The world had grown darker under the veil of tumultuous thunderclouds, and torrents of water fell from the skies, bending like whips. Illuminated by a blinding flash of lightning, two humans dashed away from the claws of a towering beast.
"Nephis, now!"
There was no real need for words. Sunny and Nephis might have grown distant as of late due to the choices they had made, but the core of their relationship was the same. They were battle partners first, and everything else second - that bond had been forged in fire, tears, and blood on the Forgotten Shore long before a shadow was cast on it by other matters.
By now, their ability to act with seamless coordination was even higher than the unnatural unity granted to the warriors of Valor by the forged swords.
From the moment that the two of them had killed that first Carapace Scavenger together, Sunny and Nephis went through countless battles together. She had taught him how to wield the sword, while he taught her how to control her soul essence as a Master.
Despite everything, that bond would never change.
...Which was not to say that there was no other bond between them.
The moment Dire Fang lunged forward, Sunny dashed to the right, while Nephis dashed to the left. At the same time, some of her radiance mixed with his shadows, while one of his shadows wrapped itself around her body.
The sum of their powers was greater than its parts.
The shadows and the brilliant light seemed to resonate with each other, making both of them stronger than they had any right to be. Sunny turned into a silhouette shrouded in broiling darkness, while Neph's radiance took on a darker hue. The darkness was permeated with blinding white light, while the light seemed to contain wisps of inexhaustible darkness.
The light made the darkness deeper, while the darkness made the light much more stark and radiant.
And there was more to it, too.
At least for Sunny. Unlike his shadows, which augmented all his physical attributes, Neph's flames ignited the soul, too. Wreathed in her fire, he could feel his essence become much more vibrant and warm.
Much more potent.
'Ah... what a nice feeling...'
Nephis must have been using her full augmentation, and with the addition of Sunny's shadow, she was just fast enough to evade Dire Fang's claws.
He, on the other hand, was just a little bit slower... luckily, the Saint had chosen Changing Star as the primary target. Since he couldn't attack both of them at the same time effectively, the strike directed at Sunny was not as inescapable as it could have been.
Sunny felt a slight sense of dissatisfaction.
'So, what, we are back to that? Neph is the bait, while I am the blade?'
He didn't like it one bit.
In any case... Dire Fang had made a mistake. A very serious mistake.
He shouldn't have paid less attention to Sunny.
Because while his soul was aflame with Neph's radiance, a few of his abilities received a transformative boost, as well. Not the least because he could spend his essence more freely.
'Get ready, bastard...'
Nephis landed from her dodge and instantly pivoted, barely avoiding the beast's follow-up strike and slashing at his arm with her incandescent sword.
At the same time, Sunny allowed himself to be buried under a wave of shadows.
What emerged from them, however, was not a human, but a four-armed fiend clad in a suit of fearsome onyx armor. The creature was like a spawn of darkness, but its eyes burned with furious white radiance, and its mouth was like an incinerating furnace of white flame.
The two of them had created distance between each other, and so, Dire Fang could only face one at a time.
That was why he was a fraction of a moment too late to react to Sunny's attack.
'Faster. Faster. Faster!'
The ground split and exploded under his clawed foot as Sunny pushed himself forward. The air, which was usually soft and unnoticeable, was suddenly like a wall... he broke through that wall. The drops of rain seemed to freeze in place as they fell.
Sunny wanted to let out a scream, a roar, a battle cry...
But he didn't, of course.
Why would he announce his strike while attacking the enemy from behind?
The Sin of Solace fell silently.
But Dire Fang's was suddenly not in the place he had been a split second before.
The towering beast had twisted, somehow, to avoid the Transcendent blade - too swift to be seen. Sunny only felt the air being displaced by the Saint's massive body a heartbeat later.
That was fine, too.
He fell down, crouching on his four hands, and felt something tear through the empty space above.
In the next moment, there was a blinding flash, and an angry growl.
Dire Fang might have been able to avoid Sunny's attempt at backstabbing him, but by doing so, he was forced to turn his back on Nephis.
And Nephis, without wasting a single moment, used this chance to plunge her incandescent sword into the beast's hide.
The towering creature disengaged and stopped for a moment, looking down. There, on its flank, a long wound could be seen through singed fur. Drops of blood were rolling down his side as they boiled.
The laceration was shallow, and not at all serious.
However...
Dire Fang had received a wound, no matter how small, while Sunny and Nephis had not.
His bestial face contorted into a vicious snarl.
The Saint did not say anything before launching into another attack.
There was no need for words, and none of them had anything to say.
Their swords, claws, and Aspects would be doing the talking.
A spirit of flame, a spawn of shadows, and a savage beast clashed in the middle of a terrifying battlefield. They were moving so fast that it was hard to see what was happening. Flowers of white fire bloomed in the middle of a pouring rain, and the ground shook from the fury of their murderous clash.
Their battle was frenzied and turned everything around them into pure havoc, but it wasn't senseless. In fact, each of the three remained chillingly cold-blooded and calculating in the midst of the furious confrontation.
Even while augmenting each other, Sunny and Nephis were much slower and weaker than the Saint of Clan Song... but not to the degree where he could instantly annihilate them.
More importantly than that, there were two of them. Even if they were not Dire Fang's equals in terms of raw power, they could use their knowledge and understanding of each other to make up for the gap in strength.
And so, the battle raged on.
Scores of strikes were exchanged in the span of a dozen seconds. The ground was broken and upturned. The rainwater mixed with the soil, turning it into mud. The mud was incinerated by the flames, turning into ash.
For a few short moments, a fragile equilibrium seemed to have been created between the two Masters and the Saint.
Astonishingly, Sunny and Nephis had not been ripped to pieces by Dire Fang, like a couple of Ascended should have been.
They even managed to push him back.
But Sunny was not very happy about the result...
It was because he knew that this equilibrium would not last long.
Right now, even while fighting at the absolute limit of their capabilities, both sides were carefully studying their adversary.
The side that managed to glean the enemy's strengths and weaknesses first was going to win, while the side that failed was going to be killed.
'Well, how wonderful...'
...In that regard, Sunny had an overwhelming advantage.
As a practitioner of Shadow Dance, he was unrivaled when it came to learning everything about his enemies, be they humans, Nightmare Creatures, or Saints...
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