No Return (Shadow Slave Fan-Fic)

Leaping at the back of the monster , he immediately reached out for one of it legs. His hands immediately gripped the leg with terrifying strength. Since this was an Awakened Monster , its sturdy body could resist the corrosion , but unfortunately , it wasn't enough...

Letting out a scream Levi gripped it with his full strength , and soon the leg corroded and broke.. That was enough.. now he was gonna go for the other leg.. however.. things on the other part hadn't gone as planned..

They didn't know if the awakened monster had the same weak spot on its back as its lesser relatives, the scavengers, had. However, there was no reason to assume that there was no gap between its carapace and torso armor. It was a mechanical issue.

Anything that had to be flexible could not be too rigid.

The tip of Changing Star's sword plunged into the narrow gap. Then, the sword disappeared into the monster's body, penetrating so deep that its hilt ended up brushing against the chitin.

Because the creature didn't even seem to notice the wound that was supposed to be if not fatal, then at least heavily debilitating. Straining its body a little, it suddenly twisted, throwing the Echo off its carapace, and rose to its feet. The bone scythes scraped against the rock as it pulled them out from the ground.

The next thing Levi know.. the leg that he was going for was swinging at him with full speed ahead...

Levi immediately tried to get his right arm in the way , it was infused with his [Pale Thorn] memory..

However.. when the strike connected with him.. the next thing that Levi knew was that his feet was no longer touching the ground.. The force of the kick had sent him flying.. 

He landed on the ground with a loud thud , rolling over a few times before crashing into a rock.. 

Levi was in agony.. His right shoulder was on the verge of being torn off.. and he felt like there was a sharp pain piercing his lungs.. Most likely his ribcage had broken and the bones had sank into it..

His vision was dazed.. he did not know what was happening around him anymore.. the attack was not fatal.. however a mortal sleeper would succumb to this pain in a matter of minutes.. of course.. Levi was not mortal... He felt hot water droplets streaming down his face.. 

He was in pain.. and most importantly.. he had lost something..

***

After seeing Levi get thrown away like a ragdoll , Sunny's heart sank. All he could do was hope that he would endure until they finished with this creature.. At least he hoped they would kill it...

'Damnation!'

For the moment, Changing Star was on her own.

The scythes pierced the air, aiming for her flesh. At the last moment, however, a pair of pincers locked one of them into an iron grip , and a blood red dagger immediately sank into one of its joints, it was Shashi's doing. That gave Nephis another fraction of a second to react.

Letting go of the sword, she dove under the creature's body, hiding in the blind spot of the remaining scythe's attack range. As far as hiding places went, this one wasn't optimal, since all the monster had to do to crush her into a bloody pulp was to lie down. However, in that moment, Nephis had no other choice.

'This is bad, this bad ... '

By then, Sunny was already behind the creature. Hoping to buy Neph some time, he brandished the Azure Blade and slashed down. The sword connected with the joint of one of the monster's rear leg , Levi had torn off the other. However, unlike how it was in the battle against a scavenger, he failed to completely sever the limb. It was too tough and thick.

In the next moment, the leg disappeared from Sunny's field of vision.

'Crap.'

As that thought appeared in his mind, Sunny raised his head and looked at the monster. Somehow, it had already turned around and was now facing him, two crimson flames burning with bloodlust in its eyes.

Before Sunny could properly react, the sharp tip of a bone scythe hit him in the chest with the force of a siege ram. The only thing he managed to do was to transfer the shadow from his body to the Puppeteer's Shroud.

Because of this lightning-fast decision, the armor held. He wasn't pierced through the heart and impaled on the scythe.

However, it was a small consolation.

The force of the blow was still enough to make his ribcage cave in and send his body flying through the air like a rag doll.

... Somehow, Sunny found himself lying on the ground. His body felt weird, and he couldn't breathe. Something bitter was flowing from his mouth, making him choke.

It was blood. He was drowning in his own blood.

Weakly, Sunny tried to move, but his limbs wouldn't listen to him. Only the shadow listened, enveloping his body and delaying the inevitable a little.

'l'm hurt ... '

With his thoughts moving slower and slower, as though submerged in a dense fog, he looked up, hoping to see the stars.

Instead, he saw two burning crimson eyes approaching him from the darkness.

***

Unable to move, he had to look helplessly as the monster closed the distance between them and loomed over Sunny's broken, bleeding body.

Its scythes rose into the air, ready to strike down.

Looking right into the monster's burning eyes, Sunny thought:

'Go to hell, you overgrown bug!'

The scythes shot toward his body.

... In the last moment, something massive and furious rammed into the monster from the side, throwing it away. It was Sunny's carapace scavenger.

Not bothering with its own safety anymore, the Echo entwined itself with the enemy in a chaotic mess of limbs as they rolled on the ground. Despite the fact that it was smaller and weaker, its crazy assault and complete disregard for its own life were enough to give the bigger monster some pause.

However, it was still superior to the scavenger in every way. Even with one of its scythes pinned awkwardly under its body, the monster was more than able to repel the sudden attack. With an angry screech, it sliced with the other scythe, cutting one of the scavenger's pincer arms clean off. Then, it strained its legs and threw the smaller creature away.

In the process, the rear leg that was already wounded by Sunny broke off , It was now left without rear legs , but the monster didn't pay it any attention.

Burning with madness and fury, it untangled its limbs and slowly stood up. Another deafening screech resounded in the howling darkness of the storm, hurting Sunny's ears.

But then, something very unexpected happened.

As the slayer moved to finish off the Echo, it had to slightly raise and lean its torso back to account for the loss of a rear leg

and keep its balance. At that moment, a bolt of lightning landed right in the middle of the small island.

With how tall the monster was, the lightning was immediately attracted to the handle of the sword that was still sticking from its body, aimed at the sky at a slight angle. At that moment, Changing Star's longsword suddenly became a lightning rod.

Instantly, hundreds of millions of volts of electricity coursed through the slayer's body.

In a blinding flash of light, it was thrown to the ground. Whisps of smoke rose from the cracks in its carapace.

In a strange turn of events, arcs of residual electricity danced on the monster's chitin, slowly accumulating on the crimson patterns on it. Under that influence, the crimson pattern changed its color, becoming white and incandescent.

The monster's joints were also filled with Blood red daggers that have sank into it. Shashi was trying to support the fight too , but her abilities against the monster was limited , additionally she was low on blood , now that she had used much blood to wound the monster , she must have exhausted herself , but she had been useful.. because the monster was having a lot of trouble moving..

Looking somewhat dazed, the monster gathered its limbs and tried to stand up. Slowly but surely, it was coming back to its senses. The bone scythes scraped against the rocks, helping it rise.

However, before it did, Nephis was suddenly right in front of it.

Grabbing the hilt of the longsword, she grimaced as the heat burned her hands. Then, she twisted the blade, making the slayer's body twitch, and pulled it out, breaking apart a large portion of its lower torso armor.

The monster tried to slash at her with a scythe, but Changing Star was quicker. Dashing to the side, she simultaneously lashed out with her sword. The glowing, white-hot blade caught the creature's arm right below the joint and cleaved through it, sending the terrifying bone scythe flying through the air in a rain of azure blood.

The slayer screeched and swatted her away with one of its legs. Nephis was thrown back and rolled on the rocks, losing her grip on the sword. Her eyes momentarily lost focus.

Then, it lunged toward Neph with all-consuming hatred burning in its eyes.

But it didn't get far.

Right as the livid monster was beginning its attack, the battered Echo appeared in its path. Its one remaining pincer shot forward, plunging into the wide gap in the armor created by Changing Star's sword. Twisting its arm, the scavenger pushed it inside the enemy's body, wreaking havoc on its innards.

In the end, it even lifted the whole monster in the air a little, its pincer going in almost up to the shoulder.

The slayer lashed out with its scythe, piercing the Echo's chest through.

Then, it twitched a couple of times and fell still.

The scavenger screeched angrily and jerked its pincer, tearing the bigger monster's torso clean off its carapace. Proudly giving the eviscerated enemy one last look, it then staggered and collapsed to the ground.

Sunny tiredly dismissed the Echo, hoping that it can survive.

He wasn't feeling too well.

In fact, he was pretty much done for. He wondered how Levi was doing..

[You have slain an awakened monster, Carapace Centurion.]

The Spell's voice fell uselessly on his deaf ears. It sounded distorted and distant.

[You have received a Memory: Starlight Legion Armor.]

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

And he couldn't breathe.

Drowning in blood was not very pleasant.

As his conscience begin to slip, he heard the sound of someone's hurried steps.

And then, two soft hands gently touched his face...

***

Levi was laying on the ground. His body had been healed by Shashi , but the exhaustion never left his body. Sunny also had been healed by Changing Star..

By the time the storm was over, it was already deep into the night. All 5 of them huddled together for warmth and slept as though they were dead, too tired to make someone keep watch.

If not, so be it. They were just too exhausted to care.

Luckily, the rest of the night went without incidents.

In the morning, no one was in a hurry to make any plans or suggest leaving the cliffs. The others just gathered some meat from the dead carapace centurion and the scavengers, collected the two soul shards and moved to the opposite side of the small island, afraid that the remains would attract some creature's attention.

However Levi had never gotten up from his laying position , neither he had moved.

That night.. Levi had finally realized that , the humanity he had been desperately clinging onto had been lost the moment he had gained his flaw. Mortality is what made a human a real human , and a real human would have died that night. He was only being delusional thinking that he could cling onto his humanity..

Levi did not know what he was anymore..