Waynie spent the next 3 ½ hours working on building a new glass shard. There were two large rocks at the center of the formation where they were camping now. He had picked this location because it offered a bit of shadow and made the other Awakened bother him less. Meanwhile the others were busy evacuating through the mirror that Merrin had left behind. Because there were so many people, the evacuation would take a while. The strongest few would stay behind and wait for the arrival of the battalion of the Mourning Clan. Those were An Fai, Waynie, the base guard Master Rayne and three Awakened. Which were Ouze, Florian and Senna. The last would stay behind in case someone needed quick healing. Florian needed to have the mirror directed at him, so he was necessary to do the entire evacuation and couldn't leave because of that.
"What was your relationship with Merrin anyways, that he made you the focus of that ability?"
"We were actually cooperating for a while in the casino. But then I ended up with more debt than I had expected, and they pushed me further down to the mines. It surprised me as well. I'm not usually that unlucky."
Waynie got slightly irritated by Florian's wording. The nonsense they were doing there had nothing to do with luck. And luck wasn't something anyone could have either. His math abilities were limited, but he could figure out that much.
Now that he thought about it, he didn't really know why. But he knew that enough important people believed it, so it had to be true.
As soon as the Awakened started retreating, more and more Nightmare creatures broke off and rushed towards the location of the group. Fearing that their prey might escape from them, they choose to confront them in smaller numbers. The troops handled it themselves to fight off the attackers. Waynie did not get involved since he was busy doing the glass shard.
3 ½ hours later everyone was fighting and only about 20 Awakened were still outside. An Fai who had just smashed the head of another Nightmare Creature gazed at Waynie, exasperated. "Are you going to sit there for much longer?"
"I mean, as long it is only this serious, I don't really need to help, do I?"
An Fai grumbled quietly but Waynie heard it well enough. "Can you even at all."
"For your information, I had my arm broken. People do not fight well with broken arms."
Waynie picked up his glass shard, walked over to Florian and handed it to him. So far, Waynie's problem had been that the structure of his bones had been too complex to copy. But what if he only copied a tiny amount? Then he still didn't know in his mind how to even construct something like a bone crystal. Or whatever his bones actually were. The glass shard he had constructed now served the purpose of resonating with Waynie's body. Waynie could feel the vibrations in his arm and his bones. He could feel every little bit of their structure. He knew he was far away from copying it. But as long as he could feel them and then focused, he knew he could slowly grow its crystal. It would take a long while, but he would be back on his feet eventually. If he survived that long.
The mirror shard that contained the portal wasn't very large. Therefore, crossing it took time. Soon the number of Awakened had dwindled further. They had fought off wave after wave of Nightmare Creatures, but now they slowly started to grow in numbers rather than get reduced in numbers. 'I guess it's time to get involved.' Waynie produced some glass shards in his hands.
"I'll be off then." It was the man with cap who was now standing in front of the portal. "I better take charge of the mine in case something happens to you."
Waynie nodded, then paused, contemplating staring sternly at the man with the cap. What even was his name? Had he not introduced himself? Waynie would just call him Cap from now on. Cap was actually right. Merrin was in de facto control of the rescue operation. Their lives depended on the cooperation of an anvil soldier. That wasn't good. But Merrin would listen to Waynie, he could be relatively sure of that. If Waynie was gone, Merrin would probably be in trouble. He was still in hostile territory and his life depended on finding someone just like Waynie to keep him alive. Cap on the other hand… Wasn't he also a member of the Shaking Fist clan? What if he closed the mine after he entered and left the master's out there to die. Besides, why the hell was Waynie even supposed to plan for what was happening after his death? Screw that. If Waynie died, the worse for the others, the better. If the others knew that, that would keep him alive too. "Merrin will retain control of the gate. You all will listen to him when you're a guest in his place."
Cap looked at Waynie with something that could have been disdain or perhaps hatred but said nothing and just walked through the portal.
Six wolves were currently harassing them. Waynie growled. It was time to get serious. Almost everyone was gone now. The shrapnel would not be as effective outside as it had been in the cave. But it would have to do. An Fai had just charged into another wolf and destroyed it. She did not seem very concerned with close contact. "An Fai, would you be so kind and tank for me?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, just jump between me and any enemy that tries to get me." Five more hounds arrived, taking the nightmare creatures total to eight. An Fai slashed one with her sword and Waynie blasted three of them from the distance with glass shards. The others were busy, containing the other four. But there was no time to take a breath because now two harpies had arrived. The creatures were faster than any walking creature and had closed up quickly. More surprising to Waynie was that there weren't any more of them. "Ouze! Rayne! You take the right harpy! I take the left one together with An Fai"
Rayne who was still busy fighting a hound with the help of some other people was a bit perplexed. "Isn't that a bit unfair? Shouldn't one of us get either of you"
"It's fine, we'll help when we take out the harpy."
What the creature actually was, where they came from what they were doing in the Dream Realm was anyone's guess. But it had made out its enemies immediately and something that looked to be a nail came flying at Waynie. He stepped to the side at the last second and it dropped harmlessly into the ground where Waynie just had stood.
Meanwhile An Fai had manifested a shield memory. "They aren't particularly convenient in close combat, but they are very handy in ranged combat."
The harpy was circling around their heads. Waynie tried to aim at it, but it was moving too fast. Two more nails came flying at him, but this time An Fai got in front of him and deflected.
Waynie ducked behind the rock formation he had been sitting next to before. What an annoying bird. An Fai was equally at a loss on what to do about the distance fighter. "Didn't you say you were going to handle offense? Why are you just hiding behind a rock?"
"That's uh." Waynie didn't really know what to respond. He was really just trying to survive. And didn't see the point in just standing there and let the harpy shoot at him. "Tsk."
Waynie let the harpy do two more shots then leaped on top of the rock, a larger rock was right next to it. He jumped on that as well, then he used it as a ramp and threw his left arm wide to grab and hold on to the bird lady who was trying to take aim at him from the other side of the rock. Without being constrained by the glass shards, Waynie was quite nimble. Waynie found his face right next to the woman. Her face looked human, but her expression was anything but. And her eyes had an orange color that seemed to know only rage and had no conscious. The being let out a scream that was that of a woman but sounded like that of a bird. The two of them dropped to the ground together and were rolling over the sand.
Waynie sighed. The bird was so close, he could kill it with glass shrapnel. He tried to hold his right hand into the bird's face, but it wouldn't budge. Instead, the claw the bird had instead pushed into his stomach and cut deep into the flesh of his belly and leg. The pressure pushed Waynie a couple of feet away. But An Fai was already there and rammed her sword into the back of the harpy.
Waynie got up and both were breathing exhausted. An Fai stared at Waynie's torn clothes and the blood dripping from his body but Waynie smiled. "Just a flesh wound."
The others were still fighting. Senna came to Waynie's side and started attaching bandages to stop the blood from flowing out of his belly and leg. "An Fai, go and support the others. I'll be right with you."
An Fai nodded and took care of a hound that was harassing Ouze while he was trying to slash the foot claw of the other harpy.
"Thanks for your support, Senna." Since he couldn't do much else, he opted to just thank her. He didn't feel in trouble right now, but if he was losing blood for too long, it still could become a problem. Ultimately, he was just a mortal and there didn't need to be any bones breaking for Waynie to die.
Then another being started descending from high above. It was hard to tell what it was, the underbelly appeared to be that of a massive owl, the upper body was that of a giant woman. An Fai frowned. "A corrupted titan."
"Oh shit." Waynie swallowed some saliva. "We should probably leave inside the base!"
"We can't! The Mourning Clan won't be able to find us. We have to stay outside!" An Fai responded almost immediately. She was probably thinking the same as Waynie. Fighting a titan was hopeless.
Rayne was defecting another hound. "I'll be honest. I think that's a great idea. Let's leave right now."
Florian awkwardly placed the mirror shard on the floor that was the portal to their safe space. "I don't think we should leave…"
"Discipline guys!", Waynie screamed. "Something is happening."