[23]Deadly Dance

If it was down to Sunny and Nephis versus the carapace demon,  Sunny was sure of their win. After all, the carapace demon was basically immobile,  relying on just four of its steel appendages to stay upright, with only one on its right side. That would be the two's main target. 

Nephis led the charge, with Sunny following close behind. They were faster and stronger than they were in the previous timeline, but that did not make this an easy fight. Sunny barely missed being decapitated by the demon's right side scythe. Focusing in, Sunny mimicked Neph's movements and they split to either side of the demon.

Sunny took its right side, where it still had two working appendages, but also only one leg. Sunny's goal was to distract the demon and create an opening, but destroying his sword and throwing it at the Soul Devourer was probably not going to cut it this time. Sunny wanted to create a proper opportunity to stop the demon was proving tricky, however. It was mostly because Sunny was busy avoiding the demon's limbs moving like lightning strikes.

Too bad for it that Sunny was able to move in strange ways, bending at awkward angles, pretending to make mistakes to bait its moves, and constantly closing in and jumping back to avoid deadly attacks. Sunny slowly moved the fight over to the front of the creature, but it still didn't let Nephis manuever around it and kept both of them in its vision. Nephis couldn't really circle to its back either, because she knew the weak point was at the front of its body.

So, Sunny ended up being caught in a dance of death, constantly one step away from dying. Slash, stab, whoosh! Over and over, Sunny dodged pincer and scythe. Sunny finally had to take a hit, so he expertly used the Azure Blade to deflect the hit, but a gnarly crack ran through the blade, even though Sunny had deftly used his blade to disperse the force.

The hit still knocked Sunny back several feet. He landed on his back and crashed into the sand. Sunny had slid for several feet, but he didn't have any choice, because that was the best way to create an opening for Nephis. She was not aiming to kill the carapace demon yet.

Nephis' blade flashed, and lit up with blinding white flame. She cut through the demon's final leg on its right side. It cut through like butter,nand the demon used its pincer arm to hold itself up. Now, the carapace demon didn't have all three limbs to swing at Sunny. Not only that, Nephis' attack was enough time for Sunny to summon Soul Serpent and and the scavenger. Sunny even managed to get up from the devastating hit from the demon.

Soul serpent slithered in the shadow of the echo as it charged into the demon's front. Sunny got up a moment later and followed. The demon was going to cut down the scavenger where it stood with its scythes, but the echo somehow managed to fend it off with its pincers, and tackled into the pincer that was holding up its body, and successfully toppled it.

The metal monstrocity tried to stand, but the echo was trying to pin it down with its weight. Sunny and nephis got into the demon's scythe range. . . and then Sunny's shadow quickly switched from Sunny to Nephis, enhancing her body. Sunny then called out.

"Neph! Now!"

Nephis wasted no time, and her blade lit with white fire yet again. Despite the evident strain of using her Aspect twice in one fight, Nephis pulled it off well. She lunged forward, dodging its scythes, and then plunged her sword into its chest, pouring all of her fire into the body of the demon, causing brilliant white light to shine through the cracks in its carapace.

The demon only survived the harrowing flames for a moment before it finally died.

Sunny fell to one knee. His injury had finally  caught up to him. Sunny knew he was hurt, so he patted down his body to check for injuries. He felt like something was wrong with his chest. Not only that, he felt blood from a small nick on his neck. Sunny held his hand to his neck and took stock of his surroundings.

Cassie was still in the tree. He saw that the scavenger echo had lost an arm, so he dismissed it. He called Soul Serpent out to his body, and finally turned to take a glance at Nephis. She turned to him and smiled. Sunny straightened up his posture with a grim expression and kept looking around. He was forgetting something. . .

Suddenly, Sunny rushed past the metal corpse of the carapace demon, and ran up to Nephis. She had a confused look, but Sunny didn't stop to explain, and when he finally made it to her, he pushed her into the ground, just in time for a mass of seaweed and bone to crash into him, and then he felt himself being wrapped in a horrific grip of flesh, seaweed, and bone.

 It was no time at all before he realized he was being drug across the ground at incredible speed. He tried to cut himself free, but he couldn't move. He couldn't even see because he was completely wrapped. Sunny tried to wrestle himself free for one second, then two, then ten. . .

In no time at all, Sunny was dragged into the dark sea.

***

Nephis POV:

He was gone. 

She didn't even realize what happened immediately. Sunny and his creatures had been distracting the demon, when she had seen a small chance to catch the demon unawares. She risked it all to close in on the damned thing, while all of the demon's limbs were distracted. 

She felt her flech boil and burn, and tears flooded her eyes. She felt her limbs ache and suddenly be infused with unexpected power. She adjusted her strike and timing when she heard him scream.

"Neph! Now!"

She successfully plunged her blade into the demon's body and washed it aflame with the same agony that hurt her, tortured her, and defined her.

The demon had died an awful death, and She had felt her body be rushed with intense power when she had finally released her flame.

Barely conscious, she turned to smile at Sunny with bleary eyes, when she saw a pale, horrified expression come across his face. Before she could even register that something was wrong, he had somehow crossed the distance between them and pushed her to the ground.

There was a sound of air rushing past her, and a sickening sound of something wet wrapping around something. Just as the lights of her consciousness were about to go out, she saw Sunny, trying to struggle against something wrapped around his waist to no avail.

With every second, he crossed at least a hundred feet and was hurredly drug into the water. By the time he was almost to the shore, he was fully encased in the tentacle like mass of seaweed and bone. Nephis saw the tentacle rise into the air, and then plunge into the black sea.

And just a few moments later, she finally passed out.