It was near impossible to tell apart the difference in weather of that part of the Dream Realm. There was no moon, and no stars.
Yet, when Percy said with full surety that there would be a storm, the others believed him readily.
It did not take long for the winds to pick up as well. And within less than an hour, they were in the midst of a thunderstorm.
Thunder struck the dark sea dozens of times in a span of few minutes. And in turn, the sea level was also rising.
The part of the hill that was clearly dry, was now submerged in the sea. And, waves were sweeping the upper surface of the hill completely.
With big enough waves, it seemed like the entirety of the hill was swept under water.
Everything in this part of hell was deadly, and was trying its level best to get them all killed.
The winds were so fast that they could carve a stone that got in their way. And, with the way that debris by flying by them, and the way some of the rocks were rolling around and were being swept under water pressure, things did not look favourable for them at all.
And even more, to add to the tension, some nightmare creatures started clawing their way to the top surface of the hill. A few seemed to be Carapace Scavengers, and some looked like centaurs; just with a head like that of a crab, and pincers in place of hands.
They Sleepers were barely holding themselves together at the top of hill, and things were not going their way.
Sunny saw this all happen.
Right in front of him, Cassie was barely holding herself on the hill. Ever oncoming wave of the dark sea was torture of the blind girl. She was blind, and could not perceive when to hold her breath and when not to; and even all this put together made up for only half the troubles that the girl was having.
Even the wind was cruel to her. …She was just too small, and perhaps too light as well.
Well, looking at the girl did not fill him with confidence either. Even if his skin had started to gain some color with his time in the Academy, he was not fit either. And, faced the same problems as faced by Cassie.
His only saving grace was that when he wrapped his shadow around himself, he felt like he could hold his own for the time being.
In front of him, he saw Nephis pressing down on Cassie with her body. And that helped the blind girl to some extent.
To his left, Percy seemed like, he was unbothered the least. He seemed more worried about the wind, than the sea itself. And, was the second only to Sunny in noticing the presence of approaching monsters. Sunny believed that the boy had some kind of vision ability as well.
Soon Nephis noticed as well. Sunny suspected that with her, it was more about the presence than the eyesight itself. But overall, it was good that she noticed as well.
There were about ten nightmare creatures at the top of hill at the moment. And, it seemed like the creatures could feel their presence as well. Yet not all of them moved to have a share of their flesh.
Only four did.
Percy was the first one to react to the intent of the nightmare creatures. But rather than rushing towards the monsters to eliminate them, he crouched near Sunny, and then dragged him forcefully towards the place where the girls were huddling together.
And then, he threw Sunny unceremoniously over the girls. Which earned Sunny a punch to his face from Nephis and a kick to his ribs by Cassie.
Although it was not his fault at all, it was not a punishment that he could escape from. Therefore, he accepted it willingly, although he was never given a choice to begin with.
Sunny could at least say that the hit by Cassie was unintentional…possibly.
"Take care of the girl!" Percy yelled near Sunny's ears and then turned to Nephis. "And you, come with me."
Nodding at Percy, Nephis rose up and summoned her blade. With that, they started walking towards the nightmare creatures that were moving towards them.
Sunny would not call what Nephis and Percy were doing walking. They were crouching down and moving o all four of their limbs.
The wind was just too fast. And, one moment of carelessness, and they would be swept away by the dark sea.
Sunny thought of the possibility that a stray rock flying to them, and would bust their head open.
He smiled at the thought. And then shook his head and chided himself over the stupid things that were going on in his head.
Percy ad Nephis took on one of each kind of monsters, and killed them. the outcome was not completely unexpected.
He had seen Percy fight himself. The boy was fast and really good with a sword. And, even better than that, he knew just when to dodge and step back. Although his swordsmanship looked a bit like the work of a brute fighter, he was great at what he was doing.
As for Nephis, that girl came from a Legacy clan. Had a True Name and what not. Yet when compared to Percy her skills fell short in some way. Her swordsmanship was better, and her sword had a longer reach. She seemed like someone who was well-trained, and was more verse in fighting humans than she was apt at fighting monsters.
And, perhaps that was the reason why it was Percy who came out completely unscathed in the fight. No injuries, no bruises and no harm.
Nephis did not have any serious injuries as well. But she was a little bruised. One of the pincers of the scythe-legged monsters had nearly got her, but she survived well enough.
Sunny praised them for their commendable skills and ability to fight in this kind of weather.
But just because they had dealt with the monsters that had moved forward to harm them did not mean that they alone were the threat. There were still other monsters there who were alive and well.
The only solace was that it did not look like they sought to harm them just yet.
Other than the four that were dead, there were six more. But instead of joining into the hunt of humans, the six had holed themselves up in their shells, as if their dread of the sea was more than their desire of some easy meal.
When the storm would calm down, everyone was aware of just who their killing intent would be directed towards. The best strategy would have been to strike at them first when the storm ends and they come out of their tough shell.
But Percy had some other ideas.
He walked towards a Carapace Scavenger that had receded in its shell, and pushed the shell off of the hill, and into the dark sea.
Seeing that, Nephis joined in and did the same for all the other monsters as well.
Either the sea would take those nightmare creatures away, or the monsters that lived in the dark sea would mark their end. It was a good ending overall.
After taking care of the monsters, Percy and Nephis laid down wherever they were, and waited for the storm to pass.
It took the storm a good hour after the fight had ended to calm down.
All four of them were tired to their bones. Some for more concerning reasons than the others.
"You should get some sleep. I will take the first watch." Percy said proposing to take the first watch. No one refuted what the boy said, except Nephis. It was more like she tried to, but without even asking, she was shot down by Percy.
Sunny wanted to propose to take the first watch himself. Yet he was just too tired to say anything. He just commanded his shadow to wake him up if there was any trouble, and drifted to sleep. And, the two girls followed his suit.
By the time they were up, the sun had already risen. They woke up to the sound of the receding dark sea.
Sunny just happened to be the first one to do so. He looked at the person still at watch and sighed heavily.
"You should have woken one of us up."
"I don't think that I have it within me to fall asleep just yet."
Acknowledging that bantering with this one was not going to get him anywhere, he chose to focus on other things.
He started out by starting a small campfire. It was day anyway. And, with the monsters they had killed last night, they would have more than enough meat.
By the time Sunny had started the fire, Nephis had woken up as well.
She got down to carving the meat off of the monsters that Percy and she killed last night. She also retrieved the soul shards from the corpses on the hill and let them be for the time being, and started cooking the meat.
Although the food, as good as it could be, was ready, no one had any dire desire of eating that food. It was not that they were not hungry. They were just too tired, too sore, and too strained to get the deed done and over with.
Cassie joined them in their small communal brooding session.
With nothing to do or talk about, Nephis broached the subject of distributing the soul shards between Percy and herself.
Two for each. For their respective kills.
"…I don't even know what those things are."
Hearing what Percy just said, Nephis and Cassie could only look at the boy with a look of uncontained shock on their face.
"Sunny was telling the truth!? You truly don't know what Nightmare Spell is!?"
Cassie could not help but cry out in surprise.
Hearing Cassie talk in such a manner was a surprise for Sunny as well.
And, to some extent, he was glad that the information had such a reaction from both of them.
'See for yourself just how bizarre the boy is.'
It took a great amount of self-control to not just yell that out.
In the out-skirts, Sunny had seen quite some weird things. He had seen events unfold that would make a sane person question his sanity, and an insane one his wisdom.
Just what rock would one have to live under to not even know of the Nightmare Spell?
And the boy who was saying such weird things did not even look like the sorts who liked to snort some powder up his nose.
'Is that his Flaw? He keeps forgetting about things?'
"W-Wait, let me look at you."
Sunny looked at Cassie who was looking at Percy as if she was looking at some kind of strange creature. And a small distance away, Nephis had a dazed look on her face.
Seeing Nephis like that was unnerving for some reason.
In the meantime, he watched as Cassie reached towards Percy.
'…Now, this is strange.'
Cassie did tell them about her ability that gave her some insight about the attributes and abilities of a person, and seeing as she was able to conform some of his abilities forthright, that ability of hers was a great boon, and for more than just that particular reason.
And he had noticed that the ability of hers did not need any kind of contact between a person and her for it to work.
Yet the things right now were quite different.
Like, how Cassie was cradling Percy's face in his trembling hands.
Also she had crawled over to her and was positioned right over his lap.
Sunny looked at the people that had no sense of decorum and time, and cursed inwardly.
'Damn. …Lucky Bastard.'