Zoran feels himself being shaken awake by a powerful force. When he opens his eyes it is Naiko with a panicked face and he says, “Zoran! Help me out here! She is here for me.” Zoran rubs the sleep away from his eyes and simply says, “Who…” There is a sudden pounding on the door as Naiko says, “Cmon Zoran! Help a bro out here. I may have entered her room without permission and was a little surprised. It’s just that Amaia stole one of my journals and that one is really vital to my plans.” Zoran just says, “Dumbass…” He stumbles up and walks up to the door. Suddenly a bad feeling was crawling inside him. He took a breath and answered the door. Immediately he was hit with a blaze of heat and outside was Amaia with her fiery glaive preparing to cleave the door. Zoran says calmly, “I’ll let you beat him up if you give me a couple of coins.” Amaia smirks as she puts away her glaive then says, “He doesn’t matter. Today I was tasked with taking you out. Luckily, you have the strongest bodyguard you can ask for.” Naiko pipes in and mutters, “You’ll probably kill him before anyone else does.” Amaia scowls but she put it away as she puts on a sickly sweet smile and says, “May I see Naiko? I think he needs to be reminded of who can beat his sorry ass!” Naiko gets up and says, “Don’t worry my pal Zoran will protect me! I gave him money earlier this week so I should have his favor!” Zoran looks back at him with a frown and says, “So that’s why you did that…maybe you are no different from Asta.” Naiko scoffs and says, “We are pals Zoran! Blood buddies who are sworn to protect each other from now to eternity!” Zoran looks at him and moves aside for Amaia to enter. Zoran then just says, “Amaia…you don’t even need to pay me.” Naiko panics and says, “Hey hey hey…we are allies! Remember the definition of the word “allies”!” Amaia laughs then says, “Well I won’t kill you…just rough you up abit.” Suddenly from the room next to us we can hear Cecelia’s voice scream, “I AM TRYING TO SLEEP. I SWEAR TO VULXIAN, IF YOU ARGUE CONSTANTLY I WILL MAKE SURE YOUR MOUTHS ARE SEWN SHUT!” Zoran whispers to Amaia, “Can she really do that?” Amaia, looking terrified, just mutters, “Honestly…with the monsters she summons, it’s possible.” Naiko grins and says, “Cecelia for the clutch! Well then Amaia…don’t you have something to do today!” Amaia rolled her eyes and said, “Yeah I guess you are right. We need to meet with Asta so he can give you the budget. He is covering your expenses today.” Zoran looks at his outfit then says, “Can I get dressed first at least. Do I put on something casual or…” Amaia scoffs and says, “Anything you want! Although if you wear the uniform you’d look like a target…which invites conflict. My opinion is to wear the uniform!” Zoran then says, “Alright I am wearing casual clothes with how you worded that. Naiko, can I borrow some of your clothes? Today, I’ll be buying some casual outfits. Since most of them were destroyed in the incident…” Naiko sighs and hands him a plain white shirt and black pants. Zoran heads to the bathroom to quickly get dressed and get ready for the day.

As he steps out of the room, Amaia was slumped on the wall messing with the chipped paint on the wall. She looks over at Zoran and says, “Ready to see Asta. I’ve been waiting for quite abit and I think you owe me some lunch. I heard it’s being paid with Asta’s money anyways.” Zoran sighs and just says, “Sure…” As they walk over to the office, Zoran looks at Amaia’s arm. He never really questioned it at first but he is now feeling curious. As they walk Zoran looks over at Amaia and asks, “So…what do the tattoos mean? I am not really familiar with Xulian culture…” Asta looks over at her arm and then flexes her muscles. She grins and says, “Tattoos for my culture represents our destiny. Aspect Users always bear a mark on their body. For Asta, it’s his eyes. For me however, it is my arm. Tattoos are used to exemplify my Mark which is right here…” She pulls her sleeves up and points at a glaive burning in the middle of a bonfire. Zoran then asks, “So what exactly is your destiny…” Amaia get quiet as she looks down and says, “To be the flame of ruin. Sounds tacky so I don’t really like that destiny. I’d rather live life my own way then follow some stupid tattoo.” She jokingly punches him then she looks at his arm and says, “Speaking of arms…how are you faring with that strange arm.” Zoran looks down at it then says, “Sometimes it seizes up and I randomly feel a surge of pain but it’s been lessening. I can’t really focus on the pain because I have other stuff on my mind.” Amaia then replies, “Like that strange boy…what is his name again? Ah, it’s Drew!” Zoran unsteadily laughs then says, “It’s Rue actually. It didn’t sound or look like him though.” Amaia then giggles, “He looked like he really hated you. I wish someone hated me as much as he hated you.” Zoran just winces and says, “Man…you really are crazy.” Amaia slightly shoves Zoran and says, “I just like the feeling of someone chasing me to the end of the earth just to kill me! Life is never dull if that happens.” Zoran smiles slightly and says, “Maybe you are right…but I’d rather not be chased to the ends of the earth.”

As they enter Asta’s office, he is playing with mini action figures of himself bashing another figure into his desk. As soon as we enter he swipes them away and looks at us with a serious expression. Amaia starts speaking, “Were…you playing with action figures.” Asta says with a demure smile plastered on his face, “Yes I was. If you have any problem with that…talk to the strongest Aspect Hunter.” Amaia rolled her eyes and just remained silent. Zoran quietly looks around at the photos on Asta’s walls. Some of them were with people he didn’t recognize. It was Asta, Toshi and another guy he couldn't recognize. Under the photo there was text saying, “Rebellion Force A.” Asta looks at Zoran and says, “Looking at my cherished memories? Some of them are from when I was your age. That isn’t important. Take a seat!” Asta takes out a pouch of coins and a strange button. The button had runes strewn across all of it and the button seemed more like a clicker meant to be hidden in your pocket. Asta then said, “Money for you to spend on your daily needs. Consider it a payment for dealing with a Malformed Aspect commission and abit of a gift from me. Now that button was custom made by the Caution Aspect. If you press it, it’ll alert me and other high ranking Aspect Hunter’s to your location. I know Amaia is pretty powerful but there should always be a hint of caution when you are out in the city. That organization and that boy you called, Rue, have it out for you. It’s my job to keep my fledgling Aspect Hunter’s all safe and proper too!” Amaia rolled her eyes then said, “Please don’t call me a fledgeling…” Asta smiles widely and says, “You are quite a feisty one! You are strong but you are an immature fighter. You can’t properly control that energy you possess. Since you can’t control it, you use it rapidly when you could allocate it to self healing and evasion. My personal assessment is that you can’t effectively allocate your energy so you overburn it which can lead you being knocked out for most of the fight.” Amaia looks away and says, “Whatever. I am stronger then Naiko and Cecelia anyways.” Asta waggles his finger and says, “Your measure of strength is entirely physical. Cecelia is a nightmare to assess due to the nature of her Aspect. Naiko is situational on whatever he is thrown into and you are easy to predict and you tire your reserves out way too easily.” Amaia remained quiet and Zoran spoke up and says, “How about me. Am I good at something?” Asta thinks for a second and says, “You are the weakest of the four. You have all the issues of the others with the added benefit of never having an Aspect beforehand. I am pretty sure you can’t even use a sword. Zoran, you are gonna have to train your ass off. Although…I admit I am impressed with how much you held off Rue until I arrived or Amaia interfering. Good thing the other three will help you learn how to fight. After you are done shopping for your essentials, you’ll train with Amaia.” Amaia smirks then says, “I am a pretty rough teacher so you better buy some bandages when we are out.” Asta chuckles and says, “Both of you are dismissed.” Zoran and Amaia leave for the door but before they could leave Asta calls out and says, “Don’t forget the button! Also, buy me some pastries from the Isorropia bakery store. Its name is “Delicate Food’s”. I want a space brownie and get the others something.” Zoran flashed a thumbs up and they left his office.

Amaia was really quiet as they walked down to the main lobby. Zoran could overhear the conversations from random Aspect Hunter’s. Most of them seemed concerned with a string of mysterious disappearances around the area. One of them in particular was saying to their friend, “Some are theorizing that this is the work of the underground Assassination Guild. It’s strange because Asta was the one who took them out. I guess they are making a resurgence…either way be careful when you head out to do your commission.” Amaia groaned and said, “There are so many high paying commissions…and I am babysitting you. What a miserable day…” Zoran looks at Amaia and says, “If you want, we can take an easier commission tomorrow. I need to practice anyway.” Amaia perks up and says, “If I get to keep 75% of our commission money then we have a deal.” They walked outside to the bustling crowd, people were moving with their lives. Amaia stretches at the front door of the Aspect and says, “Alright Zoran…let’s get the move on.” They walk through several streets and stores filled with a variety of goods and supplies. Zoran stops by a general store and picks up his daily essentials as he’s been leeching off of Naiko’s supply of Lavender Hair Wash and strangely tasty toothpaste. Before he leaves the store, he asks Amaia, “I’ll buy you a drink or a snack. Since you are helping me with my errands.” Amaia looks through the selection and chooses a strangely sweet drink. Zoran inspects it and says, “Honestly, I was kinda expecting something more bitter or adult.” Amaia shrugs and says, “I am allowed to like sweet things ya know.” Zoran buys Amaia the drink and hands it to her. She cracks open the drink and starts drinking it as they walk through the busy and hustling streets. Amaia says to herself, “The food that they give out for free at the Headquarters is shit compared to this one drink.” Zoran then said, “Do you wanna eat somewhere special since we are out in the city? I can just use Asta’s money so it’s fine.” Amaia grins and says, “Xulian cuisine it is! Let’s finish your little shopping trip and then we can eat.” Zoran looks through some clothing stores and picks out a variety of casual outfits and then a satchel for holding a variety of things. Finally, he stopped at a bookstore with Amaia and she said, “You should read some combat guides…I know Asta self published a book about using Bows. My personal recommendation is going for an Xulian author. We are known as the nation of battle and conflicts.” They scour the shelves and finally Amaia’s eyes light up as she picks out a book made by someone named, “Ariadam Barin.” Amaia flips through it and says, “This is one of the few S-Rank Aspect Users from my homeland! He is known to be the man who managed to stalemate Asta and the strongest warrior of the Xulian Nation. He is the Entropy Aspect. I’d heavily suggest this one!” Zoran looks at the book and says, “I think I heard of his name. Doesn’t he make the Aspect Hunter’s weapons. I heard the bow that Asta uses was made by him.” Amaia grins and says, “He is the pride of my culture. We believe the physical body is absolute. We train and train until there is nothing left to improve. I mean look at this.” She flexes and shows off her muscles and then says, “You can’t save anything and anyone if you aren’t strong. Naiko and Cecelia have a different mindset than me. I’ll prove them wrong though.” They walk out of the store then they head to a restaurant. It smelt of meat as different cultural icons were strewn across the restaurant. They walk up to the table and Amaia says, “I am getting a meat platter. I hope you have some money left over.” Zoran sighs and says, “Yeah…just enough as well. Can I ask you a question.” Amaia was distracted with her utensils and she looks up at him and says, “Sure. What do you wanna ask.” Zoran looks nervous at first but he takes a breath and says, “What do you think of this world. I am trying to grapple the idea that I have practically nothing now…I just need an opinion.” Amaia thinks for a second and says, “I don’t think about this world at all. People are selfish for something. I always wanna chase that next thrill. I despise destiny though. No one is destined to do shit.” Our food arrives and we dig in. Amaia says dreamily, “just what I needed…now I am fully prepared to treat you to something.” Zoran finishes chewing and says, “What do you mean by that.” Amaia smirks and says, “Training.” Zoran sighs and says, “Guess that makes sense.” Zoran pays for their food as they walk out of the store. Zoran looks out to the horizon to see the sun setting and says, “Are you sure you wanna train when it’s gonna be dark soon.” Amaia smirks and says, “It adds to the scenery if I am being honest.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

They found themselves at the training arena on the side of the headquarters, the sun was setting in the background as the smell of freshly cut grass permeates throughout the air. Amaia looks at Zoran and says, “You’ll be fighting me. I’ll critique you when we are finished. If I am being honest, I was waiting to battle you for quite a while. If you manage to win, I’ll consider you my friend. Are you ready…Zoran Ashura.” Zoran extracts some energy from the tree that was overshadowing a bench. He changes the energy into the shape of a simple short sword and he says, “I won’t lose to you again.” Amaia smiles psychotically as she says, “Bold fighting words, from a third rate Aspect Hunter!” Amaia places a hand over her hearts and the air around her was turning hotter. Her tattoo begins glowing as from her hand appears a fiery purple glaive. She swings the glaive into stance as she says, “Flames of Depredation, set this body ablaze!” She suddenly erupted in flame and suddenly Zoran reflexively blocked her charging at him. He was launched back but Zoran grit’s his teeth and uses his new arm for the first time to root him back to the ground. Amaia was ruthless however as she appeared in front of him again taking a swing with hger glaive. Zoran could feel the flames from her glaive licking his body but he grips his sword and deflects her blow. As she was caught off guard he raises his palm at her and shot a stream of crystal chains. Amaia stands her ground and rapidly swings her glaive around breaking them into pieces and she says, “I was expecting one attack to take you out. This is beyond my expectations to be honest. Don’t get cocky though.” She stabs her glaive into the ground and rushes to Zoran with her bare fist. Zoran creates arm shields on both of his hands as she charges a fiery punch that launches him into the sky. Zoran winces his teeth as he could feel the impact spread across his body. He channels some of the energy he stole from the tree and launched and entire block of packed energy at her. Amaia stands her ground and Zoran could see the flames consume her entire body as she punches the block into shards. As soon as she punched it, Zoran transforms the shards into multiple swords and points them down at her. The swords come rushing down at her as Amaia blocks and dodges them. As she was dodging them, Zoran launched a hook at her from the air. The hook made an impact with her leg. He swung his arm that transformed into a hook, forcing Amaia into the air. He lands back on the ground and forces the hook to come back at him, sending Amaia straight at him. As Amaia got close, Zoran packed his free hand with a crystalized glove and punched her across the training field. He watched Amaia smash into a tree with a dramatic thud. He smiles to himself and mutters to himself, “I should give that move a cool name at some point.” As he was muttering to himself though, Amaia pounds her fist into the ground and stands back up as the flames cleanse her wounds away. She is smiling like a madman and she screams, “I might need to actually try harder!” The flames surrounding her get more intense as she walks up to her glaive and picks it up. Zoran changes his arm into a mantis blade and says, “Stop playing around. I saw what you did to Rue.” Amaia snickers and says, “I may have underestimated you…in my eyes you are already a friend now. If you insist however…” The air burned hotter as Zoran hears Naiko say, “I am trying to sleep-” His voice is cut off when he looks at the scene and says, “You have to be fucking with me.” He just heads back inside as he says, “Zoran, make sure to clean up your mess when you are finished.” The sun has fully setted as they both look at each other. The training area had swords and burn marks scarring it. Within only a moment, they rushed each other down.” Amaia charges her glaive and then with a pillar of fire she rushes towards Zoran. As Amaia was about to make direct collision, he swiftly pointed at Amaia and uses the rest of his energy to fire an onslaught of bullets at Amaia. As Amaia approached she swung her glaive wildly and she gets closer as Zoran keeps firing them at her. Amaia cleaves her glaive through the ground and when she made impact with him she took the ground from under him, sending him launching the air. Zoran tries to think quickly but before he could, he feels Amaia grab unto his leg and throws him to the other side of the arena. He sticks his arm into the ground to control the impact but as soon as he lands on the ground Amaia is chanting something. He hears from her lips, “Dragonfly, consume everything that you touch.” In a instant he is punched in the gut by Amaia as he is launched into the air. Zoran tries to ignore the pain but Amaia rushes into the air and throws him back down. He felt his body slump on the floor as Amaia walks up and says, “Might need to work abit on general weapon training. Notice how you didn’t use the sword and instead use objects to attack me. I’ll help you train with a spear, it’s pretty close to my glaive. We might need to start a workout regiment.” Zoran just mutters, “Everything hurts…save this for tomorrow. I am lucky that I changed into the Aspect Hunter uniform…if I wasn’t wearing it I would be knocked out.” Amaia then says, “So Zoran, do you need help getting up. You already won as you did to earn my friendship.” Zoran mutters as he grabs onto her hand, “I make friends by taking them out fishing…not beating the shit out of them.” Amaia thinks to herself, “We can go fishing tomorrow if you like?” Zoran sighs as he says, “Fine. We can do that.” Amaia wags her finger and says, ‘First we need to workout and do basic weapon training. You better be up by 4 A.M. tomorrow.”

As Zoran heads to bed, he could still feel the pain of Amaia’s fist being engraved into his body. He slumps down on his bed and looks at his arm. He remembers the one move that caught Amaia off guard and he mutters to himself, “I shall name that move…The Hook.” He chuckles to himself and mutters, “Nah that’s a shit name. I need more time…” As he drifts off to sleep he can only recall Amaia’s words, “No one is destined to shit.” Zoran grips his hand and says, “I want to save Rue…I need to work on myself before I even consider that idea. Maybe that can be my motivation…”

***

Aspect Hunter Files - Aspect Marks

On every Aspect User, there is a mark that helps symbolize the Aspect they held. Such as Asta, his mark is in both of his eyes. Another example is Toshi, his mark is on the palm of his hand. Marks can be found everywhere on the body, one Aspect Hunter had a particular embarrassing mark. No one knows the exact reason why these marks appear, they are likened to birthmarks or moles. They stay on the body throughout its life and whenever they use their Aspect’s it would have the tendency to glow a certain color. One scholar’s theory was that these marks make it easier for the user to identify their specific Aspect.