[Your shadow grows stronger.]
Sunny was feeling somewhere in-between of being ecstatic and peeved. Throughout the day, they managed to kill three more scavengers, each time with not much risk to anyone except for Nephis. The process was largely the same: after discovering the monster, he would hide in the shadows, while Nephis would act as bait. Then, when the time was right, Sunny would stealthily approach and finish the fight with a precise strike of the Azure Blade.
He was wondering if that was what being in the main hero's party felt like. To anyone else, maybe with the exception of Caster, dancing around a deadly awakened beast would have been a tall task, most likely ending with the dancer's death. Nephis, however, had managed to do it over and over again seemingly without too much strain.
What's more, her performance was based solely on skill, with no Aspect Ability involved. In that regard, even Caster couldn't have done better.
She was swift, calm and precise. Every move she made was calculated and perfectly timed. She seemed to innately understand the flow and logic of combat, which gave her the ability to roughly predict what actions the mindless beasts would perform in the next seconds. Then it was just the question of physical prowess to evade and even manipulate them to a certain degree.
Sunny had always known that skill and experience were more important than raw power, but by watching Nephis, he vividly understood just how vast the difference between them was. Even though his divine Aspect allowed Sunny to exert more strength and speed than Changing Star, in an actual fight, he would never stand a chance.
Of course, he was also an important part of every encounter. His role as the finisher was not trivial, and not just anybody would have been able to accomplish four kills with four strikes. Even though Sunny was not taught any elaborate techniques, he was still a somewhat experienced fighter. He had good physical coordination, combat intuition, and — most importantly — a cool-headed mentality.
Not to mention the fact that they were only able to ambush the scavengers so effectively due to his shadow scouting them out in advance.
All in all, it was an almost equal cooperation. Still, watching Nephis fight was nothing short of sobering.
Trying not to get too dejected, Sunny summoned the runes.
[Shadow Fragments: 22/1000].
'Eight fragments today. Pretty excellent.'
Currently, they were waiting on the edge of the labyrinth path leading directly to the giant statue of the headless knight. There was a group of scavengers between them and the statue, moving past without any haste.
The sunset was near, but they still had time.
Slowly, minutes flowed by. At some point, Nephis gave the command to move.
Helping Cassie along, Sunny followed Changing Star and quickly traversed the open space between the labyrinth and the statue. Now, they only had to get on top of it.
However, it wasn't that easy. Scaling the two-hundred-meter tall monument would have been hard in normal circumstances, but now, they also had to somehow pull Cassie up. Leaving her behind until they were at the top would not have been safe.
In the end, Nephis and Sunny took turns pulling the rope every twenty meters or so. Cassie would hold onto the rocks and wait until they climbed higher, and then the process would repeat. It was slow and torturous, and by the end, Sunny's muscles were sore and almost on fire.
But they managed to get to safety before the dark waters washed them away.
As the night began to descend, the three Sleepers sat in the center of the circular stone platform and rested. As they did not bring any materials to make a fire and it was already too late, there was no way to cook food. They ended up chewing on the strips of dried meat, passing the bottle of limitless water around.
After some time, Nephis gave Sunny a sign to take out the spoils of today's journey. He took out the four shimmering soul shards and put them on the ground.
Without any discussion, Changing Star moved two crystals in his direction and took two for herself. Then, she gave one of hers to Cassia.
Sunny watched it in silence. By the time Nephis and Cassie had absorbed their soul shards, he still didn't make a move to take his. After a while, he took another crystal out of the rucksack and moved all three to Nephis.
The silver-haired girl looked at him with surprise.
"Don't you want... to grow stronger?"
Sunny grinned.
"Of course, I do. But these won't do me much good right now. It's no secret that you are the main fighting force of our group."
He sighed.
"The stronger you are, the better our chances of survival will get. Plus, it's not a gift. It's a trade."
Nephis raised an eyebrow.
"A… trade? What do you want?"
Sunny deliberated for a few seconds before answering.
"It's rather simple. I will give you these soul shards, and all other soul shards I earn on the way to that castle…"
Then, he looked her in the eyes and said:
"In return, you will teach me how to fight."