27: Friendly fight

[First Encounter with Ludwin]

Two sleepers, one in black armor and the other in brown armor, both eyeing another sleeper who was approaching them, a tense expectancy between the three.

Sasha moved a bit closer to her friend, and he spoke in a low voice, almost whispering.

"Hey Jony, didn't you say two people were coming? Where's the other one?" There was a slight edge of concern and caution in her voice.

Jonathan leaned close to her ear and whispered, his voice tinged with caution in Sasha's ear.

"Listen carefully, the other guy seems to be hiding his presence, maybe it's a memory or his ability, I want you to act like you don't know anything, I think I know who the hidden guy is."

Confused, she nodded and decided to trust her friend's judgment.

***

**[Present Time]**

"Even though Jony knows him, he's very suspicious. First, why didn't he show up on the first day? Besides, why was he following Ludwin? I don't really trust him completely. I'll keep an eye on him."

Sasha had been in prolonged silence since Ludwin and Isaac arrived. She didn't talk much but made sure not to appear strange in their presence.

Anyway, this didn't last long as they quickly descended from the high rock into the coral maze.

It didn't take long before they encountered a group of scavengers: there were four of them, and the sleepers prepared to kill them and move on faster.

"Sasha, take this sword and go to the front with the shield. Ludwin, I want you to back her up with those two. Isac, I need you to hide from them with your ability and try to kill one when we distract them. I'll go for the last two," Jonathan ordered the group firmly.

"Got it," they all responded in unison.

Sasha glanced at Ludwin, and suddenly, he disappeared from her sight, even her thoughts about the suspicious guy seemed to waver from her mind when she thought of him.

"Weird, and very suspicious. His ability is formidable, too."

Leaving unnecessary thoughts at the back of her mind, Sasha advanced with the shield in front and struck a scavenger with great force.

Surprised by the sudden attack, the scavenger staggered for a moment and then attacked with its claws at the sleeper who dared to attack it.

The other three scavengers tried to advance and crush the sleeper all together, but two more pounced on them.

Ludwin had a dagger in his hand dripping a rotten-looking liquid from its tip.

It was Jonathan's "Traitor's Tooth" dagger. Since Ludwin didn't have a weapon and had only used his hands, Jonathan decided to give him the dagger so that he would at least have a weapon.

He struck with the dagger at a scavenger's legs and managed to cut deep into its Quintina.

The scavenger screamed and moved to attack Ludwin, who dodged and struck back, dodging and hitting.

Jonathan released his puppet, and both went against the other two scavengers; his puppet hit both with its enhanced claws and held them for a second.

That was enough for Jonathan to jump and cut off one's head.

Out of nowhere, without anyone noticing, a pale-skinned boy with brown hair, his dark eyes with murderous intent as he jumped out of nowhere towards the back of the other scavenger.

A creepy-looking sword in his hands was thrust into the back of the scavenger's head, instantly killing it.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the battle.

Sasha raised her shield, blocking the two claws of the scavenger.

After the block, she advanced and jumped onto the shell, cutting off the claw coming towards her and kicking the other.

The beast let out a scream of pain and raised both front legs, trying to shake off the sleeper.

Sasha stabbed her sword into the shell to stand firm and then made a powerful jump towards the beast's head.

The scavenger tried to dodge the attack, but it was too late; its head had already been separated from its body.

Ludwin, who was a few meters away, lay on the scavenger's corpse, crouching, pulling the poisoned dagger out of the scavenger's back head.

Soon, the four sleepers regrouped.

"Nicely done, everyone did very well. Collect the cores and let's move, we can't stay here much longer," said Jonathan, addressing the dead scavengers to extract their soul cores.

After everything was ready, and they stored some meat, they set off once more.

...

Here are some improvements and spelling corrections:

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The four sleepers arrived at the tall and somewhat small coral where Ludwin used to stay; now it seemed even smaller with four people on it.

"Well, this is the tall coral I talked about, it's not very big but it's enough," said Ludwin.

"To be honest, it sucks, you won't be able to sleep comfortably here," Ludwin commented, recalling the cold he had endured just a few days before.

"That's offensive, but I won't say you're wrong," Ludwin replied.

Jonathan and Sasha were about to prepare the group's food.

The fire was still possible since there were at least two hours before nightfall.

When the food was ready, everyone gathered around the fire and ate in silence.

The first to break the silence was Jonathan.

"Hey, want to fight? There's still time before nightfall, and I'm bored, anyone up for it?"

They all looked at him as they took the last bite of their meals, then spoke; Sasha was the first.

"Will it be a fight with weapons or without weapons?"

Jonathan replied.

"No weapons, just bare-handed. What do you say, up for a fight? You can take it as training."

Now it was Isac and Ludwin's turn to speak.

"I'm in, but I won't hold back even if you're a girl," Ludwin said, looking at Sasha.

"I'll pass, you guys have your cores much more saturated than mine and are stronger, I'd just get beaten up," Isac said with an apologetic smile on his face.

Sasha responded to Ludwin's proclamation.

"We'll see if you manage to scratch me, Ludwin."

"It's settled then. Isac, could you keep watch while we fight so we don't get surprised by a scavenger?"

"Sure," Isac responded indifferently.

So, the three sleepers separated and positioned themselves in a separate area of the platform, which, although not very large, could still accommodate the three's fight.

"Three... Two... One-"

The three sleepers burst into an assault against each other.

Jonathan dodged Ludwin's kick and blocked Sasha's punch, his arm trembling against the girl's strength.

He ducked and spun to kick Sasha and dodge another blow from Ludwin.

The kick connected, making Sasha stagger. Ludwin threw a punch to Jonathan's chest, which he stopped with both arms.

As they both fought, Sasha took advantage and deployed her real field, enhancing herself and removing the enhancement from her friends.

With a burst, both sleepers were struck by Sasha with a powerful kick.

Jonathan, despite knowing what was coming, couldn't do anything to dodge it with Ludwin constantly attacking.

Both were sent flying backward simultaneously and then faced Sasha.

Jonathan was quicker and reached Sasha's side in a second, delivering an elbow strike to her jaw.

Ludwin arrived a moment before Sasha received Jonathan's elbow strike and kicked her legs.

Sasha dodged Jonathan's strike and jumped slightly in the air, evading Ludwin's strike.

She twisted in the air, connecting a kick to Ludwin, who blocked it with both arms and was pushed back a bit by the force of the blow.

A moment after the kick, Jonathan had already changed his position and was behind Sasha when she touched the ground.

He delivered a hard punch to Sasha's chest, and she only moved back a bit, blocking her friend's punch with one arm.

Surprised by Sasha's strength and resilience, Jonathan was momentarily stunned and was hit by Ludwin.

With a punch to the face, Jonathan was sent flying to the other end of the platform.

Ludwin crouched and tried to connect another blow to Sasha.

She dodged it and wrapped her legs around Ludwin, throwing Ludwin's body into the air as if it were paper.

She made a powerful jump into the air and struck Ludwin with a punch.

The latter managed to defend himself but heard his bones crunching under Sasha's powerful blow.

Jonathan was already a few meters away from the two when he managed to take initial control of both, which consumed at least half of his essence and slowed down the movements of both sleepers.

Ludwin and Sasha felt their limbs stiffening a bit and looked simultaneously at Jonathan, who was running in their direction.

Upon touching the ground, both looked at each other for a moment and nodded.

With both sleepers going for him, Jonathan placed a hand on the ground and went headfirst, delivering a double kick to the two sleepers.

Both were hit, which was more powerful than they expected.

They stopped for a moment from the blow, and Jonathan took advantage to recompose himself and deliver a blow to Sasha.

The blow managed to hit her chest, and she staggered a bit from it.

Ludwin managed to avoid her kick and counterattacked with his own kick.

Knowing what he would do, Jonathan moved a few inches and dodged Ludwin's blow.

However, Sasha was already inches away from him; knowing the blow that would come, he tried to dodge.

But Jonathan didn't have the chance as he was held by the leg by Ludwin, who held him firmly.

Sasha managed to connect all the power of her fist to her friend's

The armor made a loud metallic sound, and Jonathan fell to the ground, stunned.

Sasha looked at Ludwin and lunged to kick him in the head.

Ludwin let go of Jonathan, and feeling his body free from Jonathan's influence, he quickly rolled to evade Sasha's kick and stood up.

Sasha ran quickly towards Ludwin and delivered an elbow strike to his face.

Ludwin narrowly dodged the blow by an inch and grabbed her arm.

Sasha was firmly grabbed by the arm by Ludwin and then lifted.

Ludwin had lifted Sasha and slammed her against the coral ground.

Sasha endured the blow well and spun while still held by Ludwin's arm and delivered a kick with both feet to Ludwin's face.

Seeing what Sasha was doing, Ludwin released his grip and tried to dodge, but it was too late.

Sasha's double kick connected with Ludwin's head and sent him flying.

Ludwin was about to fall off the platform when he was stopped by Isac.

It was then that Jonathan's voice rang out.

"Stop, that's enough!" Jonathan shouted, before Sasha abruptly stopped.

Gasping from the effort made, Jonathan spoke again.

"That was good, it was amazing to fight with both of you, but we should stop here, we could hurt ourselves if we continue."

Sasha looked at him and went to sit in the middle; soon, her defect hit her. But she didn't worry since she could disguise it by sitting down.

Soon, she looked at Jonathan and replied to what he had said.

"Alright, but I must say I didn't expect you to hold up against both me and Ludwin when you were attacked by both, it was surprising," Sasha commented as she breathed quickly, catching her breath after the fight.

"What can I say, being hit by an Ascended helps a lot," Jonathan said, sitting down to catch his breath.

Now it was Ludwin who spoke.

"That last blow was good, but I won't let you off so easily next time," he said as he returned to the center of the coral to sit next to Jonathan.

Suddenly, someone spoke whom they had momentarily forgotten was with them, surprising everyone.

"You guys are really incredible, I have a lot to learn from you guys," Isac said, approaching the group sitting in the middle of the coral.

"Oh, it's weird, I had forgotten that Isac was watching," Ludwin reflected with a pensive expression.

"Oh, sorry, that's normal, I'd better tell you now to avoid problems, after all, this could affect everyone," Isac said, with a serious tone and a somber expression.

They fell silent, waiting for him to continue.

"Alright, it's about my defect."