The aftermath of battle left an eerie silence hanging in the air.
Hope stood in the center of the carnage, his breath still ragged, his heart pounding in his ears. Around him lay the lifeless corpses of the four Carapace Scavengers. Their massive forms were twisted in death, their once-menacing claws now motionless. The acrid scent of burned flesh and charred shells lingered, though the creatures' armored exteriors hadn't fully succumbed to the flames.
The fire had weakened them—yes—but not destroyed them entirely. Their carapaces had been remarkably durable, resisting both slashes and flames with frustrating resilience.
Hope exhaled slowly and opened his status.
Darkness Fragments: 16/5000.
Soul Essence: 300/5000.
It wasn't much. But it was something.
His gaze dropped to the weapons in his hands—his makeshift daggers.
Or rather, what remained of them.
The crude claws, once barely serviceable, were now on the verge of collapse. Deep cracks ran along their edges, and one had already bent from repeated impacts against the scavengers' tough exoskeletons. The other had missing chunks where the blade had outright fractured.
Useless.
With a quiet sigh, Hope let them slip from his grip. They clattered against the rocky ground, forgotten.
A strange vulnerability settled over him. He still had his armor, but armor alone wouldn't kill enemies. He needed new weapons—real weapons.
Looking around, he took stock of his companions.
Massa leaned against the cave wall, her entire body trembling with exhaustion. Her once-vibrant eyes were dull, and her already pale skin had turned almost deathly white. Her cheekbones seemed sharper, her face drawn and shrunken from the sheer amount of essence she had burned through. The spell she had cast had drained her more than she had let on.
Nefer wasn't faring much better.
She sat on the cave floor, her back against the stone, gulping down air like a drowning person who had just surfaced. Sweat clung to her skin, and her once-impeccable armor now bore the marks of battle. Several jagged cracks ran along its surface, proof of the blows she had taken.
Her sword, too, had suffered. The once-pristine blade was now lined with fractures, its sharp edge dulled from repeated strikes against the scavengers' hardened bodies. Still, it would repair itself once she dismissed it into her Soul Sea. Hope didn't have that luxury.
His armor had held up, but that was only because it was newly acquired. It hadn't yet been tested in prolonged battle.
He clenched his fists.
The words of an old instructor back at the academy echoed in his mind.
"No matter how strong you think you are, you will always need others. A lone warrior is a dead warrior."
Back then, he had scoffed.
But now?
His gaze flickered between Massa and Nefer.
He had survived because of them.
And they had survived because of him.
Nefer, despite her skill and power, would have struggled alone against four scavengers. And he… he would have been dead without them. Massa's barrier had bought them time, Nefer's sword had held the creatures at bay, and Hope's abilities had kept the scavengers off-balance.
For the first time in a long while, he truly understood what it meant to rely on others, except from the first trail
But he didn't dwell on the thought for long. There was still work to be done.
Turning to the nearest scavenger corpse, he crouched and placed a hand on its stiffening shell. The surface was still warm from the fire.
With a grunt, he shoved the creature onto its back.
The movement was more difficult than he expected. Even in death, the scavenger was heavy. Its segmented limbs twitched slightly as it settled into place, its underbelly now exposed.
Unlike the rest of its body, the stomach area was slightly softer—if "soft" was even the right word. The flesh was still tough, still resistant, but not nearly as impenetrable as the outer shell.
Hope exhaled and drove his hands into the carcass.
The flesh resisted.
He gritted his teeth and pushed harder. His fingers sank into the dense tissue, warm and sickeningly slick. The interior of the creature was just as alien as its exterior—thick strands of muscle wrapped around unseen organs, pulsing with residual essence.
Hope didn't let himself dwell on the sensation.
He dug deeper, feeling around for the core. It should be near the center, nestled between vital organs. He had done this before with the wolf like creature he had killed, the others at the academy.
His arms were soon coated in dark, viscous fluid, the smell clinging to his nostrils.
After what felt like minutes of digging, his fingers brushed against something solid.
The core.
It was embedded deep, surrounded by fibrous tissue. With a sharp yank, he pulled at it. The tendons around it resisted, unwilling to release their prize. He twisted, tearing through the connecting strands.
Finally, with a wet snap, the core came loose.
Hope withdrew his arm, the luminescent sphere now resting in his bloody palm.
He studied it for a moment.
It was heavier than it looked, pulsing faintly with residual Veil energy. Unlike the corrupted fragments he gained from killing creatures, this was raw. It could be refined, turned into essence, or used for other purposes.
But he wouldn't need it.
He wasn't interested in scavenger cores, or he didn't need them... They belonged to Nefer anyways
With a shrug, he tossed it aside. It hit the ground with a dull thud.
Then, wiping his arm against the fabric of his cloak, he moved on to the next corpse.
There were still three more to go.