16 - Centurion Slayers

Once morning arrived, the four Sleepers started to move to the west. They had climbed down from the cliff and were currently walking through the labyrinth.

Sunny led the group as the scout, and used his shadow to explore the surrounding area. Nephis was behind Sunny, and served mainly as a combatant. Shirou led Cassie by a rope, and if necessary, he would fulfill the role of a tank by using the [War Medallion]. Even without armor, Shirou was durable enough to take a direct hit or two from a Carapace Scavenger. Ingvild was behind Cassie, and was making sure to watch their backs.

Shirou looked back at the puddle that was following them. Ingvild seemed to be acting strangely ever since she woke up. She had jumped out of his lap and immediately dissapeared into a puddle, which wasn't unusual for her. What was truly strange was the fact that she wouldn't respond whenever Shirou attempted to talk to her.

He sighed before hoping that she will tell him when she's ready.

Sunny stopped walking. He turned around with a grim expression.

"There's a horde of Scavengers ahead."

Nephis also stopped before asking Sunny how many there were. After a few seconds, Sunny had an answer.

"Around 17 of them."

A few days before, Shirou was able to defeat 6 Carapace Scavengers before finding Sunny. It was quite difficult, especially since they didn't have a weapon to allow Shirou to use [Anomaly]. He was able to defeat them by summoning and dismissing the [War Medallion]. This disoriented the Nightmare Creatures due to the fluctuations in bloodlust. If they were of a higher rank or class, than they would have been able to defeat Shirou.

Shirou didn't think that this strategy would work again. The [War Medallion]'s effect becomes weaker the more targets it has. It was already significantly weaker when Shirou used it against the Carapace Scavengers, but the number of enemies had almost tripled.

…Will I need to use Ingvild?

The word "use" had Shirou furrowing his brow. He didn't want to make her do anything when she was upset. He didn't know why, but he was not going to open that can of worms just yet.

Sunny seemed to come up with an idea.

"If you two can distract them, I should be able to sneak up on them through the shadows."

Sunny's affinity for shadows was very useful for stealth it seemed. Shirou still wasn't too sure of this plan.

"Are you sure that you can cut through their armor?"

"Nephis told me about their weak spots yesterday. There is a part of their armor that isn't completely covered."

"Oh."

Shirou was asleep on a higher level of the cliff yesterday. Now that he thought about it, he remembered it being somewhat soft…

…The ground shouldn't have been soft. It was a huge rock!

"…I think you can do it."

This time, Nephis was the one who had spoken.

Why does her face look like that?

Shirou looked towards Sunny, who seemed to have the same thought. Sunny decided to speak up for the two of them.

"Uh… you don't have to force yourself to smile. I think it would be better if you smiled more naturally?"

…That sounded like a question.

"Oh…"

…Why does she seem depressed?

Shirou took a few steps back from the two of them, pulling Cassie along with him.

"So… are we just going to fight them now?"

"Y-yeah…"

"…Yes."

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Some time later, the group had arrived at the clearing in which the Scavengers were staying. They had left Cassie behind some coral, and Shirou left Ingvild with her. Although the Blade wasn't very responsive, she was still trying to help out.

The three combative members of the group had summoned their weapons, with Shirou summoning the [War Medallion]. Although it's effect on his enemies was weakened, it could still help with invigorating Sunny and Nephis.

Once Sunny stepped into the shadows, he seemed to almost disappear. Shirou had stepped into the clearing with his [Washing Pole] in hand. Nephis was behind him, holding onto her own sword.

When they were noticed, Shirou and Nephis had rushed forward. Shirou had stabbed the closest Scavenger in it's eye, causing him to also stab through it's brain.

I feel like I've done this before.

After the one month in the academy, Shirou had gotten used to finding out a Nightmare Creatures patterns. It usually took him a few kills, but at this point, he had already deconstructed the Carapace Scavenger's behavior. He understood when they couldn't attack, and when they were preparing to do so. Simple clues like the sounds they make before an attack would help him put himself in a good position.

Nephis seemed to have a deep understanding of the Carapace Scavenger's anatomy. She seemed to dissect any Nightmare Creatures she encounters in order to figure out how to kill it better next time.

As for Sunny, he was simply doing what he does best.

Backstabbing.

While Shirou and Nephis were attracting the horde, Sunny was in the back leaping from abomination to abomination. He would quickly coat his [Azure Blade] with his shadow before piercing through the weak spot of the armor. He repeated the process over and over again, getting the most kills between the three of them in the process.

Once they had defeated all of the Carapace Scavengers, Sunny had to see the two distractions looking worse for wear. Shirou was bruised badly on his chest, and Nephis had some lacerations on her body. Sunny was confused about why she didn't just heal it.

"Can you not heal yourself?"

"…I can, it's just not worth it."

Shirou had stood up from the ground.

"I think you should heal them anyways. Who knows what creepy diseases are just floating around."

"…I think I'll be fine."

Nephis stood up and walked to where Cassie was hiding. Shirou and Sunny looked at each other before shrugging.

"Maybe she has to get naked to heal."

"…Shirou, for once I'll thank you for the imagery. Consider this a warning."

"…Imagery?"

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Once they had all gotten together again, the sky had gotten somewhat cloudy. They didn't know if the black sea will come out if the clouds covered the sun, so they started to hurry towards the closest high altitude landform. After a few minutes, it started to rain, and the sun had completely disappeared. The ground started to shake, signaling that night has arrived. Once they had reached the cliff, Shirou carried Cassie on his back and started to stab his hands into the wall. Although his hands were starting to get bruised, he kept repeating this process while climbing up the cliff.

By doing this, he was able to make footholds for himself, Sunny, and Nephis. Once they got to the top of the cliff, they tried to look for shelter, before something caught Sunny's eye.

"There's Nightmare Creatures. Don't make a sound."

True enough, there seemed to be a small group of Carapace Scavengers huddled around each other. They seemed to be asleep, so Sunny decided to use the darkness from the night to his advantage. The 4 of them went to hide behind a rock outcrop.

"Stay here, I'll go kill them."

Sunny had disappeared into the night. A few minutes later, he had returned with bad news.

"They're already dead. Something else killed it. My shadow found another Nightmare Creature in a small cave. It was crimson and had scythes instead of pincers. What do we do? It's an awakened monster at the least."

Nephis quickly answered.

"Let's kill it."

"…Are you crazy?"

"It's just an awakened monster."

Shirou seemed to be deep in thought.

"If it's just one, than it shouldn't be too difficult."

"We don't even know it's weak points!"

"Guess we'll just have to find out?"

Sunny palmed his face at Shirou's words.

Cassie had spoken up for the first time since they had departed.

"Uhm… I think that you all could beat it. It probably isn't very smart, so you should be able to trick it."

Sunny made an 'oh' sound.

"I forgot to tell you guys, but I got an echo in that last fight."

"…Seriously."

It was now Shirou's turn to palm his face.

————————————————————

Across the surrounding area, the sound of a bell can be heard.

Shirou heard the sound of rocks breaking and powerful footsteps coming his way. He had summoned the [Washing Pole] and was hiding behind a rock with Nephis.

A few moments later, they heard the sound of two things crashing into each other.

They leapt out from behind the rocks and sprinted towards the monster. A Carapace Scavenger can be seen sitting on top of it, and had currently pinned it to the ground. The Scavenger was an echo that Sunny had obtained in their last battle.

Speaking of Sunny, he was standing nearby, waiting for them to take action.

Nephis had immediately stabbed her sword into the spot in which the upper and lower body were connected. Although they did not know it's weak spots, it would have to be flexible in some areas in order to move.

Her sword had pierced through the chitin, yet the abomination did not seem even remotely hurt.

It tried to hit Nephis with it's pincers, but they were grabbed by the Scavenger. She released her sword and ducked under it's body.

Shirou tried to stab it's glowing red eyes using the reach of the [Washing Pole], while Sunny tried to slash it's legs. It had avoided the stab and turned towards Sunny in a feat of agility. It landed a blow on Sunny, who felt his ribs cave in from the blow.

Shirou widened his eyes before seeing Nephis finally escape from under the monster. He decided to hold it off while Nephis went to heal Sunny. He tried to block its attacks, but each blow would cause his body to tremble.

In his First Nightmare, Shirou was able to defeat an awakened monster with relative ease. This was only because it mainly used a weapon to attack, which allowed Shirou to predict it's movements. The abomination that Shirou was currently fighting did not have any weapons. The scythes that it used were a part of it's body, so it didn't register as a weapon to [Anomaly].

After barely avoiding a few of it's attacks, Shirou suddenly felt his very soul burn. He did not know where this searing pain came from, so he hesitated in confusion.

That was all the time that the awakened monster needed. It's scythe blurred.

Shirou turned to look at something that had just hit the ground.

It was his left hand, still holding onto the [Washing Pole].

Shirou felt a gust of wind blow him away. In the next second he was in someone's arms, although he couldn't exactly tell.

"…Get my arm."

[What?!]

Although the voice seemed surprised, it had immediately went to retrieve his arm.

Shirou saw the Nightmare Creature walking away, towards where Sunny was being healed by Nephis. He still felt the burning pain, but it didn't make him react. He was only thrown off by it because he was in the middle of fighting the monster.

A second later, Shirou saw Ingvild holding onto his dismembered arm. He couldn't tell because of the dark, but he thought that he saw tears in her eyes.

It's probably just the rain.

Shirou took his severed limb from her grasp, before pressing it against his stump.

Shirou started to move automatically. He wasn't sure what brought him to speak the words that he did, but he recognized them as part of the [Shroud of Justice]'s description.

"…I am…"

Shirou felt reality start to warp.

"THE BONE OF MY SWORD!"

Shirou felt his body limb start to sprout miniature swords. They stabbed into his nerves and stitched together his arm and his shoulder.

Shirou let go of his arm. He didn't bother checking it before summoning the [Washing Pole] and [War Medallion]. He rushed forward to the monster who was approaching Sunny and Nephis.

"Look over here you overgrown lobster!"

The Nightmare Creature froze. It quickly turned to his direction after realizing that there was another threat.

"You know, lobster tastes pretty good!"

Shirou sheathed his sword before getting into a low stance. He was going to finish this with [Hold].

"Let's start by gutting you."

The "overgrown lobster" charged at Shirou. He did not move until it got into a certain range.

Once the abomination had stepped into his bubble, it's life was already over.

A second later, the only difference that can be seen is the position of Shirou's sword, which was fully undrawn. Shirou stepped out of the way before the monster fell.

True to his word, Shirou had gutted the Nightmare Creature.

[You have defeated an awakened monster, Carapace Centurion.]

[You have received a Memory: Starlight Legion Armor.]

[Your sword grows sharper.]