"so I guess I missed something!" Grois Galia shouted, lowering her pu doa, blood dripping from the blade. The sudden drop in numbers stunned the bugs long enough for the group to gather and then rush out of the door. which shocked the bugs back into action," can I get some details!" Galia shouted at the insects and followed them through the street of the town. Numbers of people taking covers or attacking with a melody.

"I pissed off something, not from this world!" Aero shouted, using his staff to vault over a cart. Landing in a tool, he quickly got back to his feet and continued running. At the same Aero started playing up a melody. It was noted, something Lior swore when she received it.

"It's the deck!" she shouted, trusting her Inna and Galia dropped to the ground. Seeing they were out of the way, Aero unleashed the melody in a wave of fire. Lior felt its heat throughout her entire body as it washed over the insects. It might not have been enough to kill them all, as the melody was more range than power.

But it still possessed enough power to ignite their wings; the speed they beat only fielded the members, and soon, half of the swarms were falling to the ground with fire on their backs. Gailia was back on her feet and burst at them, swinging right, left, and up and down, slashing and stabbing through the downed bodies.

Lior and Inna were following and moved through the motions to craft melodies that burst out in stone and blades of wind. Staining the dirt ground with blood and shards of exoskeleton. Seeing the girls had it handed for the moment, Aero turned to the helper.' what are these things, and where did they come from?'

'I don't know,' the helper stated,' there not in my pools of knowledge or range of sense.' Aero swore before he rushed forward, 'Great they were going to have to figure this out!' he looked to the sky where another swarm could be seen arriving. 'they came from the north, so let's start there.'

The notes and Aero slammed his staff into the ground, the recoil launching him into the air, right into the swarm, "HA!" he threw his entire weight, spinning with his staff braced against his shoulders.

He crashed through several insects before the swarm slipped, but that wasn't the end. As he was falling through the air, he played another melody, four notes, before he threw out another wave of fire. It was more condensed and burned brighter.

It burned right through a number of the insect wings, scoring their bodies as well. As he was preparing to land, Aero realized that Galia was moved right at his landing spot." ready for another go!!" she shouted, holding her pu dou ready to swing.

Aero understood what she was planning in a moment. First, he realized she was a little crazy like all hunters were, but it was the good kind!" do it!" he shouted back, showing his own crazy. He quickly changed his position so that he handed on the pole of her weapons.

Galia spun and, with an impressive display of upper body strength, threw Aero back at the swarm; at the same moment, Lior went flying. Surpassing Aero in speed due to Inna using a melody to send her teammates flying.

As she arrived in the swarm, the bug rushed her stingers at the ready. She had to deflect a few before she could go on the attack. At least with the density, she could use their bodies as plate forms.

The moment Aero arrived, he followed her example in using the bodies as stepping stones. Moving across them quickly as his staff smashed into their heads and sides. He just ripped the wings off one of them after it tried to stab him in the face. It fell to its death.

"so this is a problem!" lior said, back pressed to Aero as they tried to remain on the bug, trying to buck them off! The rest of the swarm they hadn't killed yet were too far from them to reach. Only driving close enough to try and harm them. "so, ideas?"

"jump and fill the sky with fire," Aero said, stomping on the insect, trying to force it to stay still, but it only moved with a new fire that almost knocked him as it aimed its stingers at his legs." not happening!"

Putting his stuff in his mouth, he grabbed the stinger, making sure its venom wouldn't breach his skin, and pulled at the tail. Disturbing the insect's balance. Something Lior took advantage of to slash the tail. Aero took a moment to look at the severed tail and realized that it was much better than the one he had in mind.

Though it still left him with a severed tail, he wasn't sure what to do with it,' there was too far to hit at his moment. So, throwing it would be a waste of a weapon. He also realized they were kind of on a time limit now, thanks to the bleeding insect.

"We should probably jump," he said after a few moments of thought." it's better than uncontrollable falling when the bug loses its strength. "yeah, I'm with that," Lior said right before she started playing a melody on her sword. It took after the first note for Aero to understand what she was planning.

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There wasn't room for him to do a melody on the back of a dying insect, so instead, he let her finish hers, which coated the blade in a wave of freezing water. When she jumped into the air, she thrust and slashed at every insect in sight, sending out the freezing if it hit.

It definitely forced the insect to give her space to fall to the ground, Aero jumping a moment after her attack came to an end. As he fell, he danced, his staff playing notes until lighting gathered around him, but he didn't fire it. No, this melody caused the arcs to grow, forming a barrier around him and Lior. Stopped the insect from getting closer than a meter.

it protected them until they landed on the ground; with a bit of help from their teammates, they did it without energy." after this, do you think you can teach me that lighting melody." Illia asked as Aero put his feet on the ground and dismissed the lighting." sure," he said, keeping his eyes locked On the insects.

After several movements, neither side moved. Galia asked the question." so what should de do? How do we kill all of these?"

"We could corral them and then blast them all," Inna suggested," I don't know how to do that, though."

"I do," Aero said with a smile, "I can handle corraling them, but the three of you are going to have to work together on killing them." the three girls nodded as Aero started dancing slow and fluid movements with his staff. Unlike the one he just did mid-air, this dance required him to repeat the melody, causing the power to build.

His bone was vibrating so strongly that someone next to him could feel it. He couldn't let that power sit too long. So he kept it moving steadily, directing it into the world where it took effect on the air and the earth.

"Oh, by all the stores," Galia gasped as she watched her leader create a vortex of wind and stone shards. It surrounded the insects and forced them to stay in some spot if they didn't want the stone to tar right through them." girls, I think this is our chance!" Lior stated, noticing the sweat gathering on Aero's brow, the quivering in his limbs.

He couldn't hold this forever, so they needed to do something!

As they shared a look, they all knew exactly what to do. The first few notes of their melody were the same, but the ending were different. But it didn't matter as one there sent the attacks, from lior a slash of fire. From Inna, she threw one of her axes as it coated itself in a fire that only grew the further it flew. At the same time, Galia used her polearm weapon as a brush to write her people's phrases for burning.

The phrase flew the slowest, and the slash hit first. Burning through a good number of cornered bugs, the fire coating Inna's exploded fiercely, blinding the people on the ground, catching every insect, and doing varying levels of damage.

But the real finisher was Galia's attack, which made Inna's attack look safe. When it reached the swarm, Galia snapped her fingers. Then it imploded, sucking in incredible amounts of air, all the insects, even Aero's own attack. Before exploding with enough likes to be seen from miles away.

"Why!" Aero shouted as the shock wave hit them, drowning his words out. He vaguely could hear Galia gloating as they braced themselves against the wind. Weapons digging into the ground.

It took more than a minute for the winds to die down enough for them to relax. "still breathing," Lior commended from where she decided to sit down," Galia, where did you even learn that?" that was a very powerful melody for the few notes it had, instead of answering Galia only hummed.

they got the unsaid message," Okay, just warn us next time you're going to use something like that." Lior said," Question for Inna, though?"

"yes?"

"What happened to the axe you threw?" you could see the moment it took for her to realize the implications of what just happened. She snapped towards Galia impatiently, asking if the melody was strong enough to destroy her ax. "Ugh, no, it should only work up to the stone, but you'll definitely have to get it repaired."

"I can work with that," she then realized that meant her ax had been flung somewhere, and she was going to have to look for it." I'll go looking in a few minutes." he really wasn't looking forward to it. But she was tired.

It was only a few flowers before someone came around to where they were resting," the sound of their footsteps was heard first, and Aero was on his feet in a moment. Ready to fight if they tried to arrest them or run for the hills. The woman who arrived was clearly wearing the uniform of the town's guards.

"Hey, why haven't you evacuated yet," that explained why they didn't get any reinforcement; they were focused on getting people out of town. "we didn't leave because those insects were after us. We prioritized defeating them."

"I see," but what she was really focusing on was the dirt and blood that covered Aero and his clothes. "well, let's get everyone to the evacuation point. The guard needs to account for everyone and look over the town." Aero hummed before placing his weapon on his back. "one of my teammates lost her axe. If you can find it, that will be a great help."

"zatless, I thought he would curse her out!" Lior started getting to her feet, followed by her two teams, and then followed the guardsmen out of the tow to where all the people had been gathered. It was quite a crowd, and it was talking.

"so what should we do now?" lior asked. Aero didn't say anything, instead placing himself under the shade of a tree." whatever we do, we have time to rest; I hope this doesn't delay our ride."

"it probably won't, but man, I knew you were being attacked, but that was big."

"wait, you're under attack!" gaillia, who had been informed of what had been happening to him over the past few days. "it's not that big of a thing, dangerous, but we can deal with it."

"That's good, but I would still like some answers." So Aero gave her a few details, not going into the long explanation, wanting to save that for when the whole team had gathered. Even telling her to hold her questions until that. "I'm only going to have more than that," Aero told her he could live with that.

Instead, he focused on recovering his strength. Who knows when the next attack will be? He even managed to get some food and water for his teams. Lior and Inna were talking about some kind of plan. But Aero didn't pay attention, instead of talking with the helper about the attack.

'After much analysis, the only way I think the beast could have pulled off the attack was those insects were from this planet or so close it doesn't matter.' Aero wanted to say they weren't from Augustine. But honestly, he wouldn't know to put why in perspective. There were upwards of 50 species of creatures in Hopth! Of course, there were more kinds out there.

Another fact was the Grinine race hasn't polluted the entire planet. Some creatures already made the land there two, and they honestly couldn't see a reason to expand in a hurry. So, lots of land was left unclaimed by the Grinine.

This meant unknown things, unknown herbs, and unknown creatures. Unknown, so if the insect were from this planet, Aero wouldn't know. 'great,' he sarcastically thought as he realized a possible problem. 'if they were from uncharted land, what is the chance the beast would send more like them.'

'the lowest possibility is 98%.' In response, Aero started audibly swearing. Thankfully, it was the kind Tova taught him. So truthfully, only the helper could fully understand what he was saying but don't undercount the intelligence of the people Aero chose to surround himself with. as they knew that their leader sounded likely angry.

'There have got to be some alien words,' Inna definitely felt the mixing content, but she was guessing a lot of what he was saying wasn't nice. She didn't say anything to it, instead waiting for Aero to calm down before asking what might have set him off.

" there a chance those bugs are from Augustine. Uncharted land. More unknown creatures might come for us." the ground now understood why he was cursing." are you still willing to be with me after learning this?"

Aero stayed silent, waiting for their answer, whatever they might be. He didn't expect Galia to start laughing," You know I want to explore more than I wanted to hunt."