order to pressure the Tyrant, but it was no use. His command over his underlings was too powerful to get himself harmed.

Taking a step back, Saint threw her shield in towards the Tyrant with devestating might, only to get easily dodged as he leaned to the side. That was only a distraction, however, as in the next moment, her sword had grown to ridiculous lengths. Reaching far above the two of them, she swung the enormous weapon down, allowing it’s weight to accelerate the momentum of the swing.

Without time to dodge, the Wraith Chieftain braced under, holding up the shaft of his spear. The moment the blow connected, the Tyrant staggered, falling to a knee. At the same time, the shadows augmenting Saint retreated from her body, gliding across the snow.

As the Wraith Chieftain was relieved from Saint’s might, which had plummeted as she lost her augmentations, he began to free himself from under the gargantuan sword that was being forced down upon him... until he felt a pair of armored boots step on his shoulders.

Sunny squeezed the trigger.

The gunshot rang across the snowfield.

[You have slain a Fallen Tyrant, Primal Barrow Revenant.]

In less than a second, the bone helmet, skull, and burial mask of the Wraith Chieftain shattered, exploding into a bloody mess. After a few moments of nothingness, the Tyrant toppled over, his head having been annihilated to the point where it’s remains only consisted of the blood and pulp staining the pure snow.

Staring at the creature that had nothing but a neck above his torso, Sunny leaped off with disappointment.

’I wanted a Memory...’

As Sunny and Saint looked around the snowfield at the remaining disoriented, yet wrathful Nightmare Creatures, he sighed. He supposed the Shadow Fragments were going to have to do.