Running forwards, Galahad swung his staff against the rotating Yellow tail. But the moment the two made contact, he was instantly being pushed back, and horriblly so.
His feet were sliding back, and he couldn't keep a firm grip on the ground no matter how much he tried. He even thought that his own arms would break just from the sheer pressure that was falling on them, but still, he showed no hint of worry or fear.
"Well, if one of me isn't enough, then how about two?!"
A puff of white smoke exploded next to him, and emerging from it was another human who looked identical to him in every way. He was even wearing the same memories, and that anyoing grin of his.
He too joined in, pushing his black staff against the rolling creature. And although it was effective, the creature only slowed down a little.
Galahads Dormant ability was a simple one. He could clone himself as much as he liked, although with certain limits.
As it stood, Galahad could create one perfect clone at a time. However, if he made anymore than that, his strength would be split amongst them at any ratio he preferred.
If he created 3 clones, two would possess only half his original power, and if he created 4, all of them would possess half.
Even his memories too, would grow weaker the more they were cloned.
So as it stood, there was nothing left he could do. Even if he made another clone, his strength would be split, his movements would grow sluggish and the opposing force acting on the creature wouldn't change.
But soon enough, he noticed an obvious flaw this creature had.
'Oh, I see.'
Before he could act any further, Epsilon dashed forwards, appearing at the yellow tails side.
'2 weeks.'
With his dormant ability already active, he smashed the sphere of white light right into its side, causing it to loose its balance and tip over.
Moving rotating objects were easier to slow down when a force was acting on their side. Especially a wheel shaped one like the large yellow tail.
It sprawled out on the floor, briefly exposing it's underside. Taking advantage of it, Ki Song who slashed at it with her sword, leaving a small tear in its underbelly.
This creature was still a monster, so cutting at it was much more difficult than it's smaller counter parts.
But her own dormant ability took over, and what was once a shallow cut, quickly became a gash that poured with it's own white blood.
The yellow tail quickly got up on its two feet, swinging it's tail forcing, them all to move back. But it was obvious that the injury made it slower, and that it couldn't curl up into a sphere again.
'Should I try to break it's shell?'
Instead, Gracia took the initiative as she flew straight under it in her sword form. She pierced the open wound, tearing it open and forcing it wider.
Even more of it's blood continued to pour out, as it started to make a strange gargle sound. It was drowning in its own blood.
Eventually, it ceased it's movements before collapsing to the ground. It was defeated.
The second it died, Ki Song ran up to Galahad before delivering a punch straight to his gut. However, she did not account for the black armour in the way and ended up hurting her knuckle.
Blowing on her fist, she shouted,
"What the hell is your problem!?"
Galahad looked at her innocently.
"Did I do something wrong?"
"Did you do something wrong!?! Of course you did something wrong! You almost got us all killed you bloody idiot!"
He tilted his head, seemingly confused. He looked back at the dead creature, before looking at Ki Song again.
"What? But it's dead. We won, everything is fine."
"That's because things worked out you moron! If we all got hit earlier, what do you think would've happend!? Epsilon has no armour like you, and even what I'm wearing is very light, we all could've been seriously hurt!"
But still, the look in his eyes didn't change. There wasn't even a hint of sympathy, nor care in them.
"Do you not care if you even get hurt?!"
He bluntly replied,
"No, not really."
But he continued,
"And whether or not you guys die isn't my problem either."
They knew he was brash, but this was something else entirely.
"So if we die, how do you plan to get out of here exactly?"
"I don't really care if I die too."
"Great, so you're a moron AND suicidal."
He just shrugged. Then, turning to Epsilon he asked.
"What do you think? Do my words and actions seem strange to you too? Or do you think I'm just lying?"
Epsilon took a slight step back, but he raised his head and looked right back at him. They made eye contact, and so he found himself stuck staring at his pitch black pupils with odd yellow stars in each of them.
But stareing even deeper inside, Epsilon saw his soul. It was glowing, radiating with a similar, but very different light compared to Smile Of Heaven.
If hers was all encompassing, passionate and kind, then his was incinerating, harsh and violent.
It didn't matter who you were, if you were to fall under it, you'd probably burn alive. It was straight to the point, and brutally..
'..honest.'
It didn't matter if it was a secret that should be taken to the grave, Galahad was the type of person to say it if he were asked by even a random passerbyer.
That was the truth that Epsilon could read from his Soul.
"Can you atleast explain yourself?"
"Does it need an explanation? The same way you people eat when you're hungry and sleep when you're tired, I need to fight while my battle spirit is burning. It's just another instinct that you perform without thinking, it doesn't matter why, and the way it's executed is irrelevant too. Fighting against it is pointless, and denying it is rejecting who I truly am. Until that thirst is satisfied, I won't everstop."
Ki Song then shouted, her voice filled with frustration and annoyance,
"So you're just an overly pretentious selfish idiot then?"
She was just about to try attack him again, but then Epsilon quickly got in her way. Of course that didn't stop her, she was just about to barge right past, if Epsilon didn't enhance himself with his dormant ability.
"Move it! I'm gonna knock some sense into this guy!"
"I wouldn'tve been able to knock it over if Galahad didn't slow it down first. Just forgive him this once, please?"
But the he leaned in a little closer, and whispered in her ear,
"That stubbornness of his might just be his flaw. Let's just tolerate it and how it goes."
Epsilon was starting to get a clear picture of Cohorts dynamic. Ki Songs logical way of doing things, heavily conflicted with Galahads who acted on self fulfilment.
Smile Of Heaven then called out,
"Hey! How about we sort through these corpses instead? We can figure out what to do after."
Ki Song grunted, before sighing and backing down. Arguing with him any further would just be a headache.
Before they started though, Gracia quickly flew over to Epsilon.
"I got a little something for you. Touch my handle really quick."
Epsilon reached out and grabbed it, but after a while, nothing happened.
"Huh... I was sure that would work.. Oh well."
**
After dismantling the corpses, they were able to obtain piles of meat, their sturdy Carapace, and most importantly, their Soul Shards.
"15 from that horde.. and 2 from that monster.. 17 Awakened Soul Shards."
Ki Song split them into four piles, but then Gracia said,
"My Soul Core is already saturated. Ya know, legacy benefits."
The same was true for Galahad, but Ki Song oddly, still took her portion of the pile.
'Hasn't she been absorbing shards since I met her?'
It was probably because of her clans situation. But she still had a strange amount of memories.
'Very odd.'
Eventually, there was an extra Soul Fragment left. Epsilon offered it to Ki Song, but she rejected.
"My core is still more saturated than yours. And besides, you're the only one who can use Soul Essence, right? You'll benefit from it more than me."
Well, her logic was sound. Accepting it, Epsilon took the extra Soul Fragment and ended up with 9 in his pile.
Picking up one, Epsilon smashed it with his sheer grip, breaking it into pieces.
Soul Fragments: [372/1000]
He froze.
'Is my memory right? I could've sworn I had 368 before..'
Picking up and smashing another one, he read his runes once more.
Soul Fragments: [376/1000]
Epsilon was a sleeper, so for every awakened shard he absorbed, he should be receiving 2 fragments.
'But if I'm reading this right.. I'm getting 4???'
Concerned, Epsilon picked up and continued to smash the rest with a faint sense of excitement. Everytime he did, he rushed to check his counter, just to see that it went up by 4 each time to his joy.
Soul Fragments: [404/1000]
He smiled, before letting out a quiet laugh, until it exploded into a maniacal cackle.
Everyone threw him a weird look, but he was overflowing with so much happiness that he didn't even notice.
'Cheat! I'm a cheater! This attribute is such a cheat!'
He now knew for certain, that he grew twice as fast as the average sleeper from Soul Fragments compared to normal ones.
'And it's all thanks to you, [███]!'
But just as much as it was a blessing, it could also be a curse. He still had no clue of what it really was, and the mysterious promise associated with it.
'Honestly, what the hell even are you?'
**
After a while, Ki Song set up a small fire to cook the meat. Offering him some skewers she asked,
"Aren't you hungry?"
Epsilon waved his hand in rejection,
"Nah I'm fine. Let's not waste any food if we can."
But this only made her even more worried.
'I haven't seen him eat for a week. Well.. he seems fine... Mabye I'm just over thinking it.'
Epsilon's soul essence quickly recovered, but he attributed it to him having a tiny pool in the first place. Once everyone was ready though, they quickly picked up the pace and started to travel again. Of course, they encounterd more Nightmare Creatures as expected, but cleaning them up quickly wasn't an issue.
Epsilon found himself growing stronger too, and he even earned himself a new memory.
'An actual armour... Finally!"
Memory: [Scholars Wear]
Memory type: Armour
Memory Rank: Awakened
Memory Description: [One day, a Scholar accompanied by a knight journeyed to investigate their new environment. Unfortunately, they did not return.]
It was a very light leather armour that was dyed black. It was far more durable then the garments he had before, and it fit on top of them nicely too.
Soul Fragments: [436/1000]
Seeing that number go up filled him with a strange ecstasy. But that feeling instantly disappeared once the group came across a trail of blood.
It was white, meaning that it belonged to the yellow tails, but when Ki Song checked it, she confirmed that it was fresh.
"They're close."
Quickly they advanced further ahead, and as they did, the trails of blood began to grow until they started coming across decapitated limbs, then eventually entire corpses.
But once they finally made it to the end, what Epsilon saw made him freeze.
There was a large mound of yellow tail corpses, but at the foot of them was a young boy no older than himself.
He had disheveled dark hair, and was wearing fancy looking black and red armour that was on the brink of destruction. He was covered in blood, and not just that of the yellow tails, but obviously his own. Yet despite being seemingly dead, he had a strong grip on his sword.
They all recognised him from just a glance.
Ki Song quickly rushed up to Anvil, checking on his pulse. The moment she touched his wrist though, Anvils empty grey eyes opened wide awake, as his sword immediately thrusted right at her neck.
Grabbing her by the collar, Epsilon quickly dragged her back, as the sword passed through the now empty space.
"What the Spell is wrong with you!?!"
His eyes darted across each of them. First getting a better look at Ki Song whom he almost killed, and then Epsilon, Smile Of Heaven who he had to squint his eyes for, and then Galahad who looked lost at the back.
Seeing him made him a bit hesitant, but he recognized that they weren't a threat.
He muttered in a weak voice,
"My... Apologies."
Quickly, Ki Song dismantled his armour without destroying it, exposing his injuries beneath. There were multiple bruises, which were most likely injuries he sustained from yellow tails and other types of Nightmare Creatures, but the wounds that were the most severe..
"These are all sword wounds... Who did you fight? And where is Sylas??"
Raising a hand, he lifted his finger with all his might before pointing at the darkness even further ahead.
"Sylas... Creature... Turn... Around..."
Immediately after, he passed out. For real this time.
Epsilon immediately looked at Garcia, and for a moment, he swore he saw her light flicker for just a brief moment.
Then he turned back to the ever growing darkness, and so he immediately came to a decision.
Anvil was injured, Sylas wasn't present. It was wise to assume he was dead.
"I'm going further down."
Ki Song obviously objected.
"What? Just to check on that corpse? If he's dead, you're just going to risk getting killed by whatever he was killed by."
Unfortunately she was correct, but there was also something else to consider. Gracia spoke,
"You're right, but these blade wounds means that it was Sylas who attacked him, right? There's a chance that a mind hex forced him to do it."
"If it was a mind hex, then that's all the more of a reason as to why he's dead! Let's just take Anvil and get out of here!"
"Mabye.. but for some reason, the mind hex only affected Sylas. And since our culprit didn't even chase Anvil down to finish him off, then obviously this thing can only control a small number at a time, and in a limited radius. It must also be very territorial since it didn't follow him."
"So what your saying is, the Nightmare Creature that could be doing this, might be keeping him alive?"
She wasn't 100% sure herself. But it was the idea that she was most hopeful about.
Galahad already grinning then said,
"So in otherwords, theres a very unique Nightmare creature up ahead, and its controlling Sylas to make him fight us.."
Right after, he bursted straight ahead.
"Well, there's another reason to start walking. Finish treating Anvil and then wait for us to come back."