The two members of the Shippai Campaign wandered aimlessly through the grassland for many days, forming something of a bond. Of course, this bond was not one of friendship. Rather, it was a connection formed by their equal wills to survive, and their equal understanding that survival cannot be achieved alone.
Their days were spent travelling eastward, in hopes of finding something other than the endless hills of grass and occasional tree. The routine of their day did not evolve much. The same could not be said for their strategy to deal with the moonless night.
After the injuries Arin sustained, they both realized that the night would have to be approached differently. After realizing that the grassland is eerily devoid of life during the daytime, Arin came up with a plan to keep himself... and Renota... not only relatively safe, but also well-fed.
Arin didn't want to go out of his way to speak to Renota, but he knew that such things must be done if he wishes to survive. Swallowing whatever was left of his shattered pride, he walked towards Renota and explained his strategy.
"Before the sun sets, we will find another tree and stay near it. You will go up into the tree. Meanwhile, I, utilizing the cover of night, will swiftly decapitate one of the insects and collect the head for food. Once you hear the insect's body collapse, you will dimly illuminate the top of the tree, and I will return."
Renota massaged his chin with his fingers for a moment, pondering Arin's plan. His trademark yellow grin soon covered his face.
"Yeah, that should work. Just make sure you cut the bastard down on your first try!"
Arin scowled, looked at the approaching sunset, then turned to make his way towards the nearest great maple tree, which wasn't very distant. After a few minutes of walking, Arin sat down against the tree and crossed his legs, while Renota climbed up it, sitting down in the small branch box that was at the top of seemingly every tree in the grassland.
Arin stared at the setting sun with anticipation, hoping to finally see the orange sun's collision with the horizon, an event that has eluded him twice since he arrived at the grassland.
He was brimming with excitement, that is, until he saw the sunset itself. It was rather mundane. There were no exquisite shades of red layering upon one another, only a single shade of orange exerting from the sun.
'Are that damn Ishog's eyes malfunctional as well? What is beautiful about this?!'
Arin's thoughts were quickly proven wrong when the sky almost instantly turned pitch black. The mundane orange sunset suddenly became grand and awe-inspiring, serving as the only beacon of light and safety in what was quickly becoming an empty void.
He wished that he could stay in that moment for eternity, basking in the orange star's glory. But the sun's embrace was rapidly fleeting.
Just as the last rays of orange light were hiding behind the black horizon, new lights emerged. Hundreds of tiny white dots, resembling stars, rose up from the void. The white dots came in sets of ten and, of course, belonged to the scythed insects.
***
Luckily—or unluckily, depending on how you look at it—one of the sets of ten eyes rose up near Arin. The human-like eyes looked around before starting to walk past the tree Arin was sitting at. Looking into its eyes, he almost wanted to just let it pass him.
'If you do not kill it, you will starve to death.'
With that thought, he took a deep breath and silently unsheathed his obsidian blade. Without wasting a moment, he quietly made his way around the insect, placing himself ten feet ahead of its path. Slowly, but surely, the human-like eyes approached him, ignorant to the short swordsman in its way.
Each step its many legs took felt like an eternity, each eternity causing Arin to strengthen both his grip on the katana and his posture. After countless eternities passed, the insect was standing before Arin, still unbeknownst to his presence.
Arin loosened his body and jumped up, simultaneously swinging his sword somewhere below its glowing eyes, in an attempt to slice its head clean off. Right before the sword slashed through its 'neck,' the elegant gold-engraved marble figure in his mind rolled...
[9]
The blade was met with significant resistance, courtesy of Arin's inability to locate the exact position of the insect's neck in absolute darkness. But Arin was able to salvage the somewhat botched swing. This swing was still strong enough to cut its spider-like head off, if it was supported by a few seconds of effort.
But the insect didn't plan to give Arin those seconds. It swung both of its scythes directly in front of it in an attempt to cut Arin in half. But since Arin was in the air, the attack missed its mark completely, instead serving as a platform for Arin to land on for a moment. He used the few moments of support the bone scythes gave him to deepen the cut quicker, his blade ending up mere moments from severing the head. But it quickly realized that Arin had not been cut in half, pointing its scythes upwards to cut the man standing on them.
But by the time the upwards swing was completed, Arin had already jumped off of the insect. He regretted that he wasn't able to sever its head in one slash, but he also knew that the damage he's dealt already was more than enough. The insect took a step towards where it heard Arin quietly land, but by then it was already far too late to fight back. Too much azure blood had poured from the deep gash on its neck, and it collapsed onto the ground.
Arin slashed down on the insect's head and severed it completely, quickly grabbing the head by one its mandibles. Renota, hearing the insect's body fall, dimly ignited his flames. The tree was ever-so-slightly illuminated, allowing Arin to climb up with ease.
Arin gorged himself on the delicious blood and brains of the insect. And, albeit reluctantly, he allowed Renota to enjoy a small amount of the insect's mind. After all, Renota would have to survive if Arin wished to as well.
This strategy was the one Arin and Renota utilized to survive the voided nights of the grassland, with a generally high success rate. Because Renota's burning fists were a beacon to all the beasts of the void, it wasn't smart to let him fight alongside Arin. But desperate situations call for desperate measures, so Renota was always on standby in case Arin was unable to kill the insect in one swing. Luckily for them, they hadn't been in a desperate situation like that since their first night in the grassland.
Considering that Arin had landed himself in such a pathetic campaign with a person he despised so much, he was actually doing well.
He was doing well so far, at least.