So this is a Ghost Fragment-style little story that connects Liam_Gues’ Anibus series to The Frontier. It’s about the fate of Caras, the king baron that Anibus hungers to slay. Gravis is pretty pissed with him for revealing one of the King Dens, so she sends her right hand man… or really, monster. Caras stumbled in the snows of Old Canada, shivering with the cold, despite his large body and thick armor, more out of fear than the snow. He leaned on his borrowed skiff and tried to see what the problem with one of the engines was, when he heard something… almost like a sizzling. Caras jumped back and looks around, and then saw a large, blurred shape crouching on top of his skiff like a gargoyle. The King Baron thought for a moment, and paled. “No.” he whispered. “Not you.” The blurred, sizzling figure sat, unmoved by the whisper, snow hissing and evaporating against his cloaking technology. The monster jumped off the Skiff and landed on the ground with a dull *thump*, slowly stalking towards him. Caras crawled away, shaking with terror, repeating the quiet “No.” Shade stood over him and lifted him by the collar of his armor. Caras quivered and said “What do you want? What does Gra-” Shade took one hand off and grabbed Caras with his other hand by his neck, gently squeezing but not hurting. “Kell will let you live.” the monstrous eliksni groaned, seeming to struggle to speak. Caras sighed with relief, but Shade squeezed harder, and the baron thrashed in panic. “Please! Have mercy!” Shade threw him against the ground with a *Thud*, muffled by the pure white, thick snow. He took one enormous shock blade out and activated the arc battery in the blade with a low click, drawing . The blade split the air with an electric sizzling and into Caras- Caras slowly opened his eyes, and let out another deep sigh. He was alive, but his cloak… his cloak was gone. Shade sheathed the blade and balled up the yellow King cloak in his hands. “No more kings.” the creature growled. The meaning of this dawned on the former King Baron. “Wait, please! It wasn’t my fault, it was that Shal-” “YOU FAILED!” The monster roared into his face, uncaring and pitiless. Shade proceeded to lift him up again with both arms, and dig his clawed fingers into Caras’ armor. It was thick, tough, and capable of withstanding gunfire, but he felt it crack and give way to the impossible strength of the creature that held him. Shade wrenched the yellow-colored armor from the former baron, and crushed it like a tin can. Caras felt the icy burn of the below zero weather more clearly now, as Shade dragged him through the snow. A lone, scraggly tree stood there, and Shade braced himself against the ground, getting a firmer grip on Caras. The world flew past Caras’ vision, and he roared in pain as a few of his ribs broke against the force of the blow. The Baron’s vision swam, and he barely saw Shade stand there, like some creature of the Dark, an ancient colossus from the dawn of time. It raised one arm, and said, very clipped, “One. Trip.” Caras slumped into the snow, and closed his eyes. After a few seconds, he opened them, and the monster was gone. He willed himself to get up, and he groaned in pain at his broken ribs. Bracing against the tree, which barely supported him, he limped over to his skiff. That was a hint of what was to come. Now that Caras has been banished from the house of kings, where will he go? What will he do? And we know that where Caras goes… ...Anibus will follow. This is just a taste of what’s to come.