A while later, they were resting in the shadow of the giant statue. Every member of the cohort looked nothing short of terrible, however, beneath the bloodied сlothes and broken armor, their bodies were whole and sound.
Changing Star had healed them all, and now, she was the only one who was weak and exhausted.
I myself didn't accept any healing from her of course, my injuries were minor and I did not want any of her help.
Sitting in the mud with Shashi beside me, I observed the others. Most were tired after that harrowing experience in the catacombs. Although unlike them I did not feel tired nor exhausted. My body was slowly adapting to immortality, and I did not feel tired, hungry nor thirsty as much as others did. It was quiet sad to see that my humanity was literally slipping out of my hands, even if my flaw had saved me multiple times I still wish I did not have it.
Of course, the cohort did not get a lot of time to rest. Despite the fact that it wasn't even noon yet, they had a lot of ground to cover before sunset.
The plan they had made at the start of the day was to leave the Dark City from the south by climbing the wall near the grandiose Main Gates and then travel through the Labyrinth to the next safe height, which was about ten kilometers away.
However, due to the fact that they had ended up in the catacombs instead and had to escape through the chamber belonging to the Lord of the Dead, the party was now to the east of the ruins, near the beautiful statue of the faceless woman. Not only did they have to circle around the city now, but there was also less time to reach safety before the flood of darkness devoured the Forgotten Shore once again.
Standing up in a chorus of disappointed groans, the cohort assumed the marching formation and set out south. Walking through the mud of the colossal crater was not easy, but for the time being, they had no other choice… unless they wanted to scale the monumental stone wall and return to the Dark City, of course.
Luckily, with both Sunny's shadow and Kai scouting the way ahead, they didn't have to worry about being ambushed by monsters. So, for the time being, the only thing the party had to struggle with was moving their feet through the wet dirt.
The monotonous silence was broken only by laborious breathing and slurping of mud.
…A while later, the impregnable and seemingly endless grey wall that loomed some distance away and above them slowly twisted, drifting away from the edge of the crater.
They were finally leaving the cursed ruins behind.
"Ugh.. I never liked that place."
Shashi said with a bitter tone as she looked back.
"I suppose it had nothing good to offer." I replied.
"No shit."
'What's with the attitude..?'
***
Because the crater was too big, the bent of its edge was almost imperceptible. Only by looking far into the distance could one say that it was actually curved. Because of this, the cohort could have continued traveling through the crater for a long time without having to move farther away from the goal of today's journey, which lay to the southwest of their current position.
However, they had to leave the crater and return to the Labyrinth sooner or later — not only to escape the black water, but also because there was nothing to hide behind on this vast muddy plain. If any flying Nightmare Creature decided to attack them from above, the cohort would have no defense against it.
The Labyrinth, while hiding its own fair share of terrifying threats, at least offered some measure of protection.
That's why, at some point, Nephis led the party to the sharp slope of the crater, and the eight of them climbed out of it. With the help of Kai and the trusty golden rope, the task wasn't hard at all.
For some time after that, they walked on the ridge separating the crater from the Labyrinth proper, but then, finally, had to turn west and enter the maze of crimson coral.
The crimson forest was simultaneously the same and vastly different from the region of it that we had traveled through before.
There were no members of the carapace legion around, instead, the dominant tribe of Nightmare Creatures in this region seemed to consist of nasty, spider-like critters that had a habit of decorating the walls and passages of the Labyrinth with endless amounts of grey, incredibly sticky cobwebs.
What's worse, their web seemed to be made not out of spider silk, but out of thin metal wires that were as tough as iron and could cut the victim into little pieces if it thrashed too much after getting caught.
Needless to say, getting yourself stuck in these webs was tantamount to a death sentence.
The deeper into the Labyrinth they went, the more of these cobwebs surrounded us. It came to the point where we had to use Cassie's flying rapier to clear the path ahead every few minutes, slowing down the speed of the cohort to a crawl.
Sensing something, I looked upwards.
'Killing intent..'
A moment later, several massive spider-like creatures jumped out of the cracks in the coral and attacked them.
***
The spiders were about the size of a human, incredibly fast, and had plates of something that resembled iron covering parts of their repulsive bodies. They looked like armored battle machines created for the sole purpose of slaughtering living things.
As soon as the spiders attacked, the members of the cohort reacted with the deadly calmness of experienced Dark City hunters. Weapons flashed in the air, severing limbs and piercing through iron as though it was paper. Effie straight up flattened one of the creatures with a devastating strike of her battered shield. The poor beast didn't even have time to understand what a huge mistake it had made.
The others were no less efficient. I myself, slashed my arm downwards as I crushed the skull of a spider. My arm slipped through its head with no resistance as I impaled the small head of the beast.
I had started to think that these abominations were disappointing as I observed the others. Arrogance of an immortal was no joke it seems.
Just a few short seconds after the spiders had tried to ambush the group of humans, the battle was over. Three dead Nightmare Creatures were sprawled in the mud, while the fourth one ended up pinned to a coral wall with several arrows.
They could have even shaved a second or two if it weren't for the need to look out for the spiderwebs.
Nephis cleaned the blade of her sword with a piece of cloth, listened to the silence for a few moments to make sure that nothing else was going to attack them, and then gave the cohort a go-ahead to start dressing the monsters down.
Soon, soul shards, strips of meat and other useful parts were cut, cleaned, and put into Effie's enchanted bag. Everything was done with efficient speed and professionalism that could only come from a lot of experience.
They were able to dispose of the iron spiders with such ease because of two reasons. First, as far as Nightmare Creatures went, these ones were not on the same level as, for example, carapace scavengers. They had a slight advantage in speed, but were not nearly as strong, agile, and ridiculously tough.
The second reason was the cohort itself. They were some of the deadliest humans on the Forgotten Shore. They were the best and the brightest the outer settlement could offer, after all. Effie had been right when she said that there had never been such a powerful cohort outside the walls of the Bright Castle before.
Finishing up with the dead spiders, the cohort indifferently left their eviscerated bodies behind and continued on their way.
***
After several more minor skirmishes with the iron spiders, they had finally reached their destination. Not too far away from them, colored pink by the evening sun, a magnificent arch of white marble rose high above the sea of crimson coral.
The giant structure was clearly created by the same people who had built the Bright Castle, and made from the same stone. It looked like a much larger sibling of the pristine arch that guarded the entrance to the white road which climbed all the way to the outer settlement.
Only this one was much more weathered, bleak, and damaged. Signs of corrosion and deep cracks covered its surface, with one of its sides being partially collapsed.
A few steps away Nephis and Sunny talked as I listened to them.
"This is our stop for the night?"
She gave him a simple nod and said after a short pause:
"We need to pick up our pace. The night is close, and we might have to fight to clear the top of it."
To Sunny's left, Effie suddenly cursed and groaned:
"More fighting? Come on! When are we finally going to eat?"
'How shameless can you be..?'
Staring at the huntress, Nephis shook her head and silently walked forward.
I was going to walk ahead, but Shashi put her chin on my shoulder from my back.
"I'm tired, carry me."
I gave her a sidelong glance and then pushed her away by the shoulder. She staggered a bit, but my push wasn't strong enough for her to take more than one step backwards.
"Don't get too comfortable just because I give you free blood." I said with a hint of sarcasm.
Shashi muttered a curse under her breath as she walked ahead, I followed her.
Soon, they reached the giant arch. Kai summoned his bow and flew up, only to return a few minutes later and report that no terrible monster was nesting on top of the ancient structure.
With sighs of relief, the members of the cohort climbed the golden rope one after another and were soon standing far above the Labyrinth, silently watching as the flood of black water drowned it in the lightless depths.
As the sun disappeared beyond the horizon, they were left on a rectangular island made out of white marble. All around it, there was nothing but the undulating waves of the dark sea.
'Brings up bad memories..'