“Wake up, sleepy head!” I woke up with a splash of water on my face. My eyes open suddenly and I see Naiko looking miserable with water on his face and Amaia and Asta with wide grins. I sit up and I look at Asta and mutter, “You better hope that I don’t come up with a worse idea in mind to wake both of you up.” Amaia snickered and said, “Don’t worry we did this to you, Mr.Nerd, and Ms.Morality!” Asta then snickered and said, “You should’ve woken up earlier…Amaia was already awake and training in the field. I would’ve done it to her as well but luckily she joined in on my little prank.” Zoran looks at Asta with a deadpan face and says, “How old are you again…” Asta then says, “I am 28 years young. Still young and spry as I always have been.” Zoran then smiled and then said, “I think I can see a wrinkle on your face…” Asta’s face pales and then he rushes over to the sink and checks his face. Zoran stood up and said, “Amaia, can you kindly get out so that I can get dressed for the day…” Amaia waved him off and said, “Whatever…should’ve woken up at 4 AM and did some training. Today is our first mission so you better be prepared to have your ass beat.” Zoran groans and looks at Naiko who was still awake looking completely and utterly miserable. Zoran then said to Naiko, “Do you wanna get dressed first? Also, I have to say thank you for giving me the money for yesterday. I really appreciate that.” Naiko looks up at him and smiles saying, “It’s no problem. Plus I got what I needed to get done last night. Seems like you are the only normal person in this entire building…I tried talking to Cecelia yesterday but she fell asleep in the middle of the conversation. Can you believe that!” Zoran snickers and says, “I didn’t get a chance to talk with both of them yet. What have you read about them?” Naiko gets up and wipes the water off of his face and says, “Well Amaia is definitely the most aggressive person I met…yesterday she barged in this room and demanded me to help her move her stuff inside her room. Cecelia on the other hand…I just don’t know how to talk to her effectively. It’s hard to connect with her.” Zoran sighs and says, “I already got a pretty good read on you.” Naiko then says, “What is your read on me. I am always curious on how others see me.” Zoran then puts his finger on his lip and says, “It’s a secret!” Naiko groans aloud and mutters, “Man…you suck as well.” Asta steps outside of the bathroom and says aloud, “Zoran…when we are done with this mission you are gonna be condemned to do some of my paperwork for an hour.” Zoran kept his lips sealed knowing that the punishment of doing paperwork nonstop is harsher than anything he has ever known. Asta smirked and said, “Shadow Hunting Arrow 1 and Zoran 0, looks like I am winning.” Zoran then blurts out, “It’s not fair you can use your power like that. You are like a despot.” Asta smirked then said, “Well then I am a pretty awesome despot. Anyways, I’ll be back in an hour for your group bonding session. See ya!” Asta quickly leaves the room and Naiko says, “Before you ask, he is always like this.” Zoran then looks at Naiko with pity written on his face and mutters, “I feel bad for you man…go ahead and get ready first. I can wait.” Naiko nodded his head before quickly leaving to go to the bathroom to get ready for the day. Sighing to himself Zoran looks outside to see the sun rising in the horizon.

Zoran stumbles into the hallway to see the other waiting for him. Asta reappears and then says, “Alright, today is your first group assignment! Isn’t that exciting, this will also help me gauge your abilities to work together and would serve as a bonding session. I already picked out the commission you’ll be taking care of! In the lower layer, there have been more reports of violent crime taking place. One of these incidents, an Aspect User wasn’t properly taken care of so it became a Malformed Aspect. I won’t tell you what the Aspect is as you have to rely on your own judgment and investigation skills in order to decipher what it actually is. If things go awry, I’ll be watching and I’ll deal with the monster properly. Before we actually start the mission…I’ll treat the 4 of you to breakfast. How awesome is that!” Cecelia’s eyes lit up and said softly, “I always heard that Van Holiz cuisine was to die for! Issorropia is kinda known for their…bad cooking skills.” Amaia grunted and said, “I guess I could try it…but I have to sit with these morons. That sounds like being tortured with flame pokers over an open fire.” Naiko looked at her worried and said, “Man…there is something wrong with you. Isn’t that right Zoran?” Amaia then looks at Zoran and says, “Pick your next words carefully…I happen to know where you can find centipedes.” Cecelia murmured, “She already did that to me last night…I woke up with a centipede on my face.” After hearing that Zoran said, “There is totally nothing wrong with her…totally.” Naiko, looking shocked, says, “I thought you had my back man!” Zoran just shrugs and says, “I’m not stupid.” Asta groaned and said, “Stop fighting…you should save that energy for your enemy.” Walking outside of the headquarters the sun was bright in the sky and Asta led us towards the restaurant he wanted to treat us all to. As we step into the finely decorated dining room Amaia mumbles, “I’ll give you one thing…this is a really nice place. Most places in my home tend to be stalls because fighters don’t have the time to sit down and eat.” Cecelia then says, “The food here smells delicious…” We take a booth seat and Asta calls up a waiter. The waiter takes one look at Asta and he says, “Holy shit…It’s Asta!” Suddenly the entire restaurant lights up as people swarm our booth and Naiko puts his head down on the table and mutters, “Typical…” As Asta is swarmed with fans, Amaia looks at Zoran and says, “One day I’ll have that many fans. For you see…I am destined for greatness and when I become the most powerful Aspect User then I’d surpass even Asta.” Zoran chuckles at her and says, “Aren’t you a C-Rank…alongside with Naiko. I don’t even know what you do.” Amaia then puts her hand to her heart and proclaims, “Don’t lump me into the same group as Mr.Sleepy!” Naiko mutters, “I have a name you know…” Cecelia looks at Naiko and pokes at his head and says, “Isn’t it…Naomi?” Naiko mumbles sadly, “That is a girl's name…damn it all.” Zoran pats Zoran’s back and says, “It’s alright Naomi.” Naiko just sniffles and says, “It’s Naiko…” Asta then loudly says, “I’ll sign stuff later, I want to eat in peace.” The fans dissipate as our food arrives. Naiko ordered a simple salad while Amaia ordered a meat dish, and Cecelia ordered a balanced plate. I ordered a simple fish meal and when I dug in I couldn’t help but smile. When I look over to Amaia she is just devouring her entire plate meanwhile Naiko was eating methodically as he separated different vegetables into different groups. Cecelia has the biggest smile as she ate and mumbles with her mouth full to Naiko, “Man this is so good…how is your salad Naiko?” Naiko smiles and says, “Pretty satisfactory…I am-” He then looks over to Amaia who finished her large meal and he just mutters, “H-How…those usually take me 20 minutes. You put that down within 5!?”” Amaia smirks and says, “See Zoran…I am easily the strongest here.” Asta smiles and says, “Remember when you challenged me when we first got here and you needed to repair your precious glaive after it was shattered with one arrow…” Amaia looks down and says, “I-It was just a fluke.” Asta laughs and says, “Right. Just a fluke.” Amaia looks down embarrassed and Naiko confidently says, “Man…what happened to all that confidence you are known for.” Amaia looks at him with a certain look that could kill anyone who is faint of heart. Sadly Naiko was that type of person and he nervously laughs and says, “Joking…of course.” As we finish off our meals Asta then proclaims, “Alright…the hunt officially begins now. I’ll take you to the location.”

We are led to the edge of the city that leads to the lower layer of the city. Two guards stand there and as Asta walks to them they immediately move out of the way. Asta opens the door showing a staircase that leads down the wall of the layer and says, “This leads to the lower layer of the city. This city isn’t perfect and this is where the…impoverished go too. It’s always been a dream of mine to fix the situation in the lower layer but it’s difficult. I am working with the head supervisor of the city to make life a little easier for the lower layer. Seeing as I come from it…” Asta looks down but shakes it off as they continue walking down until they reach a door. As we step outside the streets are dusty and ruined. Everywhere I look there is someone wearing shabby clothing trying to mind their business or people resting in a corridor. It smelt of sewage and rot, and the lingering bitterness in the air made it hard to breathe. The entire time as the group were walking Asta was looking down until he slowly muttered, “We are almost there.” There was a great barrier in the way of our path and then Asta turned around and said, “Whenever we hear reports of Malformed Aspects, we have people seal them in a barrier that only allows Aspect Hunter’s enter and deal with. It’s a precaution so the Malformed Aspect doesn’t spread at all. I’ll be monitoring from outside but I’ll only enter if it’s a serious situation that needs my help. It would also be considered a failure if you do receive my help and all 4 of you would be terminated from the Aspect Hunters with the exception of Zoran due to special precautions.” Amaia then sneers and says, “As if…I am all they need to win. I can promise you that.” Naiko rolled his eyes and Cecelia seemed visibly nervous. Shaking off their nerves, they step through the barrier.

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They are met with the sight of corpses mangled on the street and blood smeared on the walls of dilapidated buildings. At the opposite side of the road rested their target. It was a horrific amalgamation of corpses holding an ax made from human bone. It weakly stumbled to us dragging its ax as a grating sound of bone being dragged on the concrete road. Naiko unsheathed his dagger and looked nervous but he steadied his breath and said, “Zoran, since you rarely fight Aspects, let me give you a run down. It’s all about analyzing their gimmick…” he is interrupted by Amaia sneering and saying, “Nah brute force. Let me show you.” Suddenly Amaia bursts into flames as she mutters to herself, “Flames of Depredation, set this body ablaze.” As the flames dimmed it showed her holding a flaming glaive burning her hands and her clothes had flame pulsing off of them but not burning off somehow. Suddenly she rushes the enemy down and swings at it with the burning glaive. The Malformed Aspect changes its weapon to a glaive and blocks her attacks. They exchange blows as Amaia had a crazy smile on her face. Cecelia’s hands were trembling as she stepped back and said, “Why are there so many corpses…” Suddenly she closes her eyes as she is surrounded by a pulse of energy. Naiko looks at her and mutters, “What the hell…” Suddenly from the pulse of energy there is a monstrosity forming from the energy as she curls up into a ball surrounded by an orb of energy. The nightmare had distorted features of what seems human but somehow it is messied and blurred, like looking underwater without goggles. It was a distorted version of what a human is supposed to be yet it is entirely alien. It lunges at the Malformed Aspect and tries to tear it to pieces as Amaia shouts “Don’t get in my way, this is the most fun I’ve had this week.” Amaia then is consumed by more flames as she shoots a spiral of flames at the Malformed Aspect, swallowing it whole. Naiko just muttered, “Is it already over.” But as he says that the Malformed Aspect absorbed the flames and the bone weapon reformed into a cannon to shoot back at Amaia launching her through the wall. Zoran steadies his breath and walks over to a mangled tree to absorb its energy and says, “What are we gonna do Naiko?” Naiko looks at the Malformed Aspect as it’s distracted by the nightmare Cecelia summoned and then says, “Notice the bone weapon, it’s probably the source of its power. The corpse that’s holding it is the distraction. The weapon also can change it’s form depending on the situation…” Naiko looks down in thought as he says, “Try damaging the weapon…I’ll be thinking of more ways.” Zoran nods his head and runs over to the Malformed Aspect and forms a spear with the energy he collected from the tree. Zoran tries to pierce the bone weapon but his spear breaks instantly. In his mind he tries to workaround the bone weapon. He grabs the energy he absorbed in the palm of his hand and tries to form something more complex. He reinforces her fists and feet with the energy and uses it to slide on the floor around the Malformed Aspect. As the Nightmare kept attacking he waited for an opening to attack the Malformed Aspect at. When the Malformed Aspect’s guard is down he rushes in and grabs the bone weapon and attaches himself to it by sticking his feet into the bone cannon and changes his crystal fists into a sword and tries to slice off its arm. But the Malformed Aspects look at him and change the bone weapon into a disk and throws him off of the corpse, sending him flying into a wall. The disk returns to the Malformed Aspect but Zoran get’s up as blood drips from his nose. The Malformed Aspect finishes tearing apart the Nightmare by changing its bone weapon into a spear and piercing it through the center. Suddenly Amaia appears from the top of the building and plungest straight into the corpse part of the Malformed Aspect into a pillar of flame. She takes her glaive and cuts off all of its limbs and grabs the chest of the corpse with her burnt hands and throws it in the air and pierces it with her glaive. She ignites the glaive burning the corpse to ashes. She laughs victoriously but suddenly the Bone Weapon flies over to another corpse and infuses itself into it. The corpse is now layered in bone armor and screams, “Xazia…you rotten witch.” Naiko then runs towards the Malformed Aspect and screams, “Replication of the Cut Aspect…Millions of Tiny Blades.” As he infuses the dagger with a stranger energy he cuts the armor of the Malformed Aspect and eventually saws off an entire arm. His dagger broke into pieces as he muttered, “Just an arm…damn it.” He put his hands on a discarded piece of the bone weapon and infused it with the same energy and mutters, “Replication of the Pulse Aspect…Vibrating Puddles.” He stabs the Malformed Aspect and suddenly the chest of it blows up into pieces but before Naiko could do anything the Malformed Aspect punches him in the gut and sends him flying down the street. Zoran looks over at Amaia who is still burning brightly and says, “Do you have any ideas?” Amaia breathed heavily and said, “Killing the corpse isn’t doing shit…although the weapon has a mind of its own.” Suddenly Zoran looks at the corpse with the bone armor and notices something, it is protecting the skull the most. Zoran then says, “It’s the skull that we should deal with. The Malformed Aspect isn’t actually the corpse. It’s the skeleton of the deceased user. Amaia lend me a hand…throw me at it.” Naiko weakly gets up and says, “I can help as well…give me your arm.” Naiko mutters as the last remnants of his energy goes into his arm and mutters, “Replication of Drill Aspect : Spinning Weapon.” Zoran’s crystal covered arm takes the form of a drill and starts rotating violently and Amaia picks up Zoran and throws him at the Malformed Aspect. He first feels fear but he buries it aside in his head as he points his rotating arm at the Malformed Aspect and strikes it directly in the skull drilling into it but it isn’t enough. He feels his arm hit a hard surface but suddenly he hears Cecelia’s voice in his head, “With the blessing of my dream…I grant you this.” Zoran suddenly feels his arm get’s heavier but it pierces through the hard surface and successfully pierces through the skull.” Yet the rotating arm doesn’ stop as he pierces the wall and collapses on the floor. He then hears the voice of the Malformed Aspect scream as it’s slowly vanishing, “Rotten Assassins, I curse you into the pits of the abyss…” Zoran stands up weakly and looks over at Amaia and Naiko who have passed out on the floor. Cecelia who has woken up is sitting down on the wall and the barrier is going down. Asta walks up to them and says, “Well…you managed to finish off the Malformed Aspect.” He eyes Naiko and Amaia then says, “They seem to have overextended themselves this time. You also look beat up Zoran.” He looks at Cecelia who was curled into a ball and says, “She doesn’t handle blood and death well…I call this mission a success. Zoran, I want to talk to you about something regarding your Aspect.” Asta takes Zoran somewhere private as Cecelia helps with Naiko and Amaia. Asta turns around in a deserted alleyway and says, “We are leaving to find what the name of your Aspect is. You are about to meet the head of the nation, Kaoi Van Holiz.”

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Aspect Hunter Files - Reprisal Aspect

Previously an Aspect Hunter who focused on making sure the lower layer is safe and secured. Originally their ability allowed them to deflect any blow by using their bones as weapons. It hurt him using this ability but he always pushed through the pain. Eventually he grew resentful of this Aspect and he was later killed by unknown reasons.

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