[27]Huntress

Climbing the wet granite was not an easy task, but they somehow managed.

When there was nothing to use as a hold, Sunny and Nephis resorted to using their swords by inserting them into the joints between the slabs. A few unpleasant cuts later, they found the right rhythm and made quick progress.

Enhanced by the consumed soul shards and shadow fragments, as well as the ruthless training regimen of the neverending battle for survival, their bodies were full of strength and endurance. Both of them were at the peak of human physical ability. Pretty soon, they had reached be top of the massive wall and climbed over its edge.

Without even needing to catch his breath, Sunny hungrily crawled forward, jumped to his feet, and gazed down.

It was a ridiculous drop even for a Sleeper. Sunny knew that he wouldn't want to take that drop.

In other news, Sunny had found something important out about his new abilities. Sunny could not see through the shadows of people around him nearly as far as he could sense their shadows.

The range of his Shadow Sense was now greater as a Sleeper than when he was a Master. He could even see, hear, and smell through the living shadows around him. He could not make them move but just the ability to listen in from their point of view was invaluable.

The thing that Sunny had realized was that the range at which Sunny could sense through other beings shadows was actually comparatively small. It was about a kilometer or so.

There was another thing that was bothering him, too. Previously, Sunny could feel his bond with his shadow weaken as it moved further and further away from him, but now Sunny didn't feel that connection weaken at all.

It was almost like it could now detach from him at an indefinite distance. If that was true, then Sunny could theoretically teleport between continents once he became awakened again!

Sunny would have to experiment further, especially considering the unimaginable power boost he would have with those implications.

While he was theorizing and daydreaming about his new possibilities, Nephis took in the sights of the dark city. 

The ruined streets of the city, the white castle that seemed undisturbed by it all, and even that damnable spire rising to pierce the sky in the distance. It was all just crap.

It only took Sunny suggesting that they look for a way down in the towers, and then Nephis and Cassie followed him.

They followed the wall north and entered into the tower. They quickly pulled through the tower and passed several monster corpses. Sunny was planning on retracing Effie's path to the castle on his own, at first, but even though the group came to the castle a month earlier. . .

Soon, Cassie stopped them.

"Listen, can you guys hear that?"

Sunny could hear the sounds of flash and bone being torn, and shook his head.

"Don't worry about it. Let's go talk to the huntress up ahead."

***

Effie POV:

'Dead. It was another silent takedown today.'

Effie was having a day like any other on the forgotten shore. She had spent meticulous hours tracking this particular creature down. The final trip to kill it had taken about four more hours of travel just to make it from herprevious hunting dround to the wall.

She did not succeed in assasination of the creature, so she had to tackle it and thrust her spear into its eye. The fight had only taken seconds, but that was more deadly than it should have been. If the overgrown dog like creature had managed to make noise, she would have had to flee. . . if she even could.

Tired from her recent kill, she had drug its body into the nearby tower in the wall of the city. She then proceeded to summon a knife Memory she had used for a long time, and expertly began to skin her prey. Dressing down the meat she wanted and directly crushing the soul shard inside the body of the creature had become a sort of habit to her.

There, she took a sort of flint she had made from scratch, and struck it above her usual fire pit, which was already prepped with dry wood and strips of cloth. It did not take long to make fire, as she had many times before.

She was finally settled in and roasting her well earned meat when she heard it. The faint sound of tapping against the stones that signaled something was quietly sneaking across the inside of the tower. She listened even more intently, and then she saw movement out of the corner of her eye.

She threw the bone she was munching on like a missle, but. . . It passed right through the shadow, wait, shadow?

she quickly glanced behind her, seeing nothing, and she was confused. How could there be a human shadow if there was no human? She was more tense than ever, because she had never heard of a nightmare creature like this in the city.

She jumped to her feet and hopped back, summoning her spear, but the shadow held up its arms in surrender. She was movement again, and she was going to attack, but then she saw three humans stepping out into the light of her fire.

There was a short boy in front, looking no older than fifteen, but she realized that he was probably older than he seemed. He had disheveled black hair and a lean, but somewhat small and unhealthy looking build. Effie could tell right away that this boy could and probably had calculated exactly how to kill her in several ways, but his stoic expression did not put her off in any way. He was wearing a grey armor Memory with black leather plating adorning the most key places to protect. He held a black tachi that glinted wickedly in the firelight, and his pure black pupils seemed to draw her in.

Behind the boy's right was a lithe girl, almost as tall as Effie herself, that had striking silver hair that matched her grey eyes and a powerful build coupled with a calm demeanor. Effie pegged her for a legacy. She was adoned with a white plate armor with a black bodysuit showing in places underneath, and she was carrying a similarly white single edged sword in her hand. She seemed aloof from the world.

To the boy's left was a blond girl, even shorter than the boy, with pale golden hair and an attractive body. She had her hand rested on the boy's shoulder. At first, Effie assumed that she was comforting the boy or holding him back from attacking or something, but when she saw the blond's eyes, she understood that the girl was using him for support, because she was blind. She was wearing a plain looking tunic, draped by a seawave colored cloak and some kind of sandals over her feet.

After realizing that Effie wasn't going to attack them, the boy's attention focused to the shadow creature on the other side of the room.

Right, how had she forgotten? As she turned back to the creature, it rushed past her and then. . . attached itself to the young man's feet.

Effie realized that he had mysteriously not been casting a shadow behind him before this, so what she just witnessed had been some kind of Aspect related to his shadow. Shaking her head, she realized that these three were looking at her suspiciously. They were clearly human, so she unsummoned her spear, which prompted them to lower their weapons in turn.

"Ah. . . that's, that's quite the trick there. Oh, where are my manners? I don't think I've seen you three before. It's nice to meet you. My name is Effie. Would you like to come sit and talk?"