Scumbag Fate System-Chapter 51: Sentinels

The path ahead twisted while buildings around them were shifting their positions without warning. The streets that had been solid moments before tilted suddenly upward at steep angles that made climbing necessary.

"Watch out!" Rika called while pointing above them.

Rubble began falling from a broken tower that hung frozen mid-collapse while chunks of black stone and twisted metal rained down toward their position. Reinhard’s eyes glow as he perceives the future.

"Alice, three steps left!" he shouted. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

She moved immediately, and the massive stone crashed down where she’d been standing moments before. A cloud of dust and smaller debris rose up, but they kept running while dodging falling pieces with Reinhard and Rika telling them where to go.

A building on their right began to collapse inward, and the entire structure groaned with the sound of breaking stone. Louis rushed to the left, leading them down a different street, but the collapse was spreading and catching up to them.

Reinhard activated his precognition again. He saw where part of the street would cave in and swallow anyone standing on that section. "Jump forward on my mark!" He called out. "Three... two... one... now!"

They all leaped while the ground behind them opened up into a void of swirling darkness, and they landed on stable stone just beyond the collapse. The street continued forward while curving unnaturally to the left and disappearing behind a building that shouldn’t have been there before.

"This place keeps changing," Alice said while breathing hard. "How are we supposed to navigate if nothing stays put?"

"Just keep following me," Louis replied while his connection to Yor’s weapon pulled stronger. "The link doesn’t change even if the path does."

They rounded a corner into what looked like a plaza with cracked circular patterns. The space opened up wider than the narrow streets they’d been traversing.

As they moved into the plaza, shapes began appearing from the shadows at the plaza’s edges.

Null Hounds.

Six of them formed from what looked like shadowed glass with bodies that were quadruped and sleek and edges that caught no light at all. Their heads turned in perfect unison toward the group while their eyeless faces tracked movement and magic.

"They’re hunting us," Rika whispered while her purple aura dimmed instinctively.

The hounds didn’t attack immediately but instead circled. They all turned toward Alice, whose bronze magic flared brightest among the group.

They rushed forward as one while their glass bodies blurred and their jaws opened to reveal teeth made of the same shadowed material. Alice swung her hammer in a wide arc while her Crush ability activated. The force crashed into the two hounds and shattered their forms into fragments.

The remaining four split up while two went high and two went low in a coordinated attack pattern. Rika’s arrow took one through what passed for its head while the creature dissolved mid-leap.

Reinhard activated his precognition. He saw the hound on his left would phase out of existence for two seconds before reappearing behind him with jaws open. When the hound vanished, he spun and struck at empty air where he knew it would reappear.

His blade connected the moment the hound materialized while cutting through its neck, and the creature shattered.

Louis spun his spear while fire crystals flared, and he thrust at the hound charging from his right. But the creature phased through the flames, and his weapon passed through empty space. But he rotated the mechanism quickly while switching to earth crystals. When the hound reappeared, he slammed the spear shaft down like a staff.

The ground erupted in stone spikes that impaled the creature from below.

The last hound tried to teleport in a short hop that should have put it at Alice’s throat. But Reinhard had already seen the move five seconds ahead and called out the position. Alice was ready with her hammer, coming up in an uppercut swing while her Crush ability obliterated the hound before it could even land.

Silence fell over the plaza while the last fragments dissolved into shadow.

"Everyone okay?" Alice asked while lowering her hammer.

"Fine," Reinhard replied while wiping sweat from his forehead.

"Alright, then let’s keep going!" Louis said with a grin.

They moved forward while crossing the plaza.

They entered another section of twisted streets where the buildings leaned so far inward they nearly touched. The path narrowed while forcing them to walk single file, with Louis still leading.

But then they paused.

Six figures stepped out from holes in the walls.

Resonance Sentinels.

Construct-like guardians made of purple-black material that stood taller than any of them. Their weapons rested on their backs and at their waists. Swords and spears and axes that looked like they were carved from the same void energy. They had no faces but turned their heads toward the group with slow, deliberate movements.

"Stay calm," Reinhard said quietly while keeping his breathing steady. "They react to emotional spikes. If we stay calm, they might let us pass."

The group moved forward carefully while controlling their emotions. The Sentinels watched but didn’t move while their eyeless gazes tracked each step. They were almost past when Alice’s boot caught on loose rubble, and she stumbled forward while cursing in frustration at the near fall.

All six Sentinels moved at once.

"Damn it."

They drew their weapons in perfect synchronization, and they stepped forward to block the path completely.

"So much for staying calm!" Alice shouted while bringing up her hammer.

The battle erupted fast and chaotically in the confined space.

A Sentinel with a greatsword swung at Reinhard. But he saw the blade coming would come too high before shifting to a diagonal slash. He rolled forward under the swing while his own sword cut upward at the Sentinel’s exposed side, and black material chipped away.

But it didn’t break.

Reinhard’s eyes narrowed before side-stepping another strike, and he grabbed the space as he activated Spatial Lord. And then he pulled the space, forcibly pulling the Sentinel down to the ground.

Then he thrust his sword down towards its face and pierced through

Louis fought two at once while rotating his spear mechanisms rapidly. Fire to drive them back. Wind for quick piercing strikes at joints. Earth creates barriers when they pressed too close. His movements were fluid and practiced while the spear became an extension of his will.

Rika stayed back while calling out warnings. "Left Sentinel raising weapon! Three seconds! Right one charging! Four seconds!"

Her arrows found gaps in the constructed bodies. Each shot was placed with precision at weak points she identified through observation.

Alice fought like a force of nature while her hammer met bronze weapons with crashes that sent shockwaves through the narrow street. Her Crush ability worked on the Sentinels but not as effectively as on the Echoes and Hounds. Their constructed forms resisted pure magical dominance better than shadow creatures.

Reinhard ducked under a spear thrust while his precognition showed him the follow-up strike would come from below as a rising slash. He sidestepped while his blade found the Sentinel’s wrist joint and severed the hand that held the weapon. The construct didn’t react to pain but adapted immediately while switching to its off-hand weapon.

The fight dragged on for a bit.

Reinhard’s shoulder bled from where a sword had grazed him. Alice had a gash across her arm. Louis limped slightly from taking a hit to his leg. Rika had a bruise blooming on her cheek from debris kicked up during the fighting.

But they were winning.

Louis’s spear punched through a Sentinel’s chest with fire-enhanced thrust while the construct collapsed into fragments. Alice’s hammer came down on another’s head while her Crush ability finally overwhelmed its resistance and shattered it completely. Reinhard’s sword found the weak point at a third Sentinel’s neck while severing what passed for its connection between head and body.

Rika’s arrows took down the fourth, with three precise shots to the same joint. Until the construct’s leg gave out, and it fell while unable to rise.

The last two Sentinels fought harder while defending each other and covering gaps, but coordination and superior tactics won out. Louis and Alice attacked one another while overwhelming its defenses through a combined assault. Reinhard faced the final Sentinel alone, his precognition letting him stay always one step ahead of its strikes until he found an opening and drove his blade through its core.

The construct froze while its purple-black material cracked and spread like ice breaking, and then it collapsed into dust.

They stood breathing hard while the street was littered with dissolving fragments.

"That was rough," Alice said while leaning on her hammer for support.

"But we made it through," Louis replied while checking his spear for damage.

"How much farther?" Rika asked while her voice was tired.

"Don’t worry, we are close."

"How close-"

"There." Louis pointed, making all of them blink and look ahead.

To the mansion looming before them.