Third POV:
After that disturbing confrontation, Effie changed their course slightly. Instead of moving straight south, they were now traversing the ancient city heading for its eastern border.
Sunny was familiar with this part of the ruins, thanks to his memories from the previous round.
In the previous round, Sunny mostly stayed north of the Bright Castle, sometimes venturing northeast. He stayed away from the western areas because they were closer to the Crimson Spire, and had not explored much of the south because it was too far away from his cathedral.
It was still fresh in his memory. The last time he had been here was on the day of the bloody fight against the Spire Messenger. Back then, they were headed for the ruins of the lighthouse that had once stood near the impregnable wall of the Dark City. Not that he had a lot of time to observe the surroundings. Pretty much all of his attention was concentrated on Harus, who backed off after Sunny's greeting gift. Although not completely.
'That Arrow was augmented by Two of My shadows…it must have hurt him quite a bit.'
It wasn't meant to kill him of course but it was just to a message. To his Lord.
Soon, they were nearing the tall expanse of the city wall. Not too far away, the remnant of a giant tower lay broken on its side, stretching far away into the distance. The buildings that the tower had fallen on thousands of years ago were shattered and turned into dust. The ancient lighthouse might have been proud and magnificent once. Perhaps it had even served as a symbol of the defiant will of the people of the ancient city, burning as a shining beacon in the eternal darkness of the cursed night. But it had fallen a long time ago... just like the people that built it. At least its ruin remained.
Kai asked. His face pale:
"Where are we heading now?"
Effie gestured at the massive ruin.
"Inside."
They were currently hiding in a collapsed building near the collapsed tower. This area was populated by an especially vile tribe of monsters, and attracting their attention would spell trouble for the entire cohort.
"Call your shadow back and keep it close. When we enter the lighthouse, we will have to act quickly."
"Already did."
Sunny responded seemingly undisturbed by the atmosphere.
Staying low to the ground, the six of them dashed from their hiding spot to the broken lighthouse. Without wasting any time, they found a breach in its wall and climbed inside.
Effie summoned her radiant Memory, bathing the interior of the ruined tower in light. Due to the fact that it was currently lying on its side, they found themselves in a massive, echoing tunnel. Looking around, Effie found her bearings and led them deeper into the tunnel, extreme tension apparent in her every move.
While walking, Effie began to speak:
"Listen to me very carefully and do as I say. Once we're inside, don't separate from the group. Stay together and keep your weapons at hand. The place we're going to is full of Nightmare Creatures. They're not too strong, but they're... special."
She bit her lip.
"Don't even try to kill them. Just defend yourself and keep moving. If you stop, you'll most probably die. Same thing if you slow down and get yourself surrounded. But if we can preserve our formation... we might survive. I hope."
Right in front of him, the floor of the tunnel was broken, forming a narrow crevice. It was filled with darkness, leading deep down into the ground... and then deeper still.
The huntress glanced at Sunny.
"What are you waiting for, doofus? Jump!"
Sunny summoned the Dark Wing he soon jumped and glided down into the crevice.
"You will be left behind at this rate Effie!"
Sunny shouted as he started to descend. Looking up, he could see Kai looking down on his freshly cleaned, stylish armor. An expression of pure sadness appeared on his beautiful face.
Kai sighed.
"Oh, well. Here we go again..."
As Sunny glided at a considerable speed Without wasting any time, Nephis silently jumped into the crevice after him. And Just before she did, white flames ignited in her eyes. The darkness swallowed her lithe figure whole, like the maw of some unknown creature.
Soon Caster inadvertently followed. A moment later, the proud Legacy was gone, too. Kai was already gently holding Cassie in his arms.
The charming archer softly rose into the air, hovered there for a second, and then glided into the darkness.
Sunny blinked a couple of times and shook his head. When Kai was on the same level as Sunny, Kai grinned.
"I will leave you behind buddy."
'Show-off...'
"Alright, Bet.."
With that Sunny dismissed the Dark Wink and dived down.
Effie soon followed the rest of the party, taking her radiant Memory with her.
He fell for a few seconds and then landed on a hard stone, his marble shell and Bone Weave absorbed most of the impact but the impact still sent a painful tremor through his Awakened body. Standing up, Sunny found himself in a familiar narrow tunnel. Its walls were made out of weathered stone, clearly put there by human hands. The rest of the cohort was already there, preparing for battle.
Nephis had summoned her silver longsword. Because the tunnel was not wide enough to freely use it, she was holding it with both hands — one armored gauntlet rested on the hilt, while the other was on the blade itself, halfway to its tip. Caster was wielding a sword, too. His was a graceful jian with beautiful patterns etched on its blade, with a triangular guard carved out of green jade. Sunny didn't know what was the tier of that Memory, but he knew that it was extremely powerful. He had seen it cut through flesh, bone, and steel alike. Currently, the Jian was emanating a ghostly green light.
Effie had summoned her large round shield but chose to leave the ancient bronze spear in the Soul Sea. While she was skilled enough to make use of it even in this narrow space, the shield would be much more formidable, especially considering her herculean strength. Kai looked rather gloomy. Casting a mournful look over his shoulder, on the fletching of his heavy arrows, he sighed and outstretched his hand. Instead of a bow, an elegant falcata appeared in it. The beautiful curve of its blade glinted, reflecting the light. The last one to draw her weapon was Cassie.
She unsheathed a slender rapier from the scabbard that was attached to her belt and let go of it. The Quiet Dancer did not fall but rather stayed floating in the air, that was her companion for long years to come.
Then it rotated slightly and hovered in front of her... with its tip pointing straight at Sunny.
"Uh... you really do hate me huh."
Cassie smiled and turned her head to him.
"Ah, please forgive Quiet Dancer. She is shy around strangers."
Sunny scratched the back of his head and waved his hand dismissively. Taking his lack of words as confusion, Cassie explained:
"Dancer is an Echo and a partner of mine. We work well together."
Sunny only later did he notice his mistake, it seemed like he was still having trouble dealing with the 'completely blind' Cassie. He eventually corrected himself.
"Don't worry about it."
...Suddenly, a distant noise made everyone freeze for a moment. With a dark expression, Effie looked in the direction it came from and sighed.
"Right. We've wasted enough time already. Follow me... and be ready."
With that, she took a step forward and headed deeper into the tunnel. Sunny followed, taking the rear he stood close to Kai and Cassie. After a while, something crunched under his foot. Looking down, he saw a bone. A human bone.
Noticing that Kai paled.
"What is this place?"
The huntress glanced back, and then answered in a somber tone:
"The catacombs."
Kai frowned.
"Since when are there catacombs beneath the Dark City? Why have I never heard about them? I have been here for two years and a half."
Effie lingered before answering:
"The catacombs were always here. They span beneath the whole city, it's just that most of the tunnels had collapsed a long time ago. As to why hunters don't like to mention them... it's because very few are crazy enough to explore what little remains of the catacombs, and even fewer return to tell the tale."
Then, she added:
"No matter how powerful Harus is, a person can only survive here if they know their way around. And only a couple of us, outer settlement hunters, do. So we should be able to lose him."
Meanwhile, Sunny noticed her grim face. Only he knew what kind of memories this place holds for the huntress.
Soon more and more bones were littering the ground. All of them looked like they had once belonged to humans.
Looking up from bones, Caster asked:
"Can we get back to that thing you said about how very few people manage to escape from here alive? Why is that?"
The huntress grimaced.
"That's because..."
Sunny completed the sentence for her, answering Caster's question:
"That's because this place is a nest for a Fallen Tyrant. The Lord of the Dead. And all the Skeletons that once belonged to humans are now that Tyrant's minions."
Effie looked at him with surprise.
"How do you know that??"
Sunny lingered for a moment before answering the Humtrees.
"I have been here before. It's not my first time here."
"You mean that—"
However, before she was done speaking, something appeared out of the darkness and barred their way.
With that, their faces darkened as a deathly silence descended on them. Only the clacking sound of bones could be heard.
Looking ahead. Right there in front of them, a corpse was standing on the edge between light and darkness, staring at the six humans with the black chasms of its empty eyes sockets....No, not really a corpse. A skeleton.
Defying all laws of logic and physics, a creature made of nothing but human bones suddenly lunged forward, baring its teeth in a hungry grin.
"Stay together!"
Then, she turned her torso and slammed her shield against the lunging monstrosity. With a thunderous crack, the skeleton was thrown back. Its skull and ribcage shattered, showering the tunnel with sharp bone splinters. Like a broken marionette, it fell to the ground in a shapeless pile.
The cohort stared at the mess of broken bones with confusion. All of them asked the same question.
'Just like that?'
Soon Sunny yelled from the rear. tearing them away from these thoughts:
"Don't stop, move!"
The cohort rushed forward, following Effie into the depths of the catacombs. When they were approaching the remains of the reanimated skeleton, Kai noticed something that made a cold chill run down his spine.
The bones were still moving, slowly assembling themselves back into the shape that resembled a human. Just as he stepped past the creature, one skeletal hand suddenly thrust in his direction, trying to claw at his leg. If not for Sunny's quick reaction, it might have succeeded in injuring the Archer.
"Effie! I will take on the rear. You, Caster, and Neph take the front. Kai and Cassie stay together in the middle!"
Effie turned to him.
"Doofus...are you Sure?"
Sunny just urged her to move:
"If you have enough time to spend checking on me, You better use it to crash more of these abominations!"
Effie still looked troubled, to leave the rare that soon would become even deadlier than the front to Sunny alone wasn't settling for her.
She turned to Nephis but to her dismay, the silver-haired princess only shook her head and said:
"Leave him be...he's more than capable to do that."
Effie just stared at her in disbelief.
'Just what kind of trust do they share for her to trust him that much?'
Turning her head toward the short warrior, Effie's question was soon answered.
Two Skeletons had already lunged toward him trying to tear him apart. But Sunny quickly took a stance and deflected the first one out of the way and made it slam into the other. With a swift move, Sunny dispatched the two skeletons in a single strike.
****
Pretty soon, the undead creatures were upon them. First in ones and pairs, then in small groups, the bloodthirsty skeletons assaulted them in a constant stream. Appearing from the darkness of the catacombs, they lunged at the cohort in a whirlwind of bony claws and teeth, each bearing the same eerie skeletal grin.
Effie and Nephis, who were at the front of the group, faced the brunt of the attacks. The huntress exerted her inhuman strength, bulldozing through the skeletons like an incarnation of ancient fury. Her round shield acted as a wrecking ball, shattering the undead monsters left and right.
Nephis fought to her right with the elegant fluidity of water... but also with the crushing force of a devastating flood. Nephis was holding the longsword by the blade, using its crossguard and pommel as an improvised mace. With white flames dancing in her eyes, she moved from one skeleton to another, skillfully deflecting their blows and crushing one skull after another.
If anything got past them, Caster was there to deliver the finishing blow. His sword shone with a ghostly green light, slicing through bones as if without meeting any resistance. The Legacy fought with graceful precision, always managing to immobilize the enemy with just one clean strike. The skeletons fell to his sword before even having a chance to retaliate.
The three powerhouses made paving the path through the horde of monsters seem almost easy. However, the most menacing one of them all was the pale figure who defended their rear.
Wearing seemingly a simple tunic, he was slaughtering the abominations with a terrifying speed, without sustaining a single injury. His style didn't have a specific nature, and sometimes he would strike with a devastatingly heavy blow leaving only dust behind, and sometimes with a fluid and swift strike that multiple skeletons would fall to his blade faster than what the eye could see.
Using a grounded and precise technique he was holding the horde of abominations like an unbreakable dam, using their own numbers against them.
In the same motion, he was swiftly moving between the creatures appearing in more than one place at a time while successfully avoiding being surrounded.
His Swordsmanship was unpredictable and eerily beautiful.
Nephis couldn't help but to be captivated by the beautiful display of swordsmanship, she almost caught herself drooling at Sunny's ba—Swordsmanship.
His Swordsmanship contained the basis and the unpredictability of her swordsmanship that she taught him. But everything else was his. The constant change between the aggressiveness of his offensive style and the durability and sturdiness of his defensive style made a balanced stream of strikes that were beyond her comprehension.
Sunny fluidly shifted from one style to another, his movements simultaneously firm and flowing, sharp and gentle, clear and unpredictable.
His odachi was as insidious and shapeless as the person who wielded it. It was as though Sunny was performing a strange, graceful, viciously complicated dance.
That left a deep impression on Nephis.
"His swordsmanship has improved..."
Audible only to her, she muttered.
Kai and Cassie didn't even have the chance to kill any straying abomination. It was as if Sunny was a boundary that the creatures couldn't cross.
The catacombs were a real maze. More and more often, the tunnels they were taking began to open into complicated crossroads and connect with other branching paths. When that happened, undead creatures could lunge at the cohort from the side, bypassing the impenetrable barrier of Changing Star and her two champions.
But that didn't stop Their march. Since Sunny was single-handedly defending the abominations from the sides and the rare simultaneously.
Sunny alone had obliterated triple the amount of the undead that were defeated by Herself, Effie, and Caster combined.
Despite their tremendous speed and strength, the skeletal creatures were not that hard to defeat. But their sheer numbers were so great that the cohort would have long perished if Sunny wasn't overexerting himself that much.
Or at least that was what she believed.
Just like Sunny, The Shadows around him were dancing with a furious excitement and violent intensity.
Nephis couldn't help but Glance at the figure at the rear a couple of times every now and then.
Apparent only to her, There was a mad and excited smile on Sunny's face as he wreaked havoc between the Skeletal creatures.
That alone filled her with a weird sense of excitement as a small smile graced her face.
She almost seemed....proud.
*****
After that, things became hectic.
At some point, the tunnel they were currently in was briefly drowned in a brilliant wave of pure white light. Glancing over his shoulder, Sunny noticed that Nephis had finally summoned her flames, channeling them into the blade of her sword — just like on the day they had fought against the Carapace Demon.
Faced with the blinding radiance of the incandescent blade, the skeletons almost seemed to melt.
'Perfect timing!'
Using the opportunity, Sunny took a look at the condition of his companions.
Even if Sunny alone had taken most of the skeletal creatures down, their condition....was not good.
Neph's armor was battered and torn, with blood seeping down her right side. Effie's shield looked like it was on the verge of coming apart, while her white chiton was painted red. Caster managed to preserve some semblance of a collected look, however, there was a deep gash under one of his eyes, his face bloodied and grim.
Kai was doing much better. He was pale and visibly exhausted, his auburn hair disheveled and soaked with sweat.
Only Cassie, whose tier-six armor made her less likely to be attacked by an enemy, looked more or less fine. However, her flying rapier had several visible nicks on its slender blade and looked tired and dispirited overall... as much as a flying weapon could look like anything.
In short, one thing was painfully apparent from their state.
If things didn't change soon, they would suffer severe consequences.
At some point, the passage had become narrower than before. Skillfully using his sword to cut down a skeleton that had suddenly lunged at him from a side passage, Sunny strained his lungs and shouted:
"Effie, Neph, Caster! Switch with me!"
Nephis fell to the rear without a question. But the same could be said for Effie and Caster.
"Do you have something in your mind Doofus?"
She shouted as she slowly fell to the rear.
"Yes....Effie take the rear and Summon your spear, you can make use of this Narrow space to your advantage and utilize the long range of your spear. Caster fall to the side and block those who would attack us from the side. Neph, take on the other side and do the same, you can go as wild as you want. Kai and Cassie would support Effie!"
Nephis nodded at him and fell to the side. Caster looked reluctant for a moment but gritted his teeth and did the same.
Effie smacked one of the abominations and glanced at Sunny.
"What about you Doofus?"
Sunny beheaded a skeletal creature and dove into the formation, taking the front.
"I'm taking the front of course."
Effie Blinked at Sunny but shook her head, Summoning her Spear she fell back and took the rear leaving the front for Sunny all alone.
She had seen enough of his Skill to trust him with that much.
'No wonder the princess made a big deal of him.'
Kai's exhausted voice echoed in the tunnel.
"Effie! How far are we from the exit of this place?! When is this going to end?!"
Slicing down a couple of the undead Sunny answered his question with a question of his own.
"What do you mean, "end"?!"
'What does He mean what do I mean? Isn't it obvious?' Was written all over Kai's face.
Turning back to concentrate on the horde of enemies in front of them, Sunny yelled, a glint of humour in his voice:
"What end?! This was just a warm-up!"
"That's the spirit Doofus!! I like it!"
Effie's mad laugh was the only thing that could be heard in the tunnel besides the clacking sound of the undead creatures.