233 Swarm

As the members of the cohort killed several giant locusts, their repulsive black bodies fell to the ground, raining blood on the walking colossus and the crimson coral of the Labyrinth.

As soon as their corpses hit the ground, it suddenly moved. Dark figures appeared from beneath the mud, rushing at the dead locusts to devour them. Hundreds of monsters were suddenly competing for the few scraps of meat. After several bloody fights broke out and the winners were decided, those who had not gotten to satiate their hunger turned their heads and followed the smell of blood.

…Right back to the moving stone giant.

Looking down with dark resentment, Sunny saw numerous creatures jumping at the legs of the walking statue from the mounds of coral and quickly climbing up. They were headed right to where the cohort was being besieged by the swarm of winged abominations.

He couldn't see the shape of them clearly, but there was no doubt that these monsters were bad news.

'Damnation…'

[...slain an awakened beast, Flesh Reaver.]

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

Turning around, Sunny summoned the Prowling Thorn and hurled it upward. A moment later, using the invisible string as support, he was flying through the air. Grabbing onto the edge of the circular platform, he hoisted himself up and once again faced the carnage.

The kunai flashed, cutting the wing of one of the locusts clean off. Suddenly crippled, the creature toppled and plummeted down, no doubt to be devoured by the horde of Nightmare Creatures approaching from below.

The battle with the swarm was not going too great for the cohort. The turbulent winds summoned by Cassie's staff bought them some breathing room by making it hard for the locusts to approach the platform at high speed, but there were just too many of them.

Kai was setting one arrow after another loose. After that one first shot, he had not used the Blood Arrow, choosing instead to rely on his mundane ones. In the chaotic mess of this sudden battle, it was too easy to miss. Plus, he didn't need a lot of power to deliver debilitating wounds to the locusts.

They were basically skewering themselves on the arrows themselves by diving from the skies with incredible speed. Still, the abominable reavers were awakened beasts. It wasn't easy for a Sleeper to kill one with just a single shot.

Just as Sunny grabbed the kunai and spun to avoid a glancing blow from one of the creatures, another one landed on the platform. Two arrows were sticking from its cracked chitin, but the locust was still alive.

…Not for long, though.

Just a moment after the repulsive bug landed, Neph's sword flashed through the air, slicing it in half. Sending the mangled body off the platform with a powerful kick, Changing Star turned to Kai and yelled:

"Don't try to kill them! Break their wings!"

With a sudden light of understanding in his eyes, the archer changed his approach.

Indeed, that made sense. The members of the cohort didn't need to slay the locusts. They just needed to make it so the flying scourges weren't able to reach the stone platform.

Effie, meanwhile, did not need this advice. Everything she hit simply exploded into a disgusting puddle of bloody goo.

The problem the huntress faced was that there was no powerful range weapon she could use. Her beautiful spear was not really suited to be thrown that often.

The Memories were created from soul essence. Once a Memory was dismissed, that essence returned to the core of the Awakened that had summoned it. However, if it was too far away from them, the essence was simply wasted — unless the Memory had a special enchantment like that of the Blood Arrow.

The essence wasn't lost forever, as it would slowly accumulate inside the soul core until the peak capacity was reached once again. But this process took time, so one could not endlessly throw their Memories at the enemy during a battle. Especially not once they reached a rank where managing one's soul essence was of higher importance.

Effie had not reached such a rank yet, but she was still limited by that principle. That's why she resorted to using makeshift darts fashioned out of plates of spider iron. There wasn't much of them left, however. Once the last dart was gone, she would have to either exhaust her pool of soul essence or risk fighting the attacking locusts in melee.

Just like the Stone Saint was doing right now. As Sunny rushed toward Nephis, he noticed the Shadow lowering her shoulder and raising her shield. In the next moment, one of the repulsive creatures crashed into it at full speed… and simply crumbled, black blood exploding into the air through the cracks in the shattered chitin.

[You have slain…]

The huntress, however, did not have the benefit of weighing a literal ton. Despite her graceful appearance, the Saint was made out of stone, and stone was much heavier than flesh. It was also much harder to rip and slice apart. Once Effie was forced to fight the locusts with nothing but her spear and shield, her life would be in real danger.

'Curses, curses, curse it all!'

Swiftly approaching Changing Star, Sunny kicked a disgusting piece of a killed creature off the platform and yelled:

"We have a problem!"

Nephis sharply looked at him and scowled.

"What?"

Sunny hesitated for a moment, and then gestured down.

"There's a couple of hundred Labyrinth creatures crawling all over the colossus. They'll be here pretty soon!"

Nephis gritted her teeth, then glanced at the members of the cohort.

Cassie was holding the wooden staff, sending powerful bursts of wind into the sky to slow down the attacking swarm. The Quiet Dancer was flashing through the air, protecting her from the locusts to the best of its ability. Caster was spinning his strange sling, aiming at the wings of the repulsive creatures. His face was calm and grim.

Everyone was barely holding on and one mistake away from death.

With a dark look in her cold grey eyes, Nephis looked at Sunny. Then, she said:

"...Come with me, then."