Before the scavenger's pincer crashed on her from above…

Sunny sighed and shook his head.

At that moment, the second pincer came down. Instead of trying to regain her equilibrium, Changing Star went with the fall and somersaulted over one hand, ending up distancing herself from the monster a bit. Her sword lashed out again.

He was too busy being in pain and trying to make it to safety before the sea returned. And why would he study a corpse?

Azure Blade shimmered into existence in his grip and was immediately swallowed by the shadow. A breath later, the dark blade hit precisely into the concave, discolorated cavity in the scavenger's armor. With a crack, the chitin broke, allowing the tip of the sword to sink deep into the scavenger's body.

Sunny quickly described the situation and waited for Changing Star's feedback. Without much delay, she gave him a nod.

"If there's one or two of them, there's a chance."

"Fight."

'Don't die.'

She looked at him and calmly said:

Nephis, on the other hand, strolled to the center of the clearing and calmly stood there, her shoulders relaxed and her back straight. An elegant longsword appeared in her hands, carelessly pointed to the ground.

However, Sunny did not care about the details anymore. The only thing he cared about was that, through this risky series of dodges and leaps, Nephis had managed to circle to the opposite side of the clearing, forcing the scavenger to turn its back to the shadow in which he hid.

'Curses!'

'Curious.'

Sunny wanted to retort, but couldn't find a good reason. In the end, he gave up.

"Uh. Sure."

Not far into that passage, a massive scavenger was moving slowly in their direction.

"There are scavengers on the path ahead, six of them. They're slowly moving in our direction."

"Then what should we do?"

"It will only get harder tomorrow."

After a short pause, Nephis spoke:

"No, I don't think so. But maybe there's not enough meat for everyone anymore, so some stragglers had no choice but to leave with an empty stomach."

"Neph, you… be careful, okay?"

The monster shuddered, and then heavily fell to the ground.

Chapter 40 Weak Point

Oh… so, by studying a dead monster, one could better understand their strengths and vulnerabilities. This idea was so obvious that Sunny admonished himself for not realizing sooner.

"We'll circle around them."

"What if there's two of them?"

Meanwhile, Nephis continued:

Sunny gulped.

[...Your shadow grows stronger.]

'It's now or never!'

Nephis nodded and gestured to a nearby branching path.

He closed the distance between himself and the monster and jumped with all his might, landing on top of its carapace. Then, he used all of his weight to thrust a hand forward.

By the time they got there, the scavenger was seconds from appearing. Sunny's shadow flew out of the passage and reattached itself to his feet. Without having to discuss things with Nephis, he quickly hid in the shadows and waited there, hoping for a chance to attack.

With that, she and Sunny hastily headed for the clearing.

Its huge pincer shot forward with terrifying speed, tearing the air in its path.

Nephis swiftly sidestepped, dodging the pincer, then leaped backward, removing herself from the path of the rushing monster. Simultaneously, her sword flashed in the air, cutting deep into the joint of one of the scavenger's front legs.

The hulking beasts seemed like the losers of the pack, similar to the one he had killed. However, their wounds were not as pronounced and terrible. Each of them was much more of a threat than the mangled one from before, and there were half a dozen of them at least.

Not knowing what else to do, Sunny silently repeated her words:

As though to answer him, the Spell's voice resounded in the air:

Nephis blinked and tilted her head a little. Then, she smiled.

Sunny counted the monsters: one, two, three… five…

At some point, they were catching their breath near one of the numerous dead ends of the crimson labyrinth. They had no choice but to wait, since a large number of creatures was moving past their hiding spot, separated from them by a long length of a twisting coral passage.

"Don't die."

Nephis nodded.

"I know that you are skilled with the sword, but have you forgotten that each of those things is a whole rank above us? We won't survive in a fight against many."

That was a reasonable suggestion. However, Sunny felt reluctant to agree.

"Fine."

The follow-up attack followed almost immediately.

Sunny thought for a moment and then shook his head.

"They're done with the carcass?"

"Maybe… maybe we should turn back?"

Sunny couldn't help but notice that Changing Star's awkwardness seemed to disappear whenever she talked about things that she felt confident about, like ancient heroes. Or killing things.

As though reading his thoughts, Nephis added:

It wasn't long before they were left with no choice but to attempt a fight against a scavenger. Behind them, there was a long stretch of the labyrinth with no suitable branching paths for them to turn onto. Ahead of them, there was a small clearing with only one other passage leading out of it.

[You have slain an awakened beast, Carapace Scavenger.]

"Have you studied the corpse of the scavenger you had killed?"

Changing Star tilted her head, thinking. After a while, she turned to Sunny.

"We can't go on like that. At this rate, we'll never make it to safety before sunset."

"Scavengers have three weak points on their bodies. The first one is obvious: it's their joints. Anything that has to be flexible can't be too rigid. So, there's gaps in the armor above the joints. By targeting the joints, you can diminish their mobility and attack capacity."

Sunny was thrown from its carapace, landing in the mud with a roll.

"Wait here. We'll be back."

"We fight in the clearing."

"Soon."

'That… that easy?'

'Wait. I think Teacher Julius mentioned something…'

Cassia, meanwhile, froze in place and hesitantly raised her staff.

Sunny tried to hide his derision as he spoke:

Before Sunny had time to become scared…

Azure blood spattered on the ground.

Before Changing Star finished her last dodge…

Cassie was the first one to react.

The three Sleepers hastily moved forward and changed paths, giving a wide berth to the group of monsters. Tense and grim, they continued walking, trying to stay on course and not get lost in the labyrinth.

After a moment, she added:

A bit surprised, Sunny shook his head.

As Nephis moved to walk away, Cassie grabbed her hand. Her face was pale and tense.

However, in the next hour, they had to turn in a random direction again and again, avoiding other scavengers. The distance between them and the giant statue was not shortening at all.

Gritting his teeth, Sunny lunged forward.

As usual, Nephis paused before answering.

"If we stumble on a single scavenger, I'll be the bait. My task will be to make it turn around and then restrain it, exposing the third weak point. Your task will be to kill it."

After some thought, she added.

***

"We avoid large groups. Cut down smaller ones."

"Halt!" Sunny whispered, observing the group of scavengers through his shadow.

Of course, this small wound was too insignificant to slow the scavenger down. With surprising agility, it twisted and delivered a crushing sideways swipe. Nephis, who just barely landed on her feet, had no choice but to deflect the blow with her sword. She managed to disperse most of the impact by holding the blade at the right angle, but the remaining force was still enough to throw her off balance.

What was that supposed to mean?

After that, Nephis gently guided Cassie to the wall of the labyrinth and helped her find a place to sit.

A second later, the scavenger walked into the clearing. When his tiny eyes spotted Nephis, an evil light ignited in them. Without wasting even a second, the massive monster screeched and rushed forward to attack.

Nephis cast a gaze forward. There was a calculating look on her face.

"No."

As soon as the word left his lips, Nephis immediately summoned her sword. After studying the surroundings for a second, she turned her head and glanced at him with a question in her eyes.

'That is good to know. However, that weak point was too high to be hit by a human — after all, scavengers were more than two meters tall!'

Fight? Fight against dozens of those monstrosities? Was she crazy?

Nephis shared his thoughts. With a blank expression, she said:

It was already over?

"The last weak point is on their back, approximately at the level where the eyes are. There's a slightly concave, discolored cavity in their armor. It is where several armor plates connect. The chitin there is comparatively thin. If you can pierce through it, you can destroy the brain directly. That will be a killing blow."

"That weak point is very hard to target. Circling around a scavenger is almost impossible due to their size, speed and the attack range of their pincers."

She was right. By tomorrow, there would be even more scavengers flooding the labyrinth.

Nephis stared at him for a while. Then, she suddenly asked:

"The second one is the same. It's where their torso connects to the carapace. If you manage to accurately hit that spot, you can heavily injure a scavenger and deal serious damage to its body. However, unless you succeed in severing its spine, the wound won't be fatal. It'll still be able to fight for a while."