From above, Sunny threw the skull memory over an engorged and hairy nightmare creature. Once it was directly over it, he let the contents spill out, letting it be covered in saps and oils from trees. Once assuring that it was coated before it could react, a white flame shot out. Like an arrow on fire, it struck the creature before causing the oil and sap to set on fire.
Thrashing around to put the fire out, an ogre-like beast was already upon it, slamming down and killing it once and for all. All in all, the whole process only took a minute, while the prep took around five, depending on how far away the creature was.
"Well, I'd call that a success. Well, with the condition it's in, we can't really use it as food though, so maybe it's only good for killing, not hunting."
Nephis's face had no change in expression. Stoic as ever, she slid down the mountain, her voice still reaching their ears despite being some distance away from them now.
"Don't just sit around. I would like to get back to our world sooner rather than later."
He took a glance at Cassie, seeing her gently finding a space to slide before he scooped her up in his arms and slid down. Surprisingly, she didn't give a reaction other than a slight yelp. Getting to the ground floor, he helped her up.
"Thank you... but please warn me next time."
An innocent smile painted his face as he began to walk once more.
"Where's the fun in that?"
---
They walked, and walked, and walked... Okay, they'd been walking without trouble for days now. No nightmare creatures, nothing at all... and quite frankly, that was more scary than having a horde. Because if there were no creatures, that meant there was a predator — and for the apex of predators to have none of their own could only mean one thing...
"Stop."
Nephis stuck her hand out, stopping them. Craning his neck to the side, he saw what she saw. It seemed to be a new biome of the dream realm.
Blood-red corals took over all of the land as if slowly consuming it. The stench from the corals had just reached them, confirming that not only were they blood red but most likely blood altogether.
Suddenly, a primal fear came over him as he grabbed both their hands, dashing toward the coral biome.
"W-wha—!"
In a hushed tone, he cut Cassie off, speeding up as he went.
"Something was behind us..."
Glancing back, his heart dropped. On the edge of the cliff, staring down at them, was a monstrous armored figure. With a ginormous two-sided axe that matched its red armor, it stood at over eight feet at the least. Its entire body was pulsating, which could be seen from the armor constantly expanding and then collapsing in on itself.
Without hesitation, he threw Nephis before throwing Cassie into her arms, wasting no time to summon a blade memory — the same memory he had summoned when he had killed the tyrant back in the waking world.
They couldn't see his expression as a steady voice came from the figure.
"Head and hide in the reefs. I'll join you soon enough."
Nephis's face grew tense before a sigh rang out. Brandishing the dream blade, she stepped up by his side, and before he knew it, Cassie was on the other side, already summoning her echo.
"You really do irk me, mutt. Do you think that low of us?"
The creature just stared them down, not moving from its spot, though the pulsating of its armor increased.
"If we were to leave you behind, then what reason did we have to come in the first place? We could have just let you go into the dream realm alone."
The creature's armor bloated to a point where its width was longer than its height, before continuing the process of pulsating once more.
A smile spread across his face. Despite the incoming threat, happiness bloomed.
"Yeah, that's my fault. After we kick this ugly guy's ass, you can give me a stern talking to."
He didn't bother to look, but they all must have been smiling.
The creature's body mass shrunk down to the smallest it had been before crunching sounds came from it as it steamed.
And then, like a bullet, it charged directly at them.
---
The first one was Nephis. It slammed its monstrous knee into her chest, crushing her ribs instantly. Before she could heal, it swung its leg like a wheel, kicking her into the side of the cliff, smoke encompassing the area she landed in.
Then it was Cassie. Before Sunny could react, the echo was cut down — cleaved in half with the halberd. Without her even noticing, a spike rushed out from one of the ends of the creature's armor, impaling her stomach.
And then it was him. Reaching out his hand to grab Cassie, it chopped his arm off with the halberd before sending a spike out to impale his legs. It stood over him, the darkness that was its eyes drilling into his mind.
And then the armor changed. The twisted and horned helmet melted until it formed a smile.
Slowly taking its time, deliberately, it chopped his limbs off, impaled his body, made him into a pincushion, and crushed his organs with its stomps, slowly but surely.
At this point, his mind had gone blank, the pain overtaking all his other senses. Despite that, though, he could hear Nephis screaming as she tried to crawl to him — but every time she made progress, a spike impaled her legs. On the other side, Cassie was barely holding on, reaching out to him based on the noise of his screams.
All three of them were going to die. He couldn't think of a different outcome.
The only limb he had left was his obsidian arm, as it refused to break.
With this in mind, he made a decision.
Using the last of his strength to grab onto its leg, he gave Nephis a look. Seeing it, she wasted no time ripping her leg out of the spike once more and, despite everything, standing up to run. Usually, she would fall back down as the spikes would attack her once more, but before the spikes could launch out, one of the legs of the creature disappeared. That one instance of confusion allowed her to scoop up Cassie and run, leaving him behind.
That was good — after all, heroes were supposed to save princesses, right? Letting go of the remaining leg, he took his obsidian hand...
and pierced it through his very heart.