"Alright, you guys remember the plan, Me and Neph be the decoy and Sunny be the finisher, if they're more than one then we'll need fire for me to kill or stall the other"
Merlin laid out the plan for then, although it was comparatively easy for him to kill one of the monsters alone using flame jump, he still chose to involve the group.
...
A few minutes ago during dinner.
"Hey I understand the plan and all but how am I going to kill something that it's shell looks stronger than a brick wall" Sunny asked.
Merlin turned to him for a moment then turned towards his food and said.
"You see, the scavenger has three weak points, two that we can exploit tho, first it's joints, just like a suit of amour the shell still needs space in the joints for it to move, target the joints and you can immobilize it turning it into a sitting duck."
He paused for a second, looking at their faces then continued.
"The next would be the slightly odd looking pale shell just below the head, that is another weak points, one that actually deals significant damage, the last is the joints across it's lower spine, but currently none of us are strong enough or skilled enough to sever it's spine through the joint, so just don't bother".
"So that's the plan, Neph and I try to distract and if possible cripple it, while Sunny moves with the sure kill"
Merlin finished, Nephis nodded while Sunny just shrugged to it.
...
"Alright let's do this" Merlin change the rod back to his black katana.
Nephis took Cassie to a nearby safe spot in the labyrinth and kept her there, the blind seer just stayed with her head down, biting her lower lip.
Nephis returned to the group, where Merlin was standing and Sunny had hid himself in the shadows.
Immediately after, Nephis went first, drawing away the attention of the scavenger, it immediately lunged at her raising it's pincer to strike down which she raised her sword to divert the attack, the scavenger followed up it's attack with it's other pincer aimed at her side, before it reached, the pincer was stopped, Merlin has blocked the attack skidding back a few steps.
'This thing hits like a truck'
Already distracted by Merlin, the monster didn't notice as Nephis had rushed towards it's hind legs and stabbed it's joints, leaving a deep wound, the scavenger staggered and turned to Nephis, Merlin seized the chance and slashed at the joint that held the pincer with all his strength, His attack tore through the joint, almost severing the pincer before it got stuck.
Merlin quickly unsummoned the sword and ran towards Nephis, the scavenger that was now driven by pain failed to notice as Sunny had already gotten atop his shell at some point, with his azure blade, he plunged it into the pale colored shell which broke upon impact and stabbed at the neck of the nightmare creature, the effect was immediate as the scavenger fell limp on the ground.
Merlin walked towards the dead monster, resummoning his sword as he used it to cut out meats for future consumption, at some point, Sunny had gone to get Cassie while Nephis joined him.
They had cut out enough meat and Neph had already fished out the soul shard by the time Sunny was returning.
Sunny's rucksack was already filled, and Merlin could not use his memory so when Merlin saw the remaining meat that were still available, he picked up a fair amount and put in the pocket of his extra comfortable hoodie.
'Huh, that's stange'
Merlin picked up another set and put it in , then another and finally, all the meat had been stored in his pocket, a large amount of meat had completely disappeared into the memory leaving not even a visible bulge.
Dipping his hands in the pocket, Merlin could still feel the meat, and as he tried to retrieve it, it worked.
'Damn looks like I have a little pocket dimension, and it's literally a pocket haha'
"Well that settles our storage, turns out my memory came with a storage pack" Merlin explained to the trio that had their eyes on him, well two of them had it on him, while for the last, she was standing right opposite him so....
"Well then store this too then" Sunny said as he shoved the rucksack in his direction.
They kept at a stable pace, occasionally encountering a few monster and killing them, with Merlin leading the way they were making visible progress.
A few meters before the statue, their path was blocked, two scavengers, casually patrolling the bottom of the statue.
"Looks like we'll need that fire after all, for one we'll have to split, you and Sunny take one I'll distract the other long enough for you guys to finish and come help". Merlin said as he picked up a wooden stick and handed it to Nephis.
"Are you sure you can handle it alone?"
"Gee Sunny are you worried about me, but I'm sorry I don't swing that way" Merlin said as he patted Sunny's shoulder, earning him a viscous glare for him and an odd look from the girls.
"Are you crazy, I'm not worried about you, all our food will be gone if you die and your memory disappears with you!" Sunny shot back.
"Don't worry, unlike you three, I have a more profound reason not to die"
"What's the reason?" Nephis spoke up looking at him.
"Well I have a home I want to try to return to even if it seems hopeless" Merlin said his voice turning somewhat melancholic.
"Anyways it's almost dusk and we still have two friends waiting for us to kill them, so let's do this thing"
Merlin watched as Neph's face turned into somewhat of a grimace as she ignited the wooden stick with her pristine white flames. The flame glowed on the wood for a few seconds before changing to it's regular orange color as Nephis breathed a sigh of relief.
"Alright you guys move out first, once their attention is on you, I'll separate the second one, giving you some breathing room" Merlin said as he collected the burning stick from Nephis.
After securing a safe position for Cassie, Nephis followed through with Merlin's plan, as she ran into their field of view, the two scavengers turned their focus to her, facing their dual attack, Nephis was stumped, she blocked an attack and used the momentum to give herself some distance, before the two could attack, a bright flame blazed, as Merlin holding his sword and a burning stick came into existence, immediately the attention of the scavengers were now on the medium rare Merlin. With a snap, he disappeared immediately, appearing beside one of the monsters, Nephis who already knew the plan attacked the other one, completely dividing their attention, while Nephis was holding her own against the scavenger, Merlin simply snapped his fingers, appearing above the shell of the beast, but before he could stab down, the scavenger had scurried out of the way.
Merlin landed on the ground and changed his tactics, he first got close and slashed at the joints of the scavenger, each slash sharper than the other as the sword was getting more powerful with the more blood it spilled.
By the fourth slash the scavenger was already staggering, Merlin quickly used flame jump to finish it up, the spell resounded in his ears.
[You have slain an awakened beast, Carapace Scavenger. ]
[... Your soul grows stronger.]
His runes read...
Soul Core: Dormant
Soul Fragments: [908/1000]...
Merlin dismissed the runes and turned to the others, Sunny had already killed the scavenger and they had no injuries.
Walking back to them, he was greeted with looks of surprise on Sunny and a raised eyebrow on Nephis, probably the most change that had happened to her face ever since he saw her.
"What?"
"Really dude, just 'what', you killed an awakened beast, alone at that, are awakened beast so easy to kill, I mean I just killed about seven on the way here but still though" Sunny had a face that bordered between relief and suspicion.
"It was a simple hit and run strategy, and it's one that drains my stamina like crazy, so let's do and get up that statue so we can start a fire before the night comes" Merlin said as he walked towards the monsters, dissecting the meat and retrieving the soul shards.
A few moments later, Cassie had returned with Nephis while Merlin had stored the meat in his pocket. Immediately after, they began climbing the statue, Merlin and Sunny used their conventional method while Nephis simply used the rope and Cassie followed her after.
As they arrived atop the statue, they used the remaining bonfire Sunny and Merlin had used and ignited a new flame to cook the meat.
After they had finished eating, Merlin brought out the soul cores, a total of nine shards.
He shared it among them, him holding three while the others held two, he gave to Sunny even if he knew the boy didn't need it, just to avoid suspicion.
"That's that, I get one extra because... I don't think that needs an explanation" Merlin said as he split the shards.
A few moments of silence then Sunny took his shards and handed them to Nephis, earning the boy a questioning glance, or so it looked like, it was hard to tell. Sunny spoke up.
"I want a trade..."
Nephis stared for a second and asked.
"A… trade? What do you want? "
Sunny simply looked at her and replied.
"It's rather simple. I will give you these soul shards, and all other soul shards I earn on the way to that castle…"
"In return, you will teach me how to fight. "
Merlin watched it all unfold with a smile on his face, Nephis simply nodded and took his shards and absorbed them, Cassie did the same while Merlin just kept his in the pocket dimension.
He had already gained fragments from killing them, and he would still gain more on the way, so he didn't want to absorb them yet.
While Nephis was about to start showering Sunny and Cassie with her Combat speech, Merlin quietly left them and walked to the edge of the cliff.
A moment later, and he was in his soul sea, Sitting at the high back chair with a gray globe above it, staring at the empty castle.
'I wonder, why such a large space and a castle, something about this is not adding up'
Merlin decided to take a walk around his soul sea.
He stepped out of the castle into the foggy wide expanse, and he started walking in a certain direction, a few minutes later and he had completely defiled the laws of physics, he had walked for a long time and by the time he turned back, it's either the castle had been following him twenty meters behind or he had not been walking at all.
"Tsk, I'll try some more investigation later, something's definitely off with this place."
Merlin exited his soul sea just in time to watch the sunset that brought in the rising tide of the black sea.
"I used to look swimming when I was still me, but looking at this, I suddenly feel that any water beyond the level of a cup should be avoided"
Merlin stood up and met Sunny swinging his sword, Nephis coaching his steps from beside and Cassie staring in their direction.
He walked towards the group, spared them a glance and walked over to where he would be spending his night.
Merlin laid down, staring at the starless sky and he felt comfortable and within a few seconds, the embrace of sleep came to claim his consciousness.
A few moments later and his seer abilities were forcefully activated, he saw flashes like a slideshow, first statues, then the castle, then the bright castle demise with blood and corpses everywhere, Gunlang's death, the seige of the crimson spire, Kai fighting the sky, Effie drowning in blood and beasts, and finally the battle atop the crimson spire.
All the memories flashed through his head at once, and he was forced awake, he looked around, and the group were asleep, all exhausted from their previous fights, although it was still dark, the black sky was beginning to become gray.
Merlin sighed, thinking about the vision.
'It seems I tapped into Cassie's vision again, tho mine came like mere pictures not visions, guess this pathway doesn't have fate as it's main focus indeed'
He got up from his position and immediately walked towards Cassie, standing a few meters away.
A few seconds later and the blind seer woke up with a jolt accompanied by a scream which startled Sunny and Nephis awake, both summoning their blades.
Before Cassie could walk towards the cliff, Merlin grabbed her by the collar of her armour, was it too rough, that didn't matter to him, that scream had done a lot to his eardrums and the vision itself would do much worse in the future, so he wasn't in the mood to consider being gentle.
Merlin simply held her trembling body and said.
"There's no problem, We're safe"
Sunny walked up to them, his eyes lingering on the trembling Cassie as Merlin left her.
"What's the problem Cas?" Nephis walked towards them and comforted the blind seer.
"I... I, saw the... heads, oh gods..., It was..." Cassie trembled between words.
Merlin look at her without pity or worry in his gaze, and said to the others.
"It seems that She saw a vision, and by the looks of it, it was not a pretty one, best we can do is give her time to process it, she'll talk when she's ready."
Nephis sighed while Sunny looked at him and said.
"You're strangely calm about it, and you were already near Cassie before she had the vision, do you know anything about it".
That question made everyone turn their faces to him, including the seer.
"I won't say I don't know anything about it, but I'll tell you this, I woke up a little earlier than you all since I slept earlier, and while I was staring at the sky, my danger sense was suddenly active towards her direction, as for the vision, I guess you should wait for the contents from the one who had it" Merlin stated with a flat voice.
Nephis pondered for a while and said.
"I understand"
They unsummoned their weapons and they went to sit staring at the sunrise, and partially at Cassie.
As dawn finally set in and the sea retreated, Nephis and Sunny left to practice Sunny's sword training, Merlin on the other hand sat crosslegged and entered his soul sea to continue his investigation.
He circled the castle, he observed his soul core, he even tried punching the high back chair, and whoever it was that said you don't feel pain in your soul sea was a bastard.
After a few hours of searching to no avail, He exited his soul sea, and by then, the wheels of history had started to roll.
"Uhm... I think I'm ready to talk, about the vision..."