Sunny was hurt, battered, and his arms felt like they would fall off any minute now. Sunny and Neph felt the wind in their faces as Sunny used [Prowling Thorn] to swing from tree to tree, but Sunny cursed the speed they were going at. He had described what he had seen - the temple waking up and sprouting legs and what seemed to be a trail of dead bodies being consumed by the ground - and so he was more than anxious to get to the seed before most of them had caught up.
At least that's what past Sunny had hoped yesterday, as tomorrow's problem became today's when they failed to reach the seed in time. Nephis had stayed awake the entire time - even though he insisted on her resting since she'll need it and she was tied to him by [Evertwine] - keeping him company and sniping off creatures that tried to get close. They had been able to turn a two-day trip into a one-and-a-half-day trip, even with Nephis periodically rejuvenating his arms.
Nephis had also been preparing by casting her flames into [Nameless Sun] in case it was needed later. Sunny had put on [Weaver's Mask] to stop any divination attempts on him if any, but it didn't protect Nephis from them as well which made him more frustrated with the lack of preparation that they had actually done. They mostly hadn't gotten useful memory's ever since entering the jungle, and any memories they did have were junk Nephis stored in her soul sea since Saint could only receive half a fragment from awakened memories and one fragment from ascended memories, although the results varied for tiers like him and he wanted to save them in her sea in case they could become useful later.
It didn't pass Sunny that he and Saint were alike regarding getting shadow fragments from their proper sources, except that he could actually talk and get excited whenever he got a new core. Sunny wore [Mantle of the Underworld] since when he got his Demon core the rate at which he gained essence matched the rate he lost it to use it, but since he got his Devil core, he was actually able to produce more than was needed so he could finally use other enchantments at the same time. It had been useful since some of his newer weapons used essence to work like an ascended spear of the third rank that could shoot lightning and an awakened bow of the third tier that had infinite arrows if he could feed it enough essence.
Lost in his thoughts he failed to notice a swift shadow moving to their location until it launched itself towards them from their side. Panicking he let go [Prowling Thorn] as it tore through the thing string and went over them barely as they fell. Luckily, Nephis was already summoning [Dark Wings] as they soon landed on the ground within moments and they turned to the trees where a shadow soon landed in front of them.
To his shock, the shadow belonged to the monkey that had faced earlier in their adventure as its right hand was missing, leaving only a stump where Sunny had previously cut it off.
'Damnation!'
Sunny barely had any time to react as it ran towards them and was in front of them in seconds and he barely was able to dodge a swift swipe from its arm that was still strong enough to send him flying. Nephis wasn't so lucky as her armor was brutally clawed and barely held against its claws. Peering into its corrupted soul Sunny saw that it was now a Fallen Demon - previously only being an Awakened Monster - as it had overall gotten stronger.
Serpent slid off his arm before turning into a tachi and swiping at its skin... to only helplessly bounce off as it failed to cut through its tough skin, which had become the norm nowadays. Sunny scowled as they backed up to create space. He used [Death's eye] and noticed that its only semi-weak spot was areas near its head. He took off [Weaver's Mask] before speaking telepathically to Nephis.
'Neph, do you trust me?' He knew the answer to it so it was a redundant question.
'Yes, why?'
'I have a plan now, just swap with me!'
'If you say so, just try not to die, if you want.' Nephis said in a slightly confused tone. He only smiled at her attempt at not commanding him but wanting him not to be reckless.
Jumping back and rolling to dodge its attacks Sunny swapped out with Nephis as she came in flames blazing meeting its remaining claw head on. Sunny knew traditional means of killing it were ineffective considering even other Fallen Demons had more weak spots than it. So thinking on his feet he summoned a couple of memories on the fly: [Silent Thunder], [Surge of the Broken Will], and [Burden of the Hunt].
He had swapped out with Nephis because she could handle herself in a one-on-one fight with a fallen demon any day as long as it didn't have an affinity that countered her flames. They both had gotten stronger by the deadly crucible that was the Forgotten Shore and that hadn't stopped ever since. They could easily take out tens of awakened creatures - something that even some experienced cohorts would struggle against - and that was with Nephis alone. So he knew better than anyone that Nephis could handle herself as he prepared to kill that vile monkey.
As the memories took valuable moments to summon Sunny watched as Nephis used her quick footwork and agility to dodge the razor-sharp claws as she seemingly danced around it. Nephis had learned some of Sunny's own principles for his battle style as she was both flawless and grounded as she held her place but also moved around like a shadow. She constantly slashed at its hips and arms - but most likely learning from Sunny - it made sure she couldn't cut off any limbs.
He was somewhat mesmerized by her fighting as she made sure to keep the creature's attention on her only. It slashed and tried to go for her neck, and at times it did, but she always recovered and punished with a slash to the chest. Unlike Nephis it couldn't heal itself and allow any dismemberment so Nephis went purely on the offense, mostly abandoning defense. To anyone else, it would've looked reckless, calculated, and desperate as she tried to cause any damage whenever she could.
But he knew her better than anyone else so he knew that every scratch she took was calculated, every arm lost was planned.
Once the weapons he summoned materialized, he stabbed the head of the spear lightly into the dirt before loading and aiming an arrow that was already placed in the bow at its head. After a few moments, Nephis kicked the knees of the monkey which made its next moves predictable as it tried to stabilize itself. Sunny silently thanked Kai for the crude archery lessons he gave him as he hit its ear, but only shallowly piercing its head. That was fine though, he knew a bow wouldn't be able to kill it in one shot, and neither would they have enough time to make it to the seed if they had tried to kill it with a bow.
Instead, he shot at the outer ear allowing it to reach deeper into its head without much resistance, but it didn't kill it since both the bow and arrow were a rank lower. He used the time it was stunned as it grabbed its ear to transfer [Prowling Thorn] to Nephis before she started to swing away. Turning back, he saw it coming out of its short daze before turning to him and rushing towards him with terrifying speed and precision.
Sunny jumped back and created a platform of shadows just big enough to hold him as he continued to dodge attacks. This continued as Sunny continued to create space and shot an arrow at its arms and legs as it roared whether it pierced its skin or not. A few times it got a lucky hit on him that Sunny couldn't dodge in time but [Mantle of the Underworld] held every time. His essence started to deplete so eventually he led the creature back to where the spear was before punching it back and into the dirt by using [Feather of Truth] in unison with some essence. Before it could get up Sunny picked up the spear from the ground and stabbed it cleanly through its chest as it roared in pain. He activated its only enchantment which shot out lightning as it danced along the spear and onto the brute.
It tried to free itself but he had shot multiple times at its limbs before so its speed and armor decreased enough that he could pierce deeply at its upper arms and legs before it could try. Sunny felt relieved to see the creature that had given them trouble finally being put in its place as the smell of burning flesh filled the air. It struggled against the constraints as it roared and shook, possibly alerting more nightmare creatures to their location... but it was still going all according to plan. What wasn't a part of the plan was surviving the lighting part as long as it did.
He had to dismiss his armor to keep the enchantment going and his platform of shadows above the ground as it begrudgingly continued to persevere against all odds. Sighing Sunny felt disappointed that his plan to kill it had failed... but it was only plan A, he always had a backup plan considering how [Fated] always seemed to mess his first plan up.
'I guess it's time for plan B to happen.' He sighed before raising himself higher and using the shadows from the trees to hold him up.
Sunny hadn't simply been swinging from the trees because it was faster than running - although they indeed were - but because although he had changed, the lessons he learnt hadn't faded. One of those lessons he learned even before entering the Dream Realm was simple yet effective - if you can't kill a creature, get a bigger and stronger one to do it for you.
He could have also just used Saint to kill it, but Sunny didn't always want to rely on having Saint do all the work since it would do him more harm than good on self-reliance. He didn't want his skills to be rusty so he simply used his wits and smarts in order to outsmart the beast.
He had raised himself above the ground because he planned to allow the creature to be consumed by the creature that was seemingly the ground itself. Spreading out his shadow sense he sensed multiple shadows from creatures dropping to the ground. Smiling a ridiculous smile, he leaned on a shadow chair he conjured as he peered deeper into the world that Blood Weave allowed him to, and saw 4 dark cores filled with corruption seemingly embedded into the ground yet somehow moving towards them near the tree line.
It seemed that the monkey was familiar with the secretive creature or at least sensed it as it increased its efforts to escape his constraints to which Sunny had to keep shooting more arrows. He actually wanted it to struggle because from his observations it hunts its prey using vibrations in the ground. That was why he had given [Prowling Thorn] to Nephis to swing, and why he held himself above the ground.
Frowning after it started getting consumed, Sunny got ready to leave as the ground opened up and dirt started to fly like a whirlwind as they struggled. Sunny knew who to bet on winning if he could, it would be the Fallen Demon since it was against a Devil. So, it was not surprising when the ground used dirt hands to tear the monkey in half from its waist. It let out a final roar before its eyes became flightless and being consumed by the ground. Getting up, Sunny heard the spell whisper in his ear-
[You have killed a Fallen Demon, Wanderer of the Forest]
[Your shadow grows stronger]
[You have gained an echo]
'Finally!' Sunny felt happy, but after a moment a confused expression plagued his face. How had he killed the creature?
Looking down he noticed that he had left his spear still brimming with electricity sparks as the ground below him calmed down. He had forgotten to turn off the enchantment and dismiss his memory which had allowed him to steal the kill. He felt like saying thanks to fate but after all the suffering it most likely put him through, he instead thought of giving it the finger. Either way, having a Fallen Demon echo in his soul sea was an invaluable boon that he would treasure almost as much as - but not quite - Saint.
He entered his soul sea before opening his runes he searched for the runes of his new echo and hoped to turn it into a shadow like Saint.
Echo: [Wanderer of the forest]
Echo Rank: Ascended
Echo Class: Demon
Echo Attributes: [Tracker], [Agility], [Sharpness], [The touch of Mother Nature]
Echo Description: [A man once traversed throughout all the land, searching for adventure and enjoying the beauty of nature. When it came and consumed all the man cried out, alone, helpless, corrupted. It continued to travel with no purpose, no compass, no guiding light, until a treacherous shadow came and finished off the man who had once seen the world for its beauty.]
[Tracker] Attribute Description: "This Echo has precise senses that allow it to track even the smallest of tracks and the tiniest hints of a scent."
[Agility] Attribute Description: "This Echo has extremely high movement, dexterity, agility, and endurance."
[Sharpness] Attribute Description: " Its fangs and claws are sharpened to cut even the toughest of hides and armor."
[The touch of Mother Nature] attribute Description: "It can form into various forms of its natural form."
'So that explains why he was so fast, and how it can morph.' it dawned on him.
But wait what is his original form?
Sparks of gold started appearing next to him before forming into a miniature soft-looking monkey that he had seen for the first time in the treetop. He concluded that the soft monkey was its original form and its monstrous form was one of its many alternate forms, but it liked its soft form. He also noticed that its hand had returned to where he had cut off from the original. Sunny debated what he should name the small monkey as he watched it run around his sea, as if it was interested, before then staring at him and biting him in his leg.
Sunny yelped as he kicked it in the face which sent it back a few feet away as it stared at him with vengeful eyes.
"I got it! I'll name you... Bitey, " Sunny said as Bitey grew to its battle form and sent a death stare.
Sighing and missing Neph he went back to the runes until the spell spoke into his ear again.
[Transform Echo into a Shadow?]
"Yes," he said, disappointed that he'll be out 100 shadow fragments but knew it would be worth-
Suddenly Sunny felt significantly weaker than he had expected, and looking at his shadow fragments quickly he knew why. The process took 200 fragments instead of 100 like Saint, most likely because the echo was Ascended instead of Awakened.
'That gluttonous stank! Why am I always surrounded by hungry fiends aside from Nephis?' Sunny whined as he watched the same process Saint went through with Bitey.
[You have created a Shadow Demon, Wanderer of the forest]
The transformation was complete, and Sunny saw that its fur had turned into a dark black-brown hue, its white sharp fangs and claws seemed to shine against its fur, and its eyes turned into a neutral green color. He was slightly impressed by its change but was still sulking about losing 200 shadow fragments.
Leaving his soul sea he summoned the shadow who looked down at its original body and stared at him with a hint of anger and resentment. Sunny stuck out his tongue at it before mentally commanding it to raise itself as he got on its back.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Start swinging, I didn't waste fragments on you to stare at me." It snarled before following his command as they started swinging from tree to tree with the vines hanging from them.
He tried to talk to Nephis but she must've been too far for the link to reach her, which most likely meant that she hadn't gotten in trouble when she escaped. Sunny resummoned [Mantle of the Underworld] and Serpent - in tattoo form - slid down his arm before turning into his beloved tachi. Sunny and Bitey kept going before loud crashing noises echoed throughout the forest as the trees shook along.
'Nephis, is that you?' Sunny asked mentally if he was in range of wherever she was. After a few moments, he thought she wouldn't answer but surprisingly she did.
'Yes, I was caught in the crossfire of a fight-'
Suddenly a white blur of a figure flew right in front of them from left to right before disappearing into the trees.
'-and I would be grateful if you could help me deal with this.' Nephis paused for a moment as her voice got a bit low, as if choosing her words carefully.
'If you'd like to, of course.'