Candle Amidst a Storm

In the middle of the night, Sunny was suddenly stirred awake by an impulse, prompting him to jump to his feet and examine his surroundings for any threats.

However, the sea was quiet and calm. He didn't hear any abnormalities around the knight's statue.

"What is it?" Sunny whispered, addressing the shadow.

The shadow silently pointed him in a particular direction.

Turning his head, Sunny squinted. He quickly understood why it was a good idea to wake up. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to see…

Out there in the distance, a few kilometers away, a small orange light was shimmering in the darkness. Its reflections were rising and falling with the movement of waves.

It was too far away to make out any details, so Sunny just stared at it for a while. 

'It must be a monster– most sleepers wouldn't be dumb enough to light a fire in the middle of a potential death zone.'

But pretty soon, the light disappeared. Prompting Sunny to doubt his previous analysis. 

Shaking his head, Sunny lay back down and attempted to return to his slumber. However, this time sleep was escaping him. His thought was preoccupied considering his chances of survival.

In the end, he remained awake until the sun rose again, sending the dark sea in retreat.

***

The next few days passed quickly and the efficiency at which Sunny fought monsters continued to increase. 

Before, it took him great effort to kill even an injured scavenger. But now, he took pride in being able to dismantle one at full strength in a matter of seconds, sustaining zero serious injuries in the process. 

Besides his combat ability, the rate Sunny traveled through the labyrinth also increased. Before, he had ended up in dead ends numerous times because some of the paths stretched farther than his shadow sense could reach. But now, after his continued exploration of the maze, he had started to memorize the pathways, being able to traverse through them with ease. 

Sunny's hand grasped the edge of the platform, pulling himself up onto it as he returned from yet another day of hunting. After carefully setting down his rucksack containing any extra meat he could bring back, Sunny ungracefully dropped to his back and let his mind wander.

Then, remembering something, he quickly sat up and summoned his runes.

Shadow Fragments: [982/1000]

Almost there. 

'I wonder what happens when this reaches a thousand…'

Turning his eyes from his runes to the scenery around him, Sunny let out a chuckle as he felt himself comparing his current life to the one before awakening. 

Both were filled with excessive violence, forcing him to fight with his life on the line for every meal. But for some reason, as he looked out at the sun setting amidst the millions of crimson swords, he felt content.

The labyrinth was simply too beautiful, making him almost forget the endless slaughter that occurred within its walls. 

Minutes passed as he admired the breathtaking view, when suddenly his shadow seemed to notice something and called out to him through their connection. 

'People?'

Sunny thought strangely, but remained in place. 

'Are they sleepers?'

His shadow paused but then gave him something akin to an affirmation.

Sunny's eyes narrowed. He had absolutely no intention to babysit some random sleepers, but as he was thinking along those lines his shadow continued to urge him to move. 

Annoyed, Sunny stretched his senses and the whole world turned monochrome. His perspective changed from atop the stone giant to about seven hundred meters into the labyrinth, and he looked around curiously.

Then paused.

The first thing Sunny saw was fair skin… a lot of skin. The tall, lithe girl was only dressed in a makeshift skirt and a crude brassiere, both made out of seaweed. However, it didn't seem to bother her. With a calm expression, she stopped and looked back. The wind was playing with her short silver hair.

It was Nephis, the Changing Star.

One of his companions from the academy.

In one hand, she was holding the end of a strange golden rope.

And on the other end of the rope, was his adorably innocent table mate, who he was almost sure should have been dead by now, Cassie.

'What are they doing here?'

But Sunny didn't have time to ponder that question. The sun had already set, and it was only a matter of minutes before the entire labyrinth was drowned in hundreds of feet of water. 

Without another thought, Sunny set his shadow to greet them and color returned to his vision as he hurriedly made his way down the colossal body of the stone giant.

Reaching the ground Sunny feet sunk into the mud but didn't let it slow him down as he raced through the seemingly random turns of the maze that would allow him to reach his companions. 

But even that took time and he could already hear running water in the distance. 

'Shit shit shit…'

Upon reaching their location Sunny locked eyes with Nephis who's eyes widened slightly at the sight of him. 

"What are yo-"

Sunny cut her off.

"No time to explain, if you don't hurry you'll die."

Cassie, hearing Sunny's voice tilted her head and spoke.

"Hey Neph, I'm not sure if I'm hearing things, but I think I just heard Sunny."

Nephis seemed to be about to say something but Sunny beat her to it.

"Hey Cas, we don't have much time– Sorry!"

"What do you mea- Ahh"

Not waiting for her response, I picked up Cassie and hoisted her onto my shoulder. Then, not waiting another moment I beckoned Nephis to follow me and started running in the direction of the stone giant. 

By now, the ground began visibly shaking and a thin layer of water appeared over the mud before rising steadily. 

Sunny was running with all his might, as though his life depended on it — because it actually did. He was leading their small group while carrying Cassie on his shoulder, choosing the fastest path toward the giant. Nephis was a step behind him, now finally understanding his panic.

Without the need to avoid monsters and death breathing down their necks, they moved with amazing speed. Side passages and crimson walls were flashing past them in a blur. There was no need to hold back and conserve strength for the long run — if they were late to reach the cliffs by a minute, their lives would be over. They had to give it their all.

Sunny was ready to fight a series of bloody skirmishes all along the way, but, to his surprise, the inhabitants of the labyrinth did not give them much trouble. The scavengers were scarce and any they encountered seemed to be as panicked as they were. The bulky beasts were busy trying to hide inside the coral mounds or burrowing underground.

However, no matter how fast they were moving, the sea was faster. And just then, as if to prove that luck wasn't on their side, small drops of water started falling from the sky, only increasing the advance of the sea. 

It began raining.

The rain quickly turned into a pelting downpour, each drop becoming a torrent. The winds grew in strength, striking against their bodies with enough force to make them stumble. The light dimmed even further, reducing visibility to almost zero.

Finally, a blinding bolt of lightning tore through the darkness, followed almost immediately by a deafening thunderclap.

In the next moment, the ground under Sunny's feet trembled, causing him to almost lose balance and fall. Someone's arm grabbed him by the shoulder and helped him regain his balance.

In the darkness of the storm, Sunny saw Changing Star's face. She opened her mouth and shouted something, but the wind was too loud for him to hear her.

By the time Sunny began to move, the dark, salty water was already as high as his shins. He gritted his teeth.

The sea was coming back.

He couldn't determine where the water was coming from, but with each minute, it was rising higher. Soon, it was up to his knee, then up to his waist, making running almost impossible. The speed of the group slowed down considerably.

It was then, in a sudden flash of lightning, when they saw the stone giant ahead.

They had made it.

Almost at the same time, a terrible rumbling sound came from the depths of the labyrinth. Turning back, Sunny saw a colossal, crushing torrent of black water rushing through the crimson forest. Some distance away, a tardy scavenger was caught by it and thrown against the coral walls. The unbreakable carapace of the mighty creature cracked and burst open like a rotten egg.

'Curses!'

He turned to Nephis:

"Time is up! Start climbing!'

They began the ascent, rushing to get as high as possible before the black torrent hit. Some time later, Sunny screamed:

"Brace!"

In the next moment, a wall of dark water hit the rocks mere meters beneath their feet. As Sunny held for dear life, the stone wall shuddered. Somehow, all three of them were still alive.

However, things were far from being over. The black water was still rising, now with frightening speed, threatening to swallow them at any second. They had to keep climbing, and they had to be faster than the surging sea.

Sunny cursed as he searched for the next hold to grab onto. To survive, he had to scale the face of the statue with crazy speed. However, hastily climbing wet rocks was a recipe for disaster: one slip of a hand, and he would plunge down to be crushed against the cliffs, drown, or be eaten by some giant monster.

The torrential rain and hurricane wind made everything even worse.

And yet, there was no choice.

"Damn it! Damn it all!"

No matter how hard Sunny tried, he couldn't win back any distance. Soon, the water was at his feet. The sea slowly swallowed his legs, then his torso. He kept climbing, now fighting against the weight of the water and the force of the tide that was trying to tear him away from the cliff.

And then, his shadow reached him, reinforcing his body and allowing him to finally gain some ground. 

He continued to move from hold to hold, his speed rapidly increasing as he began remembered the path up.

Finally, his hand reached over the edge of the platform, pulling both him and Cassie up and out of harm's way. Nephis following right behind them. 

Sunny almost fell to the ground, struggling to breathe. After some time, he looked at Nephis, who was lying in a similar position to his right, equally as drained. 

Sunny sighed in relief.

Hoisting Cassie off his shoulder, Sunny set her down right next to Nephis giving her a look before turning to the frightened Cassie and saying:

"Cas, it alright. We're safe now."

With that, he took a step back as strength left his body and he felt his consciousness blur. A wave of exhaustion washed over his body and he stumbled over his own feet. 

His vision tilted and for a second he wondered if he was going to fall off the platform.

But that didn't matter.

'I'll probably be fine.'

And then– the world went black.

— — — — — — —

End of Chapter.

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