19: Terrifying encounter

[You have received a memory, Shield of the Fallen Legion]

...

Sasha couldn't believe her luck in receiving a memory from her first kill in the Dream Realm. Receiving a memory wasn't easy; one had to kill dozens and dozens of monsters to get just one. And she had gotten one from her first kill. It was unheard of for her.

Incredulous, Sasha opened her runes.

Name: Sasha

True Name: -

Rank: Sleeper

Core: Inactive

Essence Shards: [0/1000]

Memories: [Spawn Skin] [Shield of the Fallen Legion]

Echoes: -

Attributes: [Warrior Spirit] [Strong]

Aspect: Royal Warrior

Aspect Rank: Transcendent

Innate Ability: Blessed Body

[Your body is stronger and tougher than most]

Aspect Ability: Royal Field

[Marks an area around you where all your abilities are enhanced]

Defect: Critical Moment

[You enter a state of weakness after your battles]

Focusing her attention on her new memory, Sasha read.

Name: Shield of the Fallen Legion

Description: [A shield belonging to a soldier of the Starlight Legion]

Memory Type: Weapon

Rank: Awakened

Level: IV

Enchantments: [Hard] [Lightweight]

'So, those scavengers were soldiers of a legion?'

She summoned the memory, and a simple white shield appeared on her arm, with three lines connected in the center of the shield, three lines extending from one side, another three from the other, and one line from the center upwards. The shield was lightweight and easy to move, potentially a great help in fending off attacks from those scavengers.

After inspecting and moving around a bit with the shield, she was impressed by how light it was; it didn't even feel like she was carrying anything on her arm.

But just ten seconds after her battle and having checked her new memory, she collapsed to her knees.

'Damn, I forgot about my damn defect. I feel so fucking weak that a dog could kill me.'

After a tense minute where anything could have hurt the defenseless Sasha, she recovered and went back on alert. Since it was still night, nothing guaranteed that the last scavenger was the only one climbing the rock.

A few hours passed until the sun rose and the dark sea receded. Sasha lay down on the rock, planning to sleep a bit since she was very tired from the tough fight yesterday.

Sasha slept for a few hours and, upon waking, looked at her path to the high coral a few kilometers away.

'I really don't know if it's worth it. Maybe there's someone there, and we can team up, but if that someone is dead weight, I'll leave them there and continue on my own.'

'I wonder how Jony is doing. He seemed strong and was personally trained by an Ascended. He should be able to survive. I wish the gods had put me in this damn place near him; at least he's someone I knew from the academy and could perhaps trust to watch my back.'

With these thoughts, and many more of various kinds, Sasha spent the day watching as some scavengers passed near her rock or moved in groups in the nearby corals.

Near sunset, just a few hours before the sun set, a storm occurred. It came very suddenly but was very welcome for Sasha.

She hadn't drunk or eaten anything for more than two days, and water was what she wanted most now. So she summoned her shield and used it as a water container, taking a big gulp and then gathering more water.

The storm was strong but not enough to threaten her, so she decided to keep watch during the night and head to that coral in the morning.

***

She spent the afternoon and night drinking some water now and then, and nothing interesting happened. Just some scavengers running around to cover from the storm and the ocean taking advantage of the absence of sunlight to appear once again.

So the next morning, as soon as the water receded completely, Sasha descended from the high rock and headed to the coral she had seen in the distance.

Inside the maze, she tried to be as stealthy and fast as possible. She had already confirmed that those scavengers she saw the day before were awakened beasts and that she could defeat one on her own. But she still didn't want to take unnecessary risks just for a victory. She knew that arrogance and recklessness were the downfall of many, so she made sure that wasn't the case with her.

After an hour of twists and turns, avoiding groups of scavengers she could see without being noticed, she found herself cornered against a thick coral wall with a scavenger approaching just a few dozen meters away. It hadn't noticed her yet, but it was about to pass very close, and it would inevitably spot her.

Then, Sasha thought about ambushing the creature.

***

A scavenger was walking through one of the countless corridors in the maze, calm as it passed by a crimson coral wall when a being emerged from the mud, ready to kill anyone who came near. Without time to react properly, the poor beast received a kick to its right pincer, rendering its limb useless.

Not understanding why a being could be so evil as to attack a poor awakened beast that was just looking for food to satisfy its terrible hunger, it attacked the entity that wanted to kill it, trying to defend itself and fill its stomach. But the being that attacked it was fast and strong. It couldn't do anything after striking with its only functional pincer and having it blocked by a white shield with seven lines. At that moment, behind the shield, a small and fast being emerged and delivered another kick to its pincer, leaving it with only its pointy legs for defense.

Then it rose to try to crush the malevolent being attacking it for no apparent reason, but the being skillfully dodged its attack and leaped above its legs, landing a punch to its chest and destroying its heart.

Thus, a poor awakened beast, just looking for something to eat and survive in this cruel world, was killed on a sunny day, in a place forgotten by the gods.

Meanwhile, the being knelt, extracting a light orb from the beast's chest and then crushing the orb, which disintegrated into beautiful trails of light. Then, as if that wasn't enough, the malevolent being tore the flesh from the poor beast with its hands and carried it away, leaving behind a scene of terror: a corpse with a pierced chest and torn flesh, and lots of blood all over the mud.

***

Sasha was happy because her ambush had gone well, and she wasn't hurt. Her shield had proven capable of stopping the attacks from those beasts, and she had obtained a core that gave her three soul shards. A great victory in itself, but she also managed to get the flesh of that scavenger, even though she didn't receive any memory.

Thus, she spent the day exploring and fighting two more times, during one of which she nearly lost an arm because she couldn't deliver her powerful kick to the cartilage in the arms of a scavenger. It attacked her again, nearly severing her entire arm, but she dodged quickly, leaving only a superficial cut from her shoulder to her forearm.

Before nightfall, at least an hour before, Sasha finally reached the high coral. It was a bit taller than her rock but not by much, so she started climbing the coral to see what she could find on its surface.

After several minutes of climbing, she finally reached the top, and what she saw terrified her. There were at least half a dozen scavenger corpses all over the top of the coral. All dead, some without arms, one without a head, another with sharp claw marks all over its body, and another with a dagger stuck in its head. That one seemed to be an evolved version of the normal scavenger, with scythe-like appendages instead of pincers. It was much larger than the others, and its chitin seemed much more resilient. The dagger in its head was black with a handle featuring a golden stripe.

In the center of the coral, right in front of the strange scavenger with the dagger in its head, lay the body of a boy. He had black hair stained with blood, a bare chest with a strange mark on his pectoral, a full-body shield in his left hand, and his chest seemed pierced from back to front, with his guts spilling from his other pectoral and part of his stomach. His legs and one arm, the one holding the shield, were covered in black armor with some golden stripes. His mouth was filled with blood, and his intense red eyes were open in horror.

The last scavenger was behind the boy, and it seemed its head had been pierced by several stakes firmly embedded in its entire head. But instead of stakes, there was nothing in its holes. Sasha looked back at the boy in the center.

Sasha fell to her knees because that was her only friend. Someone she was willing to trust with her back. He was the one who had given her the armor she was wearing and who had made her life at the academy less miserable and lonely.

That boy in the middle of the coral, surrounded by five awakened beasts and a strange scavenger, was dead.