Due to the sheer amounts of Eclipsed prowling around, the two had to split up and take care of them.

Unlike during the Academy's test, Ayla didn't have to worry about separating from Nox, after all, according to her words,

He was a bit less weaker than before.

Each had started from a different end of the settlement, far from the center, least they risked whatever was under that pile sensing them.

Nox, or rather, The Grey Warden, started just a bit outside the settlement. They had wondered whether or not these Eclipsed had a hive mind since they seemed to be controlled by something.

The solution to that was...bait.

And unfortunately, he was it. He had to pull their attention towards him, and in case they didn't have a linked mind, all of it would be focused on him.

Sounds fun.

Since they couldn't sense him with the mask on, he slowly willed it to come off and the moment it did, the heads of all the Eclipsed around snapped towards him.

As if some type of signal was exchanged between them, Eclipsed poured out from broken buildings, alleyways, and collapsed rooftops.

Though, they didn't rush towards him, instead, they all formed a circle, surrounding him completely.

"Tch," Nox clicked his tongue. "Yeah, that answers that."

The Eclipsed around him ranged from tier 1 to 3, fortunately, none of them seemed to be capable of using umbra energy.

That didn't mean this situation wasn't dangerous though, after all, looking at the sheer amounts of Eclipsed, they could easily number to a hundred.

Which was a lot more than he'd like to fight.

The only good to this was that the Eclipsed had sent away almost every other Eclipsed within the settlement which would make it easier for Ayla to deal with before giving him back up.

All he had to do was hold on till then.

"Should be easy enough," he put the mask back on, since they had already spotted him, there was no way they would turn back to the settlement now.

The moment he completely transformed, he disappeared, leaving the Eclipsed confused.

The next time Nox reappeared in their view was with the head of an Eclipsed in hand.

This seem to successfully act as a trigger causing the Eclipsed to finally move. They rushed towards him but he disappeared again, taking them out one at a time with Morphos.

He figured if he started using his raw SE, then the Eclipsed will sense enough danger to try and hide again, so for now, he would stick to his solar tech.

He managed to dodge a swipe before swinging morphos, which was now in the form of a scythe.

Why?

Well, it was because he thought it looked cool and definitely not because Devon showed him a comic with a cool character that used one.

Though, there wasn't much technique behind his swings, since he didn't know a single thing about scythes.

Still, since his current swings were working, no need to fix them right?

Well, that was the case until he encountered a tier 3 Eclipsed and his swing became useless when the creature easily dodged it.

"Yeah… figured as much."

He teleported away, avoiding a claw swipe from the Eclipsed, before he repositioned himself.

The Eclipsed also suddenly changed tactics.

Instead of charging blindly, several leapt onto rooftops, while others dug continued towards him.

A few even began retreating, not away from him, but around him.

They were herding him, or at least, they were trying to.

Nox clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"You're smarter than you look."

He vanished just as a mass of claws slammed into where he had been standing, the impact cracking the ground.

Reappearing behind them, he swept Morphos in a wide arc, taking out three in one motion.

But the pressure didn't ease.

If anything, it grew heavier.

It seemed they had realized that the only ones that would pose a threat to him was the tier 3, so the others were acting as distractions, only to have the stronger Eclipsed attack from a blind spot.

Just like now.

The moment Nox blocked an attack from one of the Eclipsed, a claw slammed into his side sending him flying towards the opposite direction.

Nox twisted midair, barely managing to stabilize himself before crashing through the remains of a half-collapsed wall.

He dug Morphos into the ground, carving a shallow trench before finally coming to a stop.

"Tch."

The Eclipsed didn't give him time to breathe, as the rushed towards him again.

He switched Morphos from scythe to sword, since that was what he was more comfortable with.

He disappeared just before the could reach him, reappearing behind a tier 3 Eclipsed.

"Let's end this fast," he muttered as his sword cleanly went through its head.

A hound like Eclipsed jumped at him but he was gone, the next second, its head was separated from its neck, but Nox's attention was now on another Eclipsed.

The Eclipsed kept coming, almost endlessly, fortunately his heart seemed to be working overtime even with a seal placed on it.

The moment he felt exhaustion setting in, his SE would freely flow, keeping him refreshed.

Whatever was controlling the Eclipsed seemed to only now realizing the dangers he posed but for some reason, it didn't pull them back.

He even observed that they had become less coordinated mid fight and the Eclipsed had resorted to their primal instincts.

Searching for SE signatures.

That meant one of two things, either the thing controlling them had gone into hiding or Ayla was keeping them busy.

Either way, he would find out after he was done dealing with these.

***

The moment the Eclipsed abandoned strategy, it got easier for Nox to deal with them.

Five minutes later, a large pile of Eclipsed corpses was gathered and at the very top sat Nox.

He had stabbed Morphos into one of the corpses before leaning on it, even if he wasn't physically tired, he mentally was.

He decided to take a few minute's rest before going deeper into the settlement, but it seemed fate had other plans, because the next second,

BOOM!

An explosion was heard, and a feeling of dread overcame him.

"W-what the hell is that?"

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