Capítulo 32: Extermination
The group jumped into a fight to clear the nest that was blocking their path. It had to go.
The area exploded in chaos as spiders came out of their hiding places in droves.
In formation, the cohort faced the wave head on.
It took a while but they were slowly etching away at the hive.
Each member adorned and armed with their memories, wreaked havoc on the nightmare creatures.
Cassie armed with her trusted rapier and her wind staff supported the group from afar.
Sunny had summoned his echo: Stone Saint to join the fray. The echo and Effie acted as the infantry of the group.
Sunny was darting behind the spiders like a silent assassin. Using the shadows to hide his presence, he cut down all that he saw.
Nephis and Caster supported the left and right of Effie and Stone Saint. Killing all the creatures with the efficacy of a ned from birth.
Kai supported the group beside Cassie with his blood arrows. They were capable of penetrating through the hard carapace of the spiders. Obliterating them at a large danger to himself.
Aldric stayed at the rear, killing those who tried to pincer them from behind. With his reservoir of darkness steadily growing, he could afford to exert more of it in his attacks. Laying nebulous slashes of death wherever he looked. He spared nothing to kill the awakened ranked spiders.
He remembered the grudge he had with the last spider that crossed his path.
Before they knew it, the fight was over.
After spending some time collecting shards from the corpses, Aldric had a chance to study the area. There was the corpse of the awakened tyrant that the previous lord killed with his cohort.
It was scary to think that all these spiders could be controlled to act as one by such a large creature.
The group were introduced to the Stone Saint properly. Each person had their own comments to make until the echo stared at Aldric. As if she were looking for something. She turned away after some time. Sunny found the interaction weird and looked at Aldric.
Near the back of the statue, they had found a human-shaped cocoon near the carcass of the tyrant.
Caster had identified the corpse as Stephen, the youngest heir of the Pandavar Clan.
Everyone reacted to the disgusting state his corpse was left in. Used as an incubator for their newborns, his face was stuck in a visage of agony.
Caster wanted to bury his friend but his request was rejected by Nephis. She claimed that they did not have enough time and burned down the entire nest after asking them to leave.
Aldric could tell that she was lying about having time. At most, it would have taken Caster 10 minutes to bury Stephen's body. He could tell that her reasoning was to kill off all the larvae that were not in view.
In that explosion, she must have gained hundreds or maybe a thousand soul essences, if Aldric was correct.
She could have even hidden her gaining a new core when she had asked everyone to leave the nest.
This was just another reminder for Aldric of how deceptive his comrades could be.
She exited the nest looking exhausted.
They climbed the statue of the hunter that was standing beside the nest. Making camp on its shoulder, they rested for the night.
----------
They had spent the next 3 days resting on the broad shoulders of the statue. Nephis had explained that they were too early for the next part of their journey.
Most of the time was spent training. Sunny was training the infant stage of his shadow dance. Caster and Nephis were sparring.
Aldric was using this training to work on his control. It was much easier to utilise his darkness when he had a meagre ball-sized amount but now it was close to the volume of a bathtub. Even then, Aldric used it sparingly by coating only the edge of his blade in a thin slash or concentrating a small amount at the tip of his blade for a thrust.
The downside of his abilities came with the extremely slow rate of his darkness returning after use. It was tied to the amount of soul essence he had and his Dark Sprites. The amount of darkness he could use was not tied to his essence but the recharge rate was. He guessed that it might be the same for Nephis or else she would be able to use her soul flames all the time.
An analogy to think about it would be if his darkness was a well. The size of the bucket used to source the water would be his capacity: the number of Dark Sprites he had. The well was seemingly bottomless and how much water you could source was based on the size of the bucket. Now say that the bucket was raised down by a pulley system. The speed that you could lower it and raise it back up was based on your soul essence.
When he becomes an awakened and can manipulate his soul essence, he will see how it affects his ability.
With the increase in volume, he had to continually train his control. To not use too much or too little.
He did this by coating different parts of his body as fast as he could as well as trying to extend the control beyond his body. Before he could only coat his blade and crudely throw a ball of darkness with "Dark Sun" but now he could extend his range by 5 metres. At 5 metres, he could only manipulate crude shapes like tendrils. At one meter, he could manipulate a "Dark Sun" as much as he wanted before throwing it. Now it was much more deadly and refined as it kept its shape more.
He practiced running around some obstacles with a portion of darkness around the soles of his feet. Constantly dividing his attention while not disrupting the flow on his feet.
He continued these exercises in the morning and evening on top of a standard exercise routine. This was something he tried his best to stick to during his stay in the Dark City. Sometimes, he was injured or swamped with something else to complete them. He was not a robot.
Seeing Nephis and Caster spar so much made him want to join in.
To be honest Aldric felt like an outsider in the group. The main four had spent months fighting side by side and so they kept to themselves most of the time. It was rare to have group talks outside of battle or strategising. Sunny and Kai had found company in each other and were regaling stories of their past. Of course, Sunny had an undeniable bond with Nephis and Cassie. He would be welcomed back into the fold if he chose to but Aldric was the odd man out. Sunny did not include him in his conversations due to his weary nature.
Sunny felt that Kai was simple and forecoming so he welcomed his friendship but Aldric was more elusive in character. The young teen was laidback and reliable. He had an air of superiority around him that was not formed from malice but indifference. As if he were untouchable. It took Sunny a while to decipher the demeanour that he gave off. He likened it to the feeling that legacies gave off: as if they knew something that no one else did.
And so Aldric was the odd man out of the group. He did not use his knowledge to slither his way into their group and gain their trust because of Kai's flaw. Lying about how he knew certain things would foster distrust that would slowly spread.
'What a creepy way to make friends. I would feel like a stalker or a fan.' He thought.
But more importantly, Aldric found it weak to do. It was admitting that he was not valuable enough as a person to gain trust in a normal fashion. So Aldric committed himself to slowly building a relationship with the cohort by showing up and being reliable.
Aldric approached the sparring duo. Sunny was sitting to the side watching the fight with rapt attention as if he was reading a transcript.
He waited for them to finish their exchange and spoke when they stopped.
"Mind if I join in? I'm sure it gets boring fighting the same person all the time."
Aldric spoke in a laidback tone. His blade was pointing to the ground.
Both of the legacies gave him a look. Caster seemed unsure and agitated at the disruption until Nephis spoke.
"Sure. I could use a break."
She walked away and sat beside Sunny while drinking some water from a flask.
Looking at the young man, Aldric noted that he was slightly darker and richer in complexion than Caster. That was where their similarities ended. From their hair to their eyes down to their aura. Caster gave off a feeling of strength and nobility while Aldric gave off a feeling of supremacy and serenity. One was willing to hide themselves behind a mask while the other one didn't.
Aldric smiled and walked towards Caster. His claymore rising to face his opponent.
The scion of the Han Li clan looked resolved and readied his jian.
"Let's go."
**********
Thanks for reading!
Came in with the double upload today, was feeling bored.
Took me a while to think of that analogy- anyone get the reference?
Anyways see ya at the next one
Capítulo 33: Joyride
Both combatants were ready to begin.
The fight started with Caster dashing in a blitz of speed. Attacking straight on, he swung his ghostly jian overhead.
Feeling the prick of danger as well as seeing the attack allowed Aldric to perfectly time a parry. He raised his claymore at an angle that caused Caster's blade to cross against the surface.
"SCREECH"
The sound of metal against metal spread through the camp. This movement stunned Caster as he shifted too much weight into the attack. Aldric used this chance to attack with a forward swing.
He had resolved to not use his aspect and wanted to focus on training his battle style. At its surface, it was a basic style that preferred a mixture of strong and fast blows that he learned from Instructor Mako. But with the synergy of his [Insight] ability, Aldric had subconsciously begun to incorporate parries and counters in his battle art. The danger-sensing abilities of his attribute helped him time his counters; however he was starting to realise that some people were just that much faster than [Insight].
In a flurry of clashes, Caster slowly began to speed up. He was shocked at how well Aldric was responding to his speed. It was not that Aldric was just as fast as him but his reflexes were inhumane.
Whenever Caster attempted to blitz him and attack his back, the cury-haired teen reacted instantly and met the collision before he even looked back.
Having no choice, Caster began to go faster and faster. Quickly draining his soul essence.
'He's moving too fast for my eyes to follow fully. I can only rely on [Inisight] to keep me in the fight'.
Caster faked an attack on his back and used his maximum speed for a brief second to attack his front. Dealing a shallow slash across his chest.
With Caster drawing blood first, the battle was over.
"Well done. No one has been able to keep up with me at that speed before."
Caster complimented.
"Thanks"
Aldric accepted the compliment at face value and gripped his wounded chest.
Nephis came to heal Aldric's injury. She placed a hand on his chest and a warm feeling spread through him. Aldric had to suppress his darkness so that Nephis' soul flames could heal him.
The sight gave Sunny a feeling that he couldn't quite put into words.
With that, she jumped back into the fray.
----------
3 days had passed in the blink of an eye. Their ride was here.
The 7 humans were standing at the edge of the vast canyon. The twilight of dusk falling behind them. The dark sea slowly rising to meet them.
They stood still in the face of the flood.
It was times like this that Aldric was grateful to be here. To see these amazing sights. An ancient city in ruins as the backdrop for a setting sun. While a nebulous dark sea encroaches the horizon bit by bit. It was nothing compared to what he saw back home. He wanted to see more. It was part of his motivation to be an archaeologist. The role would allow him to explore all types of areas in the dream realm and learn more of its rich history. That was more aspirational though as he had more important things to do.
Raising her sword, it shined incandescently bright. Attracting all sorts of horrors from the dark depths.
A large body of the sea was parted by a ginormous shape. As it slowly got closer, Aldric could make out a headless statue that was attracted by the beacon of light.
"Prepare yourselves"
Nephis spoke.
Once the statue reached the edge of the canyon, Nephis made a large leap and dug her fiery sword through the stone. Using it as a perch, she climbed onto the statue's shoulder.
Caster disappeared and reappeared beside Nephis in a show of speed.
Aldric jumped towards the side of the statue and coated his feet with darkness. Allowing him to grip the statue with his feet to jump off again and land near Caster.
Kai flew straight on the platform while holding Cassie in his arms. Aldric could see Effie help Sunny climb the statue due to his short stature.
They made their way to the headless platform of the builder and stood in the dark. They were relying on Sunny to be their eyes. While Aldric could see in the darkness as well, he did not have shadow sense. So he could only rely on his sight alone which was less useful than Sunny.
As the statue continued its march south, Sunny shouted hurriedly.
"Get ready. The bastard is going underwater for a couple of minutes."
'Damn it. How do we know how long it's going to take for it to cross the canyon?
Aldric complained as he prepared himself to hold on for dear life.
The dark sea enveloped his body completely. Being in such a large pool of darkness felt alien to him. It was as if he were a brightly lit candle standing next to the sun.
Holding in his breath, he tried his best to calm his racing mind by focusing on his [Tranquil Core] attribute. It was harder than usual with the biting cold water surrounding him but he made do.
Completely devoid of all his senses, time was hard to quantify.
Luckily he began to feel the pressure of the water decrease just as his lungs were starting to burn.
"WHOOOSH"
The displaced water crashed the body of the statue as it emerged from the vast canyon. It took a while but they finally could breathe again.
Immediately, Aldric felt his [Insight] signal something to him. To his left, he could see the unconscious body of Kai floating in the air. Dragging Cassie along with him by the rope as she couldn't hold on any longer. It seemed the statue raised itself out of the canyon so quickly that it launched them off the platform.
Aldric immediately launched a tendril of darkness that tugged on the middle of the golden rope towards him. The two bodies were pulled in his direction. He created a soft wall of darkness 1 metre around his body to catch them.
Aldric quickly awoke them with the help of Effie as Sunny was looking down at the body of the statue.
"We have a passenger."
He spoke in a grim voice.
On the flattened chest of the statue, a monster attached itself to the surface. A cross between an eel and a jellyfish; it was the size of a train. In the centre, there was the deformed skull of a giant humanoid.
Aldric could hear the familiar whispers that signalled its rank. A fallen creature.
Nephis' eyes lit up with the brightness of a flame but Sunny stopped her.
He placed a hand on her shoulder and said.
"Don't. Your flames could attract something even worse."
Just as he was about to resolve himself to do something stupid, Aldric spoke.
"I'll handle it."
**********
Thanks for reading.
Will Aldric finally let loose?
Rereading shadow slave to make this made me realise how many details I missed the first time. Guilty 3 is a very detailed writer.
Not much to say. Till next time.
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