Ruban breathed a sigh of relief. Two down. He glanced up, gauging the newly-arrived Aeriels. Three to go. Those were odds he could work with.

The three experienced Hunters in their contingent – Simani, Riddhi, and himself – took on one of the Aeriels each.

Ruban, being the highest ranking (and also the one with the fewest injuries), went for the X-class. Instead of attacking directly, he began irritating it with sifkren. Each time he flung one of the little sif-lined discs, he bolted further into the fairgrounds, dragging the X-class away from its mates.

Soon, they’d passed the wreckage of the Ferris wheel (and a few other damaged stalls and rides) until Ruban was mere meters from the swing boat. By some miracle, the thing was still intact, though it appeared to be stuck at an angle, the bow significantly higher than the stern.

The air quivered with gathering energy. The crackle of a nascent energy-shell pricked his ear, and Ruban hopped on to the side of the swing boat that was closer to the ground.

He threw himself against one of the metal seats. At the same time, the energy-shell collided into a seat two rows in front of him, leaving behind a misshapen mass of molten metal with twisted, jagged edges.

Ruban capitalized on the momentary distraction, flattening himself to the floor of the ride and crawling his way upward, careful to be as quiet as possible. He grabbed on to the metallic legs of the seats in front of him and pulled himself further along. Breathing heavily, sweat blurring his vision, Ruban kept moving until he’d reached the arched bow at the very top of the boat-shaped ride.

He clambered up, standing precariously on the ornate (if impractical) bow of the fake boat. At this height, he was almost head-to-head with the airborne X-class. Aside from separating the three Aeriels, this had been his goal in drawing the fight farther into the fairgrounds.

The Aeriel charged. Blade in hand, Ruban leapt forward.

The two of them clashed midair, in a storm of light and feathers.

The X-class couldn’t use an energy-shell at such close quarters. But that allowed it to take better advantage of its superhuman strength. Seizing Ruban by the neck, it jolted him around, as if he weighed no more than a rag doll.

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Ruban swiped at the creature with his sifblade, but missed. In retaliation, it slammed him – with considerable force – against the hull of the swing boat.

Ruban grabbed one of the protruding handles of the ride to stabilize himself, then thrust out once again with his sifblade. This time, it plunged straight into one side of the Aeriel’s belly, nearly blinding Ruban with the light that spilt from the wound.

An ordinary Aeriel wouldn’t have survived the attack. But this was an X-class, and they were harder to kill than most.

Even wounded, it continued to exchange blows for a few more minutes. Until Ruban found himself on the ground, wrestling with the X-class while another Aeriel hovered over him, its arm extended, a tiny energy-shell taking shape on the palm of its outstretched hand.

If that Aeriel released its shell, it’d probably kill the X-class along with Ruban himself.

Simani came up behind the Aeriel, panting. Her hair was a mess, her uniform torn and stained in multiple spots. Her left hand was a scorched, bloody mess.

Riddhi, the head of the team from Central Ragah, was only a few steps behind her. She looked just as disheveled, battered and bruised. She flung a sifkren, then another. But the airborne Aeriel dodged them both, without losing its singular focus on Ruban and the X-class.

In the distance, Ruban could see the three other Hunters from the Central Ragah Division running in their direction. They were too far away to be of much use, but perhaps that was a good thing. Inexperienced as they were, they were just as likely to get themselves killed as save anyone else.

Somewhere in the distance, the air crackled with gathering energy.

Ruban stiffened, no longer even bothering to fend off the X-class pressing down on his throat. Dear God, there was another one?

The Aeriel hovering over them released its shell.

Before it could reach Ruban and the X-class, it struck another shell zipping towards them, causing both to detonate mid-air.

Before the dust from the explosion had cleared, the X-class let go of Ruban and took to the air. The crackle of energy close by told Ruban that despite its injury, it was trying to form a shell of its own.

A moment later, three energy-shells were flung simultaneously in various directions.

A startled, alarmingly human scream rent the air. Followed by a series of detonations as the three shells hit their targets, one after the other.

For a moment, a deathly silence enveloped the grounds.

Then, an outraged, feminine cry.

Followed by a few more exclamations, presumably from the young rookies who’d finally reached their destination.

Gripping the outer handles of the swing boat for support, Ruban struggled to his feet. Sifblade in hand, he lurched towards the panicked voices of the other Hunters, although the dust still prevented him from seeing his own boots, much less what was going on more than twenty meters away.