Step. Step. Another Step.
Each one sent ripples across the sand. Oddly, Sunny paid no attention to it—he had more important things to worry about.
For starters, breathing was harder. Walking on sand was bad enough, but in high gravity? Sunny looked down as happy and gloomy trailed beside him, unaffected by the gravity, without a care in the world.
'Freeloaders' he scowled,
And to add to that, every gasp of air felt like inhaling shards of glass.
Where the hell was he? Another unexplored region of the dream realm?
They had just escaped the Forgotten Shore. Sunny silently hoped that wasn't the case. But with his luck and his good friend [Fated], he could only curse under his breath.
'Damn you, [Fated].'
He sighed and looked up at the sun—or whatever it was. A massive shadow engulfed it entirely, its color a molten black. An eclipse.
Surprisingly, it was his first time seeing one. Sunny had been named "Sunless" because he was born during an eclipse, yet he'd never had the chance to witness one himself. Full solar eclipses were rare in NQSC, and even if one had happened, he'd probably been too busy surviving in the treacherous outskirts to care.
Entertaining himself with such thoughts, Sunny tried to ignore the pain. He tilted his head to glance at Nephis.
Nephis trudged silently beside him, her face calm and indifferent, exuding an aura that made her seem impervious to the agony inflicted on her. But he could tell she was exhausted.
After all, she'd fought a Fallen Terror as a mere Sleeper, and killed it, and then she'd immediately dueled him after too, getting stabbed and beaten in the process. Her ivory skin looked smooth and unblemished as ever, but the battered state of her Starlight Legion armor told a completely different story.
'Wait, he'd been through enough himself! Shouldn't he feel sorry for himself too?'
Lost in his thoughts, Sunny realized he'd been staring at Nephis. She noticed and raised a brow at him. Sunny shook his head quickly and looked forward again.
Then, he saw it.
Just a few meters ahead, the ripples in the sand multiplied, as if someone—or something—was moving toward him. No, not just moving. Running.
His instincts screamed. Sunny leapt back, yanking gloomy and happy with him, narrowly dodging a sudden invisible strike. A sharp breeze grazed his skin as he landed a few meters away.
Beside him, Nephis reacted instantly. Her beautiful silver sword was materializing in her hands as she spun in the sand and dropped into a ready stance. Alarmed, she called out:
"Sunny, what—"
He cut her off.
"Nephis dodge!" he shouted, spotting more ripples suddenly appearing right behind her.
But it was too late.
Sunny watched in horror as something stabbed into her back, causing her cough a torrent of blood. He couldn't even see what had struck her, it was as if the shadows wouldn't let him see through.
White flames billowed from her gaping wound, ferocious and blinding, desperately trying to mend her body. The radiance of the flames chased away the encroaching shadows, and that's when he saw it, a crude shadowy arm.
It was impaled through Changing Star's back, its grotesque length erupting out of her stomach, tipped with seven jagged, shadowy fingers.
The darkness in Sunny's eyes stirred and became restless, as his skin crawled with fear. He'd seen Nephis hurt before, but never like this.
"Nephis..." he whispered through gritted teeth, the word barely audible.
But Changing Star was still calm. Still her.
Her lips twitched into an ugly grimace, betraying only a sliver of her pain. With quick deliberate precision, she drove her silver sword into the black sand for support and twisted her body, widening the gaping wound. With a pained hiss, she kicked the shadowy attacker away, sending the creature flying a few feet away.
As the arm tore free from her body, the white flames roared even brighter, surging to close the wound. Slowly, flesh knitted back together, the jagged tear mending with unnatural grace. Nephis braced herself, her skin glowing with an ethereal white radiance. She was augmenting herself.
Sunny, still frozen in shock, snapped back to reality.
'Focus, fool!'
He shook his head, pushing the panic aside. Fools who lost focus in battle didn't just fail as a fighter, they died.
The essence of combat is murder.
With a deep scorching breath, Sunny summoned Midnight Shard. Its familiar weight in his hand grounded him. He charged toward Nephis, but his instincts screamed again.
Sunny dove to the left, rolling just in time to avoid another invisible strike. The cool breeze of death brushed past him once again.
'Why didn't it finish Nephis off? Why didn't it follow up on its first attack on me?'
Stepping into the shadows, Sunny reappeared right behind Nephis.
His sudden appearance startled her. She jumped back in alarm, her white radiance casting sharp contrasts against the surrounding darkness.
More ripples spread across the black sand, approaching Nephis from the right. This time, she was ready. The shadowy hand materialized once more, its jagged seven fingers illuminated by the brilliance of Changing Star's glow. The creature's claws slashed at her, but Nephis deflected the strike with her sword and prepared to deliver her own. However before she could, the grotesque hand retreated back into the whirlpool of inky sand.
The ripples vanished into the sand once again.
Sunny's eyes widened as realization struck.
Fragments of memory pieced themselves together: the creature hadn't pressed its attack on Nephis, even though her flames turned her into a beacon in the darkness of the eclipse. It hadn't followed up after striking at him, despite his shouting, but it had attacked when he charged toward Nephis—and again when Nephis had leapt away from him.
'Of course. That thing can't see or hear, it tracks us by sensing the ripples in the sand.'
"Nephis, don't move! Stay perfectly still!" Sunny shouted.
Nephis froze, her body tensing as she glanced back at him with a hint of hesitation. For a moment, the air seemed to hold its breath. She stood unmoving, her eyes scanning the shifting sands for ripples or signs of another attack—but none came.
A whole minute passed and still nothing came.
Sunny exhaled, then whispered, as if irrationally fearing the creature might somehow hear him.
"That thing can't see or hear. It tracks us by sensing the ripples in the sand. I don't know how it moves undetected across the sand until it attacks, but I'm sure of this."
Nephis's eyes widened as understanding dawned, and then her lips twisted into a faint, dark, predatory smile.
This... she could work with.