No Return (Shadow Slave Fan-Fic)

Levi opened his eyes slowly.. it had only been half an hour since he had been unconscious. Sunny was kneeling next to him.

"Morning princess , are you able to get up?"

'Its morning..?'

When he looked around , no. It was not morning.. it was still raining..

"How long was I out..?"

He sat up.. His hand went over to his chest. The wound he had received was gone.. as well as the one in his shoulder. Did Nephis heal him? Looking at Sunny , he asked.

"Where are others?"

Sunny pointed at his back. And a few steps away Nephis and Cassie was sitting.. and there was someone else. And when he saw that person , his eyes widened.

The woman he was looking at was clad in black light leather armor that would be ideal for mobility.. Her skin was pale.. a striking contrast to her red lips and beautiful red pupils.. It was Shashi.. the vampire-girl. She looked striking as always. Levi felt a bit embarrassed , he did not know why , but he assumed that he was embarrassed because he had been thinking about this woman whenever he saw the color red.

They stared at each other for a while.. when it was going get awkward.. Sunny spoke up.

"This is Shashi.. Crimson Matriarch , I think you remember , she was the second one in the rankings. It seems she has also fallen into the Forgotten Shore."

Levi nodded..

"I remember.."

'A bit too well...'

Then he turned to her and finally spoke.

"Thank you for healing me."

Shashi nodded at him and gave him a small smile.

"Do not mention it."

Her tone was as elegant as her loo-

Levi mentally slapped himself for thinking that. What was wrong with him..? When he was in the presence of this woman..? Finally.. he spoke up..

"So.. are we safe..?"

Sunny shook his head. 

"The situation has taken a turn from bad to worse.."

"There are eight scavengers around us. But they're all dead. The killer is one of those big monsters we saw, the thing with the crimson pattern on its carapace and scythes instead of pincers. It's hiding from the storm beneath a stone ridge not far from here."

A bolt of lightning flashed, illuminating everything around.

Levi kept his calm , but he was a bit surprised.. Then Nephis spoke up in her calm tone.

"We are planning to kill the Awakened Monster , we were waiting for you to rest for a while. Now that Lady Shashi is here too , Me , You , Sunless and his echo along with Lady Shashi have higher chances in winning against the monster."

"No need for formalities. Shashi is fine." Shashi replied.

Levi nodded to Nephis , and then she spoke up once again , turning her gaze to Shashi.

"Now that Levi is awake.. would you mind telling us what you can do?"

Shashi cleared her throat and started speaking. 

"My attributes give me an affinity to blood, as well as a strong affiliation to divinity.. and my body heals a bit faster. I have an armor memory.. I got it after slaying a Scavenger.. additionally I have a Lantern memory. My aspect allows me to manipulate my own blood , it can be used as offence or healing."

'So.. she has an affiliation to divinity too , and she has killed a Scavenger before , alone. She is strong.'

"But my aspect unfortunately is limited because I always need to replenish my blood after using it. And I assure you monster blood is disgusting.."

Levi felt Sunny shiver next to him. So Shashi is practically a vampire..

"I understand , but why are you telling this to us?" Nephis questioned.

"Currently I am low on blood.. so I wont be very useful against the monster.. Unless one of you decide to give me some blood that is.."

Everyone fell silent.. no one would give their blood willingly of course.. They also needed blood to function. However.. Levi was immortal.. so he could offer her some blood without suffering any consequences.

"Alright.. you can have mine.."

Shashi looked at him with a raised brow.

"Are you sure? Haven't you lost some blood yourself?"

Levi shrugged.

"I will be fine."

Shashi nodded in response , getting up from her seat she sat next to Levi.

"Could you lend me your wrist?"

Levi held up his wrist , Shashi gently took his arm and lead his wrist to her mouth. She opened her mouth and sank her sharp teeth into his vein , she drank his blood greedily.

Levi watched her do so , it felt weird that his blood was getting sucked out of his body.. but it didn't feel painful at least. He felt a bit embarrassed though.. because the others were watching... Levi felt a bit of exposed under their watchful gazes.

As for Sunless , he was staring at Levi with a smirk on his lips. Levi narrowed his eyes at him.

When she was done she let go of his arm.

"Thank you , Levi."

"Your welcome." He said as he rubbed his wrist..

Suddenly Nephis spoke up..

"Lets move before it gets dark.. we have a monster to kill.."

***

Some time later, they was standing in the darkness.. ready to ambush the monster when Sunny lead it to here..

Levi had a bad feeling about this..

***

Monsters did possess some rudimentary intelligence, however, they could not compare to humans. At their core, they were still predators who acted mostly on instinct. Their cunning was beastly in nature and was not that hard to overcome. That gave the four Sleepers a chance to leverage their advantage.

After finalizing the plan, they made some preparations.

While the three was getting ready, Sunny had retrieved the soul shards from the eight dead scavengers. After delivering them to the group, they distributed them amongst each other , 5 for Nephis and 1 for each of them. Nephis would be the main damage-dealer of this plan.

***

With a sigh, Sunny raised his hand and summoned the silver bell.

Then, he lightly shook it, causing the clear melodic ringing to resound amidst the storm.

***

Immediately, the monster below moved, turning its massive torso around and looking for the source of the sudden noise. As he saw Sunny, a mad crimson flame ignited in its eyes.

However, Sunny did not see any of this, because he was already facing the other way. As soon as the bell rang, he turned around and jumped down from the ridge without a second of hesitation.

The ridge wasn't very tall, but there was still a considerable distance to the ground. Sunny hit the rocks hard and rolled, trying to disperse the force of the impact. As soon as he got back to his feet, he ran, trying to get as far away as possible.

A moment later, the ridge exploded behind his back. The monster simply crashed into it with its hulking body, breaking through the layers of rocks as though they were paper. Simultaneously, there was a flash of lightning and a thunderclap, drowning the loud rumble of the falling debris.

The creature locked onto retreating Sunny and lunged forward, trying to pierce his body with one of its scythes. Shards of rock were flowing like a torrent from its spiked carapace.

Luckily, Sunny was already far enough. Without slowing down, he lowered his body, ran for several more meters, and then turned around.

The picture of the monster, who was more than three meters tall, rushing at him like a speeding train was enough to make any person falter. However, Sunny stood his ground, raising the Azure Blade above his head.

After all, he was the bait.

Half a dozen meters away from him, the monster finally reached their trap.

Almost unnoticeable in the darkness and the pouring rain, the golden rope was strung between two massive boulders at the height of the creature's leg joints. Earlier, Sunny had lowered his body to run beneath it.

Overwhelmed by bloodlust, the monster did not notice the tautly drawn rope and ran into it at full speed. If it was a normal rope, it would, without a doubt, immediately snap. However, the golden rope was a Memory, and being incredibly sturdy was one of its attributes.

The rocks it was tied to, unfortunately, were quite mundane. They shattered almost immediately.

But the damage was already done.

With its front legs suddenly jerked backward, the scythe slayer lost its balance and crashed into the ground face-first, sliding forward on wet stone and leaving behind a shallow trench. Sunny jumped away.

The monster was unperturbed. Almost immediately, two bone scythes pierced the ground, jerking its massive body to a stop. In the next moment, unexpectedly swift and nimble for its size, it was already beginning to rise.

If it was allowed to stand up, their fates would be sealed.

Fortunately, Sunny's Echo was faster.

The moment the monster fell, it stopped pretending to be one of the dead scavengers, got up and dashed forward. Just as their enemy was about to rise, it jumped on its carapace from behind, pinning the creature down with its weight, and locked its pincers on the creature's arms just beneath the point where the bone scythes began.

Despite the fact that the Echo was wounded by the spikes growing from the monster's carapace, it succeeded in immobilizing it, at least for a second.

A second was enough.

***

Seeing that Sunny had successfully lead the monster to them.. Levi smiled. When it was the moment to strike , Nephis and Levi immediately leaped out their hiding spots , Shashi would stay behind and perform ranged attacks because her blood was on the lower side even after drinking some of Levi's blood.

Nephis had dashed at the front of the and Levi had dashed at the back..