Aria led Axel through the main building door, the lobby, and then down a side pathway to a larger metal door. There were muffled banging noises. Aria then reached to a box off to the right and grabbed a pair of ear muffs to hand to Axel. As Axel put them on, Aria pressed a gem on the side of the ear coverings, and the sounds both became more muted and sharper at the same time. The background noise was muted, but the sounds of people’s voices seemed to be clearer and easier to hear.

“This is the training area for flame, metal, and other skills for things like blacksmithing,” Aria explained. “I recommend staying in the yellow-painted zones to avoid being burned.”

With that, Aria opened the large metal door to a large room with dozens of people as a wave of intense heat washed over Axel. There were large metal vats where ore was lifted off the ground by someone with either a metal manipulation talent or some kind of telekinesis skill. Next to the vats, one or two people were heating them with fire-based powers. There were large towers that raw ore was being placed into, using a combination of aero and elemental fire to heat, seemingly separating the metals. There were also blasts of lightning onto large box-like units with different refined ores that seemed to be melted together into a new one.

As the pair walked, staying in the safe zone, Axel could see a large mixed group of smiths taking the metal that came from the vats and running it into different molds. One of the people would stand over each, furrowing their brow in concentration. There were smiths rhythmically pounding metal with sweat almost evaporating off their skin as they withstood the heat. Axel saw Thalaxians spinning webs around heated materials and out came completed objects for tools or devices. Axel even saw people working on forged items, getting intricate patterns carved into the metal. These patterns would then be filled with a crystal-like substance that was then put back into the forge to melt into the grooves.

Axel saw a finished product and then had a beast gem inserted into a premade slot. For this object, a Warhammer, a purple glow surrounded the hammerhead until a loud crack happened, destroying the hammerhead in a small explosion. The man who inserted the gem must have been expecting a failure as he was fast with a forcefield to contain the blast, leaving him with a large metal stick and a lot of fragments in a bubble. The man also looked very pale as Axel guessed that his core was now empty from withstanding that blast.

Axel could see many others doing tasks that he had no idea of, as they seemed to be using some kind of mental power to coordinate the myriad of projects going on in this space. Aria led Axel through this workspace quickly to another side room labeled “Experimental Lab 3” above the door. There was a red-lit gem above the door. Aria knocked on the door, and a green light replaced the red, causing Aria to open the door.

Axel followed her into the room, letting the door close behind him. In the room was a single Thalaxian who was controlling an intense flame in a furnace through the use of gems as the metal inside molded into shapes on its own. The metal was in a semi-liquid state that rippled and changed shapes until it looked like a sword. Axel could see hundreds of tiny lines creating intricate patterns all along the blade and tang.

Axel was still not sure what was going on, but Aria was standing there quietly, waiting for it to finish. Axel just watched the process of the sword being finished by dunking it in an oil of some kind. After being dunked, the Thalaxian turned and looked at them with its large eye and waved its front legs in the air at Aria in excitement.

In Axel's head, he heard a rather immature female voice, “Aria! I am so glad to see you! Is this the person you mentioned becoming your mate? Axel, right? You're Axel, I believe. Call me Moon Hidden Due to the Jealous Sky. Everyone calls me Sky, though, as it is hard for others not of my kind to keep our names straight.”

The voice went a mile a minute in Axel's mind, not giving him a moment to reply and barely the time to process what her mind was bombarding him with. Axel had met many Thalaxians, and now that he looked at her, this was a female of the species. They had larger, more expressive eyes, the thorax was bigger on average, and they tended to be on the larger side for their kind.

“Aria is glad to see Sky again, and yes, this is Axel,” Aria replied and made a hand gesture to Axel.

“Greetings, Sky. It is nice to meet you. Aria has told me nothing about you… oomph,” Axel began, only to get a jab to the ribs.

“Eeeehhhhh, you are so cute together!” came the high-pitched mental screech that Axel could almost think was an attack on his mind. Looking at Aria holding her head, she also received it.

“Sky, please watch the mental yells. It hurts a lot,” Aria explained while rubbing her temple.

“Sorry, I am just so pumped that you are thinking of letting me join your Seeker group. You were amazing in our Trial together, killing both Crimson with your bow when I stunned them,” Sky apologized.

“That’s fine, Sky, just keep it in mind, okay?” Aria received a nod. “Like I introduced to you last week, we are a small group so far and looking for more members. I remembered that you were looking to gather more materials and wanted to get stronger so you could create more intricate things. Is that still correct?”

“Yes, my craft will only get so far if I stay safe here in the city, but it is hard to find others not of my kind that would want to take me on,” Sky explained.

“Well, Sky, I think you could be of great help to our group. We plan to spend time hunting to speed up our cycles. If you are fine with this, I am more than willing to welcome you to the group,” Axel said, deciding on the spot. As strange as it seemed, the young Thalaxian seemed just too genuine and expressive to deny her the chance. Plus, getting to know a crafter could help later down the road.

Sky swung her manipulators in the air with great cheer. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! I will not let you or Aria down. I am looking forward to meeting the other members of this Flame Seeking group.”

“Well, it looks like you are busy here, so I don’t want to keep disturbing you. Can you meet us at our inn in about a week? That is when we are planning to get the expedition together,” Axel then gave her the address and a quick introduction to their expedition plans made earlier that day. Seeing Sky nod happily and get back to her forge, Axel looked at Aria, who was trying very hard not to laugh. She was holding her sides with an expression between pain and mirth.

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“Aria knew you would get along with Sky,” Aria said after taking a moment to gather herself. “I am glad that this went off as well as it did. Let’s head out. I have already mentioned to Lyra that we would meet her after her training for the day. I wanted to bring Lyra, but no time matched up for it.”

“That’s fine. It looks like Sky is lost in her work, so let’s leave,” Axel tilted his head to Sky, who was already placing bars of metal in the forge to work on her next project.

As they turned to leave, Sky’s voice echoed in Axel’s mind again, “Oh, Axel! What’s your favorite metal to work with? I’ve been experimenting with some new alloys and would love to get your opinion!”

Axel chuckled, “I’m more of a user than a crafter, but I’ve always liked the strength of tempered steel.”

Sky’s eyes seemed to sparkle even more, “Tempered steel, got it! I’ll make something special for you to test out next time!”

Aria laughed, “See? Aria knew that she would be a great fit. Let’s go before she ropes you into a crafting session. Aria was stuck in her for hours when she introduced the group idea to Sky.”

With that, Axel and Aria left what they learned was the blacksmith training facility of the Vanguard. It was the premier blacksmith training place in the city and was very hard to get a training slot. After returning the earmuffs, Aria led Axel to a food court on the fourth floor where they got some food and waited for Lyra. The wait was not too long as Lyra came in about an hour later, looking tired and freshly showered based on her still-damp hair.

“Let’s get out of here before Rex finds more for me to train on and ‘fix’ errors in my training. I am so tired,” Lyra said as Aria got up and hugged her. The group then left the tower and headed for a launch to go back to their lodgings. They found that the launch was out of order, and they would need to go on foot to another as it would take a few hours to fix.

They looked at each other and shrugged, heading in the direction of the inn, looking for a launch that was working. They passed two more that were also out of order, but the whole system did not seem down as they could see platforms zip past. After the third, Axel began to get suspicious as the walkway to cross one of the main roads and the easiest way to get to the inn while following the main road was closed. This forced them to take a very long route back or make cuts through alleyways.

Axel could also see tension in Lyra’s shoulders, and while Aria looked relaxed, her eyes were narrowed and swept the area. Axel was starting to get that chill of being hunted again when they came to a side street that was blocked off by a wagon that was tipped over. With a sigh, Axel loosened his halberd from its holder on his back. He heard the sound of Lyra drawing a sword and Aria drawing her bow. Axel made to blink the combat command to his journal when he remembered the upgrade after completing the process.

Hopping over the wagon were a man and woman wearing white leather outfits with long coats. The man had red hair with a slim build, and the woman had blue hair with a curvy build. Blocking the way back was a pair of Krellians, one big and bulky while his partner had a very slim, lanky build.

“Well, well, well, look what we found here. You know, Axel, you are hard to pin down,” the red-haired man started. “Though that bounty for you will more than makeup for this trouble.”

“You should just surrender now if you know what’s best for you. Bringing you in alive is worth so much more than us having to beat you to death,” the blue-haired woman continued right after the man.

“I don’t think you want this fight,” Axel replied calmly.

“But we do! You are our big payday and break in the bounty guild. Ladies, if you step away, you can walk and not have to get beat up for this guy,” the red-haired man tried to get Lyra and Aria to leave.

“Nope.” “Not happening,” came the simultaneous replies from Aria and Lyra. Then the fight was on. Having no time to plan, Axel decided to take the two in front and hoped Lyra and Aria could take the two behind.

Axel launched a two-handed swing to either cause damage or make the pair back off. What Axel did not expect was the man to step into the swing and hold out his arm to take the swing. Axel had committed to the attack, and as he hit, he felt nothing. No impact, bending of the shaft, or anything. His axehead was lightly held in the man’s hand without any strain. The blue-haired woman behind the man reached her hand over the red-haired man’s shoulder and pointed a finger at Axel.

Axel then felt like he was kicked by a Thunder beast and was sent flying into a nearby wall, shattering concrete. Wondering what the hell just happened, Axel saw Lyra dodging a flame whip while Aria seemed to be struggling under some kind of restraints as she was not moving with her normal grace. Axel knew that they were in a bad situation as these people were much stronger than them, and that man seemed to have a power that countered Axel’s combat style.

Axel got up and saw that the man and woman were wearing cocky smiles. Axel decided to switch things up and jumped back to Aria’s side to find that he was now weighing a lot more, but he had the strength to ignore it.

“Aria, the red one has physical negation, and blue has telekinesis of some kind. I will take this and swap it with you and Lyra. They are not good against me, and while you have a bad match here, I can take these two on.” Axel then grabbed Aria and tossed her out of this zone, then took the fire whip with his halberd, giving Lyra a moment to back off her fight.

“Well, that won’t do. Jess, can you fix this situation, please?” the red-haired man asked the blue-haired woman, who seemed to be named Jess.

“Of course, Jack. We would not want our friends over there hurt by our prey.” She then made a twisting motion with her wrist. All of a sudden, Axel’s overhand swing on the flame whip guy landed on the man named Jack. Again, just stopped its momentum as the blade of the axe head touched his shoulder. The woman named Jess did look very tired, though.

‘Shit,’ Axel thought to himself. ‘The only good thing is that Aria and Lyra only have to deal with the flame whip.’

Axel could see that the bulky Krellian was still here in front of him. Trying to decide what to do, Axel knew that this was a losing engagement and decided to go broke. Thinking to his journal, ‘Activate Berserker,’ everything came into a crystal-like focus. Axel saw out of the corner of his eye his core energy dropping quickly. All of Axel focused on the three in front of him, but he fought this with all his willpower. Axel had a plan that he needed more strength to do.

At this time, Jess raised her hand, though it seemed to be taking its time floating up to point at Axel. Using his prodigious power, Axel jumped back and scooped both Aria and Lyra over his shoulder and took an attack from the back of Jess and the front from the fire whip. Axel leaped over the whip user and used the force from the blast to assist his leap.

As he made the jump, he felt gravity increase and something attack his mind but ignored it as there was a scream of pain from a side alley that was just after the tipped wagon. Axel then ran in a leaping run, feeling the scorched flesh on his chest where he took the fire whip healing. This drained his core faster, but he needed to make distance now.

Axel used about three minutes before trying to deactivate Berserker, but it did not want to shut off. As Axel dropped to a knee when the fourth minute finished, his core state released Axel, and all the pain returned at once. Axel felt his vertebra, back, and ribs broken, and that was just from the attack that he took and let him move with it. Axel’s regeneration slowed as the core power was low but was working much faster than what his blessing would do on its own.

Axel then felt a wash of healing energy through his body from Lyra, who was sliding off his shoulder. Seeing the healing fix the worst of the pain, Axel breathed a sigh of relief when it suddenly cut off as Lyra dropped on her butt in exhaustion. Aria was looking annoyed and kept her bow out to attack anyone else who would like to take advantage of her friends' states.