It was the first day of the combat class. He saw Nephis and Caster sparring. In the middle of their spar it dawned on him that she wasn't using the same combat style that she used when they were fighting the Tyrant. This one was much less deadly, less effective, it was almost as if she was trying to make sure nobody underestimated her but also not overestimated her so she could conceal her strength. Though that did make sense if he put it like that. In the end, as it seemed it always went, Nephis had won. "Sunless, you come up next.. and you, Olivita, come up as well." Stood across from him was a tall young man—well, tall compared to Sunny at least. He was most likely around the 5'10" range, though that wasn't the thing his focus was on. No, rather it was the fact that despite being similar in age he had tattoos. There were multiple different types of bones painted across his skin, including his face.
"Ah, were you an outskirt rat as well? The looks check out.. I know, I know, don't act surprised seeing my handsome face after having to see your ugly mug in the mirror every day."
Hoping to provoke him to make the first move, he poked at the first thing he could think of, which would be his looks. Though that backfired as a wide grin split his face.
"Ahaha! You're a funny one, aren't you? But don't worry, your title as an outskirt rat is still strictly yours.. though I'm not so sure if that would be something to boast about."
Despite his looks his voice rang out like a prestigious legacy's would. Could it be a flaw? No, rather could it be a punishment? Who knows what goes through those bastards' heads. Luckily he was quite an expert in dealing with bastards now.
Throwing the first punch, Sunny's fist was caught in between his arms as he was flipped onto his back. Usually they would fight with swords, but they're still working up to that for this class. The only reason Nephis and Caster did spar with them was because of their background, so for an outskirt rat like him they preferred to start with hand to hand.
Before he could fully fall he planted his feet on the ground, using his core to swing himself up as he headbutted Olivita. Rather than a grimace, he slid back with a grin still on his face.
"That's all you got?"
Suddenly a smile landed on Sunny's face.
"You wish."
---
To sum it up, he got his ass kicked. It seemed Olivita's aspect had something to do with hand-to-hand combat, and while it wasn't activated, he was sure that due to that he was a master at many martial arts. Still, it was a good demonstration as he didn't go out without a fight. He even caused the grin on his face to fall for a second, which made shocked gasps come from the other students for some reason. For whatever that reason was didn't really matter to him.
Making his way to meet Cassie and Nephis in the training room he bumped into another member of the combat class, if he remembered correctly.
"Pardon me.. Mr. Sunless."
The boy had dirty blonde shoulder-length hair and bright amber eyes. His jawline was so sharp it could cut steel and his skin was so smooth it could be mistaken for painted metal. To make short of it, he was the picture-perfect pretty boy.
"Watch your step next time, pretty boy."
He said, huffing and walking off. Of course, he was in the fault, but he had to keep up his act of being a crazy outskirt rat. If he had looked back, he would have seen him smiling and Olivita smiling as well as he approached him.
---
"We've got each other's basic fighting down. Now I think it's time we work on our aspects."
Nephis shot a glance at him.
"What more work could my aspect need? Though I could see much room of improvement for yours."
He bit his lip, holding in whatever he was going to say. He should be used to this by now.
"You waste too much essence. To put it simply, in the Tyrant fight you were out of commission for a good portion of it due to that... and your overconfidence."
Nephis opened her mouth to argue back only to shut it once more and begrudgingly go back to whatever she was doing.
As for Cassie, it wasn't so simple. After all, her aspect had no room for combat. The only way he could think of helping her would be getting an echo or memory.. wait.
A memory appeared in his head right before he passed out before the Tyrant fight, the spell rung out. He had completely forgotten as the past couple days had been hectic, but this may be the perfect solution depending on what he got. Sitting down, he informed them that he was diving into his Soul Sea.
His Soul Sea was strange to say the least. It was as if he was in deep waters, the deepest of depths in fact. He took a glance at his two soul cores, both looking vastly different from the other. It just served as a reminder that he would one day have to tell those two about his first nightmare.. his true aspect and what it truly does.. and possibly even the flaws it came with. That day came closer every day. While he could probably put the aspect on hold since he only truly had use for using shadows, the first nightmare retelling was approaching. Putting that in the back of his head, he checked his memories to see he got one. Though it wasn't from the Tyrant but rather one of its minions.
[cornu Hauer]
Memory Rank: Ascended.
Memory Tier: I.
Memory Type: Tool
[They fled their home, the only thing they did not leave behind were their voices. Though even that was taken away from them eventually.]
[Enchantment] -
[Blow me!] - Blow into the horn and temporarily paralyze enemies for an amount up to 10 seconds.
---
For a tier I memory, that wasn't bad at all. Of course, this could help Cassie, he wasn't sure how much, though he would give it to her anyways just in case. But if he recalled he received two things. Rediving into his memories he saw nothing new. That meant it could only be one thing.
---
Sunny's face went from impressment, to sadness, and then to curiosity. In all honesty, he was a very expressive person, at least from what Nephis could see while he was in his Soul Sea. Though she was thinking about what he said. He was right, she did burn through essence extremely quick, for many reasons at that. One would be her attacks came out in extremely powerful bursts. Another could be that due to her combat style she had to heal herself over time during fights. She could possibly coat her sword in her flames, though that just damaged it over time. She thought about making a sword of flames, though it would cause constant concentration to control and would just end up burning through essence.
As if somehow seeing the troubled look on her face, Cassie came up to her, sitting down next to Sunny but facing her.
"Maybe the problem is you're so focused on combating humans that you forgot we will mostly be facing nightmare creatures.. or perhaps you're expecting to face humans, neglecting the fact we will face nightmare creatures."
Though she couldn't confirm or deny her words, she had no clue where she was going with this.
"And this means what?"
"Well.. many nightmare creatures, maybe not all but many, are just like wild animals. So wouldn't it make sense to go for long range..?"
While that way of thinking was somewhat correct, it was still neglecting one fact that she was unaware of.
"The farther I shoot out the flames the weaker they get, so distance wouldn't really work."
Cassie's face tensed, she could almost see a light bulb flickering off and on over her head.
"Tell me this, can your flames set things on fire?"
---
Going into his echoes, he ignored one that he wanted to forget and landed on the thing he was looking for. The ogreish boar hybrid was right there. He didn't bother checking what it could do, or its name, or even its past. While he had an interest in history, he only had one goal in mind. Coming out of his Soul Sea, he went to Cassie who flinched when he grabbed her hand and jumped when he transferred both the memory and echo into her Soul Sea.
"Sunny you—"
"Ah ah ah, don't worry about it. After all, we're in this together now. Plus it will help us if you can aid us in fighting."
She didn't bother fighting back, though she had no reason to in the first place.
"Well, while you were doing that I did think of something.. for Nephis at least.
---
"Well, you see, after I found out her flames could light things on fire, though she doesn't use them that way since it destroys things quick, which is the reason she doesn't use them for campfires, I figured if we somehow set up a way to get flammable or possibly combustible liquids onto nightmare creatures, her flames could shoot from a distance and do the job for us."
It was an amazing idea, but there was one issue. It was the fact that they couldn't get flammable liquid into the dream realm when they entered, since their bodies and possessions would stay in the real world. That was until he remembered one thing he had learnt from Professor Julius. It was the fact that some trees have sap that is flammable. If they are able to meet up early somehow and test out different tree saps until they can find one..
He grabbed onto Cassie's face, his fingers intertwined with her hair, a beaming smile filled his face.
"You're a genius! We could very well farm soul shards and memories if we do this right!"
While holding onto her face he noticed how her strings of hair were extremely thin, they looked like threads coated in gold, yet when put together they came to be thick and silky hair. Though the strings were extremely weak alone, when they were put together he had seen his fair share of hair pulling in the outskirts. Then it clicked, strings.. or possibly a better word would be threads, maybe even wires.
"Cassie, I could kiss you!"
"Please don't."