Shadow Slave: Gleaming Stars

[Sunny's POV]

The aftermath of my blunder was a heaping helping of pure humiliation.

Apparently, "Odysseus" made a wooden horse, not a donkey, a minor discrepancy that Nephis was still sort of fuming over.

Regardless of whether that ancient dude made a wooden horse or donkey, the essence of the strategy was still the same.

My strategy was quite simple: wear the shell of a carapace scavenger or centurion, walk the empty shell towards the barrow, and use it to bait the Carapace Demon away as we run up the slope of the ashen hill.

If we executed it successfully, none of us would have to engage in combat with that dreadful being, and it would allow us to continue west. 

Not to mention, it cost us practically nothing!

There were plenty of empty shells littered across the labyrinth floor, and in the worst-case scenario, we could just kill another centurion and carve out its insides.

I'm an absolute genius.

And although it took a bit of convincing, everyone agreed, though some more begrudgingly than others, thanks to my cunning plot.

--------

After a good night's rest, our group of four made their way back through the labyrinth to secure the materials required to make the "Trojan Horse" strategy work.

Leaving the bone ridge, we backtracked, passing through some of our old battlegrounds, and searched through the mud. 

It smelled god awful, not unlike the rotting fishy smell of a stray kitten's breath, but I ignored it. 

"So you're really dead set on this..?"

A calm, indifferent yet doubting voice echoed from behind me. 

I turned to meet the grey eyes boring into me, Changing Star's nose scrunched, while her eyebrows furrowed. 

Nephis wasn't completely sold on the plan, but I was like 95% sure it's just cause she wanted to fight that demon bastard mano e mano.

"Yep." 

Feeling no desire to elaborate, I scanned through the mud of the labyrinth with a sheepish smile.

'Centipede carcasses...'

'Shell shards'

'Oooo a claw.'

Sifting through the mud and picking out whatever pieces caught my eye, it wasn't long before a relatively intact hollowed-out shell of a Carapace Centurion stood in a heap before our group of four. 

Wiping off some of the sweat that had collected at my brow, I turned my gaze back to the group.

Cassie had a supportive look on her face, the blind girl's blue, doll-like eyes trained in my general direction. 

Nephis had that same, unchanging aloof look plastered all over her expression, but her grey eyes betrayed a hint of skepticism. 

If not for the support of the other two, there's a very real chance that we'd have followed Neph's plan, which would've, as usual, ended with us squaring down with an abomination we had no business fighting. 

I sighed mentally. 

She really was an enigma.

Sometimes I wondered if she had a genuine death wish, but considering she and I overcame insurmountable odds regularly, perhaps her violent tendencies weren't born of reckless abandonment. 

Beside Cassie, Audun stood, bearing his characteristic stone-faced mug. 

But my eyes saw through the authoritative guise, noticing the faint trembling of his shoulders and the minuscule curve of the corners of his mouth. 

I remembered the fit of laughing from earlier and decided not to comment on his rather apparent amusement, unwilling to relive any moment of that embarrassing situation.

Turning my attention back to the centurion shell I had managed to scavenge from the muddy floors of the labyrinth, I inspected the insides and nodded appreciatively. 

Some nightmare creatures had picked the insides clean, which saved us from most of the rancid smell of centurion carcasses.

I smiled

"Alright!"

Shady looked away in what appeared to be shame, but I ignored my disobedient shadow. 

"Let's do this!"

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[Audun's POV]

Holy shit

This was actual comedy gold.

If you couldn't tell, I was an absolute sucker for absurdist humor and situations, and this situation could only be described as absurd.

My trait was currently holding back a vicious torrent of laughter, but even then, [One who Stood at the Peak] couldn't suppress all of my giddy amusement, a genuine grin breaking past the blockade of anxiety and feigned indifference. 

We were currently scuttling around in a deformed recreation of a carapace centurion, its black, crimson patterned shell gleaming in the afternoon sun. 

The thing smelled like an abandoned fish market covered in alcoholic piss, a stench that the others were forced to suffer through.

Our jolly gang of four was smushed together within the hollowed-out shell of our "Trojan ass", so I was privy to every single emotion flashing across the others' faces. 

Cassie was the closest to me, her expression contorted in a mix of disgust and tired resignation. 

With her fingers firmly clamped over her nose, her eyebrows furrowed as sweat began to drip down her face.

Nephis was a bit further away from me, but the hollow look in her eyes was unmistakably clear. 

Every once in a while, she'd fire a pointed look at Sunny, her stare contorting into more of a glare as her grey eyes bored holes in the black haired boy's direction.

Sunny's face was a mask of emotionless indifference that bore an eerie similarity to Nephis' usual expression. 

But the faint flush that colored his alabaster skin in a rosy red tint betrayed his facade, the embarrassment evident despite his efforts.

This had to be the stupidest plan I had ever had the fortune of hearing.

Sure, this was supposed to be a "life-or-death" operation, but could you really expect me to take this seriously when the "Trojan crab" we were piloting looked like it had 30 extra chromosomes?

Sunny had done a hilariously poor job at crafting our disguise. 

The eight-segmented legs that hung from the humanoid torso were all different sizes and hung at odd angles. 

The two bone scythes appendages that made the centurion so threatening were currently stuck haphazardly to the backside of the black shell, the arms flopping idiotically as we moved the abstract recreation of the once fearsome nightmare creature. 

As we hauled the centurion carcass to the barrow, they would occasionally clunk against the side of the hollowed shell, making little dinking noises as we piloted the crustation's corpse. 

With the torso and joints connected to the main body rather carelessly, there was no real way to mimic the natural movements of an actual Carapace Centurion.

So not only was our crabby disguise swaying like a reed in the autumn wind, but due to our inability to move its legs:

It looked like a drunken, mutated Carapace Centurion had turned on fly hacks, floating at a steady pace towards the base of the tall, ashen hill. 

All together, these individual factors created what I considered to be peak entertainment.

I was having more fun engaging in our group's baffling shenanigans than when I used to bet on Y-10 Lithuanian women's individual dodgeball in my first life for shits and giggles. 

Oops, got a bit sidetracked!

Moving on...

If the Carapace demon possessed even an infantile level of intelligence, we were screwed.

But, despite the many, many apparent flaws, a part of me earnestly believed that the plan might work.

Sometimes, plans could be so mind-bogglingly stupid that they were simply destined to work.

And in my mind, the "Trojan Crab" tech was so utterly inconceivable that the thought of counterplay was just as unbelievable.

A smirk weaseled its way across my face as I praised Sunny's unorthodox genius in my mind. 

'Truly the makings of a remarkable warrior.'

The absurdity of the situation transformed what should've been a grim situation into a gag comedy skit, and the tense atmosphere that should've hung over us like an unfortunate promise was more jovial than it had any right to be. 

As we grew increasingly closer to the barrow, Sunny and Nephis began bickering, engaging in a sarcastic and complaint-riddled exchange of pointed remarks, to which Cassie and I simply chuckled at.

Carrying the shell proved to be more of a slog than any of us expected

But in the end, when the sun's light began to wane, we finally made it to the base of the Ashen Barrow. 

Through our combined efforts, we positioned the hollow centurion carcass in a sloppy kneel.

It looked... convincing?

Sunny grimaced a bit as he admired our group's handiwork.

"Well... this'll definitely piss it off..." he muttered quietly.

Turning his attention to the rest of the group, he made a hushing gesture as he briefly addressed us. 

"Let's move quickly. I have no idea how long this will distract that ugly bastard."

The four of us snuck over to the side of the barrow's slope, patiently waiting for the demonic crustation to take the bait. 

On top of the barrow, the Carapace Demon rose from the ash.

We waited in tense anticipation as its two murky scarlet eyes locked onto our "carefully" prepared diversion. 

Though contrary to our expectations, the abomination that our dear trusted friend Sunless described as "intelligent" charged at the lovely surprise we left for it at the base of the barrow with the same savage abandonment you'd expect from a roided up Spanish bull.

As it barrelled down the slope at a breakneck speed, the ground trembling terribly as each of its eight profane legs struck the ashen sand, Sunny paled visibly.

The Carapace Demon practically pounced on the hollow corpse we left on its doorstep, its menacing scythe bisecting the centurion in what appeared to be blind fury.

I blinked

Well

I mean

The bait did work

It just worked a little too well...

Predicting the words that were about to fly out of Sunny's mouth, I picked up Cassie with a resigned look.

Fuck.

The black haired sleeper took one look at the lobster from hell and yelled out the word that flashed through all of our minds. 

"RUN"

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(A/N: I'll be dropping tomorrow, probably?

1500ish words or a teeny bit more will be the standard from now on, so unless I'm feeling generous or something crazy happens, I'll refrain from posting any needless long chapters. 

I'll be pretty busy with a law internship next week, so for the next few days, chapters will probably be coming out relatively late at night. 

Btw

After I pissed off to Milwaukee, it feels like you guys all disappeared

（;´д｀）ゞ...

Your comments keep me from getting burnt out, and I seriously enjoy interacting with you guys!

Not to mention, I originally began writing this fic to improve my writing quality, so if you guys have any comments or critiques, please gimme them.

I swear I listen 〒▽〒

But I digress. 

Thanks for all the support you've given me thus far, and I hope you'll continue to support this fic in the future!)