“So what do you think, Maki?” Rynda asked.

“What do you mean?” Makani returned the question back to sender.

The nightingale girl fluttered around her Maestro as they waited at the hunters' base camp. The sun had just dropped below the horizon, casting night over the town of Riva Sranvi once more. “You think they’ll get cold feet?” She leaned on his shoulders.

The pilot chuckled. “Hell naw. They’re serious. Nobody gets that broken up about something they never intended to follow through on.” Down the path, he spotted the familiar trio approaching. “See?”

Shouri, with Taika and Pacifica in tow, approached the pilot and his lunar bird. “Shouri buddy, you made it!” He looked over the two Resonators that stuck close to their Maestro. Specifically, Pacifica caught his eye. “You seem brighter today,” he addressed the otter.

She smirked back at him. “We’re gonna kick ass tonight,” the water element replied. Taika glanced over at her water counterpart. Pacifica did seem to have regained her pep since she made that call earlier in the day. Even Shouri seemed ever so slightly phased by whatever was said, which made the curious little vixen all the more interested in what had been discussed.

Makani clapped twice to draw the attention of the now five-strong group. “Well, if we’re all here, let’s get started.”

“Wait, what about Cera?” Shouri asked.

“Oh, he’ll show; just you wait and see.” Makani motioned for them to follow.

They got in line as usual and waited for their turn. Makani was ahead of Shouri in line, however.

“Me and the gentleman behind me want to take on the Big Scherzando in the mountains. We got a couple of Lunars between us; tracking should be easy,” Makani explained to the attendant as he handed his black tuner over. The attendant looked to Shouri expectingly who scrambled to submit both of his tuners as well.

The newer Maestro was surprised by the lack of fanfare behind such an event. As the booth attendant seemed to simply check a box and nod. “Would you like to wait for any others to join?”

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” Makani told the attendant.

And so, the small group loitered around the registration booth with nothing better to do.

“Did you find Cera? Do you even know who he is?” Shouri questioned after they stood in relative silence for a few minutes.

“Nope; just a vague idea,” Makani snapped back quickly.

“Well if nobody told him we were planning this, how are you sure he’s gonna show?” Shouri narrowed his eyes at the other Maestro.

“Ryn had a good feeling.” He motioned to the bird girl next to him who nodded with a smirk on her face.

Shouri looked to his own Resonators who could only offer him a shrug back.

More time passed with the group in relative silence as other Maestros and Resonators passed them by. Occasionally someone stopped and asked what they were waiting around for, but upon hearing they were going to hunt a big Scherzando, the looky-loos moved along.

“If you plan on trying to take on that big Scherzando tonight it’s probably best y'all get moving. Fighting them in their dens is suicide,” the hunt registrar advised the group.

It was getting to prime hunting hours, not many people were around at this point – mostly the vendors just relaxing between “shifts” as it were, and a few late-coming Maestros.

Shouri grunted in frustration. “I guess it’s a bust tonight then?” He looked to Makani who appeared to be in thought.

“What do you think Ryn?” the pilot asked his bird.

“Hmmm...” She stroked her chin, considering her Maestro’s inquiry. “No, not a bust,” she decided after a moment.

“How so?” Shouri raised a brow.

“Cause he’s right there.” She pointed downfield, towards the city. In the distance, there was the man they had been waiting on, Cera, and his wall of a Resonator right behind him.

Approaching the group, the nature Maestro openly wore his surprise. “Shouri! You brought a friend?”

Seeing how he was the one connecting these two pairs, Shouri begrudgingly made the introductions between them.

“Makani, Cera; Cera, Makani.”

The two men sized each other up for a moment before Makani offered his hand. “Nice to meetcha bud, I’ve heard a bit about you.”

Accepting the handshake Cera smirked. “Sorry pal, can’t say the same about you – but I appreciate the help regardless.”

Breaking off, Cera looked to the organizer of this rag-tag group. “Are we waiting on anyone else?” Cera questioned.

Shouri averted the other Maestro's gaze sheepishly. “I um, didn’t have anyone else in mind,” he mumbled.

Makani took over at this point: “I think we’re good between the seven of us.”

Cera glanced over at Rynda. He hummed in thought, his gaze shifting towards Taika and Pacifica, then finally resting on Saul, his Resonator. “Hmmm...” He hummed again. “I think we could probably make it work if we bust out the big guns,” he decided after mulling it over.

“Cool, register with us and we’ll get moving.” Makani motioned to the booth they had decided to hang out at.

----------------------------------------

The septet of Maestros and Resonators moved through the brush, uphill towards where Rynda and Taika could sense the big Scherzando from. The path to the mountain was dark given it was away from civilization as a whole, but everyone else in the group outside of Pacifica had no issues navigating through the dark forest they found themselves in.

“How big is big again?” Pacifica asked Shouri, tightly gripping his hand to not get lost.

“Like fifty-ish feet or something, never seen one in person though,” Shouri replied.

“They can go from as big as a trailer to upwards of a nice two-story house in size,” Cera spoke aloud to answer the question with some actual scale for reference. He himself was hitching a ride on his Resonator’s shoulder.

“I hear they can get bigger than that. Supposedly the Polvere Islands off the west coast of Selvica have sky-scraper-sized Scherzando, though that’s all just hearsay and rumors,” Makani chimed in.

Taika frowned; her lack of a formal education was getting to her. “Selvica is..?”

“The continent directly south of us,” Pacifica told her.

“It’d be south-west of Unis-Résonne,” Shouri added.

“Oh...” The fox gasped in astonishment. The world was big it seemed.

“We’re getting close Maki,” Rynda warned her Maestro.

Taika nodded in agreement.

“Y-yeah... even I can feel it.” Pacifica gulped.

It was a bit overwhelming. There was always a sort of rhythm-adrenaline rush whenever a Scherzando was nearby, but this sensation was like nothing either Taika or Pacifica had ever experienced before. It felt as if their whole essence was being pulled towards their destination.

“Let’s stop here a sec. Come on in.” Cera hopped down from his Resonator’s shoulders.

The three Maestros huddled with their collective Resonators circled around them. “So! Shouri is gonna be our support – you cool with that Makani?” Cera asked his fellow Maestro.

“I was gonna suggest the same thing.” Makani looked to Shouri. “Not trying to be a dick, but you three are the weakest, I don’t want anything bad to happen,” he told them.

While it stung hearing that, Shouri, Taika, and Pacifica knew it to be the truth. They had a good idea of what Cera was capable of having worked with him on normal hunts. They didn’t know all that much about Makani and Rynda, but based on the way they carried themselves, they were probably at Cera and Saul’s level.

“Also, if I may ask something selfish?” Cera began.

Makani looked to Saul, then the bear’s Maestro. “Say no more, I think I got a good idea of what we’re after.”

“Try to focus your healing on our feathered friend and I think we got this unless we’re dealing with a fire. If it’s fire, we need Pacifica there to keep Saul safe,” Cera advised Shouri and his Resonators.

The trio looked at each other. None of them really knew why Cera was making the requests he was, but Makani seemed okay with it, so they rolled with it.

Cera got back up on his Resonator’s shoulder. With their attack plan solidified they resumed their march towards the battlefield.

As they approached the site of the battle, the trees nearby seemed to be growing thicker and taller than usual, almost as if the mountain they were approaching would be consumed by a tidal wave of motionless trees. Despite their lack of jostling and movement, their presence impeded the group's movement, making traversal through the thick woods even more perilous.

They pressed on though, and within the torrent of trees, they found the calm amid the storm. A calm where the land laid bare of the chaotic lumber they had to climb over and dodge earlier.

“There it is.” Rynda wiped the sweat from her brow, pointing into the practical colosseum made by the plant life.

At its center was a massive four-legged creature, a shadow of a beast. Feet adorned in wood, shoulders carrying bladed leaves. It seemed to be at the ready, almost as if it had been aware of the group of seven warriors who crossed the great sea of trees to reach this island.

“It's Nature,” Cera noted. “That means our strategy will work well here.” A grin rose on the man’s lips.

Shouri glanced over. He still didn’t have any real frames of reference for what the nature spell pool looked like. He knew that they had vine spells and mushrooms that put things to sleep. What else could they do?

“Let’s get this started.” Rynda stepped in first.

“Easy does it Ryn, don’t want to start this off before we’re all in position.” Makani crept in behind his Resonator.

“Time to take care of business buddy.” Cera patted his Resonator’s shoulder and urged him forward.

“Ah, okay Cera.” The bear walked into the clearing.

This left Shouri and his two Resonators outside of the clearing.

Pacifica gulped; her eyes locked on the huge beast they were about to attempt to hunt. A bead of sweat ran down the side of her head. “Here we go Sho.” Try as she might to calm herself, there was still a quaver to her voice as she spoke.

“If it gets too hairy, I don’t think either of them would blame us for running,” Shouri spoke with trepidation as well. It was one thing to say they were going to try and kill this thing, but it was entirely too big.

Taika spoke no words; she walked in, strangely relaxed for the situation they found themselves in. The vixen stopped and turned to her unmoving teammates. “State arrivando voi due?” she inquired, her eyes glowing a blazing blue.

“Y-yeah... we’re coming.” Pacifica grabbed Shouri’s hand. “W-We’ll be okay.” Though she wasn’t sure if she was saying that to herself or her Maestro at this point.

With all seven finally gathered in the wooden cage, they could get a better look at their opponent for the evening. As the affixed wood and shrubbery implied, the beast had a Nature element. Its general body shape appeared to be that of a feline, possibly a comically oversized lynx?

At any rate, it was surely tracking the group’s movements. Finally, it grew tired of the preamble and began the skirmish, lifting its head into the sky as if to beckon to the clouds. Immediately Pacifica was transfixed by this spell – it was like nothing she had ever experienced before in her life. A feeling of familiarity washed over her as she came to the sudden realization that she could perform the same spell the lynx was using.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

However appreciation for this art did not come to most of the rest of the party, as it began to rain, but not just normal everyday rain. These tiny missiles of water came with a payload, which was delivered upon impact.

“Ow! This is acid rain!” Rynda yelped as they began to be pelted by the pellets of highly acidic water.

“Fuck! Fuck!” Shouri shouted, throwing up the hood of his jacket to try and protect his head from the sudden assault.

Pacifica looked around; the rain wasn’t hurting her? Why?

Looking over, she saw Saul, the Nature Bear was similarly unaffected by the stinging rain, he just kind of stood there, eyes affixed to their shared adversary.

“Okay pal, you’ve had your fun with that!” Makani shouted. “Chiaro cielo di mezzanotte!”

Rynda formed a ball of purplish light and sent it skyward, dispersing the clouds and halting the rain. “Ah, that spell clears the weather,” Shouri breathed out, shaking off the previous acidic assault.

“Heads up, lunar spells will be stronger while the moon’s shining on us,” Makani added.

The Lynx rushed the group at this point, seeing how they had not been dissuaded from leaving by the acid rain.

Makani was still paying attention and belted out another spell: “Onda Mentale, Adagio!”

Throwing a hand forward, Rynda produced an invisible force that met their target head-on, throwing it backward – as if it had smashed into a telekinetic wall.

“Fissare la Ombra, Lento!” Makani shouted next

“Fissare la Ombra, Presto Staccato!” Shouri chimed in.

Both Taika and Rynda unleashed a wave of arrows, pinning the beast by its shadow.

“Thanks bud!” Makani flashed a thumbs up to Shouri, who acknowledged him with a nod.

“Sotto!” Shouri commanded, cutting off Taika’s access to that spell. “La Bella Vita, Rubato!” he issued his next command. “Top yourself and Rynda off.”

The vixen heeded her Maestro’s orders, casting a small heal on herself and the nightingale by her side.

While pinned in place, the Lynx gathered together a storm of leaves and launched them towards the group – yet another spell Shouri and co recognized from past run-ins with Natures. However, this particular casting was on a scale that dwarfed their previous experiences with it in comparison.

All they could do was brace themselves for the onslaught, Pacifica grabbed Shouri to try and shield him from the attack, with Taika turning back to do the same.

“Onda Mentale, Rubato!”

The pain never arrived to Shouri or his two Resonators. When they looked back towards the battle, they found Rynda standing at the vanguard, having reflected the attack with another telekinetic push. “You gonna stop messing around now?” Makani directed to Cera.

“Yeah yeah, I suppose we should get the real battle started.” Cera finally descending from his Resonator’s shoulders. He cracked his knuckles and drew his tuner from his side.

“It’s time for the hunter to become the hunted.” He grinned toothily.

The lynx Scherzando finally broke free of the shadow bindings set by Taika and Rynda and went to rush down the group again.

“Artemis Arktoi, Ultrissimo – Lady luck give me all ya got!” Cera declared boldly.

“Knew it.” Makani chuckled.

The inexperienced trio turned their attention to Saul, who seemed oddly focused for how empty-headed he usually was. Hands together, trees started sprouting around him, seven to be precise.

“Don’t let Saul get hit!” Makani shouted to Shouri and his Resonators.

Rynda threw out another wave of telekinetic energy with the Rubato-cast Onda Mentale she still had access to.

“R-right!” Shouri looked to his tuners. “Pacifica, L'onda di tempesta, Accelerando! Taika, Luce Lunare, Piano!” were the commands he decided on.

Pacifica joined Taika and Rynda at the front, stomping down and forming a river of water which aided in the effort to keep the Scherzando at bay. Unfortunately, given the size of the beast, it wasn’t too effective in this task.

Taika formed a ball of lunar energy and chucked it at the beast, but again, due to the size and strength of the enemy in front of them, this did little except make it angrier.

Shouri glanced back over at Saul, the seven trees were rapidly growing, changing shape and all of a sudden there were seven bears made of wood circled around the nature-Resonator.

“What is that spell?” Shouri asked.

“Oh, it’s a nasty one. Check it out.” Makani grinned toothily.

Cera seemed to be in celebration mode already. “Hooo baby we hit the jackpot today! Thank you Lady Luck, your check is in the mail!” He turned to the fellow Nature elemental across the field from them. “Sic ‘em Saul!”

With that command, the wooden bears came to life, charging at the beast. Despite being massively outclassed in size and strength, the seven wooden bears were fighting ferociously. The Lynx was swatting the relatively tiny bears like one did a swarm of angry bees.

These bears however fought harder and harder the more they got hit. Even clawing and biting well outside their weight class, the bears were rapidly wearing the Lynx down.

“What the hell?” Pacifica gasped, dropping her combative posture.

“Artemis Arktoi, the Nature Ultimate attack. Summons a squad of wooden bears to fight at the user’s behest,” Makani rhapsodized.

“The more you hit them, the stronger they get,” Cera added.

“Ultimate... spell?” Taika blinked, in similar shock as her fellow Resonator.

Shouri shook his head, watching the bloodbath in front of him (not that Scherzando bled mind you). It didn’t make any sense. Cera and Saul just had a “summon army” spell in their arsenal? Why did they even need help?

“Cera!”

THWACK

Saul took a tree the lynx had fired at the nature Maestro. As soon as he was hit by the attack, Saul’s summoned bears evaporated into thin air. The bear-man’s body was thrown onto his Maestro and the two rolled a small distance coming to a stop.

“Wait what the fuck!?” Shouri shook himself out of his stupor. Saul and Cera were unmoving. That simple attack was massive. “T-Taika!” he cried out.

Similarly snapping to, the healer of the group knew what was expected of her. “I got it!” She turned to rush over to heal the fallen bear Resonator and possibly his Maestro.

The Lynx rose to its feet and charged once more. Rynda attempted to push the big cat away with her Onda Mentale spell as she had done previously, but the beast managed to avoid the wall of force, putting it in the path of-

“MAKI!”

She flew backward and scooped up her Maestro before he was subject to the big Scherzando’s rage. Rynda was just one girl, however, and there were still two others in the path of the beast. “Sh-sho...” Pacifica whimpered, locking up as the gigantic predator approached.

Shouri grabbed Pacifica just at the right moment to avoid the beast’s claw, however, it brought its massive paw back and slapped the pair away.

Taika gulped hard; time slowed down as she felt her link with Shouri shatter in that instant. She could do nothing but look on in horror as the back of the beast’s paw made contact with her only two friends in the world. “SHO! PACIFICA!” Taika screamed as she helplessly watched them get launched away from the beast. They smashed into the ground with a hard thud, sliding a bit before coming to a complete halt.

“Albero Robusto, Rubato!” a newly awakened Cera shouted from his position on the ground. Saul similarly was able to rise thanks to Taika’s healing. The bear created several trees in an instant, punching them toward the wood-clad lynx. The large wooden missiles smashed into their intended target, causing it to back away from the Maestros and their Resonators.

Once it was at a safe distance from them, Cera made another call: “Sotto! Rullante di radice, Fortissimo!” he commanded.

Massive thorned roots tore themselves out of the ground and wrapped the Lynx up tightly, holding it in place.

While the rest of the party dealt with the Scherzando, Pacifica had come to. The otter trembled as she feared the worst – her Maestro had once again put himself in danger to protect her, and now he lay under her in an unknown state. This was no time to freeze up! She pushed herself off of Shouri. He wasn’t bleeding but she couldn’t tell if anything was broken or not. Worst of all, he didn’t appear to be conscious.

Her heart sank. She grabbed his shoulders and shook him “Sho! Sho! Speak to me!” she cried out, tears pouring down her face. Taika had also run over and slid to her knees next to her friends, desperately looking her Maestro over.

The boy groaned and shook his head. “Fuck...”

The two tear-soaked girls managed to break a smile as their beloved Maestro awoke.

“Sho!” Pacifica and Taika tackled him, crying and hugging him tightly.

Makani sighed in relief seeing Shouri and his two Resonators were okay. “One more good hit should do,” Rynda advised her Maestro, setting him back on the ground.

“Yeah, let’s finish this.” Makani glanced down at his tuner. “Loro Formato Lunare Lago, Legato!”

Upon calling that spell, both Taika and Pacifica perked up, eyes locked on Rynda who with a beat of her wings took back to the sky, sparkles of red rhythm scattering and descending to the ground with each flap of her wings. It was beautiful, enrapturing even. “This should wrap things up!” the nightingale declared. Holding a hand up, a ball of ice formed above her. It grew and grew, becoming many times greater in size. When she was satisfied with the size of the spell, she allowed gravity to take the wheel.

A comet descended from up high towards the battered, injured Scherzando. The entire time the two other girls on the ground were entirely enthralled by this spell and the only thing on their minds at that moment were:

“I can do that.”

With the beast injured and bound to the point it had been driven to, it was powerless as the ice rock hit its body. In a healthier, unbound state, it could have dodged or even deflected this attack. But in this condition, all it could do was get crushed like a bug by the icy space rock.

Fragments of frozen water pelted the Maestros and Resonators remaining on the ground as the comet exploded on impact.

Ground zero of the attack was initially obscured from view by a cloud of dirt and debris kicked up by the force of the strike. Rynda slowly descended to the ground; eyes fixed on the last observed location of the Scherzando.

The group relaxed upon the full dissipation of the cloud of debris, revealing the complete dissolution of the Scherzando.

“Holy shit.” Cera fell back into the grass, letting out a sigh of relief.

Shouri too laid back, with Pacifica and Taika refusing to release him.

“I feel a little bad coming out of that unscathed,” Rynda muttered to Makani.

The pilot shrugged. “It is what it is.” He smirked, glancing over to Shouri and his two partners. “I’m glad you were right about them,” he added an aside.

“Right? Those two have caught it bad.” Rynda giggled.