Four spiders suddenly used the webs, and launched themselves towards the cohort.
The spiders were more or less the size of a human, incredibly fast, and had some kind of armor plates on their bodies. Basically, battle machines trying to kill any human that enters their territory.
Sadly for them, the cohort reacted with collected aggressiveness, and deadly calmness. All four of them, were not even able to land on the ground, and survive there for more than 20 seconds at most.
One was simply flattened by Effie, through a devastating strike with her still battered shield. Its corpse containing a huge dent in its previously impressive plates, and a completely ruptured other half.
The next was swiftly cut down, by both Nephis and Caster, who first cut off nearly every single one of its legs to stop it from moving, before Nephis drove her giant longsword into its brain, killing it on the spot.
Sunny, meanwhile, used the memory that hadn't found its use, due to the intervention of their charming archer. A small triangular leaf-shaped throwing dagger, connected to a string. Its blade entered the creatures flesh, before he pulled it down towards the ground, causing it to crash down on to the ground with a brutal impact.
Then, before it could even try to move and stand up again, quiet dancer was already on it, and pierced right through its head.
As for the last one, it had jumped towards the rear, where Ray had been walking. He really didn't like arachnids, nor spiders, therefore he was caught off guard for a second, nearly yelping in surprise.
In the end, he managed to quickly raise his trusted halberd, and simply rammed its tip right into the less armored bottom part of the spider. When the spider fell to the ground, due to the sudden attack, Ray did not hesitate to pull out Stormpiercer, before repeating his previous attack a few more times.
While he was doing so, the others – who had already finished with their respective ones – looked at him weirdly.
When Ray was eventually finished, he looked up again, saw the faces of the others, and was happy he wore a helmet right now. He imitated a cough, afore to pulling Stormpiercer out of the corpse one last time and wiping it clean from the blood, on the very corpse it had come from.
Noticing the still remaining looks, Ray looked up again, and asked with feigned ignorance, "Is something the matter?"
"You got some beef with insects?" Effie asked, half-amused, half-surprised.
He nodded, "Yes, I do. Though, this was not an insect. It was an arachnid. But, yes, I am not the greatest fan of insects too."
The young man said it in a tone that bordered on proud, apparently not the slightest bit actually embarrassed by this quirk of him.
"Well, we got ground to cover, don't we?"
The others nodded, and the cohort continued their way, after harvesting the shards shortly.
For sleepers in most other parts of the dream realm, such nightmare creatures could've proven deadly, but here, on the forgotten shore, those were nearly the weakest of creatures.
That wasn't to say that they were actually weak, three to four of them could, after all, very well give a pathfinder some problems, if they were to fight the nightmare creatures by themselves.
Though, there was another thing which made the fight easier, the spiders had a giant disadvantage, due to their webs already getting destroyed by the cohort – mainly through the quiet dancer.
---
With a few more skirmishes on the way, they all managed to eventually reach their day's destination.
A few dozen meters in front of them stood a beautiful white archway. It reached way above the crimson coral. Of course, otherwise it would be unusable as a safe refuge for them.
Right now, in the evening sun, it had a magnificent pink shimmer.
Something else quite noticeable was its material. The arch was most definitely build by the same people, and with the same material as the bright castle. Though, here out in the midst of the crimson labyrinth, its state had deteriorated quite a bit
Signs of corrosion and deep cracks marked its once beautiful surface.
While Ray was still admiring the structure, Sunny spoke, "This is our stop for the night?"
Noticing the conversation, the others slowly began taking their eyes off of the arch, "We need to pick our pace. The night is close, and we might need to fight to clear the top off it."
This statement from Nephis caused a few groans. Namely, Sunny, Effie, and Ray. All of whom earned a quick deadpan look from Caster and Kai.
As they started the last part of today's journey, Effie cursed under her breath, "More fighting? Seriously, can't we finally eat?"
It earned her another few glances, but no one spoke a word in return. Most were thinking this, but also knew they had to make their way up the arch, regardless.
Soon, the cohort reached the foot of the giant arch, and Kai, with his bow in hand, made his way towards the top, to check out the top, and look for any possible nightmare creature that could wait, up there.
Few minutes later, the charming archer returned, and gave them the signal that everything was clear. They all then began their ascend towards the top.
On the way up again, Kai also, once again, carried Cassie, before preparing the golden rope on the top, for the others to follow.
One after the other they climbed up, though, in a way more subdued manner compared to earlier that day.
Nevertheless, everyone made it to the top, and soon after, the sun finally disappeared behind the horizon, bringing the dark sea to the forgotten shore once more.
Each and every one of them, watched as the crimson labyrinth was slowly but surely drowned in the familiar darkness. No one was really that comfortable with the sea so close, but their opinions simply didn't matter, considering what they were trying to do.
As they sat there, Effie summoned her special bag memory, and pulled out some of their prepared food rations. Their pathfinder, being true to her usual tendencies, ate, of course, the most, by a large margin.
When everyone was done with their meal, each person got themselves 'comfortable' in a spot on the enormous arch, and all besides the one taking the first watch, quickly fell asleep.
No one really wanted to even think about what kinds of horrors could be close to them, just barely below the surface of the dark sea. Sadly, there was still the need for the night watch, therefore one of them always needed to be awake.
---
In the morning, as everyone was slowly waking up, Ray, who had been one of the earlier ones to do so, noticed Sunny being already awake. He tried for a second to enter his soul sea, and… it actually worked.
'...guess it is back' Ray thought, as he dismissed most of them, and instantly summoned Second Skin, to cover his body, in the outside, before his consciousness dove into the soul sea.
Checking on the condition of his memories, not even a minute had passed, when he already left it again. It was just too early to spend a single second, even trying to have a chat with his 'roomy'.
Though, one had to give credit where it's due, it had actually improved in the last few days.
Who knows why.
Regardless, when he was back, he summoned his runes, especially the memory part. Just now, in the soul sea, had only been to check their condition. Now, it was to select which one to give away.
Memories: [Oblivion's Thread], [Guardian's Shackles], [Sentinel's Embrace], [Stormpiercer], [Stalker's Spine], [Reaper's Whispers], [Veil of the Forsaken], [Tattered Veil], [Drifting Ember], [Second Skin]
'Oblivion's Thread, Guardian's Shackles, Sentinel's Embrace, Stormpiercer, as well as Second Skin, those are an obvious no. Reaper's Whispers, Drifting Ember, and Veil of the Forsaken, those three just as well. That means, it leaves… Stalker's Spine, and Tattered Veil.'
Ray thought for a second about it, but actually thought it seemed quite a simple choice to make. So, he chose Tattered Veil. It had remained inside of his soul sea for the most time, only getting summoned for a single moment, in between, and also did not have any useful enchantments.
Therefore, Stalker's Spine, his previous day's ' bone belt' was clearly the better choice. Even if there was not too much use for it here, when they finally escape this hell, it should prove useful. That he was sure of.
Having made the decision, Ray walked over to Sunny, and transferred the Tattered veil to him.
Sunny was surprised for a moment, before he most likely went to check the runes of it. The taller young man, meanwhile was already walking back to where he had slept the previous night.
Soon, though, after everyone had finally awoken, they made some simple breakfast and also made a decision.
Most memories they had used, the day prior, were in a not so optimal state, which meant they needed to repair themselves a bit in their respective soul seas.
This resulted in a relatively comical, but by no means unwelcome sight. Every member – besides Ray – who actually had a spare armor, had already dismissed their armors, or rather memories in general, and were now sitting around in relatively simple clothing.
The guys mostly in loincloth, while the girls also had some extra makeshift brassieres.
When everyone had dissolved most of their memories, Ray stood out like a sore-thumb with his spare armor. This earned him a few quick glances.
"Say, since I already know that there is nothing to be ashamed about under there, why are you wearing this?" Effie asked a bit exasperated.
"Yes, since when do you hide anything about your body?" Sunny added, earning a few glances himself, before he defended himself. "What, I've also seen what is underneath- Wait!"
"Hmm, so you have also seen what is underneath his clothes. Do you wanna tell us anything Sunny?" a wide-grinning Effie joked.
A few seconds later, Sunny responded, "No, not really. Just that we showered together once. Wait- fuck!"
Before Effie could begin all over again, Ray sighed, "I suppose, the time is as good as any to reveal it…"
After saying this, Ray also dismissed his spare armor. He had been wondering how to explain it to Effie for a while anyway. This would hopefully make it a bit more easy.
As soon as his armor was gone, most of their eyes went wide…
----x----
This will be the new release time