Shadow Slave: Rainy Days

The crimson labyrinth stretched before the small group of three, its red coral-like blades making it simply impossible to know where one was. The coral pillars were sometimes broad, sometimes narrow. They basically twisted and turned without any logic, often leading to the paths that did not continue, or bringing you back to the start.

Rain moved at the front of the group, leading them to their goal of reaching the statue she was talking about. Just a few steps behind was Nephis, who followed Rain carefully while analyzing her surroundings and gently pulling Cassie, with whom she was connected to with the rope memory.

The mud under them made it especially hard to move through the labyrinth. And with the addition of the blind girl, things took even longer. Thankfully, Rain moved through the terrain with ease, never backtracking or stopping to think about where to move. Nephis found this pretty suspicious, since they had talked about how hard it is to navigate through the labyrinth just before.

"Why are we moving through this place this quickly? I thought you said that navigating through this place is pretty much impossible."

Rain stopped and turned around at Nephis' question, her smile turning wider.

"I'm glad you asked, princess."

Rain pointed towards the large hill that was still visible from their position. Nephis turned, seeing nothing but rocks and corals.

"What ?" she asked confused.

"You probably wonder why I left Cupcake up there. The answer is pretty simple, actually. He's waiting at the edge right now, looking at the labyrinth from above. Before we left, I left a part of my consciousness in him- Though, I can't see through his eyes nor understand what he's thinking, but I've trained him enough to force his brain to react to certain signals. So when he sees that I need to go left, his mind reacts a certain way and vice versa."

Nephis studied the small girl carefully. Her grin, her posture, her physique, everything.

'She can hold a connection even at long distances? She's more dangerous than I thought. At least she doesn't seem like she intends to betray us.,' Nephis remarked inwardly.

Cassie, who had been silently following with the help of the rope, finally spoke.

"How do you know that if reactions are accurate though? What if something goes wrong?"

Rain shrugged.

"Then we're screwed. But, I've used this neat little trick for about two weeks now, and nothing went wrong in that period, so it should be fine."

Rain then turned away from the other girls again and stretched her arms over her head.

"Well, there's not much time to waste, so let's get going again. We can continue talking on the way."

***

The group continued making their way through the mud, slowly, but steadily pushing towards the large statue in the distance.

Nothing really important happened during that time, but of course, the peace did not last.

Click

Rain stopped moving, and the sudden noise made Nephis and Cassie snap into alert. Nephis' hand instinctively tightened around the hilt of her silver blade.

"What was that sound ?" Nephis asked while her body tensed.

'It's one of those, huh ?,' Rain thought.

A crazy idea entered Rain's mind.

"Oh, nothing you need to worry about, silver-head."

What Rain was about to do would not only give Nephis some experience against fighting the Nightmare Creatures in this area, but would also showcase her abilities and strength to Rain, which would be very beneficial to her.

Rain suddenly moved towards Nephis and took the Rope that connected her and Cassie out of her hand. Now holding it tightly herself,

"Come on, move a few steps forward, but be cautious. A crab might bite you."

Nephis looked at Rain, not really knowing what to say. It was pretty easy for her to guess that something would happen if she did what Rain wanted her to do. Nephis was confident in her abilities, but she also didn't want to rush into anything dangerous without the knowledge of how to conquer the challenge.

"Rain ... isn't that dangerous ? Shouldn't you at least tell her what's going to happen ?," Cassie spoke.

What made Nephis go along with Rain's plan in the end was that she had prepared herself to do dangerous stuff even before being transported into the Dream Realm.

Nephis cautiously stepped forward, her mind and body ready to react at everything that came her way. Each step was slower than the last one, fighting their way through the thick mud.

And then, something happened. The mud under her started to move.

In the next moment, a massive pincer shot out of the ground and tore through the air, threatening to cut her body in half with one crushing strike.

'Fast.'

That was the only thought in Nephis' head as she perfectly avoided the large pincer. The pincer closed right in front of her face, just barely not hitting it.

Nephis avoided being hit and the swift attack from the scavenger, which did not hit its target, made it move into a not so stable position. There was almost no distance between the Human and Nightmare Creature, so Nephis decided to dash back a few meters.

Nephis' eyes fell on the creature, noticing how it only had four of its eight scythe-like legs, and how it had slight cracks in its thick carapace. The Carapace Scavenger was in a pretty pathetic state, which was also the reason why it waited in the mud, coming out for a surprise attack when it found its prey.

Nephis had a lot of fighting experience, both theoretical and practical - that's how she quickly found out about the weakness of the beast. Having a body fully covered by thick carapace would hinder its movements, meaning that there were weak points- its joints.

She was pulled out of her thoughts as she saw the Carapace Scavenger lunge forward, aiming its deadly pincer at Nephis' chest. If not for her quick reflexes, she would've been impaled just then.

Nephis dodged to the side and immediately spun to run around the crab-like being. The Scavenger's movements were slower than usual were, probably because of only having four of its eight legs.

As she appeared behind the three-meter-tall creature, Nephis shifted her stance and, with a precise cut, slashed off two of its four remaining legs, perfectly cutting through it's joints.

The sudden loss of balance made the Scavenger stumble and crash into the mud, causing it to fly everywhere. The scavenger screeched loudly, the pain too much to bear.

'She's strong... Her technique is definitely better than mine.' Rain thought before continuing to focus on the fight once more.

Before the creature could regain its balance, Nephis' sword suddenly began to burn with searing white flames around it. Her face contorted into one of pain, but she just ignored it and plunged her blade into the neck of the Scavenger, stabbing its way through the thick carapace and burning the flesh inside.

The Carapace Scavenger let out one final and desperate screech before finally falling silent. Its large body dropped dead, now

motionless and laying on the mud. Azure liquid began leaking from the creature's wounds, turning the ground around it blue.

This whole fight took no more than five seconds, but still left a big impression on Rain.

Nephis released a deep sigh, before the voice of the Spell spoke into her mind.

[You have slain an awakened beast, Carapace Scavenger.]

[Your soul shines brighter.]

The white flames around her blade slowly faded. Nephis lowered her sword, letting her heartbeat calm down. She didn't use her Aspect for long, but her flaw still made her feel exhausted and a lot of pain, which she certainly did mot enjoy.

Nephis turned around as she heard claps coming from behind her.

The sounds came from Rain, who had a wide and more than satisfied grin on her face.

"Well, that was rather impressive, princess, even if the Carapace Scavenger was in a bad state. Your sword technique is really good." Rain said with newfound respect in her tome.

"Nephis, I couldn't see the fight but you won so quickly. That's so impressive !" Cassie said with a warm smile.

Nephis wiped off the sweat from her forehead and took a deep breath, still hiding her emotions under her monotone mask.

"Let's just get going. You said that we can't waste time, remember?"