Shiki's eyes widen. "how did you find the 1st group?"
"well, while we were regrouping, I made 2 of my clones to go out and start scouting ahead. I found their location by using tracking memories and enchanted items~"
Silverworn, finds 1 master and one awakened, huddling together, while trying to fend off the nightmare creatures around them. I help them, I summon my short swords and cull the creatures from the back. Most of them are only dormant to awakened so it was extremely easy to mow them down.
"who are you!" the tall lady shouts, her unique silver hair unkept from surviving in the wilderness for so long.
"I am Luke, the 2nd party sent by the government, you won't recognize me because I'm a loose awakened" I say calmly.
"you must be Master Quince~ and you must be awakened Lucy~" I say excitedly.
"um.. Do I know you?" I clear my throat and bow respectfully. "I am a researcher, my current exploits lead me to discover hidden patterns in memories~ in my discoveries I learnt that they have hidden thread-like circuits. Do you see where I'm going with this?"
She nods with a confused smile, "you need my special attribute that makes my essence into threads when outside my body, correct?" I nod excitedly.
I realize now is not the time "well, lets regroup to our area first, we already set up camp and a few are resting. We also have a healer but they are sleeping, so you might have to wait for a few hours."
They follow me suspiciously, my demeanor seemingly very off, and the fact that the Terror can speak the human tongue as well as mimic human bodies, but my thorough background information I gave off at the start makes me seem trustable but I am still a loose awakened with my own motives.
"and tada~" I point in the direction to the new additions to the party. "meet Master Quince and awakened Lucy" they look at me extremely surprised and look back at Silverworn
"clone~" Silverworn says, and vanishes leaving the 2 stunned. They quickly enter the camp and we start stating our abilities.
"I am master Quince, my aspect allows me to create vines that can produce exploding or rejuvenating fruit"
"I am awakened Lucy, my aspect can cause flash bangs and beams of light"
"I'm awakened Shiki, my aspect can produce chains of shadows"
"I am awakened explorer Luke, my aspect can make clones. The girl with pale blue hair is Eri, her aspect is a sight based healing and master Haku, is the icy white haired guy, his aspect is that of ice projectiles."
They nod understanding the framework we're in. "I am the only master, who has fought the beast one on one, I also have the higher ranking and experience. I shall take the lead"
Shiki wants to argue but I speak first. "with all due respect, I fought the creature one on one as well, I also wounded its soul severely. I would like to know how effective you were master Quince."
Her eyes sharpen "you are a loose awakened. Your priorities and objective are much different from ours."
"our priorities are currently survival. I already have plenty of ways to take down the Terror. Your objective is to kill the Corrupted Terror before is gets too close into the song domain or evolve in class or rank." they are taken aback by my seemingly cocky statement.
"so, wanna hear my plan and then decide~"
***
"The plan is simple, all of you leave and I'll handle the beast on my own."
They blink. "that's it? Don't you think your over estimating?"
"I've slain corrupted terrors before, and they had thousands of fallen devils surrounding them"
They think I'm lying, "yeah and I've killed a great devil~" Master Quince states sarcastically.
I grin and send her [Bubbling Lust of Blood] she starts reading the description, and she gets to the part of when I was stated and her shock turns to awe, and to creeped out. She sends the memory back immediately.
"how.. Tier 5 and transcendent.." she states, everyone looks at me with new found respect.
"did you buy that?" awakened Lucy asked nervously.
"ask her~ my aspect was in the description~" I say with pride.
She looks at master quince and gives an astonished nod.
"and its not even my highest tier memory~ the armour I'm wearing is from a terror~
"but we still think its reckless" Shiki states.
"honestly, I've had worse odds, having you, master Quince, master Haku, Lucy and Eri will only be a hinderance. The corrupted terror can copy and use the transcendent ability of our aspects. The fact that it can do that makes it comparatively more deadly when dealing in a large group. Especially when my aspect allows it to split its focus on multiple targets."
Master quince argues. "that's right, it can used our aspects to its transcendent rank, so how can you handle one by yourself? You are only awakened?"
I grin, and point to myself "this Awakened has a shit ton of explosives and has slain a fallen ant colony with them~ I've been preparing for the worst case scenario religiously~"
They look at me like I'm crazy, which is true but I still don't like that look. "I don't think explosives will be enough.."
"I made them myself" I pull out an arrow, "they killed several corrupted demons, even crippled a corrupted tyrant~" my grin turns maniacal "and I have plenty~"
A few hours pass as everyone but me rest, I don't take back the focus memory gifting it to him. "are you sure? Its an ascended memory of the 3 tier?"
"I have plenty dude, I can even make some so use it well~." while the hours pass I make all of my clones circle the forest, killing off any fallen and awakened nightmare creatures to build up my core. Why also sizing up the corrupted terrors clones with tiny clashes, trying to gauge its strength.
Even though it can copy aspects, even though it can copy the look of humans, it can't use the persons attributes, therefore being a much weaker Terror then, maybe as strong as a devil. So speed running a devil core is an essential move, that's the reason my clones are out hunting.
[2061/3000]
A huge gap, but an easily scalable one, even a 200 fragment boost is incredible for anyone, even better for me. But its not enough.
They all finally wake up, as I state the plan of escape to Eri and master Haku who were too strained to get up.
"what do you mean your staying?!" Eri starts making a scene.
"its fine Eri." surprisingly, master Haku doesn't disagree with me.
"what!?" Eri looks betrayed
"Awakened Luke showed that he was able to handle the terror single handedly, his clones fought the brunt force of the terror while we only dealt with one. The terror, using Luke's aspect, shows just how powerful he is."
While he says that he looks at me sternly, I know that look. It's a look that saying don't die.
I smile confidently, "I'm a Demon to Terrors~ don't worry~"
After breakfast I guard them all the way to Ravenheart as a precaution so I don't get sneaked by the terror. But we do anyway.
"shitty" Luke says as Silverworn collides with the corrupted terror, who is now copying master Quince.