"Where in the hell am I?"
"I could've sworn I was just at ho, reading so fanfiction."
[Aspirant! Welco to the Nightmare spell, prepare for your first trial!]
"Huh? Nightmare spell? First trial? Am I in _Shadow Slave_?"
----(a tiny tiskip)----
In the plains along a mountainside, the grass swayed with the wind, and the light of the sun hit Senrix's face head-on, making him groan in annoyance.
"So hot…"
He muttered it under his breath and started walking again. For the past hour, he'd been circling the base of the mountain, trying to see if there was anything hidden here and there, so crack in the stone, so out-of-place ruin, anything that looked like a secret. Nothing.
He glanced up at the sheer, impossibly tall peak and let out a dry laugh.
What else could he even do?
The best shot he had was to check if there was sothing at the summit.
If there wasn't, and he'd just wasted his ti climbing, well…
It was tall enough that if he jumped, he probably wouldn't feel the pain for long.
'Status,' he thought inwardly.
Golden runes flared to life in his eyes, bright and burning against the daylight:
-----
Na: Senrix
True Na: –
Rank: Aspirant
Class: Beast
mories: –
Echoes: –
Attributes:
[Fated]-attribute description: "The strings of fate wrap tightly around you. Unlike events, both good and bad, are drawn by your presence. There are those who are blessed, and are those who are cursed... But rarely both"
[Mark of Divinity] - attribute description: "You bear the faint scent of divinity, as though soone briefly touched by it once, a long ti ago"
[Dreamspawn]-attribute description: "You are born of two worlds, belonging to both, but welcod in neither. Your soul exists on the edge between nightmare and reality"
[Nephilim]-attribute description: "There was once we're terrible creatures born of an unholy union between the divine and the profane. Nephilim were the most beautiful, and the most harrowing of them all"
[Combat Genius] - attribute description: "A mind that sees the rhythm in chaos. Every stance, every breath, every lie in an opponent's guard becos a line they can cut or complete"
Aspect: [fla chaser]
Aspect rank: Dormant
Aspect description: [You chase the light your future leaves behind]
-----
"What the fuck is wrong with these attributes?" Senrix said, voice edged with confusion.
They were exactly the attributes of the two protagonists in the Shadow Slave.
Sunless had [Fated] and [Mark of Divinity].
Nephis had [Dreamspawn], [Nephilim] and [Mark of Divinity] too.
He'd morized them line for line during late-night reading sessions.
So why did he have both sets?
"Please don't tell my innate ability is so half-breed ss too," he muttered, half joking, half actually hoping.
Nephis's [Half-Breed] let her absorb more soul fragnts than anyone else.
If he got sothing like that, maybe surviving this nightmare wouldn't be completely impossible.
The mont the thought left his mind, the ground shuddered.
The mountain trembled with a deep, rolling tremor that rattled his teeth. He spun around.
From the tree line, dozens of monsters poured out, low to the ground and snarling, moving fast.
And behind them, further back, sothing massive rose into view, taller than the trees, hunched, wrong in a way that made his stomach twist.
A giant, but not one that looked human.
Its flesh was torn, its limbs too long, and its face was a ss of bone and hunger.
Senrix's fingers clenched at his sides.
"Well. Guess I'm not getting a breather."
Senrix broke into a sprint without looking back. He didn't need to.
The roar and scrape of claws behind him told him everything.
He was going to run as fast as his legs would carry him.
"Oh hell nah!!!"
His shout tore across the mountain path and reached the ears of a passing caravan.
The knights escorting it whipped around, hands already on their hilts.
What they saw made two of them curse under their breath: a young boy sprinting for his life, with a horde of monsters snapping at his heels.
"Halt!" one of them barked, stepping forward and throwing out a gauntleted hand to grab him.
Senrix didn't slow.
He ducked under the outstretched arm, twisted past another, and blew past them before anyone could get a word in.
All the caravan saw was a blur and a kid who ran like sothing worse than death was on his heels.
The knights drew their swords in unison, the steel ringing sharp in the mountain air.
"Get ready to run! There's a horde of monsters behind us!"
Panic hit the caravan instantly.
The five people inside scrambled out, stumbling over crates and each other.
Two of them, one short and stocky, the other lanky and tall, made a split-second decision and took off after Senrix.
The other three stayed behind, helping the knights form a shaky line.
"You bastards! Why are you following !" Senrix snapped over his shoulder, catching sight of the two trailing him.
The fat guy was red-faced and wheezing, but moving with a speed that didn't match his size.
The tall, skinny one was silent, eyes wide with terror.
"Help us!!" the fat guy yelled, his voice cracking.
Senrix didn't answer. He just stopped.
In one smooth motion he shifted his weight, planted a foot, and kicked the fat guy hard in the chest.
The man flew sideways with a yelp, tumbling off the path and out of sight.
Below was nothing but open air and a drop that went on forever.
The mountains were unforgiving like that.
"Next ti you run alongside , not behind ," Senrix said flatly, not even looking down.
The tall, skinny man barely had ti to process it before Senrix was on him.
A punch to the gut doubled him over, then a sharp kick to the side sent him sprawling into the dirt, gasping.
"Hindrance," Senrix muttered.
For half a second, the cold, calculating glint in his eyes faded.
They looked normal again, just tired, and a little guilty.
"Tch. That's not my personality, isn't it?" he muttered to himself, shaking his head.
No ti to dwell on it.
Up ahead, one of the knights from earlier ca charging up the path, armor dented and blood streaking his cheek.
Behind him, the horde followed, but Senrix noticed the numbers had thinned.
Whether the knights had cut them down or they'd fallen off the path themselves, he couldn't tell.
Then the chanical voice of the Nightmare Spell cut through everything:
[You have killed a dormant human, na: unknown]
[You have killed a dormant human, na: unknown]
Senrix exhaled slowly.
'So that was it.'
He sighed, already running through the problem in his head. Two dead, a horde still coming, and no real plan beyond "get higher."
He spun on his heel and started running again, this ti straight for the peak. If there was soone strong up there, anyone, he'd take his chances.
Behind him, the knight's voice rang out, rough and urgent. Senrix couldn't tell what emotion was in it.
Fear? Frustration? Resignation?
"Take my sword, boy!"
Senrix stopped dead, backpedaled two steps, and spun. The sword was already falling toward him, tossed with the last of the knight's strength.
He caught it by the hilt without fumbling, the weight settling into his palm like it belonged there.
He braced himself.
His eyes narrowed, cold again.
[Combat Genius] was humming in the back of his mind, reading the angle of the charge, the uneven ground, the rhythm of the monsters' steps.
The knight was swallowed a mont later, dragged down under a tide of teeth and claws.
The creatures didn't stop.
They locked onto Senrix next and surged forward.
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