9 Carapace Scavenger

Sunny awkwardly fell backward, allowing the pincer to close right in front of his face with a loud "clack". The jagged, chitinous blades were so close that he could clearly see bits of mud sticking to their surface.

Trying to distance himself from the beast. Sunny fell backward and dug his hands into the muddy ground before launching himself a few meters away into the flat of a coral blade. The coral cracked behind him but remained intact as he finally examined the creature before him.

'So it's one of these bastards.'

It was one of the pincer monsters he had been observing. Towering over him at almost three meters in height, the bulky creature moved its mandibles and produced a jarring, piercing screech.

The monster seemed to be in a rather bad shape: half of its eight scythe-like legs were broken, and there were cracks in its thick carapace, each oozing with viscous azure blood. Additionally, he was missing one of its two pincer arms, which seemed to had been torn off entirely at the shoulder.

'It's possible.'

Originally, Sunny had planned to avoid direct confrontation with his attacker until his shadow was able to return to him. But seeing its poor state, Sunny's inherent arrogance mixed with the growing urge caused by his [War] attribute made him give up the idea as he summoned the only weapon memory he owned, [Knife of Eve].

Bright sparks started to fly out of his hand as what appeared to be an ornamental or ceremonial knife manifested in his hand. The blade itself was only about twenty centimeters and made of a pitch-black material, along the length of the blade a few unrecognizable runes were carved into it, giving off an eerie feeling. 

Sunny's hand wrapped tightly around the weapon's vermillion handle and a familiar intent started to flood his mind.

But Sunny didn't resist it as a sadistic light appeared in his eyes and a smile graced his lips. He took a step forward.

The beast seemed to notice the shift in his denature as it turned its beady eyes in his direction, moving towards him with a hit of caution. 

Suddenly, Sunny's instincts screamed and he threw himself to the side.

In the next second, the space he occupied a moment before was torn apart by the attacking monster. Its heavy pincer crashed into the side of the already damaged coral pillar, sending crimson shards flying in every direction.

Not losing his balance, Sunny's blade flickered as it slid between the cracks in the monster carapace, and sliced through the bones and flesh beneath it. Severing its only remaining arm in a swift strike. 

Despite its low intelligence, the beast was shocked and stumbled backward as it lost its balance. Not missing the chance Sunny closed the distance between them further and lept with its opened guard. Then, in one quick motion, he dug the length of the blade deep into one of its eyes, eliciting a deafening screech before its body went limp.

[You have slain an awakened beast, Carapace Scavenger.]

[You have received a Memory: Azure Blade.]

[... Your shadow grows stronger.]

After hearing the whispers of the spell, the killing intent that had been drowning out Sunny's thoughts disappeared and he finally noticed the unsettling amount of gore that covered his body from the short exchange. Sunny sighed.

'I hope that sea comes back so I can take a bath…'

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Sunny pulled his knife out of the monster's corpse and started to bisect its body in hopes of finding edible meat. 

After some time, he managed to break open the cracked carapace and cut away a few strips of tender, pink meat. He also did not forget to extract the radiant crystal from the beast's chest — the soul shard.

Without much hope, he tried to absorb the shard, remembering how it was supposed to be done — just as he expected, nothing happened.

'They're really of no direct use to me.'

With a shrug, Sunny placed the shard and the meat in a makeshift rucksack he weaved from black seaweed and looked at the sun.

'I guess I should start heading back.'

And with that, he began to make his way back.

***

The journey back wasn't as long as he expected, taking only a fraction of the time he had spent traveling into the labyrinth.

And now he was sitting quietly before a fire, watching some skewers of meat carefully so as to not burn them.

Just a few minutes later he pulled them off the fire and began to eat, feeling quite satisfied with his culinary achievement despite its lack of complexity and spices. 

After that, time passed quickly and before he knew it the sunlight was starting to dim. The fire had already long burned out and Sunny was silently relaxing near the edge of the platform, watching Carapace Scavengers curiously through his shadow as some of them started to move away from the transcendent corpse and into small holes carved out in the mud. 

And then, it happened.

Just as soon as the sun touched the horizon, a deafening rumble could be heard coming from somewhere below. Any remaining monsters instantly stopped their feast and scurried away, some hiding inside the coral pillars, some simply burying themselves in the soft soil.

A few minutes later, the first streams of black water appeared in the labyrinth. Their volume quickly grew, and soon an apocalyptic flood devoured everything around. The sea was returning with the approach of the night.

Sunny stared at this unimaginable process, thoughts churning in his head.

In an hour, the circular platform was the only thing above the dark waters once again.

Sunny's eyes glowed with keen interest, but still, he moved away from the platform's edge and lay down in the center. 

"Wake me up if anything happens."

His shadow nodded.

Then, he closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep. His consciousness quickly slid into the sweet embrace of darkness, giving Sunny some well-needed rest.

— — — — — — —

End of Chapter.

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