Shadow Sun

Shadow Sun

Survival

By

Dave Willmarth

Copyright © 2019 by Dave Willmarth

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

All characters and events depicted in this novel are entirely fictitious.  Any similarity to actual events or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Chapter One

Chapter One

Devastation

The earth trembled as Allistor ran through the rubble of his hometown.   He stumbled when the ground shifted beneath him just as he placed his forward foot on a broken concrete slab.   Using his momentum to control his fall, he rolled forward and came back to his feet, barely slowing.

The thing behind him was gaining ground.  It wasn’t pursuing him in particular, but rather herding the small number of survivors of which Allistor was one.  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a child stumble and fall, tripping her mother in the process.  The two went down in a tangle maybe a hundred yards from him, the girl sobbing hysterically from fear.   Her mother looked up at the monstrosity bearing down on them and chose to try and hide.  She picked up her child and scurried under the remnant of a half-collapsed stone wall.

Allistor shouted at her even as he changed direction toward them.  “No!  Don’t stop!  Keep moving!” but there was no way she heard him above the pounding of the monster’s footsteps and the sound of crashing debris.   He pushed his tired legs as fast as they would go, angling toward their position.  A glance up at their approaching doom told him he wasn’t going to make it.  Still, he pushed himself.

He let out a scream of frustrated rage as he lost his race.  The monster’s right foot came down directly on top of the hiding spot the mother had chosen.   Allistor imagined he heard a brief scream, abruptly cut off as the two innocents died.  Looking up, he directed his rage at their killer.  The thing that had single-handedly destroyed his home and killed nearly everyone he knew.  Out of frustration he grabbed a broken chunk of concrete from the ground and flung it upward at the monster’s head with all the strength he could muster.

Void Titan

Level 10

Health  7,810/8,000

The rock bounced off the thick skin of its face, doing a single point of damage, and not even attracting its attention.  The monster was three times his level, and he hadn’t really expected to do any damage. It continued on its path, disregarding him completely as it pursued a group of townsfolk that were firing ineffective weapons at it as they retreated toward the river.