19: Terrifying encounter

[You have received a memory, Shield of the Fallen Legion]

...

Sasha couldn't believe her luck at receiving a memory on her first kill in the Dream Realm. Obtaining a memory wasn't easy; one had to kill dozens and dozens of monsters to receive just one, and she had received one on her first kill. It was unheard of to her.

In disbelief, Sasha opened her runes.

**Name:** Sasha

**True Name:** -

**Rank:** Sleeper

**Core:** Inactive

**Essence Fragments:** [0/1000]

**Memories:** [Spawn's Hide] [Shield of the Fallen Legion]

**Echoes:** -

**Attributes:** [Tragic] [Will] [Strong]

**Aspect:** Royal Warrior

**Aspect Rank:** Transcendent

**Innate Ability:** Blessed Body

**Description:** [Your body is stronger and tougher than most]

**Aspect Ability:** Royal Field

**Description:** [Marks an area around you where all your abilities are enhanced]

**Drawback:** Critical Moment

**Description:** [You enter a weakened state after finishing your battles]

Focusing her attention on her new memory, Sasha read.

**Name:** Shield of the Fallen Legion

**Description:** [A shield belonging to a soldier of the Starlight Legion]

**Memory Type:** Weapon

**Rank:** Awakened

'So, those scavengers were soldiers of a legion?'

She summoned the memory, and a simple white shield with three lines connected at the center appeared on her arm. Three lines extended from one side, three from the other, and the last line extended from the center upwards. The shield was lightweight and easy to maneuver, a great help in fending off attacks from those scavengers.

After inspecting and moving around a bit with the shield, she was impressed by how lightweight it was, almost as if she wasn't carrying anything on her arm.

But just ten seconds after her battle and examining her new memory, she fell to her knees.

'Damn it, I forgot about my damned drawback. I feel so weak right now that even a dog could kill me.'

After a tense minute where anything could have harmed the defenseless Sasha, she pulled herself together and went back on alert. Since it was still night, there was no guarantee that the last scavenger would be the only one to climb the rock.

A few hours passed until the sun rose and the dark sea receded. Sasha lay down on the rock, planning to sleep a bit since she was very tired from the hard fight yesterday.

Sasha slept for a few hours and, upon waking, looked at her path towards the tall coral a few kilometers away.

'I really don't know if it's worth it. Maybe there's someone there we can team up with, but if that person is dead weight, I'll leave them there and move on.'

'I wonder how Jony is doing. He seemed strong and was trained personally by an Ascended. He should be able to survive. I wish the gods had put me in this damned place near him. At least he's someone I knew from the academy and might trust to have my back.'

With these thoughts, and many more of various kinds, Sasha spent the day watching as some scavengers passed near her rock or moved in groups in the nearby corals.

Near sunset, at least a few hours before the sun fell, a storm occurred. It came very suddenly but was very welcome to Sasha.

She hadn't drunk or eaten anything for more than two days, and water was what she wanted most now. So, she summoned her shield and used it as a water container, taking a big gulp and then collecting more water.

The storm was strong but not enough to threaten her, so she decided to keep watch through the night and head for that coral in the morning.

***

She spent the evening and night drinking water every now and then. Nothing interesting happened, only some scavengers running here and there to take cover from the storm, and the ocean taking advantage of the absence of sunlight to reappear once more.

So, the next morning, as soon as the water completely receded, Sasha descended from the high rock and headed towards the coral she had seen in the distance.

Inside the labyrinth, she tried to be as stealthy and quick as possible. She had already confirmed that the scavengers she saw the previous day were awakened beasts and that she could defeat one on her own, but she still didn't want to risk it just for a victory. She knew that arrogance and recklessness were the downfall of many people, so she made sure that wouldn't be the case with her.

After an hour of twists and turns, avoiding groups of scavengers she could see without being noticed, she found herself cornered against a thick coral wall with a scavenger approaching a few dozen meters away. They hadn't noticed her yet, but the scavenger was about to pass very close to her and would inevitably notice her.

So, Sasha thought of ambushing the creature.

***

A scavenger walked through one of the innumerable corridors of the labyrinth, feeling at ease as it passed by a wall of crimson coral. Suddenly, from beneath the mud, a being emerged, intent on killing whoever passed by. With no time to react properly, the poor beast received a kick to its right pincer, rendering the limb useless.

Not understanding why a being could be so cruel as to mercilessly attack a poor awakened beast that was just looking for food to satisfy its terrible hunger, it attacked the entity trying to kill it, to defend itself and fill its stomach. But the being that attacked was quick and strong. It couldn't do anything after its charge was stopped dead by a white shield with seven lines. From behind the shield, a small and fast being emerged, delivering another kick to its pincer, leaving it defenseless except for its pointed legs.

The scavenger then rose to try to crush the malicious being attacking it for no apparent reason. But the being skillfully dodged its attack, leaping above its legs and delivering a punch to its chest, destroying its heart.

Thus, a poor awakened beast, just looking for something to eat and survive in this cruel world, was killed on a sunny day in a place forgotten by the gods.

Meanwhile, the being that knelt down tore an orb of light from the chest of the poor beast, then crushed it, causing it to disintegrate into beautiful streaks of light. As if that weren't enough, the malicious being tore the flesh from the poor beast with its hands and took it away, leaving behind a scene of horror: a corpse with a perforated chest and torn flesh, blood everywhere in the mud.

***

Sasha was happy because her ambush had gone well and she hadn't been injured. Her shield had proven capable of stopping the attacks of those beasts, and she had obtained a core that gave her 3 soul fragments. A great victory in itself, but she also managed to get the scavenger's flesh, even though she hadn't received any memories.

Thus, she spent the day exploring and fighting two more times. One time, she nearly lost an arm because she failed to land her powerful kick on a scavenger's arm cartilage, and it attacked her again, almost severing her entire arm. But she quickly dodged, leaving only a superficial cut from shoulder to forearm.

Before nightfall, at least an hour before, Sasha finally reached the tall coral. It was a bit higher than her rock but not by much, so she started climbing the coral to see what she would find on its surface.

After several minutes of climbing, she finally reached the top, and what she saw terrified her: there were at least half a dozen scavenger corpses scattered across the coral's surface. All dead, some without arms, one without a head, another with sharp claw marks all over its body, and another with a dagger stuck in its head. This one seemed to be some kind of evolved scavenger, with scythe-like claws instead of pincers. It was much larger than the others, and its chitin seemed much tougher. The dagger in its head was black, with a golden line on the handle.

In the center of the coral, right in front of the strange scavenger with the dagger in its head, lay the body of a boy. He had black hair stained with blood, a bare chest with a strange mark on his pectoral, a full-body shield in his left hand, and his chest appeared to have been pierced from back to front, with entrails spilling from his other pectoral and part of his stomach. His legs and one arm, the one holding the shield, were covered in black armor with some golden stripes. His mouth was filled with blood, and his intense red eyes were open in horror.

The last scavenger was behind the boy, its head impaled by several stakes driven firmly into its skull. But instead of stakes, there was nothing in its hollow eyes. She looked back at the boy in the center.

Sasha fell to her knees because this was her only friend. Someone she had been willing to trust with her back, who had gifted her the armor she was wearing, and who made her life at the academy less miserable and lonely.

That boy, in the middle of the coral, surrounded by five awakened beasts and a strange scavenger, was dead.