Shadow Slave AU: Fluid Fate

[46]Lost From Peace

Somehow, everything had gone completely and utterly wrong. Everything was all so messed up that Sunny didn't even know what he was doing anymore. He was tempted to go take a swim in the Dark Sea and let it swallow him whole. He was constantly pacing around the headquarters of the cottage on the settlement's edge and barking orders every time some random person came to peek in.

'This is ridiculous. Can't these people even tie their shoes right? Seriously, why are there so few of these guys with basic carpentry, cooking, and hunting experience?'

About a month ago, everything was going fine. Sunny was on top of the world when he basically got the opportunity to piss on Andel's name and walk away with his life. Hell, he was feeling pretty good about walking away with a decent meal after Gemma had negotiated that Caleb receive his payment in the meat of abominations rather than soul shards.

Nephis was going to start leading the outer settlement to a brighter and better future. She had Cassie, Effie, and Mr. Not An Assassin to help her. Everything was going according to plan, until it wasn't. At first, it was the night hunts. During the first week, Sunny asked if he could get a favor from Nephis, and then he started hunting on the daily. He would help the cohort during the day, and then he would hunt on his own the next.

Sunny told the girls and told them that he was a better hunter in the night, so they reluctantly gave in, after some badgering from Effie who was convinced that Sunny had a suicide wish and that they should respect his determination to die, and Caster who definitely wasn't just hoping he'd kick the bucket. So, Sunny started hunting every day. He hunted around midday when he was with the cohort, collecting somewhat manageable kills, alternating the final strike with Nephis. Caster was happy to play bait with his time manipulating aspect since he was getting shards from just playing decoy. If he only knew that Sunny and Nephis were getting stronger by the kill, he'd have tried to intervene, but he was none the wiser.

Sunny racked up Shadow Fragments, and returned from about half of his hunts with meat, and then people started talking. Sleepers started asking for things from Sunny and not Nephis. It started with some spare leftover hide, or a bit of meat, but soon it was though people were relying more on Sunny than they were on Nephis. Asking where he was hunting, how he made things, and more.

By the third week, even Nephis and Cassie were asking for favors. He never failed to practice Shadow dance, so he never lost a spar with Nephis, since she never used her aspect. On the other hand, her win rate with Caster was about forty percent, since she had him use his Aspect. Once Caster had figured out that Nephis was honing herself based off of Sunny, he started sparring with Sunny too, and Sunny never held back. It might have seemed like a dumb idea to spar with someone who he was probably going to fight to the death with, but Sunny's bag of tricks was not so shallow anymore that Caster could unravel its secrets just through sparring. Sunny could probably kick Caster's ass with any melee weapon he could pick up so long as he had seen it being used enough times.

If anything, Caster was being detrimental to his future self by getting used to Sunny wielding the Midnight Shard. Once even Caster and Effie were openly sparring with him, and Cassie was asking for help to fight, Sunny's fate was already decided.

That's how Sunny took Nephis' place as the leader of the outer settlement. It was baffling to Sunny, but in hindsight had been an obvious solution that he himself should have come up with. After learning to manage large and small groups of people the hard way, Sunny had become proficient in many areas of leadership and managing soldiers. He was turning the outer settlement into a proper military camp without realizing just through his casual advice and attitude.

On top of that, systematic training on both the weakness of nightmare creatures that Sunny knew from experience and basic combat were being taught to all of the sleepers. Sunny was starting to make everyone earn their food and keep by making them listen to boring explanations about the nearby dangers and how to avoid them and be helpful. Of course, Gunlaug didn't take too kindly to Sunny's improvised army lessons, but it was too bad for him that Sunny was always either busy or sleeping, so Gunlaug's men were coming by just to harass the settlement sleepers because the dolts couldn't get a hold of Sunny.

A knock came on Sunny's door.

"Come in, Neph, Effie."

Nephis and Effie both quietly walked inside the room. Nephis was carrying a sort of rough map of the Labyrinth. Similarly, Effie was geared up for battle.

"Are you ready to go, Sunny?"

Sunny had known this day was coming. In fact, it should have already. Cassie's dreams and their investigations were proof enough that he would have to face the music at one time or another.

Sunny checked his runes.

[Shadow Fragments: 452/1000]

"Yeah, I'm ready. Let's go check out that statue."

***

The Slayer statue was located several days northwest from the dark city, so Sunny planned out the trip so that would have extra time to get to the high grounds. His party consisted of Nephis, Effie, Cassie, and Caster. Sunny was pretty sure that Nephis understood Caster's intentions by now, since he was constantly trying to ingratiate himself to her, but Sunny knew how powerful he was and he knew that it was a better idea to make use of his power than to shun him away.

Leading the party through the coral like maze was something that felt both alien and familiar to Sunny. His role was entirely different from his past life, doubling as both a way to scout out the dangers ahead and play as a front line attacker beside Nephis and Effie. Their team had no real range support yet, so they were struggling, but Sunny relied on the carapace scavenger echo as a distraction, so things were working out fine. With more echoes than memories at Sunny's disposal, one would think that Sunny was breezing through the labyrinth, but he was hiding his aces, so Sunny did not even have Saint or the spider to rely on. He was already troubled enough just letting Caster know that he had received a shadowy serpent from his Aspect Legacy. Caster had come dangerously close to Sunny attacking when he starting asking where the snake came from, but luckily, he didn't bother to ask about anything past Sunny's Aspect Legacy.

One morning passed, and then another. Dealing with venomous centipedes, hungry scavengers and centurions, and all sorts of strange flora and such was almost enough to drive the cohort crazy, but they relentlessly raced against the dark tides as they made their way to the statue of the headless assassin. When the five of them finally made it all the way there, their armor was full of scratches and their eyes were sharp and focused. This had been a rough week for them, and it had only made this ragtag group of Sleepers all that much more determined to survive.