Chapter 20 : Unexpected encounter

After harvesting the two Ascended soul shards. Sunny continued his way to the Bright castle.

Unlike before, where he usually hides between the ruined buildings and sneaks up to the Bright Castle without alerting any unwanted attention. This time, he just walked in the main streets.

With Serpent in his hand as a bow and the deadly blood arrow. He was the nightmare creature himself. He was the terrifying being roaming the streets.

On his way, three fallen beasts came on his way on different occasions. But all it took was one arrow to kill them.

.....

While Sunny was walking, he sensed something from far away shadows, but they were still close enough for him to use them as his eyes.

Using the shadows, Sunny saw a battle going on. There was another cursed Herald fighting a bunch of humans. Sunny recognized that they were the people who are in the expedition party. Who were Nephis, Cassie, Effie, Gunlaug, and Kai.

'So he made up his mind, huh?' Sunny concentrated on the battle that was happening. He could tell that they were preparing for the upcoming expedition.

As Sunny was watching, he noticed something weird.

'Hm... maybe I've been away for too long. But how does Nephis look much stronger from what I remember from my past life? Her skills are on a whole new level.'

Sunny was surprised to see that Nephis alone was able to fight toe to toe with the fallen monster, and all the others looked like they were attacking while Nephis kept the Nightmare creature busy. Giving it no chance to take its eyes off Nephis.

Gunlaug looked skillful, too. Clad in his golden armor, he delivered strong slashes to its wings. Cutting them off. And Effie as well attacked the fallen monster from the other side. Kai and Cassie were playing a supporting role from behind.

Overall, the battle looked like a one-sided battle to the cohort. After moments, Sunny saw Nephis mercilessly cutting the creature heads off from the neck. Killing it without suffering a lot.

Everyone looked stronger for some reason. Which was a good thing, considering that they'll be fighting a lot of fallen creatures on their expedition.

While Sunny was watching them, he was already sprinting towards them, by the time they killed the creature he already was there.

***

[You have slain a Fallen monster: Cursed Herald.]

[Your soul shines brighter]

'No memory' Nephis sighed in disappointment. This is the second fallen creature that Nephis and cohort killed for the day. After assembling the expedition party. They started going on hunts daily, hunting fallen creatures mostly.

Nephis wanted Sunny to join too, but for some reason, he suddenly disappeared. No one really knows where he went. The last one he talked with was the manager of the memory market. But even then, Nephis wasn't worried too much about him. He was probably the strongest sleeper in the whole world.

'I hope he's okay, though.' Just when she was about to take a breath, she noticed Cassie stiffen.

"What is it, Cass?" Nephis frowned with seriousness.

"Something is approaching." Cassie said with a serious tone.

The cohort, who just got time to relax for a moment, became serious again. They looked around them cautiously.

"Hey" they all stiffened and looked at the direction the voice came from. From one of the paths between two ruined buildings. A figure appeared. He was waving his hands towards them.

The cohort sighed in relief when they realized it was Sunny.

"It's Sunny, Cass" Nephis assured Cassie who relaxed in relief.

***

"Doofus, where have been the last two days?" Effie asked with a wave.

"I had some things to do. What about you, guys? What are you doing?" Sunny raised an eyebrow. He already know why they were here.

"Well, we wanted to go out in a peaceful picnic but got jumped by fallen creatures" Effie said sarcastically.

Sunny scoffed from Effie's bad humor. And turned to look at Kai.

"When did you decide to join?"

"Uhm...well, after that meeting, I've thought about it for a while, then decided to join in. I wanted to tell you that, but I couldn't find you, so I just told Lady Nephis." Kai scratched the back of his head.

Sunny turned to look at Gunluag, who just stared at him. He saw his reflection in the smooth surface on where Gunlaug's face was. Gunluag didn't say anything and just nodded a bit and crossed his arms.

Sunny shifted his gaze towards Nephis.

"So, what should we do now?" He asked her in a natural tone.

"Nothing, we'll just harvest the soul shards and head back." Nephis turned while she was talking and starting cutting the corpse. But then it seemed as she remembered something and looked at Sunny again.

"What about you, Sunny? Where are you going now?" Nephis tilted her head.

"Oh, me? I was heading back as well." Sunny let out a smile

.....

When it was time to head back. Instead of using the narrow streets between the ruined buildings. The cohort used the main streets. They were confident enough that they'd take down fallen beasts or monsters. And since Sunny was with them too, they wanted to improve their synergy.

As they were heading back, Sunny was walking next to Nephis. She asked him a bit about his journey in the labyrinth since they didn't have much time to talk when he came back.

On their way, three fallen beasts have appeared at a crossroad. Giant spiders with bodies covered in thick plates of wrought iron. An unease expression appeared on their faces.

Just as when the cohort was about to prepare for the fight, Sunny shot his first arrow that landed on a critical spot on its body.

Just like that, Sunny had already killed one of them. But before the two creatures could react, another arrow flew at one of them, killing it. Just when the last creature noticed them, the third arrow was already at the creature head, killing it instantly.

The cohort didn't even comprehend what had just happened until Sunny's voice snapped them back to reality.

"Let's get the Ascended soul shards and continue our way back"

The cohort were still frozen, and although Sunny couldn't see Gunlaug's face, he could tell that he was in utter shock, just like the others.

"Su-Sunny.... what was that just now" weirdly enough, Effie used Sunny instead of the usual doofus.

"What do you mean?" Sunny raised an eyebrow.

"Don't act stupid! I know that you know what I mean! Seriously, how are you able to just kill three fallen beasts with one arrow each!" Effie's face was a mix of excitement, awe, and mocking too.

"It's just a fallen beast, right?"

All of them stared at him with disbelief.

____________

[Sup you guys. I know the chapter was supposed to be released yesterday. But i was in a bad so I really didn't feel like writing. Also, I know this was the shortest chapter but I kinda hit a wall so I need to get on night drives and listen to musics and hope that ideas will come to my mind. Anyway hope y'all liked the chapter.]

[Also, I really feel like Sunny's powers really got out of hand💀]