As Knife-in-the-Butt warily scanned his surroundings, trying to locate the source of that faint sense of being watched, the shadow beneath his feet suddenly churned like boiling water.
This was no ordinary shadow, but a fel shadow so dense it was almost tangible.
"A ghost!"
The player beside him reacted instantly, raising his bayonet and thrusting it forward.
But the attack shooting out of the shadow was faster.
A slender black spike, seemingly formed from pure shadow, pierced the player's chest like a scorpion's stinger, silent yet lightning-fast.
His military greatcoat and steel armor might as well have been paper. Neither offered the slightest resistance to the shadow spike.
The player's body stiffened, and the light in his eyes instantly faded. He never even managed a muffled grunt beneath his gas mask.
"Enemy attack!!!"
The surrounding soldiers reacted immediately, roaring as they leveled their bayonet-fixed rifles and stabbed at the writhing shadow.
Physical attacks barely affected the flowing darkness, however. Their bayonets swept through it, drawing out only a few wisps of dissipating black smoke.
The shadow spike snapped back, trailing a spray of warm blood. Then the darkness rapidly gathered and rose, forming an indistinct humanoid silhouette that seemed to be twisted together from countless wailing faces... a rare Shadow Demon.
He had no distinct facial features, only two hollow eye sockets burning with eerie green flames, fixed firmly on Knife-in-the-Butt, who had just steadied himself.
Shadow demons were the assassins among demons, skilled at lurking in shadows and carrying out precise, deadly decapitation strikes.
The demon made of shadow let out a low shriek that sent tremors through the soul. He spread his arms, turning them into several even thinner, faster shadow whips. Like living black vipers, they wound past the soldiers trying to block them and stabbed