No Return (Shadow Slave Fan-Fic)

Days later, Sunny was sitting on top of a dead scavenger, calmly cleaning the azure blood off his face.

"Looking cool are ya?" Levi said sarcastically as he looked at Sunny.

"Shut up.. bastard.."

Levi rolled his eyes at him..

Somewhere behind him, the sound of breaking carapaces announced that Nephis and Shashi was already digging out soul shards from the corpses of the creatures they had slain. After dozens of such battles, the four of them were nothing if not efficient.

The path between two crimson walls was littered with corpses. Initially, they were simply planning to lure the carapace centurion that had been tracking them for the past few days into this narrow passage to turn its size against the monster. However, things quickly took a turn.

Attracted by the noise of the battle, both the scavengers and the weird centipede creatures that were waging war against the carapace legion in this part of the labyrinth showed up to join the fight. In the ensuing mayhem, the group used the animosity between the two tribes of monsters to their advantage and ended up as the only victors.

Not far from him, the Echo was mutilating the corpse of the centurion. Its lost arm had long grown back. Now, the scavenger was tearing pieces of monster meat with its new pincer and vindictively devouring them.

Technically, an Echo wasn't supposed to experience hunger. This one, however, had seemingly acquired a hatred for carapace centurions after their encounter with the massive scythe slayer on that fateful stormy night.

"Quiet an appetite for an echo , don't you think?" Levi looked at Sunny again.

Sunny scoffed:

"It seems to hate Centurions.." 

"It seems he is one to hold a grudge.."

It had already been two weeks since they left the cliffs. In that time, many things had changed, while many remained the same.

Moving from one high point to another, they steadily traveled west. With Cassie riding atop the Echo, the speed of the group was dramatically enhanced. Still, they took care to explore paths to their next stop before committing to a day-long journey.

This way, the risk of being caught in another storm was minimized, as they could always either reach the next landmark in time or return to the previous one.

Their approach to traveling through the labyrinth had also changed. In the past Levi , Sunny and Nephis tried to avoid the scavengers, resorting to fighting them only if there was no other choice. However after Shashi was added to their group and the fight against centurion resulted in them opening their eyes to the fact that they desperately needed to become stronger, and do it fast.

That's why they began to actively hunt the carapace beasts, taking out any creatures that were either completely isolated or moving in groups of no more than three. The idea of two Sleepers consciously seeking out Nightmare Creatures of the Awakened rank was pretty ridiculous, but somehow, they made it work.

Just as Nephis had said, all of them were abnormal.

Clad in the Starlight Legion Armor, Changing Star, who had always been an extremely formidable fighter, was now able to showcase the full extent of her combat ability. Simply put, she was a menace. It seemed as though her silver sword had a mind of its own. Whenever the tall figure in white armor appeared, rivers of azure blood were sure to flow.

The Vampire , Crimson Matriarch , was also very skilled when it came to fighting scavengers. She mostly supported the team from the side-lines , using her aspect from far so she can conserve her blood efficiently , as the amount Levi gave was not much. When it came to close-combat she was as much as a menace as Changing Star due to her weapon being very adaptable , she used it with deadly skill.

Levi himself.. was the most heavy hitter of them all perhaps. His arms tore through the armor's of scavengers easily. Whatever he touched , they were swallowed by the withering.

Levi also had gotten himself a second weapon memory.

'Yes.. only 1 memory in 2 weeks..'

He immediately summoned his runes to check the new memory out.

Memories: [Pale Thorn] , [Colorful Cloak] , [Bone Shed]

'Weird name..'

Memory Rank: Awakened. 

Memory Tier: I 

Memory Type: Weapon.

Memory Description: [A Warhammer forged for devastation. Wielded by the mightiest warriors, it has shattered countless foes]

As the description had suggested , it was a big Warhammer. And Levi was definitely not going to use it outside imbuing it with his arm. Now both of his arms were armed finally..

What his new memory could do..? It was simple.. The Warhammer could make Levi's arm's swings faster , giving it more acceleration. Additionally , he could also back his arm away with the same speed. So , it would be a very useful memory in the future battles. 

***

What's more, Their powers grew with each soul shard they consumed. Every increase was barely noticeable, but with many of them added up together, the difference was apparent. They were slowly approaching the line between the peak of human physical form and the threshold of superhuman prowess.

As for Sunny , he was refusing to have any soul shards.. But Levi could tell he was also getting stronger.. maybe he had a different way of getting more powerful.. after all everyone's Aspect was different.

As the result, the rate of their progress was more or less the same.

However, the slow accumulation of power was not the only factor that influenced the rapid growth of their combat effectiveness.

Sunny's skill level and battle sense were also improving by leaps and bounds. Under the tutelage of sword goddess Nephis herself, he was quickly learning the ins and outs of wielding the blade.

All of them were also gaining a lot of real battle experience.. One real fight was worth a thousand hours of training.

But even that wasn't the biggest contributor to the dramatic increase in the group's overall might.

The main culprit was teamwork.

After fighting side by side for so long, the four of them had developed a tacit, intuitive understanding. Without the need for words and signals, they were able to act in unison with each other, perfectly coordinating their attacks and actions to better control the battlefield and destroy their opponents.

The importance of this unity was hard to overestimate. With proper cooperation, it was as though their numbers doubled. The effect was immediate and overwhelming - at least as long as they chose their battles carefully. It was nothing short of jolly.

With all this added up together, their group had turned from five lost kids into a cohort of well-equipped, experienced and battle-hardened survivors.

Even Cassie was becoming stronger. Apart from the boost she had received from absorbing the soul shards, the blind girl was also slowly learning to live and function with her disability.

After all, it was less than two months since she lost her sight. Cassie was still adapting to her condition, and she was doing an incredible job, considering the circumstances.

She was still unable to help them fight against the monsters, but the burden of taking care of her was becoming less and less heavy.

The goal of reaching the human castle did not seem as impossible as it had before.

And now, he felt as though they were getting closer and closer.