[Author's Note]
I'll focus on Kade a bit more, since it's my first time writing big groups as such, so I feel like it will be better for the story to focus more on individual perspectives at a time. This chapter will let me reinvigorate Kade's voice back to its true glory.
Brawler: CH-52 Risk of Rain
In the forgotten shore, the six-sleeper cohort basked in the pale sun; each time it dawned, relief would be plastered on their faces. For the day had started, and the abominations that hid under the waves would vacate the labyrinth.
In fact, all of them were looking in the distance. In a separate coliseum of broken coral was a carcass of a giant shark-like monster—the remaining half of it, to be accurate. It was almost stripped of meat, and between the cacophony of its white bones was a shimmer of light.
Two extremely large luminescent crystals.
Kade's eyes widened.
'Transcendent shards!' The thought of going down to the corpse and powering his way through to absorb those goodies was agreed upon and pulled at his heartstrings. He already felt how absorbing a single awakened shard still had a reasonable effect.
To absorb a transcendent one had to be fantastic--
Sunless seemed to share the same draw; they both were people who had to fight for opportunity, and pillaging off a greater one's corpse would be a perfect opportunity. But the shadow saw more, hidden away.
A disturbance among the order and hierarchy the scavengers had divided themselves into while picking apart the carcass. And stepping out from the darkness, emboldened by the sun, appeared two new figures.
Monsters
Before, the scavengers were just beasts, but the two creatures marching through the crowd of bottom-feeders were an evolution of their weaker brethren. They were much larger, and the carapace seemed to have an alloy quality to it, scarlet and black. It was like ancient armor drenched in blood, accompanied by torturous spikes that furthered their dangerous presence.
Additionally, instead of heavy pincers, their upper limbs ended with long, curved, terrifying bone scythes.
Kade's brow twitched.
'Guess there's always something greater.' He had grown fond of fighting the scavengers, but a duel with one of those seemed a lot more nerve-wracking than fun. The evolution goes from a normal street fight to your opponent pulling out a great sword.
A single attack was far more consequential for the victim.
Sandra spoke up, her voice tinged with slight anxiety.
"What are those...?"
Nephis tilted her head.
"Monsters, I guess."
The group watched silently as the two units waltzed through the group of scavengers. The beasts flinched back, cowering away from them, while those too slow or unaware paid the price of their ignorance. Thrown to the side like ragdolls or simply cut apart by their scythes. New rivers of azure blood flowed down into the mud.
Kade watched the slaughter, acceptance, and irritation painting his headspace; he could guess what they were here for. So, he could only watch as opportunity was snatched away.
Finally done with their parade. The monsters reached the carcass. Each one of them took one of the shards; however, instead of absorbing them, they simply turned around and carried the precious crystals away. The scavengers made way, following shards with their hungry little eyes.
Kade was doing the same.
'.... Weird, why would they absorb them?' --Did absorbing shards far above your rank cause side effects? Were they going to a safe place to absorb them in solitude, or were they delivering it to something else...?
His heart screamed at him to somehow snatch the two shards away, the reckless abandonment, the gamble that promised a sufficient payoff. It would be nearly impossible by himself, but if he managed to steal them and get away on Byakko, it would be much more doable.
If not for the fact that he had others to look out for as well, he couldn't put them at risk for such a play. Doing so would not only be dumb but also hit his already damaged trust value that the others had of him...
Not to mention if Byakko would even come out of his soul, the lazy tiger had snoozed the days away once it had created the fireball, whether it was recovering from damage sustained or resting its energy—to it just not wanting to emerge again. It wasn't a guarantee.
So, he could only watch the two monsters walk slowly into the distance, his hopes leaving with them.
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The group halted their plans to leave, allowing the two monsters to wander off further. Possibly allowing them more leverage of distance. They couldn't wait forever; every day on the forgotten shore was a risk.
And every night was a chance, a possibility for the leviathan to crawl out of the murky black waters and devour them like cattle at night. A fate that everyone pretty much wanted to avoid--
The two groups would both be heading westward, but with Sunny's scouting, hopefully they would be able to avoid them...
As much as Kade wanted a reason to plunge himself into possible transcendent shards...
Either way, it was time to head into the labyrinth once more.
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Crack
[You have slain the awakened beast, Chitin Cobra.]
Kade stomped out his final opponent, one of the slippery centipedes he had so much trouble with earlier. Well, he still did—it's just that he had improved somewhat in understanding their movement. It was much easier to gauge a scavenger's attacks than a snake-like body consisting of hundreds of steak knives for legs.
His arms were scratched up from swatting away their razor legs, and his coat was torn down one side—but the bastard was dead. That was enough. Progress was slow, but it was progress.
Especially when, unlike his fellow sleepers, he lacked the range that allowed one to cut them apart before they did so first. 'And Sandra makes it look so bloody easy,' Kade grumbled, plunging his fist down into the corpse. He felt the gore part away from his hand before finally grasping the prize.
An awakened soul shard. A big step down to transcendent, but instead of quality, Kade had been putting his efforts into gaining a quantity. He was a league above normal sleepers, and even at the forefront of the group's power, tying with only Nephi and Sunless.
Crushing the shard between his palm, Kade felt the rush of cool essence flow into his soul.
Soul Fragments: 44/1000
'Slowly but steady, eh?' Kade smirked. Every step meant being closer to a second core, and that he was excited for. The monster variants of the scavengers were something else to be reckoned with, so logically he would become even more of that than he already was.
It had been the twentieth awakened shard he had absorbed after his first on the shore. The group, being large as it was, had a capability to fight more scavengers and centipedes than any group of sleepers should have.
The size also decreased their chances of sneaking around potential encounters, which slowed them down just as much as how fast they finished fights. Even if Kade wanted to be stealthy, he was bad at it naturally, along with having only one memory that helped.
'I'm not going to stab myself anytime soon--hopefully not.'
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The march across the labyrinth continued; Death hung upon their heads like an old friend. A reminder of what awaited them if they faltered. With every kilometer they gained, the more blood they would shed.
With every kill they would gain opportunity for more power to continue the cycle of growth that humanity thrived on. Despite Kade's many battles, it seems fate paid his luck in kind, and he only received one memory, a tiara that helped him see through the dark.
Kade would have never worn it if it didn't have such a useful perk; he dreaded when that day came, and hopefully it never would. Maybe the spell would take his life before he had to take such embarrassment.
The spell shined down its luck on his allies, rather than on himself. In that of receiving echoes.
Sunny had received one of the brutelike scavengers, while Sandra managed to attain an echo of a centipede.
With that, Kade didn't have to carry Cassie anymore. The blind seer had switched over to Sunny's scavenger instead. It saved him a lot of hassle—but also annoyed him slightly to see his fellow street kid look so delighted at the boon.
Especially when all he got was a fucking tiara.
'I can't be too mad… Who cares if they got echoes? I've got Byakko with me. He's worth ten times that lousy crab.' Kade reasoned, wiping residue gore off his coat.
Thanks to Dawn memorizing his clothing, he managed to bring his police tracksuit and casual wear. Sadly, he had burned the tracksuit to ashes earlier in the fireball, and now he had to watch his lovely wear get dirtied and damaged by the dream realm.
Luckily the memory would repair, so his coat was safe, but as for his jeans...He couldn't summon them back into his soul sea to recover, or he would be left pantless. Kade couldn't allow his reputation to stoop to Sunny's level.
He could shrug off others looking down at him. If only they didn't view him as a pervert like Sunny, that was a line he couldn't not cross.
So, he would just have to wait until he got memory armor; once that happened, he would be free--
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The second trek west was nearly at its end, with only four kilometers until they reached the cliffside that would act as a safe haven. Kade relished the opportunity to finally escape from the mud that had swallowed this specific part of the labyrinth.
Back to solid ground, where he had the most confidence. His allies were very much the same, except that they all were weighed down by a fatigue, ever so little, ever so constant—tugging at their minds and muscles.
Kade strode forward, his body retaining its true strength, [Unyielding Asura] fulfilling the burden of fatigue, fueling its demand on his body, until he felt no more. His aspect showed its boon in full force.
And at some point, with the cool wind caressing his scarred skin. Cassie asked them to stop.
She wrangled herself free of the scavenger echo before anyone could say a thing. And leaned her ear down to the earth.
At some point, he noticed that the wind had picked up a bit. Almost simultaneously, Cassie asked them to stop.
The cohort looked at her with deep frowns. It seemed that they had a bad premonition.
"What is it?" Sandra questioned, kneeling down beside the seer.
The blind girl raised her head from the ground.
"Do you hear anything?"
Kade raised his eyebrow.
"What do you hear?"
Cassie raised her head. Her expression was grave.
"It's murmuring."
Kade frowned. "What do you mean, murmuring?"
Cassie licked her lips. "Like voices. From below."
Sunny opened his mouth to quip, but a single droplet of water landed on his forehead. The cohort went still, their eyes following its path as it rolled down his cheek. Then, as one, they turned to the sky.
There, dark, stormy clouds were gathering with unnatural speed. Pretty soon, they were bound to cover it up completely.
Including the sun.
A brief moment of silence hit the group, tension bubbling up before the first person was to admit it.
What was coming would be far more powerful than any scavenger, beast, or monster.
For the enemy this time was Mother Nature.
A storm was brewing, ready to wash them away--