Damnation.
They didn't have much time. Nephis looked at Sunny, thinking quickly. They had to get Cassie out of the fight. Then they had to somehow defeat two awakened monsters. One such creature had almost been their demise last time. This time... well, they didn't have much more tools than they had then, and the element of surprise was not on their side.
Instead they had Nephis.
"Summon the echo", she said to Sunny. "Then get Cassie away and come back. I will delay them."
And before Sunny had time to retort, she stood before the stony ridge that separated two halves of the island from each other — the ridge that hid the monsters from their view. Cassie was resting against the wall, and Nephis wanted to lure danger away from her. She ran to the opposite direction and leaped on top of the ridge. Immediately she used her Aspect and became a beacon of brightness. Night was not dark anymore: her eyes pierced the the shadows and she saw two enormous, black bodies on the other side of the island. On of them lay on the ground, resting. Other one had already traveled most of the distance to her. It had smelled the uncorrupted souls of the three sleepers and was coming to sniff them out of existence.
You want my Flame? Come and get it.
The carapace centurions red eyes locked on Nephis and it roared as pain shot through its eyelids, white flame much too bright for its liking. In the next second something slammed against it, something heavy with sharp, stony edges. A pincer severed one if its limbs and the centurion howled in agony. Sunny's echo had come.
Nephis was already on the move, jumping from the ridge and rolling on the ground. She intended to take the first monster out before the other had time to react — which meant that she had about three seconds to succeed. At least she had to incapacitate the centurion or weaken it enough that they could concentrate on the other without needing to fight both of them at the same time. Her flames had been a good distraction and provided the scavenger echo an opportunity to strike. It wouldn't do much damage, however. No matter how disoriented the carapace centurion was, it was still bigger, stronger, more resilient and vastly more violent. Its torso didn't budge as the echo rammed into it. Even as one of its legs was cut, it managed to make a half-turn and bring its scythe down on the poor echo. There was a thunderous crack as echo's carapace broke. Then came the second scythe. The echo was breaking like an egg.
It was precisely this moment that Nephis chose to attack. She struck at one of the centurions legs and heard a snap. Her swords enchantments were potent even when she was a mere sleeper — she wasn't sure she could have done the same with the original Dream Blade. Carapace centurion roared and tried to turn, but that would mean turning its back to the echo. Nephis knew that this was their chance. They were winning. She was illuminating most of the battlefield and could see Sunny running to harass the centurion from the opposite side to Nephis. He, too, tried to cut the monsters leg, but Azure Blade didn't do damage. Sunny dodged out of the way as the monster tried to send him flying with a kick.
"Behind you!" Sunny shouted.
Nephis turned just in time to see another centurion rushing towards them — more specifically, her. She was just in time — another second and she would have been impailed. Instead she felt the bone scythe connect with her shoulder and she was sent sprawling to the ground, her left arm limb. She didn't even register the pain — well, this specific kind of pain. Really, she was in the pain all the time, burning agony washing over her. But there was no other way, she had to endure. And indeed, she felt her shoulder coming together, damage restored.
She could fight however long she wished, as long as she didn't suffer a fatal found. Every second would be agony, and it was, living flame slicing through her like a hot metal. But she would not give in. She smiled as she sprang upwards, out of the way of the second, lethal strike. Stony shrapnels flew in all directions as she flanked the second centurion, trusting Sunny and the echo to survive couple of seconds on their own.
Now the whole attention of the monster was on her. She didn't have any tricks up her sleeve, anything to distract it. Their clash would be based purely on raw strength, skill and determination. It suited Nephis just fine.
For the first time in this life she forgot all about the future, and the past. She forgot that she was just a sleeper and not in fact a Supreme Titan and that she couldn't really fight, not without essence, without her domain, without her sophisticated transcendent battle art. She even forgot that she didn't have any armour on and indeed, armour would have done her little good. She could not sustain wounds anyway, as long as her mind and soul allowed her to continue burning.
She dodged the strikes and came closer, hacking the creatures legs and making it shriek in anger. She blocked a massive strike from one of the scythes and made her way under the centurion, thrusting upwards. Another roar tore itself from the mad creatures maw and then she was out again. Calmly she circled the wounded nightmare creature, evading the blows one after another and sometimes coming close to inflicting more damage. She was just about to jump on its back and finish it when a sudden scream reached her ears.
Sunny!
Sunny was lying on the ground, his body impaled on one of the scythes. Blood poured out of the wound. His face was deathly white but his eyes were clouded, unseeing. Only thing keeping him safe was his echo. The scavenger was half dead like its master, but it was still trying to prevent the centurion from approaching him.
In seconds Nephis was beside Sunny. His eyes closed and opened abruptly as soon as white flames began to mend the wound. His gaze was unfocused and hazy and Nephis didn't have time to study his face or his wounds. Both centurions would be upon them in a mere moments.
She raised Sunny to her arms — he didn't weigh much of anything — and ran, all the while healing him. Sunny mumbled something incoherent that Nephis didn't catch. She looked over her shoulder and saw as their echo was butchered by the two centurions. Sunny flinched and she could almost hear Spell whispering in his ear.
Sunny's wound was grievous. She couldn't heal it completely with so little time, only enough that he wouldn't bleed out and die. She lowered Sunny to the ground and turned.
Two centurions. Both of them were wounded and immobile, but they were still enough to kill all of them three times over.
Nephis barely felt the pain, or at least her conscius mind didn't acknowledge it. She wasn't even sure she was using her Aspect anymore, except that she had to be, otherwise she would have collapsed with exhaustion. She looked at the monsters as they charged towards her. Everything was crystal clear, everything was moving in slow motion... and at the same time everything was hazy, like she was looking the battle from far away.
She ran to the side, hoping to lure the monsters away from Sunny, who was still laying on the ground. Her ploy worked - she was a natural monter magnet whenever she fought. In the darkness of the night she was like a beacon.
A beacon...
By now she had retreated near the edge of the water - instinctually in order to not be surrounded. But she was beginning to get tired. However resilient her mind was, her body was still that of a sleeper and she was nowhere near saturating her first soul core.
She might be able to take both centurions out, but it wasn't a certain win by any means. She needed help... In whichever form it would take.
And like sensing her thoughts, she began to feel something rising from the darkness behind her.
That something was strong. She could feel the pressure that the nightmare creature exerted, though ordinary sleeper probably wouldn't have felt it as clearly. It was cold and hungry, and a sense of unease prickled her skin. Nevertheless, she stood her ground and engaged with the first carapace centurion that came her way. Everything was hanging on a balance... There was no way to really tell who the sea creature would attack first. It was, after all, an apex predator here. It probably thought it could kill them in any order it wished.
Nephis sidestepped a vicious swing by one of the bone scythes and advanced, coming close to the centurion. In a heartbeat she was on the other side of it, and the centurion was positioned between herself and the Dark Sea.
A cold wave descended upon the battlefield.
Nephis couldn't see the sea creature, but its influence was immediate. Temperature dropped and frost extended from the egde of the water inwards, towards the heart of the island. Nephis's flames dimmed and cold bit her skin. Her movements became slower, almost sluggish, like the exhaustion was finally catching up on her.
The centurion that was nearest to the water let out a hollow wail. Then — its head snapped. Blood sprayed on all directions with a sickening crunch. But instead of being warm like blood usually was, it was cold. The centurion crumbled and Nephis could finally see the killer: a massive, bone-white serpent with one bulging, strikingly blue eye and a maw full of icy spikes. It had two arm-like extensions with human hands at their ends on either side of the maw.
Nephis frowned. The nightmare creature was probably of the fallen rank, but its influence was far stronger than she would have expected. It didn't seem to be a tyrant, so it was probably a devil, but even then it felt a bit too strong. Almost like a corrupted creature. She could feel her mouth drying and her legs weakening, and suddenly fury coursed through her veins once more.
She had survived far more dangerous adversaries. Once upon a time any fallen (or even great) creature would have stood no chance against her. If she would be bested in a fair fight, fine. But she wouldn't let her own body betray her. She wouldn't — submit like that.
But it was hard, it was impossibly hard. She couldn't just disregard a difference of two ranks through sheer will. Nephis looked at the abomination and trembled. Its eye locked onto her and she felt her eyelashes freezing. Still she held the contact with Blessing in her hand. And suddenly something else happened. The second carapace centurion had remained unmoving, frozen in place by the sheer force of the ice serpent. But now it could move again as the serpent's attention was elsewhere. It roared and plunged its scythe to the maw of the giant snake. Shards of ice rained everywhere and then the scythe cracked and the centurion's arm was severed when the maw closed around it.
Nephis could move once more. At the same time she came to the sudden realization that she would have to kill the carapace centurion before the serpent did; otherwise she wouldn't get her treasured armor. She ran forward and jumped to the back of the centurion just as its second arm was crushed. She channeled all her Soul Flame to the Blessing and pierced the carapace while speaking a name she had mastered not so long ago — the Name of Destruction.
[You have slain an awakened monster, Carapace Centurion.]
[You have received a Memory: Starlight Legion Armor.]
In the next second the body of the centurion was sent backwards by an enormous collision. Nephis held onto one of the spikes and saw the white serpent slithering to the shore. It was at least fifteen meters long.
How do I kill this thing?
Nephis could see only one possible weakness: the bulging blue eye. But how to get to it? She thought about all the information of her last life as well as her Aspect Legacy and Names. What could she use?
And then, without a warning, her concentration was broken. Because something moved on the ground, only a step or two from the serpents head. A small figure, black as the blackest night, stealthy as a shadow.
The whole attention of the serpent was on Nephis, and she realized she had to keep it that way. She willed her flames to burn brighter, be more aggressive. Her eyes blazed and her sword shined. Even Sunny looked at her, momentarily forgetting about the nightmare creature. At the same time she summoned her new armor memory. Starlight legion armor materialized from white sparks and covered her in cold steel.
Eye, Nephis mouthed and pointed at her own. She was sure that Sunny understood. She then took a step forward. She let the helmet fall into place and raised her sword, her stance ready. The ice serpent stopped in its tracks and cold hiss came from its mouth...
... and that hiss turned to a shriek when Sunny threw the Azure Blade straight to the staring blue eye.