Battles broke out everywhere around the city. Nobody was stupid enough to wait for the enemy to come to them. Instead they did the same as Owari and left their weaker members to fight off any stragglers, while the stronger members all went out to fight the enemy head-on. Owari and Noel confirmed there were no enemies in the area before running off to help out other battlefields. As they did so they built quite the name for themselves. Everyone knew they were strong, but what they showed off this time was terrifying. Whether it be Owari’s raw destructive power or Noel’s ability to stop her enemies movement with nothing but a thought.
Something else that Noel found out was that she could take control of enemy attacks as well. Because there was motion in these attacks she could redirect them, either deflecting them or sending them back at the opponent. Owari on the other hand found out something equally as shocking from his spirit sword. When he practiced his mana breathing method he would suck in more mana from the air to replenish his reserves. This had to do with his force affinity being passively amplified which allowed him to grasp more of the mana in the air.
The two of them gradually grew more used to their abilities as they fought. Eventually the battle seemed to settle as all the enemies were defeated. All of the electrum and high platinum rank enemies were dead, and the lower rank enemies were all injured at least. However on their side they lost an electrum rank and a number of other people. It wasn’t like everyone had people like Noel and Owari who could fight above their rank using their teamwork. Luckily the allies had managed to keep the enemies out of the city. It helped that the enemy had no interest in the city and merely wanted to kill as many of the allies as possible.
Owari and Noel stuck around the city wall trying to assess the damages when they were approached by someone they hadn’t expected. It was the head of the luna family. He was a top mid-electrum rank individual which was quite the accomplishment. Just like how platinum rank has a huge gap between individual levels, so does electrum rank. As a comparison Noel’s grandfather was a high electrum rank.
“Hello. My name is Gerald.” He introduced himself in a lighthearted tone.
“I’m Owari, and this is Noel. But based on how you approached us you knew that.” Owari answered back in an equally lighthearted tone.
“Right. I’m shocked. The two of you seem to be electrum rank. At your age that’s a massive accomplishment.” He chuckled.
“Only when we fight together. We don’t have the lasting power to fight electrum ranks on our own.” Noel spoke up. It was true, both of their spirit arts were very mana intensive. So even though they were powerful they didn’t have the mana efficiency or reserves to keep them active for long.
“How humble. Even if it’s only when fighting together that’s still something else.” He looked at them with a shine in his eyes.
“So did you come just to praise us?” Noel asked curiously.
“Actually I came to ask you something. We plan to do a counteract soon. I wanted to see if you would participate.” He asked sincerely.
“Unfortunately we can’t.” Owari answered for them. Noel glared at him but he pretended not to notice.
“Is there some reason?” He was shocked. Of course he knew about them. They were battle lovers through and through. What would keep them from a good fight?
“There is.” Noel answered reluctantly. But she didn’t say any more.
“I see…” He sighed, it was a shame. They would make a good addition to the attack force. “Thank you for humoring me. I’ll take my leave now.” Unfortunately he was busy and couldn’t spare any more time.
After he left Noel looked at Owari strangely. “Just because I can’t go doesn’t mean you can’t.”
“Like I said, I’m tired of fighting. I’ll protect my home, but I don’t want to go out and fight.” He was feeling a bit lethargic at the moment.
“Okay.” Noel nodded, she didn’t want to make him do something he didn’t want to.
The two of them made their way home shortly after. Meanwhile they watched as the enemy fled with their injured in tow, using a number of troop transports to do so. It was amusing seeing as how their trucks were slower than Owari and Noel who overtook them easily. Luckily their house was still in one piece. They sighed in relief and went inside.
When they got inside and laid on the couch Noel couldn’t help but ask. “Does your current mood have to do with my situation?”
“In a way yes. I want to be here for you. Plus I just want to be around you more in general. At my level it’s impossible to grow just by fighting. I’d have to find a suitable opponent and there’s no telling how long that would take. After spending so much time around you these past few months I realized how much I enjoy being around you.” He said seriously.
“Aren’t you sweet.” Noel smiled happily.
After that the two of them spent the rest of the day talking and soon the next day came. They decided to go back into town again and check on things. Surprisingly everyone was out and about again as if nothing happened. It was good in a way as it showed they were not affected negatively by the battle, but it also showed that they had no sense of danger. After all a second attack might be possible, but they never even considered it. Of course there were a few exceptions.
After that the days passed by quickly and soon a month had passed. It was around this time that Lance got back. Owari went to meet him at his home and knocked on the door. When Lance came to the door and saw him he sighed. “It’s been a long month.”
“I can see that.” Owari chuckled. Lance looked ragged and even seemed a few years older.
“Well come on in and make yourself at home.” Lance gestured inside.
Owari walked in and sat on the couch. It was a small apartment but it wasn’t bad. “So how did it go?”
“Well it took a while but eventually we had to just attack. Luckily the fighting occurred outside the walls. I heard something similar happened here.” He yawned. He seemed quite exhausted. “I barely made it through the fighting. I even lost an arm.” He showed off his right arm which was completely free of blemishes and was less muscular than his other arm.
“Sounds like you went through a lot.” Owari couldn’t exactly put himself in Lance’s shoes. He had won handily after all. But he could empathize.
“Yeah. I had to kill a lot of people too.” He shuddered. “I still can’t get used to it.”
“It’s better if you don’t.” Owari shook his head. He was different since he didn’t care from the beginning. It was much worse for someone who hated it in the beginning to grow numb to it. It meant they lost something about themselves.
“I suppose you’re right.” Lance nodded.
“So have you seen Rebecca?” Owari asked.
“Not yet. I was going to visit her tomorrow.” He shook his head.
“You should visit her tonight. She also went through a lot after all. The sooner you meet the sooner you can comfort one another.” Owari suggested.
“I see…” He smiled awkwardly. He hadn’t even thought of what Rebecca had gone through.
“You’ll get used to it eventually.” Owari chuckled.
“I hope so.” Lance stood up and stretched. “Let’s hang out later on. I’m exhausted.”
“No problem.” Owari stood up as well and made his way out the door.
When he got back home he looked at Noel on the couch eating three steaks and shook his head. “So when are we going to tell everyone?” He asked as he sat next to her.
“We should get together and tell them over dinner. It’s been a while since we all got together after all. It is a special occasion after all.” She answered as she stuffed her face.
“I thought cravings didn’t come until later.” Owari chuckled.
“I don’t know about all that stuff, what I do know is that I’m very hungry.” Noel finished eating at that moment. “Well not anymore I guess.”
“I’ll make sure there’s plenty of food in the house just in case.” He walked over to her and picked up her plates to bring them to the kitchen.
Noel leaned back and rubbed her stomach. “That was good, but it was a nightmare waiting for the food to finish cooking.”
“What waiting? You practically eat it raw.” Owari laughed as he rinsed the dishes.
“True.” She chuckled. “I barely put it on the stove before taking it off to eat.”
“I can imagine.” He pictured it in his head and merely nodded as if that was expected.
“Don’t go thinking anything mean.” She pouted.
“I would never.” He smiled and walked over to her. However before he reached the couch she laid across it. Unfortunately she was too short to take up the entire thing so she stretched her arms across the last of the space. “Where am I supposed to sit?”
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“I’m pregnant, you’re supposed to pamper me and let me do what I want.” She smiled back at him.
“Alright.” He walked over and scooped her up before sitting down with her in a princess carry.
“That’s better.” She smiled.
The two continued their usual flirting routine for a while before going to bed. It was a few days later before everyone had a day off on their schedule to meet up and hang out together. Of course Owari was entirely free much to everyone’s envy. But such was the life of an independent hunter, and why he chose to be one after all. Though out of everyone he was also the most well off ironically.
“It feels like it’s been forever since we all hung out like this on a non-holiday.” Lance said as soon as they all met up.
“That’s because it has.” Owari laughed.
“Of course.” Lance chuckled.
“So what is the plan for today?” Rebecca asked.
“Well honestly we hadn’t thought about that. Other than dinner at the Sapphire Agencies restaurant of course.” Owari answered.
“As expected.” Rebecca sighed. They invited everyone out without a plan.
“How about we go to the park and hang out? It’s a nice day after all.” Noel looked up into the grey skies.
“Only you would think cloudy weather was nice.” Rebecca sighed. Luckily it was still warm despite the time of year.
“Obviously.” Noel smiled.
The group then made their way to the park and all sat down on a few benches relaxing. “So how have things been?” Lance asked everyone.
“Great!” Noel said happily.
“Quite well.” Owari answered.
“Well enough.” Rebecca followed up.
“Fine.” Erica said with a nod.
“Looks like things have been going well for everyone. So what has everyone been up to? Let’s start with Owari. I’d guess it would be quite simple right?” Lance picked fun at him. Everyone knew Owari had the easiest time out of everyone.
“About how you’d expect. I’ve mostly been staying at home lately.” He shrugged.
“What about you Noel?” Lance asked.
“I’ve been busy at work.” She answered.
“That’s quite simple. Nothing specific from either of you?” He was surprised by how boring their answers were.
“There was this one time a few days ago when this one guy was being pushy and kept trying to negotiate about getting the Silverblood’s support. But I denied him. He was quite annoying because he was a bit too important to just kick out. In the end I had to listen to him drone for an hour before I finally had him removed ‘kindly’.” She smiled.
“Sounds incredibly dull.” Lance sighed. He knew the feeling. “And you Rebecca?”
“You already know how I’ve been.” She smiled without answering, leaving it ambiguous what she meant.
“Er, right. And how about you Erica? Anything interesting happen?” He quickly moved on.
“I ate good food yesterday. And I learned a new technique.” She answered with a small smile.
“Sounds like things have been well then. Personally not much has happened with me either. Mostly a lot of paperwork and dealing with employees.” Lance shrugged.
“Sounds like a bore.” Owari stretched lazily.
“It can be. But it’s rewarding when I get that check every week.” Lance laughed.
Like this the group joked and talked through the day. Eventually they got up and started to walk around town. “How about we visit our beasts to show them off?” Rebecca suggested.
“You ready to take a drive back to our house?” Owari chuckled.
“It isn’t far is it?” Rebecca wondered. If it was an eight-hour run it would only be a good ten to twenty minutes or so.
“Not really.” Noel replied.
“Should be fine then.” Lance jumped in.
“Whose first?” Owari asked.
“I’ll go first.” Rebecca said proudly.
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen your beast.” Owari remembered seeing her beast once or twice. She rarely took it out.
“I have three now.” She said just as proudly as before.
“Cool.” Erica was impressed. She only had one.
“Let’s go then!” They made their way over to a habitat near the edge of the city. When they entered her lot there were three beasts as she said. One was a light blue almost white bear around high gold rank. Then there was a crystal looking snail that was around mid silver. Finally there was a dark blue almost black snake about low platinum in rank.
“So who are they?” Owari asked.
“The bear is Blue. The snail is Diamond. And the snake is Abyss.” She had very simple names.
“Impressive.” Noel nodded her head.
“Not bad. The snake has a mutant affinity. And the snail has the diamond affinity. You probably have a powerful defence now.” Owari also nodded.
“The snake has the abyssal ice affinity. It can even freeze mana.” Rebecca said proudly. No wonder she wanted to show off their magical beasts.
“It really is impressive.” Lance admitted.
“Come here.” She ordered the snake. It slithered over. “Show them your ice.” She used her diamond reinforcement technique. The snake then breathed gently on the diamond mana freezing it and causing it to fall to the ground before dissolving.
“Wow, that’s good.” Owari was very impressed. It could even bypass diamond affinity.
“Right?” Rebecca smiled happily at the praise.
“Can it freeze my kinetic mana?” Noel asked as she created a ball of kinetic energy above her hand and waved it in front of the snake. It breathed on the kinetic ball, however it didn’t freeze. It continued to try upping the coldness but no matter what it tried it couldn’t succeed.
“Kinetic energy is the purest form of heat. Of course it can’t freeze it.” Owari laughed.
“I was curious.” Noel smiled.
“Poor Abyss. Now he’s depressed.” Rebecca pet the poor snake as it sulked.
“It’s alright. Her kinetic affinity is just too powerful. It requires so much mana I wouldn’t be able to use it.” Owari comforted the snake.
“Nobody here would if you can’t.” Lance chuckled a bit awkwardly. He had the ability to sense mana so he knew Owari had a massive amount even for a hunter. He always expended all his mana every day to the maximum and used his mana breathing technique.
“That’s true.” Owari admitted easily.
“Well he is much higher rank than us.” Rebecca shrugged.
“So who’s next?” Lance asked.
“You obviously, Other than Erica the rest of ours are outside town.” Owari made fun of him.
“Right.” Lance smiled awkwardly. Owari always picked fun at him, but he usually did the same back. He was just giving too many opportunities today. The group made their way to Lance’s lot which was a decent walk away. They stopped at a stall for lunch on the way before arriving. “I have three beasts as well.” Lance spoke as they entered one lot. Inside was a large car-sized bird with blue feathers.
“Well you grew.” Owari looked at the large thunderbird. It was low platinum in rank now. Unlike most other beasts it would grow in rank just by growing as it had no need to evolve.
“Of course she did. She will get much bigger as well. I’ll need to find her a more permanent location to settle at. Somewhere with a lot of prey. She is a glutton.” Lance said just as proudly as Rebecca. This had been a really good catch and had changed his entire life. He had a right to be proud.
“What about the other two?” Noel asked.
“Well they are in the same place. Let’s go.” Lance waved for them to follow him. Not too far from the previous place was a water habitat where his cloudfish was usually at these days. Inside the room was the cloudfish, as well as a large turtle the size of a car. “The cloudfish is Tempest, the turtle is Uno. I named it that because it is unique.”
The cloudfish had reached high gold rank, while the turtle was mid gold. “Impressive. What affinities does it have?” Owari asked curiously. It was a unique beast after all, he could make guesses, but nothing concrete.
“Earth and water.” Lance reached over and pat its shell. “That helped boost my defenses a lot. Though not as much as you guys I guess.” He was somewhat embarrassed by that. Rebecca had diamond, while Noel had her Kinetic affinity. He was also sure Owari had something up his sleeve as well.
“Your style is mainly focused on attacking anyway.” Owari reminded him.
“Right. Overwhelm the enemy with unstoppable force.” Lance’s spear style was all about overwhelming an opponent and never allowing them to make an offensive move. It was a very all-in strategy that relied on skill and endurance to pull off.
“Who’s next?” Rebecca piped in.
“Erica. Then us.” Noel decided.
Soon they made their way to a habitat paid for by Noel and Owari, Erica didn’t have much money of her own. When they entered there was the crystalline lizard. “Hello Scale.” Erica walked over and pet the lizard which looked like it was made of rainbows.
“Well I feel defeated.” Rebecca sighed. Her crystalline beast was a snail, and it wasn’t all shiny.
“Maybe you can evolve your snail to have a light affinity. That is if it has light affinity ancestry, otherwise good luck.” Owari laughed.
“It’s your turn now.” Rebecca stated seriously.
“Alright.” Owari smiled.
Owari and Noel led them back to their car where they all hopped inside and drove off to their home. When they arrived Rebecca and Lance were dumbstruck. “When did you get extra houses?” Lance asked.
“A while back. That’s right, you guys don’t really come here.” Owari suddenly recalled this fact. There was no need for them to. “Speaking of extra houses, maybe we should finally hire a caretaker for our magical beasts.”
“Let’s go to town tomorrow and do that.” Noel agreed.
“They should be here soon.” Owari looked at the sky first. Suddenly Draco zoomed in and landed quickly. It stuck its nose out at Owari and huffed as if asking him why he called it. “I want to show you off of course.” This pleased the drake.
“That’s one strong drake.” Lance’s face cramped up. The drake was stronger than both he and rebecca.
Soon Guillotine arrived followed swiftly by Garm. Both were moving at light speed, but the tiger was closer. After arriving Garm got down on his back and rolled a bit as if asking for a belly rub. Meanwhile Guillotine walked up to Noel and gently rubbed against her. It would normally be more forceful since she can handle it, but the tiger was aware of her condition as were all the other beasts who were told to be careful around her.
“They’re like common pets.” Lance was dumbfounded.
“I wonder if they’re kid friendly.” Rebecca wondered aloud.
“Probably. They can be very gentle.” Owari informed them as he rubbed Garm’s stomach.
At this point Hebi and Fang showed up. Hebi as always held his heads up high as though to look down on everyone. This was helped by the fact that he was now the size of a bus. He towered over everyone here. However when he approached Owari he bowed his heads to his master whom was the only one it recognized as above him.
“I definitely lose to that.” Rebecca grew even more depressed. Her snake wasn’t nearly as impressive as a hydra.
“You’re beasts are impressive as well.” Lance tried to reassure her.
“You don’t have to lie to me.” Although her words were a bit harsh they still helped cheer her up a bit.
Fang walked over and looked at everyone curiously. He felt left out as nobody paid him any attention. Erica seemed to notice as she walked over and started petting the poor guy. Fang happily accepted the attention. All of the beasts seemed excited to receive the attention. Soon enough Lance and Rebecca were given a chance to pet Guillotine and Garm. Both Hebi and Drake refused to be pet. They would only allow the people to feel their scales was all. They were very proud of their scales. Though to be honest it was no different from being pet.
Soon enough they left the beasts and made their way back into town. When they arrived back they started walking and talking about random things. Sometimes they all talked to each other and sometimes they had miny conversations between certain members. Erica for the most part did her best to avoid conversation as usual. Eventually the time came and it was time to go eat dinner.
Everyone crowded into the rather generously sized room and sat at their places. Noel and Owari on one side, Rebecca and Lance on the other, with Erica at one end between them. As they all settled in they ordered their food and prepared to make small talk as they waited.
“So your relationship has been going well?” Noel asked. She had noticed the two of them were less awkward around one another than before.
“So far it’s getting better.” Lance chuckled.
“So far?” Rebecca cut in from the side.
“I meant up until now, not that it has a chance to get worse.” Lance explained himself quickly.
“Alright. How about you two?” Rebecca asked. She had also noticed the change in Owari and Noel. They were much closer than normal, and that was saying something for them.
“Actually that’s one of the reasons we called for everyone to get together.” Noel said grandly.
Rebecca and Lance grew somewhat apprehensive while Erica looked on innocently. “No need to worry. It’s nothing bad. Do you want to tell them?” Owari asked Noel.
“Of course. After all, I'm the one carrying the baby.” Noel said casually with a wide smile.
This news caused everyone else at the table to grow quiet and still. The first to respond was Erica. “Does that mean I’m getting a niece or nephew?” She asked naturally, as if it was obvious. Noel seemed to accept this naturally, and after a moment Owari accepted it as well. They had long accepted Erica as family. If not for the fact that she was an adult already they would have adopted her into their family themselves seeing as she was an orphan.
“Of course.” Noel answered. This answer finally caused Lance and Rebecca to face reality and react.