Chapter 7 - Chased

Awakened by a deadly nightmare creature attempting to eat him, Sunny was forced to ignore exhaustion and order his body to move as fast as possible. Quickly he stood up and relying only on his shadow sense, ran away in the depth of the labyrinth.Seconds later he heard a loud crash and felt the ground underneath shaking. Loud croaking spread across the coral maze, Sunny had no time to look back since the shadow rose in the air again and started following him.Barely managing to scout the short range of territory in front of him with Shadow, Sunny avoided being caught in a dead end and being eaten. However, such luck wouldn't last the whole time, making him quickly think about what he could do.'This flying bastard, couldn't you wait at least a few minutes before I fully woke up?!'What was even worse was that Sunny ran in the opposite direction from the skull. It was unknown whether that place was even safe, but that was the only high option he had noticed right now. It was a miracle that he even survived being thrown into the sea, so Sunny wouldn't take a second chance.The flapping of wings followed by annoying croaking didn't leave him alone even for a second. They quickly approached the figure running in the labyrinth, forcing Sunny to move even faster beyond what he thought was even possible.'Another dead end soon, there's several more passages but I don't have time to check them.'Taking one of those, Sunny made a few more turns before he was met with more corals blocking his way. Cursing internally [Fated] for being at fault, he made a quick decision to hide and beg his attribute to work properly.The walls of the labyrinth weren't always completely solid, sometimes the distance between two bloody red trees was enough to hide, that's what Sunny did right now by crawling into the naturally formed hole that could barely accommodate one person inside it.Hidden by shadows Sunny waited until that damn crow arrived, if it wanted to eat him, then it should also be ready to struggle for this, he wouldn't let it enjoy the meal so easily. Just as he expected, the crow's shadow flew past him not noticing Sunny's presence.'Am I safe?'Now that he had a moment of peace, Sunny used it to think about his current predicament. First and most importantly, he is followed by a flying nightmare creature who presumably can find out any moment where he is.The second biggest problem is his lack of knowledge of where exactly he is in this labyrinth, which raises several questions. Should he try searching for Cassie and Nephis or continue surviving on his own?Unable to determine where exactly he was in this damn place, Sunny couldn't hope to find them by sheer luck, and relying on [Fated] was most likely to allow him to die in the most spectacular way.'I guess it's just me and gloomy now...'Sunny would have gladly taken some time to worry about his companions, especially Cassie, but he right now was in a worse situation than them. At least there are two of them, and knowing Nephos he could believe they would be alive.Just as he expected, soon strange feeling appeared again, this time however intensity could not be compared to what he felt earlier. Sunny could almost feel the breathing of the creature on his neck and its beak slowly opening to bite off his head.Now with a much more limited amount of time, Sunny was forced to come up with a plan for his actions. Yes, escaping that bird was important, but if that's the only thing he would be doing, then the moment night arrives, Sunny would be dead.The only option he saw right now would be to go in the direction of the gigantic skull and try to climb it hoping the sea would not reach that far. Previously the path was blocked by the bird, but now free to go Sunny started scouting his surroundings.He understood that it was time to leave his little safe space when he sensed a shadow circling not so high in the sky above the bloody maze. Advancing at an already familiar pace, Sunny made sure to always stay in the shadows to cause as many problems to that bird as possible.Fortunately, his efforts seemed to bring some results, although the chase hadn't stopped but the bird was moving slower than previously sometimes even forced to circle in the sky until it found traces again.Moving deeper, he started to get anxious about the suspiciously empty labyrinth. After this whole time, he hasn't noticed even a single nightmare creature. He expected to see at least one carapace scavenger on the way, he was even prepared for this trouble, but the maze was empty.'Even if scavengers don't live here, it can't just be empty.'After some time when earlier exhaustion accumulated and Sunny slowed down, he started to notice some wreckages stuck between the corals. They looked like fragments of walls and columns made of black rock.That's when Sunny noticed for the first time something or somebody in this labyrinth beside him and the crow. Laying in the mud, Sunny saw a full suit of metal armor with a helmet and sword lying against one of the broken walls merged with corals.'Come on, don't tell me it's just like in comics.'Approaching laying armor, the moment Sunny made a step closer, he saw the mass of black appendages reminding seaweeds retracting from the mud, when he was already beside a living metal suit or more precisely something controlling it, the creature was already taking its sword and trying to stand up.Ignoring the new foe on his way, he just dashed forwards past it hoping that the crow might be interested in their newfound acquaintance. He heard that crows love shiny things, so why can't the flying bastard redirect its attention to metal armor?'Come on chicken brain, I'm not shiny at all!'Further, on his way, amount of parts of ruined structures gradually increased and together with them, Sunny started encountering more and more suits of armor, that stood up the moment something approached them.Having neither time nor any knowledge of how to deal with them, Sunny was just grateful that it took some time for them to rise into full battle position. He couldn't tell for sure, but the lack of any additional shadows chasing him signaled that creatures were either not that fast or had a limited range of movement.Another thing that he noticed about those sets of armor, was a familiar design of seven shining stars that he had previously seen only on the large statue. But quickly reality reminded him that relaxing in this place for too long was a very bad mistake.Not so far ahead few suits of armor were already standing fully prepared to catch him in a deadly trap. Sunny was forced to take another road where he had still some more time to skip past them.'Just coincidence or they somehow were able to exchange and share information about where I'm heading?'What is wrong with this place? On one side army of sentient armor is trying to trap Sunny and kill him, on the other side he's still being followed by that damn crow. Both his muscles and lungs were already burning while Sunny couldn't even stop for a moment to catch his breath.Slowly the tunnels of this maze became a little bit wider, some parts were even fully replaced by parts of the building creating obstacles for Sunny. Hearing the clanging of metal behind him after dashing past another pair of creatures, he saw a clearing with a few structures one of which was relatively undamaged.Immediately jumping inside, Sunny landed on the rough stone floor hitting some debris on his way. Covered by darkness inside this small structure, he hoped that he had some time before he would be found again by the crow or army of nightmare creatures.The first thing he did was look around to see whether he had got into a trap. Fortunately or not, Sunny saw a metal costume shaking in the corner, in difference to all others, this one suffered especially severe signs of corrosion and rust, it had glaring holes which allowed Sunny to see what was inside.He was forced to make a swift decision whether to deal with this nightmare creature as soon as possible or take some time to observe. If his assumptions about them being able to share information were correct, then no matter what warned enemies would already surround him.'I might use this opportunity as well just to discover a way of killing them, this one seems especially damaged.'Staying in the same position completely motionless, Sunny carefully observed what he could see. Looking through holes, Sunny saw a squirming mass of moss mixed with seaweed pulsating inside.'No vital points...It looks more like an armor stuffed with plants. 'Could there be somewhere a soul core hidden inside? That could explain how it was alive, but Sunny still couldn't understand how exactly they share information or orientate in space. It could be a special type of perception akin to Sunny's shadow sense or there might be an easier explanation.An armored figure stepped closer to the corner where Sunny was hiding. Sunny knew he couldn't pull the shadow back inside to enhance himself, as it was crucial for him to keep track of his enemies if he hoped to escape later.Looking at how armor walked all over the place, Sunny couldn't help but grin at its misery. Perhaps if it were another person in this situation, they wouldn't be that happy, but Sunny noticed a missing piece he had overlooked earlier.Coming out of the gaps in the armor, Sunny saw numerous little appendages digging into the mud. If not even a certain hundred percent, Sunny already had an idea of how they were able to determine when somebody approached them.'They must be able to sense when something is walking on the ground.'That was both a good and bad thing, as long as he stayed on the solid rock part of this building, he should be completely unnoticeable to them. But one of his biggest advantages, [Child of Shadows] was not very effective against them.While yes, it could make his presence almost completely unnoticeable while he stayed still in the shadows, it didn't mean that the same would happen when Sunny starts running, for creatures with sharp seismic sense, it would probably sound as if drums are played.Perhaps the sound of his footsteps would be quieter but that doesn't wouldn't do much against those creatures once he is forced to move. Although Sunny didn't know whether they could differentiate between alive objects or not, he doubted he could pass as a shadow. After all, compared to them, he had some weight.Sunny slowly and carefully stood up, his gloomy companion was still on alert outside. Nightmare creatures haven't noticed him so Sunny still had a chance to slip past it. As much as he wanted to use an opportunity and fight already crumbling armor, without knowledge of how they share information, he preferred to avoid danger.Before leaving Sunny used this brief break to change his armor back to [Puppeeter's Shroud]. Now wearing much more durable and light armor, he regained some comfort. Although [Proof of Life] had saved his life, Sunny favored one of his first memories, which was additionally more suitable for stealth.Carefully through the hole in the wall, Sunny left the broken building. Previously checked by shadow, this territory was relatively empty. Some of the lying suits of armor he saw before disappeared, yet four or five remained.Trying to stay as far from them as possible, Sunny climbed from one broken wall to another waiting until he was far enough to step on the muddy ground again without being chased by living furniture.'That crow is acting way too suspicious.'Sunny's nerves were on the limit, and the sudden disappearance of the flying nightmare creature only worsened the situation. He wasn't that naive to believe it would simply leave him alone after everything that it had already done.It was getting dangerously close to evening and Sunny still had quite a lot of distance before arriving at the gigantic skull. Luckily he didn't have to do it, Sunny could already see a statue reminding the one he stayed on during his first night here.It looked like the figure of a headless woman made of stone, wearing lighter and simpler armor than the ones he had already seen, it still kept a similar theme containing seven shining stars. One hand was broken from the forearm while another was stretched out and a half-ruined tower leaned on it.Coming closer he saw that both the statue and tower were surrounded by ruins made of countless small buildings from black rock. Among the ruins were walking countless nightmare creatures that looked like living armor.What worried the most were not walking sets of armor themself, but rather the ground. The mud underneath all structures seemed to be breathing, thousands of worms or appendages were constantly wriggling inside.Sunny's goal seemed to be obvious, he just had to get somehow unnoticed straight to the tower and stay for a night there until he was able to come up with a more elaborate plan for his next actions.Carefully observing the ruins with gloomy shadow, Sunny tried to find a way to get past all those nightmare creatures unnoticed until a familiar feeling returned. What he didn't expect was the fact that a huge shadow would just fly past him until it landed on the statue.With its yellow eyes containing inexhaustible malice, the flying bastard just stared at Sunny observing his every move. The loud mocking croaking once again left its beak spreading all over the ruins.Walking suits of armor didn't seem to mind it leaving only Sunny to deal with the sheer mockery of that crow. Sunny looked at it with all the hatred he could even muster, he understood perfectly its wicked intentions.'This bastard wants me to enter straight into its maw.'A nightmarish bird understood perfectly how bad was his situation. Sunny had no other choice right now than to try to get either inside the tower or on the statue if he wanted to survive the night. If he took a single step inside the ruins, all nightmare creatures would be alerted making him meet certain death.If he passed them, then this bastard would be gladly expecting for him to have a long-awaited feast. Sunny had a plan... it was dangerous yet even taking such a risk would be much better than doing everything just like the bird expected him.'I might have gone crazy... [Fated], just don't screw it this time!'Before starting to perform his genius strategy, Sunny still had some time. He used it to recover as much as possible in those circumstances. From time to time he was forced to relocate hiding from nightmare creatures that approached way too close.Time passed, and under the watchful gaze of the crow, Sunny anticipated night and torrents of water coming with it. In difference to Carapace Scavengers who hid once the sun touched the horizon, roots underground started preparing and hid much earlier.The mud stopped pulsating as if it were alive, all suits of armor just lay on the ground without moving. Yet, Sunny didn't even plan to take a step, if anything, right now he was in a much more dangerous situation than earlier.Nothing could prevent the crow from attacking him straight ahead, so Sunny waited some more time before even trying to get on the statue or inside the tower. Trying to walk as carefully as possible, he hid inside one of the intact buildings with several metal shells that belonged to appendages from the ground.He humored the idea of taking one of the swords with himself, but it would only slow him down in the near future. Clinging to the wall with his all might, Sunny summoned [Proof of Life] and augmented it with his shadow.As if sensing something odd, the crow left its tower approaching Sunny with loud croaking. But it was too late, torrents of water already flooded this place making him cling for life. If Sunny wasn't able to stay in place, he'll probably get carried by water and this time luck won't be on his side.Fortunately, the main force of the flooding sea was directed at the building preventing him from being crushed by thousands of tones of water. Almost unable to sea in those murky depths, Sunny prayed that he remembered properly the direction in which the tower stood.But very sadly Sunny couldn't pick one of the closer ruins near the tower because of the risk of being eaten by a flying bastard, so he was forced to swim much more than he was comfortable with.He didn't know how much time passed but the sea already calmed down not threatening to carry him into another part of the coral labyrinth. Relying on shadow sense, Sunny moved through the building hiding inside them in case there was a nightmare creature in the water.Forced by the decreasing amount of air provided by the enchantment of the armor, Sunny had to move faster and more carelessly, leaving the weak protection provided by ruins he swam directly to the entrance of the tower.Although lower floors would be certainly flooded, he had a chance to stay on the higher levels, after even becoming tilted and half-destroyed, it had the same height as the statue if not even bigger.And the fact that it still stands after being assaulted by powerful torrents of water for so long meant that it was sturdy enough to withstand at least a few more years and of course therefore weeks. The only thing he had to worry about was competition he could meet there in the face of several nightmare creatures.Although knowing that all monsters he had met here stayed solely underground because they required a suitable material for their seismic sense to work, Sunny prepared for worse remembering how many surprises he received thanks to [Fated].Advancing further, Sunny noticed a big unmoving shadow that belonged to the tower. He didn't allow himself to relax, still cautious as ever Sunny stayed careful focusing on shadow sense to orientate in space.Perhaps only thanks to this Sunny was able to notice a sharp yet thin object flying in his direction. Akin to a needle it cut through the masses of water approaching him intending to pierce Sunny's heart.Having barely a second to move away, his shoulder received a cut, although it was not that deep, the huge amounts of blood dirtying the water made him extremely worried. Mortified Sunny desperately moved his hands just to get inside the building as fast as possible.Knowing about the presence of the new creature Sunny frequently changed direction when he moved inside the water. Despite slowing him down, it also prevented him from being turned into a pincushion.All other attempts to pierce him luckily were unsuccessful, the precision decreased allowing Sunny to approach the wall of the tower relatively safe. Entering inside, Sunny worried that there might be more of them in the building.But luckily his shadow sense showed Sunny only some rocks that were one day fragments of the walls. With little amount of oxygen left, Sunny grabbed whatever he could to accelerate the progress of going up.Soon enough he managed to find a part of the staircase that was not flooded and lying on it Sunny focused on catching his breath. Quickly he changed his armor back to something more reliable and ordered the gloomy shadow to go upwards and check whether there were any nightmare creatures.It was empty... The tower was completely empty. Ordering his shadow to check everything a few more times, Sunny couldn't believe his eyes. This tower was surrounded by territory that belonged to the abominations hiding underground.There was a small chance that another group could be living so close to them, after all, there would be countless conflicts that sooner or later would eradicate one of the sides. However, after everything he encountered today... It simply seemed unbelievable.Yeah, Sunny was still surrounded by army or metal suits, gigantic birds, and thousands of nightmarish abominations hiding in the water including that thing, which attacked him recently. But having a completely safe space where none of them could enter seemed so unreal.Of course, some corrupted bastard living in the sea could decide that this building was irritating him and destroy it, but that was rather something outside his grasp. Looking at the staircase Sunny felt peace.Finally, all exhaustion let him know about itself and Sunny felt both mental and physical fatigue. Barely capable of thinking or standing straight, Sunny continued climbing stairs until he arrived at some resemblance of barracks on the next floor.'This might be heaven...'Not even one, not even two but a whole six beds were standing in front of him. Of course, some of them were so broken that you could barely recognize them as one, but there were six beds made of wood.Although with very simple ornaments but they were still something so luxurious, that majority of people from slums could only dream about it! Without any hesitations, Sunny faceplanted into one of them.Of course, he had previously checked which one looked the most comfortable. It was very firm and not as good as the one he had in the academy, but it was still much better than what Sunny had before he became infected by the spell.Without even lifting his head from the mattress Sunny started laughing, the sheer idea of sleeping on the comfortable bed while being in a dream realm sounded so absurd, yet look at him and where's he now.However he had to admit one flaw of this bed, it was wet. Not completely drenched in the water, but it was still pretty unpleasant. Not like he complained, Sunny turned on his back and sent a glance to his shadow.'Living in luxury, right? I bet Nephis and Cassie would die from envy if they saw me right now.'Met with a disapproving look of his silent companion Sunny just shrugged and turned on his side. Not even remembering to take off thoroughly drenched in water [Puppeteer's Shroud] and forgetting about injury, he momentarily fell asleep.**********'Hours.... hours passed since Nephis had gone.'Sitting in place and hugging her knees Cassie sat in silence. At the beginning, she still had hope that her companion would return. Sunny's disappearance made a huge blow to her confidence that they'd leave this place.Only thanks to Nephis she managed to regain confidence... Allas it wasn't herself who she believed in, but rather Sunny who would survive no matter what. Perhaps without her slowing him down, Sunny would arrive at the castle much sooner.Since Nephis left, Cassie could only sit in one place and wait until she returned, Nephis was strong so nothing would happen to her. With such a wonderful aspect, she'll survive no matter what, that's why when the first hour passed, Cassie realized what happened.She was alone... from now on neither of her companions would bother to carry with them such hindrance as she. Now wanting to explain anything Nephis must have left her, right now she must be sitting somewhere on this platform and waiting until morning so she could escape without her.Cassie wasn't offended in any way, if anything she was just guilty and upset. Both Sunny and Nephis did so much for her, yet she couldn't repay them in any way. Nephis even left her a goodbye present, with such armor that let her stay unnoticed by nightmare creatures, she would survive a little bit longer.'Nephis is very thoughtful...it's a pity that her kindness was wasted on me.'No longer being able to cry, Cassie just felt a bitter regret that she would never see her parents again. Perhaps they would be even happy... even if she escaped they would have to bother dealing with her flaw.Perhaps it was even better if she died here right now. No matter what, she'll keep troubling everybody around her. She was lucky to meet Sunny and Nephis, only because of them was she able to survive so long.Constantly feeding on their kindness akin to a leech, Cassie made so much trouble for them. Even her visions were completely useless, surely without them, her companions would be able to arrive at the castle even faster.She didn't deserve all those compliments from Sunny, her aspect was completely useless just as she was. If she could only do one last thing before she perished... Cassie would like to give them all her memories.'They will be only wasted if I die, perhaps Nephis will return to take them back.'Pulling her knees closer to her chest Cassie sobbed, all the tears dried up and she had nothing left to cry. Her throat was already sour from calling Nephis' name. Unable to do anything besides waiting the night passed and morning arrived.Hearing something approaching her, Cassie prayed that it was Nephis instead of a nightmare creature. She couldn't die yet, at least not before she gave her all memories. When steps became closer and Cassie checked attributes, she saw familiar runes.