To put it simply, he was fucked.
"Damnation."
Clinging onto a rock that peeked out of the dark ocean, he clenched his teeth. Circling around him were sea nightmare creatures waiting for his grip to slip. How long has he been holding on? How many hours, possibly even days? This time there was truly nothing he could think of to get out of this situation.
Of course, that didn't mean he gave up, but rather he just stopped thinking about it logically. So he did the most illogical thing he could think of.
He let go.
---
Riding atop the back of a grotesque ogre-like boar, a frail blind girl made her way through the forest. Of course, that blind girl was Cassie riding atop the echo of the tyrant Sunny had given her. Being blind, she of course had no clue where she was or what was happening around her.
Hearing a loud hissing that was much louder than the ordinary hissing she had heard from snakes in the forest zone in the academy, she attempted to command the echo to speed up. Sadly, this only led to them getting caught inside trees and vines. Commanding it to turn around, she let it run free to protect her. All she could hope for was that the creature could be handled by this echo. Sadly, that hope was short-lived as she heard another hissing, and then another, and then another...
Well, it seems like she was surrounded. She couldn't think of anything logical to do in this situation, so she did the most illogical thing she could think of.
She jumped off the echo and began to run. Was it possible she was running straight into the snakes? Yes. Was it possible she was running away from them? Also yes. Still—
The blind girl ran.
---
A torrent of white flames shot out from the shore into the water, boiling the surface and also boiling the skin of the nightmare creatures that resided in it.
"How long have I been at this preposterous hunt..."
She wasn't hunting for nightmare creatures—no, quite the furthest thing from it. Rather, she was hunting for two humans she had found herself to call friends... or perhaps companions would be the better term.
In short, Sunny and Cassie had left no tracks that could lead her to them. As a creature lunged at her, she shot her hand out, letting a torrent of flames.
She remembered the talk they had in the training room that day. The talk on how to use their aspects efficiently. Though they planned on using her aspect to set oil they collected from trees on fire, only Sunny knew how to get that oil from his wilderness survival class. So until then she would have to adjust that plan. She had no time for logic, so she did the most illogical thing she could think of.
It would waste a lot of essence, yes, but she had plenty to spare. Using both her hands, she compressed her flames before shooting them out, propelling herself over the ocean into them. Until she found something, she would soar through the sky, killing nightmare creatures in her wake.
---
The nightmare creatures' mouths gaped, awaiting for him to fall into their jaws. Unluckily for them, their jaws were met with a spear of shadow holding their monstrous mouths open. Standing on one of the spears, he recalled the talk they had in the training room on how to use their aspects more efficiently.
After seeing and feeling Cassie's hair, he had come up with an amazing idea.
Creating thin strings of shadow, he made them as thin and as sharp as he could before letting them rip through the nightmare creatures' necks. Back when he had first received the soul core, he was in the body of an Awakened, so when he beat the first nightmare, the shadow soul core turned into an Awakened one.
Assuming the spell won't make exceptions when he becomes an Awakened himself, his shadow aspect will be that of a Master's. Getting lost in thought about the future prospect his aspect would bring, he didn't even notice a long-mouthed grotesque and fleshy nightmare creature lunge at him, its rows of teeth measured in the dozens, and Sunny was about to be chomped by those very teeth.
---
Cassie heard the sounds of entire trees falling as the ginormous snakes were chasing her. She couldn't summon her echo as the space was so enclosed by the forest there was no space to summon it.
She took a sharp turn only to hear the snake take the same turn. Using her hands to feel around where trees were so she didn't run into them, she kept dashing around. She couldn't run normally as she would end up risking tripping over roots, vines, or worse. So she was jumping every step she took. It must have looked as if she was skipping around a playground—only if that playground was a forest full of unimaginable abominations.
Suddenly, an idea popped in her head. The snake was most likely longer rather than wider, right? It was also steady on her tracks, refusing to stop trying to consume her, right?
Taking another sharp turn, she dashed past a tree, then the next, and then the next. Over and over she ran zigzag and in a circle. Eventually she heard the sound she was desperately wanting to hear—the sound of snakes hissing angrily. She still couldn't summon her echo due to the little space, so she did the thing she had been doing for hours now.
She ran. Sadly for her, she ran in a poor direction. She ran, alright—she ran straight off a cliff.
"Damna—"
"AHHHHHHHHHH!"
---
As Sunny jumped back, he noticed there was nothing behind him other than the dark sea. About to fall into it, he was caught—his vision blinded by white flames shooting out at the fleshy nightmare creature.
Holding him in a princess carry was a princess herself.
"Found you."