Stomping on the deceitful path of the grass, Alnea walked along with Yuri, making his way towards Cecilia, just as she gave the Beast its final blow. A peaceful, and easy blow, considering how the Beast was not even retaliating. Just in terms of illusions, his Nightmare Arrow was strong enough to make even intermediate phase Oren Beast falter for a few moments, let alone one just in its initial phase. Especially because of the state it had been in.
The beast had already been raging around for a while. Once it was struck by his arrow, it was consumed by its own rage, and desperation, as the illusion slowly took over its mind, dragging it to the ground, making it an easy, and defenceless target. One that Cecilia decimated with just her bare hands. Wrapped with her Aspects, of course. She had not given it a second thought before piercing her hand through the beast’s head.
Quite a brutal way to kill, Alnea thought. Then again, killing was killing. Even if she had gently slit the Beast’s neck, it would have still ended up dead anyway. So, how did the way she killed her enemies mattered? And why was he having that question? Killing the Oren Beast… Had they not killed it, it would have killed them instead. So… the stupid Nightmare Arrow.
“A Shadow Panther,” Alnea said, finally recognising the Oren Beast. “No wonder we were not able to recognise it.”
“You mean you were not able to recognise it,” Cecilia said with a grin, while wiping her hand on the black fur of the panther. “What was that Arcana though? To think that it left the Beast in an almost defenceless state… no, before that, how long has it been since you became a Wanderer? How have you already created your Arcana?”
“…Why can I not create an Arcana?” Alnea said, pouting at Cecilia, before turning towards Yuri. “Do we still need to check our surroundings? Or is it fine if we can rest a little? Using so much Oren in such a short period is giving me a headache.”
“It’s fine,” Yuri said. “Since we have already killed the symbiotic partner of the Red Herring Grass, this area should be safe for now.”
“That’s good,” Alnea said, letting out a sigh of relief, as he dropped his bag to the ground, before dropping himself next to it. “Let’s take a break then.”
“We can take a break, but we must decide what we are going to do next,” Yuri said, to which, both Alnea and Cecilia nodded in agreement. Cecilia even seemed eager to add something, but held back in the end. Alnea though, had no such reservations for himself. Shaking his head with a sigh, het let his own thoughts out in the open.
“I don’t want an Oren Beast coming so close to me without me knowing about it.”
“It was not your fault… you did not know about the grass after all,” Yuri said, taking her seat as elegantly as ever, before turning towards Cecilia. “You, on the other hand, cannot shrink your responsibility. How can you forget the grass’s characteristics?”
“I… It slipped my mind…” Cecilia said, fumbling with her words, turning stiff at the mention of her mistake. Biting her lips in frustration, even as her face turned red in shame, she sat down with her back against the Beast’s corpse, directly facing him, and Yuri.
“Even if you forgot about its details, you should have at least remembered how dangerous the areas around a patch of Red Herring grass can be.”
“I will be careful in the future.”
“You must remember… and you too, Alnea. Both of you must remember that this is not the Bright Light Forest. Here, the canyon itself is our enemy. Even the most ordinary of the rock near your feet could be a trap laid by an Oren Beast. And that is the lesser of the danger we can face in the canyons. There are some dangers, which the canyon itself births, that are much more dangerous than the Oren Beasts. So, no matter what happens, you can never let your guard down. Especially since we are so close to the inner branches of the Night Canyons.”
“Don’t worry,” Alnea said. “We have learned that lesson already.”
“…We will come back to that later. First, let us talk about the fight we just had. How did you feel fighting as a team?”
“…I guess the fight was a little too easy?” Cecilia said. “The Spirit Piercing Needles had already made it easier for me to handle the Beast. With the Glyph, and the Arcana, it felt as if I just breezed through the fight…”
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“That is the benefit of fighting in a team. When you only have one thing that you need to concentrate on, it become easier for you to do your job, and you are less likely to make mistakes.”
“…For me, the fight was much more draining than usual. If I was fighting it by myself, I would have finished it while using only half, or even less of the Spirit Power that I expended against the panther.”
“It could not be helped. Asking you to use the Spirit Piercing Needles was an expedient measure. We needed to buy time. And only you could have used the Needles as soon as possible, while still being in a decent shape to continue the fight.”
“…Why does that sound more like you are making fun of me, rather than complimenting me?”
“Of course, she is complimenting you,” Cecilia said in answer to his grumbles. And from the grin on her face, or suppressed giggles escaping through her lips, it looked she had already forgotten how she herself was grumbling just moments ago. “You are the most masochistic one amongst the three of us.”
“…Laugh all you want, but this masochistic guy just saved you the embarrassment of having master come heal your torn limbs.”
“Worry about yourself. I would have—
“We do not have time for this,” Yuri said, cutting in between them. “I know that after the days you have spent alone, both of you want to cosy up to each other—
“We do not!”
“…But we need to decide our next course of action, and get moving as soon as possible. So, do you two mind?”
“…No.”
“…As I was saying, asking you to use the Spirit Piercing Needles was for the best interest of the team. With every action we take, we have to make sure that we get the greatest effect, while paying the least cost. That is what acting as a team means.”
“…I was not complaining or anything,” Alnea said, while massaging his head. “I was just grumbling because of my headache.”
“I know… Still, as a team, we must all agree on the decisions we make, or even small things can make a team fall apart,” Yuri said, looking at him with a solemn gaze. However, she did not forget to use an apologetic tone through the rings, and add, “I am sorry… I know I must be coming off as rude. But this is what we need to do if we want to make it out as a team.”
“…I understand,” Alnea said, shaking his head, while smiling wryly to himself. “Do what needs to be done. Don’t worry about me.”
“…I am sorry.”
“It’s alright. I just have a slight headache. It will go away in a while.”
“…Besides, you might have been able finish off the Beast by expending a lesser amount of your Spirit Power, but that would have been the case where you were ambushing it, and not the other way around. Can you say for sure that you would have been able to handle the Beast in that situation as easily as we did without using the Spirit Piercing Needles? Or even if you did, are you sure that you would not have expended more of your Spirit Power?”
“…No.”
“That is the power of teamwork, and cooperation,” Yuri said, nodding to prove her point, before glancing at Cecilia to include her in the discussion. “As long as we are together, we can face anything. Even Heterodox Wanderers. To do that though, we must have absolute trust in each other. At the very least, we should have enough trust amongst us to share all our abilities with each other.”
“Speaking of sharing our abilities… we just met today, so when did you know that Alnea had create an Arcana?”
“…He told me when big sis Nyssa was talking to you.”
“Is that so…”
“…Let us not waste any more time, and share our abilities with each other first. Is that fine with both of you?”
“Let me go first,” Alnea said, and waited for the girls to nod before continuing. “I have created one Arcana, which you have already seen in action. It is based on a Mystery from the lineage of Night, and is a Low Grade Arcana, mainly because of its many side effects. Like how much time it takes for me to prepare the Arcana. Or how if the Oren Beasts are not distracted by other things… or maybe bound, like today, then they can easily dodge the arrow.
“Other than that, there is also the effect of the backlash from the Mystery, where in every time I use the Arcana, I start doubting myself. And the more that I use the Arcana, the greater this doubt grows. As of now, this doubt has presented itself in the form of me questioning my motives to kill the Oren Beasts. But I don’t know for sure if that’s all that the Arcana can do.
“Still, as you have already seen, it can be quite useful at times. I will not get into the details. Just know that when my Nightmare Arrow hits the Oren Beasts, they are drawn into a psychological illusion where they slowly lose themselves to their doubts. Of course, this effect is not invincible. They can fight it off in a while. But if we are fast enough, we can use that time to finish our enemies.”
“…That is indeed a handy Arcana, but the side effects are too blatant,” Yuri said, to which, Cecilia responded with a nod.
“I knew that something was wrong when I saw how your first Arcana worked so effectively… You should probably not use it too much.”
“We will discuss our strategies later. For now, let him explain his other abilities first,” Yuri said in a rather calm, and collected voice. The voice she was using to talk to him telepathically though, was anything but calm.