Damn, Saint is really impressive in fights. The spider is causing me a lot of trouble; I don't even have time to attack because of Saint.
Skillfully dodging the blows of the living statue, I made a precise turn to evade a leg of the gigantic steel spider as the wind whistled near my head.
The ground cracked with each devastating attack from the damned spider, and the wind was sliced by Saint's swift sword, which attacked fiercely while I remained on the defensive.
I recklessly launched myself into this because of a transcendent echo, but I didn't expect this shit to be so difficult. I should have waited for Saint to kill the spider and only then enter to claim its soul.
When both creatures attacked me from different directions, I couldn't dodge both strikes at the same time.
I felt the sharp leg of the spider hit my ribs and throw me against a ruined building. I tried to get up after the hard crash against the solid stone, but the monsters didn't give me a chance.
Quickly summoning an improvised shield from the transcendent echo, I blocked both attacks, splitting the ground and stones beneath me with a loud crash.
"Damn it, stop messing with me!"
With a loud shout, I summoned several spikes protruding from my armor and rising to stab the giant spider. Meanwhile, Saint skillfully avoided all the spikes, recognizing the danger they posed and backing off.
The spider let out a guttural and disgusting scream as several spikes pierced its steel skin.
With a brief moment to breathe, I regrouped and ran straight to the plaza, an open area where I could fight better and not be cornered.
Saint wasn't going to let me go that easily. With a great and heavy leap, he raised his stone sword, which looked like pure, dark iron, and delivered a powerful blow that echoed in the empty white marble plaza.
The ground opened beneath my feet as I blocked the powerful attack, and my knees buckled under the force of the impact.
The spider, already recovered from its wounds, skittered across the ground with incredible speed and tried to bite me with its huge jaws full of sharp little spikes.
Pushing Saint aside with all my strength and deflecting his sword, which was already striking at my side, I made a great leap and soared above the spider.
"Oh, what a big mistake this was, damn it."
The spider suddenly stopped its charge, and its legs began to rise to impale my body.
Contrary to what one might think, my face now had a small smile, seemingly out of place in such a situation.
"Good, this is the best, so hurry up and get here, Sunny."
I had felt Sunny's familiar soul about two kilometers away in another part of the cursed city; it wouldn't take more than a few minutes to reach the plaza.
The spider's sharp and pointed legs tried to pierce my body, but my powerful transcendent armor easily withstood its large legs.
"Still... it hurts like damn hell."
My body was getting bruised, and some bones were broken from the impacts of all those blows I couldn't dodge.
Being thrown by the spider's force to the center of the plaza, I continued fighting, defending my battered body and looking for opportunities to attack and at least kill one of these things. But unfortunately, one was very fast, and the other was a full-fledged master in combat.
Clearly, my lack of experience in fights was showing at this moment. Being outmatched in skill by Saint, who managed to dodge or deflect all my attacks without much harm. And the spider, which outmatched me in strength and speed, had already suffered several horrific wounds from me, but was still a major problem due to its large size and overwhelming strength.
Minutes passed until I finally felt Sunny in a nearby shadow. I looked in his direction and forced a small smile.
I made eye contact with Sunny, who was in a shadow, hidden in a small pile of rubble, and I happily shouted to him:
"SUNNY, MY FRIEND!"
The stone saint made a quick slash toward my head, but I managed to avoid it and feel the whistling wind pass over my face.
I jumped back to avoid the attack from the damned giant spider and spoke to Sunny again:
"I WOULD LIKE SOME HELP DOWN HERE!"
Turning my attention back to my enemies, but still paying some attention to Sunny with the sense of his soul, I continued my fight.
A few seconds later, I heard the sound of hurried footsteps coming from where Sunny was.
Looking back, I saw him running toward me with the midnight shard in his hand and...
"TAKE THIS!"
With that said and taking a big step back to get closer to Sunny and leave the two creatures behind, I looked at Sunny for a moment, and a beautiful sword, similar to the midnight shard, appeared in my free hand.
Sunny glanced at it for a moment and grabbed the weapon.
Without a word, we both went back to fighting.
When both beasts launched their attack, Saint came toward me, and the spider quickly ran toward Sunny.
"THAT DOESN'T WORK! LET'S SWITCH PLACES! TAKE CARE OF THIS ONE."
Sunny looked at me for a moment before turning his body, avoiding the creature's attack, and running back toward me.
The stone saint banged its shield twice when Sunny switched places with me, and the spider resumed its relentless attacks on me.
"You're dead meat, damn son of a bitch!"
Now that we were in a one-on-one fight, things would be easier.
Two daggers appeared in my hands, both as sharp and durable as a transcendent weapon.
The spider launched several legs at the same time to strike my body, but unfortunately for it, I no longer had to dodge Saint and avoid his attacks at the same time.
Moving my body with surprising flexibility, I evaded all its ugly black steel legs and cut several of them at the same time.
Beastly growls came from the beast's disgusting jaws as its many eyes filled with madness focused on my figure.
With a frenzied attack unusual for its species, the spider lunged in a suicidal attack to take me with it to the afterlife.
However, it wasn't long before a long sword manifested in my hands, replacing the daggers and cutting the wind with a melodious whistle.
The head of the terrible beast was easily severed by the transcendent weapon and fell heavily to the ground, causing dust to rise and a small crater to appear beneath its heavy steel body.
[You have killed a fallen beast, steel spider]
[Your soul is wrapped in more threads]
"There you go, you damn bitch! You're nothing without the saint to help you! HA!"
Rejoicing in the victory against this strangely strong fallen beast, I looked at Sunny with a smug smile on my face while he fought the saint.
Having fought alone against two fallen spiders before my intervention, the saint already had several fractures and wounds on her smooth gray marble skin, but she wasn't so messed up as to be easily taken down by Sunny. So he was having trouble with the terribly skilled stone saint in combat.
She would be a great master to teach me how to fight.
Sunny was blocking the strong blows from the saint's sword and the crushing blows from her stone shield.
Both were splendid fighters, which completely differed from their characters in the novel. Sunny grew a lot.
With a smile at the incredible strength Sunny had gained due to my decisions, how he improved, and how he was able to fight against what was a combat saint in the novel.
Not long after, the wounds were taking their toll on the saint, while Sunny took advantage of her apparent weakened state to attack her battered stone body with relentless strikes.
However, and surprising Sunny, the stone saint slammed her shield and lunged at him in a frenzied state, not caring about her own life and determined to take him with her to the same death.
With his transcendent sword in hand, Sunny delivered a powerful blow and clashed swords with the saint, who miserably lost her stone sword to the strikes of such a high-level weapon.
Without her weapon or shield, and being so weakened by the wounds, Sunny took a quick step forward and delivered a clean cut to the stone saint's head.
After the heavy saint fell helplessly to the ground without her head, I turned to Sunny and congratulated him:
"Well done, Sunny! Congratulations, you beat a combat master in a fight."
With a jovial tone congratulating Sunny, he gave me a strange look and started staring into space.
"I got an echo."
Was all that came out of his mouth while he still excitedly read his new acquisition.
Well, that solves a big problem. I don't know exactly how I ended up here, but I think I should thank [destined] for bringing Sunny here.
Sunny's most deadly and beneficial attribute was [destined], which made him prone to ending up in bad situations but also granted him great rewards.
Touching Sunny's shoulder and pulling him out of his fascination, I spoke in a low, somewhat mocking tone in his ear:
"Sunny, I'm glad you have an echo, but we should leave before more creatures arrive."
Sunny stepped back after I whispered in his ear and looked around suspiciously, then looked back at me and asked:
"How did you end up here if you were supposed to be in the castle?"
Ah, it's going to be a long story.
"Well, let's say things happened, I'll tell you on the way, let's go back quickly or the beasts approaching will kill us."
With that said, Sunny didn't talk much more, and we began the journey back to the outer settlement.