"No, idiot — of course I'm not going to do that!"
I whisper to Jack.
"Come on! It could work!"
I frown.
"Imbecile, of course that's not going to work, and most likely we'll just earn ourselves a beating."
Caster came up from one side.
"What are you two talking about?"
Jack smiled.
"Well, you see..."
As the idiot spoke, Caster's face contorted with confusion, frustration and resignation.
"...do whatever you want, fool."
He stepped away from the pair and waited for the moment to fight.
"See? Even Caster says it's stupid!"
His friend clicked his tongue.
"Well, not everyone can be as clever as me."
'No, seriously, there's something terribly wrong with this guy.'
He sighed and readied himself for the fight.
Jack stood beside him with a grin.
"Will you do it?"
His brow furrowed and a vein bulged on his forehead.
"...Yes."
The other fool turned, pleased.
'And there's also something terribly wrong with me.'
Seishan watched them from a distance; when they were ready he nodded.
"You may attack."
Without warning he lunged forward; he hadn't even summoned his weapon — he charged with arms outstretched and the sternest face he could muster.
Seishan took a combat stance, prepared to block a blow or neutralize a grab.
But something happened that he could never have expected.
- - -
I look down to where the long-haired boy was, arms wrapped around her, his face buried in her chest.
The guy's face was completely red and he looked embarrassed.
His mouth moved in a barely audible whisper.
"I-I'm sorry."
At the sides, both Caster and Jack were running, preparing to finish everything with an attack.
She turned back to the boy holding her, smiling.
'I think I'll beat them up a little.'
A few minutes later, the three of them were beaten on the floor; Mike was shouting insults at Jack.
"Idiot, look what you caused! Damn imbecile!"
Caster just stared at the sky, disappointed, a question written on his face: 'What am I doing?'
She heard something slice through the wind and turned to the figure.
Sunny approached the boys and delivered a kick to each of them.
"How the hell did you think that would work?"
They fell silent, except Jack.
"It was a good pla—!"
They kicked him again.
"Idiot."
She finished scolding them and moved closer to Seishan, a little embarrassed.
"Sorry about that."
She smiled as she looked at the youngsters.
"It doesn't matter — in any case it was more impressive than I thought. If you'd had a better plan I would have been in trouble."
He seemed to agree.
Silence reigned for a few seconds, then Sunny spoke to everyone.
"Listen, idiots! Tomorrow, as soon as the sun goes down, we'll meet right here — we're going hunting in the dark city!"
The mood seemed to plummet.
- - -
When everyone left, Sunny found Patrick sitting curled up hugging his knees in a corner.
"What's wrong, kid?"
The boy didn't flinch.
"It's just that..."
He paused a second to find the words.
"I was close to dying."
Sunny looked at him, slightly confused; only a few seconds later did he understand what he meant.
'That was fast.'
He sat beside him and stared at the dark sky.
"It's natural. As someone awakened — or rather, as an inhabitant of this world — there will be many occasions when your life is in danger, many times when you'll only live by a hair."
The boy trembled and looked at him with tearful, squinting eyes.
"How are you able to live like that?"
He took a moment to think about it, and the conclusion he reached wasn't very cheerful.
"Because I never had a choice. My whole life I survived; I always had to give every gram of myself to keep living. For me, fighting for my life is the usual."
Silence reigned for a few seconds; the boy was lost in thought, then his voice returned with a little more firmness.
"How can I be like you?"
Sunny laughed.
"You can't, because you are you. Sure, you can try to imitate me, but you'd only be that — an imitation. From my experience I can tell you the easiest way to face life is simply to move forward."
Patrick opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted.
"We live in a place where wounds don't heal. We learn to live with them, we carry scars our whole lives; that's what we are, and the only way to find happiness in all this shitty mess is to move forward."
He stood and offered a hand.
"That's my answer: move, don't stop. If you keep fighting against the world, the day will come when you'll win."
The boy took his hand slowly, trying to put on a brave face, but it was impossible.
- - -
Sunny admired the group before him; he was a little proud of what they had achieved in recent days.
Patrick seemed calmer than usual, as if he'd undergone a big change overnight.
He gave him an approving glance, reassessing his opinion of him.
At his side was Harper, who remained nervous and almost paranoid, though disappointed — there wasn't much he could do for him.
Mike and Jack were the same as the day he met them, carefree and making stupid jokes whenever they could.
'I still wonder how they're so strong.'
Caster was as always, indifferent to everything around him; he knew you couldn't underestimate the training of the legacies.
Next was Seishan, whose face was stoic but he could've sworn she looked a little happy; lately she left him puzzled.
On the other side there was a single girl, wearing a rather stylish suit of armor and a nearly transparent veil over her face.
He approached her to begin.
"Alright, today we start our hunt to exterminate the city's monsters, but if we're going to do that we first need to know each other well."
He scanned his eyes over everyone.
"That's why I ask you to share all the information you can about the companions you'll trust your lives to."
Harper swallowed.
"I'll start. My attributes grant me affinity with fate and shadows; I also possess an attribute that gives me an overall enhancement to my being."
The last words caused a frown in Caster that appeared and disappeared in an instant.
"My innate ability grants me increased strength when I fight or when I'm surrounded by shadows; my latent ability lets my shadow detach from my feet several meters around me — I can see and feel through it, and it can be used to strengthen me, my memories, or an echo."
Patrick, Harper and the girl watched him with wide eyes; Caster and Seishan kept their stoic expressions, and the two idiots were applauding.
"That's my boss!"
"Knew he was really strong!"
He tried to hide his embarrassment as much as possible, but a small blush escaped him; Seishan smiled.
"Lastly, I have several memories, but the important ones are my sword, a first-level awakened, and my armor, a fifth-level awakened; I also possess a scavenger echo as you've seen."
Caster now frowned visibly.
The girl stepped forward and he nodded.
"I'm Lilia, one of Lady Seishan's maidens, and I'm here at her and Lord Sunless's request."
After that everyone — except Seishan — introduced themselves properly, only leaving their flaw aside.
Lilia was a healer and mage who could buff her teammates and attack from a distance, albeit weakly.
Harper said his appearance made him slipperier than usual.
But the one who surprised him was Patrick; his appearance allowed him to remotely control a machine around him — not only that, he could modify it depending on the circumstances or repair it if it took damage; the only downside was he needed real ammunition.
In this case he had brought a turret made of cast steel that used bone bullets.
He analyzed everyone's abilities for a while and told them his attack plan.
"Alright, listen."
Everyone obediently turned their heads to him.
"We'll split into three groups. The rear guard will be Patrick, Lilia and Harper."
"In the front we'll be Caster, Seishan and I; Jack and Mike will take the flanks and support, to prevent any creature from reaching the rest."
He looked at Harper, which made him shudder.
"If any monster gets through, you'll stop it and Patrick will help you finish it."
They both nodded, one more scared than the other.
He explained the formations they'd use and the attack and retreat plans.
Mike raised his hand.
"What are we going to face?"
Sunny smiled mischievously.
"Well, since we're not fully consolidated yet and some of us lack experience, I thought of something easy."
He looked at them serenely.
"We're going to face a tribe of Awakened: they're made up of 10 beasts, 4 monsters and one demon."
Harper fell to the ground and Lilia looked at him incredulously.
"Are you crazy?" the girl asked.
"Maybe a little. Ah, I no longer know if I'm crazy or incredibly sane for this world — it's hard to tell."
His smile vanished from his face and now he was serious.
"Alright, I'll now relay the information I have on them and how we'll attack..."
- - -
Two sleepers approached a narrow alley; Jack walked ahead with absolute confidence, as if he were at home.
Mike followed behind, trying to imitate his confidence but not quite succeeding.
Once they reached the indicated point they stopped; they were at a city crossroads, where a big road and a small one met.
Around them were many dilapidated buildings — most incomplete, but some surprisingly well kept along the main road.
Then a monstrous head poked out of a broken window; it had a grotesque horn in its hairy forehead, a disproportionately large nose and giant fangs that dug into its jaw; rage and madness burned in its eyes.
Its mouth opened and a tearing scream came out, sliced by a multitude of sharp teeth.
A few seconds later the ground shook and down the main street appeared beasts like deformed gorillas, with short legs and abnormally large arms.
They began to move, using their arms to run towards the two delicious snacks, who were in fact already sprinting at full speed down a narrow alley.
To catch them they had to pass through the street one by one.
The two little rats escaped around a corner.
Angered, the gorilla tried to follow them, rounding the corner.
A white bullet cut the air as it passed the monster, hitting it square in the chest, wounding it but not fatally.
It screamed and turned to see who had hit it, but couldn't.
A gigantic claw sliced through the air and struck the recent bullet wound, piercing the thick skin and driving in deep.
The beast fell inert to the ground.
Another one followed, but this one didn't receive any bullets — instead it lunged at Seishan.
- - -
Sunny watched as the first beast died and the other took Seishan down in front.
He took a combat stance and prepared for the coming onslaught.
Another creature came out of the alley and leapt at him; with a quick short-sword movement he cut the arm that had come to tear his head off in half, then extended the motion to slice into the creature's chest.
After that he stepped to the right and let the creature fall behind him half-dead to be finished by Harper.
Beside him, Caster was already facing a beast and could feel the shadow of another emerging from the alley.
This one, however, came out more cautiously.
'The demon.'
He began running toward it — he couldn't leave it free for the others.
"Jack and Mike! Take my position!"
With those words he disconnected from the rest of the battle and focused completely on the monster in front of him, which also seemed to recognize him as the strongest.
It had three horns on its forehead, two long tusks that reached its neck; the abomination stood several meters tall, its limbs abnormally large, not to mention its hands, which looked capable of crushing his skull with a single finger.
The gorilla prepared its hand, moving it quickly to finish him with a slap.
He dodged and cut off a couple of fingers with his sword, which was useless since the demon had seven.
Another charged at him, containing its strength in a demolishing fist.
He jumped forward, dodging the punch by centimeters and used the chance to make a slight cut in the creature's chest.
Behind him the ground rose and debris flew.
Now it was his turn to retreat; he ordered the shadow to abandon the sword and wrap itself around him.
He tried to distance himself from the battle, hoping the gorilla would follow.
It did — the beast seemed eager to turn him into paste.
Once he had it outside the reach of its cohort he stopped, threw himself to the ground dodging the meat truck that passed where he'd been standing.
When he stood, a hand was already coming for him, moving along the ground and tearing up the paving stones.
He jumped as high as he could; above him awaited another arm, and he used the momentum to cut the creature's arm off.
His sword sank weakly into the demon's wrist, but it was enough: it broke its body and cut the tendons of the wrist, disabling the monstrous hand.
He grabbed the creature by the hair and planted himself on it.
He could feel the other limb moving toward him, as if trying to crush the annoying mosquito on top.
At the last moment he slid to the side, escaping the arm, which a moment later was brutally smashed by its companion, breaking bones and shredding its own flesh.
The demon let out a chilling howl and paused to regroup — that was enough.
The annoying mosquito was already on it, and so was his sword.
He drove the sharp steel into the madness of its eyes, kicked the monster in the face and fell to the ground again.
'I have to hurry.'
The thing was already on its last legs; it was missing an eye and an arm and was bleeding everywhere, but that wasn't enough to stop it.
This time, desperate, it lunged at him with its jaw open to swallow him whole.
He rolled on the ground to the right and leapt with all the force he could; the giant passed beside him.
He landed on the ape's head and prepared to finish it, then felt imminent danger looming and moved away again.
The last upper limb fell on the hominid like a meteorite, smashing its skull and leaving it dying, but not dead.
He approached quickly and looked at the simian's disfigured face; with the coldness of an assassin he drove his sword into the throbbing skull.
[You have slain an Awakened Demon — Massive Crusher]
[Your shadow grows stronger]
He turned to help in the battle again, but it had already ended.
However, what he saw made his eyes widen.