Athena gulped the saliva in her mouth.
In her frail right hand was a long spear, its pole made from strong wood, and the spearhead was pointy and sharp, good for both thrusting and cutting. In her left hand is a round, medium-sized shield made from an enchanted wood.
She glanced down; both her arms and legs were trembling.
How could she not be scared?
This would be her first time killing a nightmare creature, if she didn't die first!
Athena was born with a broken body... her legs didn't work at all. To her family she was a burden, and even when others told her family to throw her away, they refused and took care of her.
Athena, or what her family called her, Effie, loved her family.
She didn't have anything—no friends, life, or future.
So, when she was infected by the nightmare spell, she didn't see it as a curse; no, she saw it as salvation, the only thing that could heal her broken body.
But how can appearances be deceiving. Her first nightmare showed her why others called it a curse.
She barely survived her first nightmare and became a sleeper. Her family was happy she survived, as everyone thought she would die.
But then again, the nightmare spell struck again and summoned her to this shithole.
At least she was summoned directly inside the Dark City and later was saved by a group of hunters.
Others were not lucky like her...
And then everything happened so fast; she was afraid of fighting, so she wasn't able to pay the fee to live inside the Bright Castle, so she lived in the outskirts.
Thanks to her flaw, she was barely able to survive the first three months, but then someone came to the Dark City.
His legend of surviving the West and finding another citadel reached everyone.
To the people of the outskirts, he was their savior; he brought food and defended them against the nightmare creatures, and that man told her she had the potential to be one of the strongest in the Dark City.
So when the Bright Lord ordered them to fight against the horde of abominations, for the first time she had the courage to hold a weapon.
But having courage doesn't mean she wasn't scared, not at all. She might be the most scared of all sleepers today!
Taking her sight away from her hands, she looked around. Hundreds of sleepers stood in a formation holding their weapon.
The sleeper army was divided into three units; the first one in the front is where the outskirts sleepers were stationed in the front to absorb the force of the abominations; behind them were the castle guards standing straight like soldiers.
The second unit was made from the hunters and pathfinders; they are the most adapted to fighting abominations even in large numbers, so Gunlung was planning to use them as his trump card.
The third unit was made from archers from every faction and was where most of the handmaidens were stationed.
As Effie was lost on seeing the army of sleepers, a voice woke her up.
"Frontline, raise your shields and prepare for the impact! Castle guards, raise your spears."
It was Tessai, leader of the castle guard.
Effie quickly looked in front and saw the nightmare creatures growing nearer every second.
She held her shield like her life depended on it—well, it did.
Finally, Effie was able to see the horrendous and vile appearance of the abominations.
And just like her, others were able to see it.
Fear and terror struck the sleeper army, especially those who never held a weapon to fight, and Effie was one of them.
With the nightmare creatures only around a kilometer away from the sleeper army, Effie heard a woman's voice from behind.
"Shoot!"
Above her, arrows flew in the sky and then descended on the nightmare creatures.
Unfortunately none of them died in the attack, but some were injured and fell down and were crushed by other nightmare creatures.
But that number was so little it didn't make any difference.
"Prepare for impact!" As Tessai's sound echoed in the frontlines, the nightmare creatures finally reached the sleeper army.
And chaos erupted.
Some were crushed under the force of the attack, and some were able to withstand it. Effie was among the last, barely.
The sheer force made her kneel; her hand was in so much pain that she wanted to cry, but she held on.
From behind her a spear thrust at the horse head of the nightmare creature, plunging deep into its skull.
The monster fell dead, and Effie was finally able to stand up. She looked behind for a second to see the guard looking at her.
"Bitch, what are you looking at?! More are coming!"
Effie raised her shield and spear again, not even caring that the guard just insulted her for no reason.
She gulped her saliva and thrust the spear at another nightmare creature.
The spear missing its target struck the horns of its horse head. The abomination with its other head full of razor-sharp teeth tried to eat Effie in one attack, but she dodged to the right.
Effir then attacked with every power she had and cut the first head into two parts.
The abomination screamed and attacked Effie using the horns on its head.
Effie raised her shield trying to block it, but the sheer force of the attack made her trip and fall down.
Fortunately, she was able to hold on to her shield.
The monster then raised its two front legs and tried to crush Effie beneath it.
Seeing this, Effie threw her spear and held the shields with her two hands, blocking the monster's legs from crushing her head.
Thanks to her aspect ability, which boosted her strength, speed, agility, endurance, and resilience, she was able to hold on.
The bull-like abomination stopped for a second, wanting to see if the creature beneath it was dead.
Effie used that opportunity and rolled away; she then rose up and attacked one of the knees of the abomination's legs, breaking it.
The abomination, not able to withstand its own weight, dropped down, letting Effie attack its neck using the shield multiple times, crushing it completely.
She only stopped when the voice of the spell whispered to her ears.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Degenerated Bull.]
[You have received a Memory, Great Stars.]
Effie looked down at her hands filled with the abomination's blood; she, for the first time, has slain a nightmare creature.
Unfortunately, she didn't have the time to celebrate, as more abominations were attacking other sleepers.
She summoned her new memory, and then a huge bludgeon covered with large spikes materialized in her right hand.
Effie looked at the weapon for a second, then at her hand... it wasn't shaking anymore.
She was still afraid, but... she felt something inside her change.
Effie rose up, threw her shield away, wielded her bludgeon in her two hands, and lunged at another abomination.