[12]Teamwork(2)

Sunny was confused. He knew that his past was changing, but this wasn't one of the changes that he expected. He got an echo on his second kill.

Sunny remembered that he had mostly relied on specific Echoes and Memories to barely scrape by with his life in the past. He was absolutely positive that the memories and Echoes that the Spell gave him were closely tied to his fate in the past.

Seeing the rewards being accredited to him by the Spell change in pattern first hand was more disconcerting than comforting.

That did not mean that Sunny was going to let this chance slip him by. Nephis took a moment to collect herself, and then turned to Sunny. She seemed to realize something, and then stared off into space. Sunny knew that Nephis was reading his runes.

"You got two fragments... and an Echo."

Sunny nodded. He was certainly glad to move faster this early on. He wanted to make it to the knight statue in time to cook their dinner. His current fragment goal for the day was at least ten.

At least Cassie was excited.  She burst out into excitement and shock.

"Huh, Sunless, you got an echo? Those are so rare!"

Ah, Sunny missed this. Cassie being nice to him made him happy, despite his past, or future with her. Whatever. He didn't show his happiness on his face.

He had to make sure that he was growing faster, even at the beginning of this journey, while he was still weak. In the past, he had gained eight Shadow Fragments on his way to the headless statue, while they were trying to avoid fights.

Sunny was going to be more direct on his approach to the statue now, especially with his shiny new toy.

"Let's hurry and help Cassie onto our new friend. We'll make it to that statue by dinner, even if we have to fight every darn scavenger in this place."

Nephis nodded. She was a little apprehensive about how nonchalant Sunny was about fighting awakened creatures, but she was no fool.

This scrawny kid was a wielder of a Divine Aspect, the same as her. The more she learned about him, the more curious she became.

Sunny looked like a typical Outskirts rat, but he acted like he had seen the end of the world. Looking into his onyx black eyes was like staring into an unending abyss, from the very edge of the drop.

He was cold and standoffish, but he only seemed to say things that benefit others, like pointing out their flaws and demanding that they stop wasting their time on him.

He was an enigma to Nephis.  Ironically enough, he became even more so when he openly admitted everything possible about his flaw and his powers, as if the moment he met them, he was confident that Nephis and Cassie were his most loved family in the entire world.

He even willingly gave Nephis his Tier V awakened armor because "her figure was driving him mad", even though had had opened stated that he had no undue intentions towards the girls, which couldn't be a lie, due to his wicked flaw.

Nephis thought her flaw was bad, but how would it feel to constantly live her life knowing that one or two innocent questions could permanently take away her free will? All of her passion, her desire, her dignity, her very life?

Just what kind of psychotic bastard would willingly give that up, just for a little more power? What could drive a man so mad that he didn't give a damn about the risks of losing his life, just to prove that he was a trustworthy ally to two strangers he met in the most unforgiving wilderness possible?

She didn't care. She wouldn't use it. Who the Spell needed a slave? Nephis could tell that there was some invisible necessity that forced Sunny's hand. She had no idea what it was, or what to do with him later. There was only one thing she cared about now.

. . . Sunless was dependable, and powerful. Nephis' eyes shone with a fierce glimmer of silver light for a moment, as Sunny led her and the blind girl through the coral labyrinth. This, this was an ally she wanted. He was an ally she decided to hold onto at all costs. The dead gods had sent her a heaven blessed angel to lead her through hell.

She was sure that there wasn't a single other Sleeper in the entire waking world that she would have wanted to end up stuck here with, instead of him.

***

The trip to the headless statue was relatively easy. Sunny had slain a total of seven more scavengers on their way, with the help of Nephis.

The shards had been divided between Nephis and Cassie at ratio of four to three. Sunny knew that Nephis could also absorb essence through killing, but she had kindly played bait, even though she knew that he was leading her into monsters intentionally.

There was a tacit understanding that Sunny was relaying to her, and he was sure that she understood the message. They all needed strength. As much as they could get. Nephis could absorb essence from her kills, but that wasn't the only way that she could gain essence, unlike Sunny.

Finally,  after arriving at the base of the statue, about an hour away from evening, Sunny and Nephis began to climb up the statue, using the golden rope to hoist Cassie higher into the air, one step at a time. They had not gained much more essence than they had before the regression, but Sunny knew where to climb, and the extra strength did help them a good amount.

In no time at all, the three of them had made it to the top of the statue. Nephis and Cassie were surprised to see so many beds of drying seaweed, but they remembered that Sunny was apparently hoping to find a cohort in their direction, not a couple of fellow sleepers.

Sunny gathered up the seaweed, and them shifted the extra amounts of it to make makeshift "pillows" and left enough seaweed to cover themselves with. There was the fire pit that Sunny had made, as well.

'There wasn't enough time to cook after all. Damnation.'

Sunny didn't regret his decision to hunt more creatures, but the extra time Sunny had gained from getting an echo mount for Cassie had not been enough to offset the time he had spent enjoying easy kills.

Sunny didn't say it aloud, but Sunny was skilled enough to ambush or slip past the nightmare creatures on his own. He was definitely the largest presence on the battlefield, only deeming Nephis the bait so that he could let her be involved with the kill. Despite their arrangement,  Sunny knew Neph's pride wouldn't allow her to just take free crystals, and she had Puppeteer's Shroud now, so she was perfectly safe fighting Scavengers.

She had taken a hit or two throughout the day, but she was armored and careful. There was no serious injuries on her body at all.

Sunny sighed. After eating some dried meat and drinking some water from Cassie's memory,  Sunny stood up and brought both food and water to Nephis. Cassie had eaten obediently, but Nephis still hadn't eaten her portion of food yet, despite being injured and exhausted.

When Sunny came up to her, she was meditating.

'Ah, right. She's constantly burning herself alive to get used to her flaw. Hopeless pyromaniac.'

It seemed that in this timeline, when Nephis saw that Sunny was more skilled than her, and was more useful to the group, she had still not gotten complacent. On the contrary,  she had grown more determined to overcome her weaknesses.

Sunny approached her and got her attention. Nephis finally realized that she hadn't eaten yet, and she stopped trying to meditate. She tried to smile at Sunny. He frowned.

"You look more like you're about to murder me than politely accept food."

Nephis stiffened. Sunny could tell she was dejected. She had tried so hard to copy Cassie's expressions while they were together at the academy, but Nephis didn't realize just how bad her attempts were.

. . . There was no better way to dump water over the fire in her soul than to have her be forced to listen to someone that could only tell the truth honestly admit he thought she was planning to kill him after seeing her expression.

"Do you want me to teach you?"

Nephis looked up from her contemplative expression. Cassie looked over from the other end of the platform, as well.

"Teach me what?"

"How to expression your emotions the same way everyone does. I went through a similar phase once, where I had to learn to pretend to play nice and be aware how others around me felt. You're having the same problem. You find it hard to talk to people, don't you?"