After that first hunt, where Nephis had chosen to give most of the spoils away, she led them on several more. Not all of those hunts went as smoothly, but they did manage to return victorious, if a little battered. Every time, she paid Effie her share of the meat, took a small amount for them to consume, and gave the rest to the people of the outer settlement free of charge.
Because of how little their own share was, the group was forced to hunt every other day instead of once or twice a month. That worked well in Lucien's favour; he was earning storm fragments at an acceptable pace.
With the well of knowledge that the unruly huntress possessed, Luciens' storm sense, and Sunless' nimble shadow, the party rarely met anything they weren't ready to face. This gave them an incredible advantage over all other hunting parties of the outer settlement, and even some of Gunlaug's own.
Soon, their flawless and intense track record earned the cohort reputation and renown. The people considered them to be nothing short of the strongest hunters in the slum. Many even believed that Changing Star and her people were in no way inferior to the Hunters of the Bright Castle.
Nephis herself was known to be a fearsome fighter ever since her dramatic duel with Andel. Effie had the reputation as one of the outer settlement's best from a long time ago. Lucien had been well known as the mad hunter who hunted every day. Handsome and capable Caster quickly won respect and adoration thanks to his amiable personality, noble bearing, and skill.
The four of them were considered to be the core of the party, with Cassie and Sunless existing somewhere on the periphery. People loved Cassie because Neph had entrusted her with the responsibility of handing out the free meat.
Lucien still went on his solo hunts every other day; he was not going to halve the speed at which he gained storm fragments just because he was in a cohort now.
On one of those days, he noticed Sunless quietly practicing his katas in a dark corner, with only the whistle of the blade giving him away. His blade halted mid-swing as Lucien approached.
"What do you want?"
Lucien hesitated for a moment; he had to pick his words wisely with Sunless, who was quick to anger.
"Aren't you bored, scouting with your shadows and standing in the back every hunt?"
'That didn't sound friendly.' He cursed inwardly.
Sunless scoffed, "What are you trying to say?"
"You're stagnating," Lucien said after a while, "I can count the number of times you've drawn your sword mid-battle with one hand. You're getting rusty."
Sunless snapped towards him, Midnight Shard whistled through the air and stopped mere inches before Lucien's throat.
"Why do you care if I'm stagnating? If you're worried about me, it's definitely not out of the goodness of your own heart."
Lucien scowled, "Of course not."
"Then why?"
"Because I need you to be strong." He hesitated before adding, "I need everyone in our cohort to be strong. If we're to beat the Fallen Terror, we cannot afford to be weak."
Sunless smiled. There it was, the true intention behind why Lucien had approached him.
"I'm going to hunt," Lucien said, pushing the blade away carefully. Sunless allowed his blade to fall, then whipped the sharp edge towards Lucien's throat again.
"What does that have to do with me?"
Lucien sighed, "I wanted to ask you to join me in this hunt."
Sunless narrowed his eyes. What was he planning?
"I don't think you're the type to sit on the sidelines, letting someone else do all the fighting. I'm sure you have your reasons. Whatever they are, by joining me, you won't fall behind the cohort." He continued, "Plus, it's not a bad idea to have someone watching my back. The Dark City is not the safest place to hunt alone."
Sunless frowned, "Why not Nephis, or even Caster?"
"I don't trust Caster; everything he says screams 'fake'." He scowled and looked away. "I trust Nephis even less; every word she says feels less and less genuine. She clearly has an ulterior motive, the way she's puppeteering the people of the outer settlement. Whatever it is, I refuse to become a pawn in her arsenal."
Sunless scowled, "And you think I'm more trustworthy than them?"
Lucien laughed, "Hah, gods no. You're perhaps the least trustworthy out of everyone there."
He smiled bitterly, "Yet you still came to me, why?"
Lucien shrugged, "Well, you don't grind my gears like Caster does, nor do you manipulate others like Nephis does. Don't get me wrong; you're not some pariah compared to those two. But whatever motivations you have are inherently selfish and predictable. At least I can surmise whatever scheme you're cooking up before I find myself on the receiving end of it. So you're my best choice."
"Some choices you've got." He scoffed, but he couldn't refute his claims. He sighed, "Fine, I'll join you. But if you try anything-"
"Yeah, yeah, you'll end my life. What's new?" Lucien interrupted, "Now, shall we leave?"
Between the two of them, the journey into the Dark City was as smooth as ever. Few nightmare creatures could approach the duo without alerting at least one of them; before long, they found themselves deep in the city. They had set their eyes—figuratively, of course—on a target. Lucien pointed Sunless to the source of the corruption while the latter sent his own senses in that direction. Before long, Sunless spoke in a hushed tone.
"It appears to be a mix between a lion and an eagle. It has two arms, a pair of wings, and a spiked tail. It hasn't caught our scent yet, but it's slowly coming our way.'"
Lucien nodded, visualizing the beast in his mind. "It's an awakened creature."
Sunny stared at him in expectant silence for a few moments before he spoke. "What's the plan?"
"I usually just lure them to a favorable area and fight them head on," He admitted, then thought for a moment before adding, "With Nephis, though, I went for the pincer approach with her tanking the attacks from the front and me finishing up in the rear."
"Well, I'm not Nephis."
"No shit, really?" Lucien mocked, eliciting a glare from the boy-who-was-not-nephis.
Ignoring it, he continued. "I'll be the lure while you attack it from behind. If you can't end it swiftly, target the wings. We cannot allow it to take flight."
Sunless stayed silent with a sour expression on his face, but nodded nonetheless. Without wasting a moment, Lucien jumped out of their hiding spot and flared his soul essence, laying the bait. A few moments later, the lithe mass came into view.
It fit Sunless' description; its body was golden-brown and furred with two pairs of legs. A pair of brown feathered wings ripped out of its back, and where its head was supposed to be was an eagle's head with a razor-sharp beak. Its tail was at least a meter long with a triangular piece of bone attached to its end.
It cawed loudly from atop the ruined wall and jumped down. Its massive brown wings spread open, slowing its fall to a glide.
Lucien turned and ran, a thin layer of purple lightning covering his legs. He sped towards a small building, aiming to corner the harrowing avian in its quarters. The monster was getting closer to him, just as he wanted it to. He saw Sunless following them from the corner of his eye.
Then, something changed; the corruption suddenly shifted, and Sunless' eyes widened. "Watch out!"
In that split second, Lucien willed all of his 'storm' to enhance his speed and nothing else. The world slowed to a crawl.
Lucien turned his head, coming face to face with the sharp beak of the monster. It had closed its wings and committed to a full dive, madness gleaming in its eyes as it hurtled downwards in an attempt to reach him.Its metallic beak was mere centimeters from his face, getting closer by the second.
In his panic, Lucien jumped sideways with all his strength. A few moments later, he let out a stream of curses as he catapulted away.
Sunless watched in dismay as Lucien's body blurred into a purple streak and zoomed out of his field of view. In the distance, something crashed into a stone wall.
'Damnation!' He cursed. He was alone, and he had just lost his element of surprise. The denizen of the Dark City turned its monstrous head and stared at him, its eyes seething with madness.
Sunless raised Midnight Shard and dove towards the nearest shadow. Hiding his presence in their embrace, he observed his enemy and hastily shifted inside the shadows cast by the broken walls. The monster had already reached its original position and was stabbing the shadow with its beak, searching for its hapless prey.
Useless, Lucien was absolutely useless. He had left him to deal with the monster alone. He knew he shouldn't have agreed to come with him.
'Calm down.' He took a deep breath in. He could kill the monster; he just needed to find its weakness. If he could get behind it somehow and drive Midnight Shard through the back of his neck…
He ordered his shadow to enhance himself as the monster came closer; he would only have one chance. He could feel his muscles getting stronger as the shadow nestled into his body. And as the monster came in front of him, he lunged with all he had and raised the dark blade upwards.
Metal tore through feathered flesh and lodged itself deep into the ribcage of the monster, who recoiled back in pain and cawed hoarsely. Taking this opportunity, Sunless pushed himself off the blade and jumped onto the monster's back. The black blade disappeared in a shower of sparks.
Sunless raised both his arms, as if imitating holding a blade upside down, and white sparks began materializing around them. But he had forgotten one thing: the monster had wings. The dark wings unfurled, nearly throwing Sunless off its back. He had to cancel summoning the blade, lest he end up stabbing himself. All he could do then was to wrap his arms around the monster's neck and squeeze.
The beast squealed as it thrashed around, and for a moment, Sunless thought he would be thrown off. And that exact moment was stretched out as time slowed to a crawl once more.
A streak of purple tore through the ruins and stopped in front of the monster. Lucien glared at the monster. Blood dripping from a deep gash in his cheek. The jump had sent him crashing into a ruined house, and if it weren't for his stone armor, it would have killed him. He saw Sunless barely hanging on to it, one of his arms gripped the neck of the monster, whilst the other was flailing around. He would be thrown off soon.
Lucien lunged at the ruined wall, using it as a pedestal to jump high enough to look at the monster eye to eye, and raised his spear to stab. In that instant, he willed all of his storm to go to the spear, wreathing it in a purple glow. Time resumed its usual pace, and the stone spear shot through the air and pierced the raven's head, killing it.
[You have slain an awakened monster, Chimeric Aquilla]
[Your storm roars wilder.]
Its body shuddered, and fell down sideways, throwing Sunny into the wall.
Lucien walked up to him and offered a hand, "You good?"
"Where did you run off to bastard?" He ignored the hand and pushed himself up, glaring at Lucien.
"I may or may not have crashed into a building a mile away." He said sheepishly, "I came back as fast as I could though."
"And stole the kill." He grumbled and walked towards the corpse.
Lucien smirked, "Just be faster next time, then."
Sunless glared at him for a moment and then turned towards the corpse, "Help me extract the soul cores, damn you."
Holding back a laugh, Lucien summoned his own sword to cut open the monster. Gods knew he could eat right now.
They returned two soul cores richer and with two sacks full of meat.
On the way back, Sunless reluctantly asked, "Are you going to give all this meat away like Nephis does?"
Lucien stared at him as if he'd lost his mind, "Hell no, we worked for this. This is for us alone."
Sunless grinned. At least someone in their cohort was still sane.
"That it is."
They settled into that routine. Every other day, the two of them would go hunting alone and return with their own spoils. The rest of the days, they'd go as a cohort and do as Nephis said.
But things were changing, with Nephis at the center of all.
After each hunt, Changing Star would provide the dwellers of the slum with free food. At first, they treated her with distrust, then with gratitude, and finally with something akin to reverence. The strange light that Lucien had noticed in their eyes after that first time was slowly growing brighter and brighter.
Some people even started jokingly calling her "Saint Nephis", as though she was some sort of an angel. However, these words strangely contained less and less humor with each day.
As time went by, more and more random people joined their group. They weren't hunters, just forlorn young men and women from the outer settlement who wanted to help. They tended to monster hides that the cohort brought back from the hunts, maintained various tools and gear that needed to be used, assisted Cassie with handing out food, and did other kinds of small but useful things.
Soon, the ramshackle was full of them. Lucien knew most of them, but he didn't really talk to them. They did their thing, and he did his. Such was the way of things.
Despite Lucien's attempts, Sunless couldn't help but feel like he was becoming a stranger in his own home. It seemed as though every day, someone new would appear, acting as if they had always been a part of the group. What's worse, not all of them seemed to know who he was, either. No once and not twice, someone would smile at him and ask in a friendly tone: "Are you new?"
What's worse, these new people really made him uncomfortable. He wasn't really sure of whether they were Changing Star's helpers, or if they were her followers.
Were they loyal, or… devout?
…One night after a couple of weeks of this, he was suddenly woken by Cassie tugging on his sleeve. The blind girl was whispering: "Sunny! Wake up!"
A moment later, he was already on his feet, ready to summon the Midnight Shard. A light coming from the other room told him that Nephis was awake, too.
"What's wrong?"
Cassie covered the candle she was holding in her hand and answered in a worried voice: "Something… something is coming from the road. I've dreamt of it."
"An awakened," Lucien said, barging in. "If you're warning us about this, then it must be at least a demon."
Sunless simply nodded, gripped Cassie's shoulder to reassure her, and walked outside with Lucien.
Since their lodge was on the edge of the slum, right in front of the entrance of the ancient road, they had no choice but to fight.
That night, the four of them — Changing Star, Sunless, Lucien, and Caster — battled a devil that had wandered up the hill and fought it off before it could reach the outer settlement.
When dawn came, terrified people walked out of their hovels on shaking legs and saw the horrible marks left on the white stones by the beast's claws, as well as puddles of blood, both human and that of a monster, steaming in the morning cold.
They also saw Changing Star leaning tiredly on her silver sword. The morning sun shone behind her, wreathing her in golden light.
Lucien stifled a yawn as he walked up to Sunless, "You see it too right? What she's doing?"
Sunless nodded. Back when he was describing to Nephis why Gunlaug could never be defeated, he had told her that every facet of life here was under his control: food, safety, hope, fear, even power itself.
Now, Changing Star had given these people food. By protecting the outer settlement, she had given them safety. She had even given them hope.
There was also the fear that the inhabitants of the castle felt after Neph had easily beheaded one of their Pathfinders.
All that remained was power.
"She's becoming another Gunlaug." Lucien whispered.
"Fight fire with fire as they say." Sunless said, but his words sounded hollow.
A/N : Sorry for the late update, end sems were a bitch. I'm back now though, and updates will be regular again.