Several dozen minutes later, Aella and her three opponents stood parallel to each other, each having their own reaction to their situation.

Seraphina was her usual hyperactive self despite having to work with people she didn’t know because she’s somehow just as bipolar as Aella is in some situations. Grayson was rightfully terrified as he himself wasn’t exactly sure how he got talked into this, and Aimi’s determination came back despite her displeasure for Seraphina being on the team.

Meanwhile, Aella was humming to herself while thinking about very important matters.

‘If I give a turtle dragon’s blood and an Aetherstream, would it be considered a Dragon? It’d have the bloodline, but can it be called a Dragon if it wasn’t originally one?’

Truly, the most pressing of matters.

“Would you please count us down, Mr. Magnus?” Aella asked.

Magnus nodded, stepping in between the two parties. Aimi and Grayson released their dragons from their respective habitats as he did.

“3!” Magnus began the countdown, causing Aella to summon Sylpheed in its first phase.

She and Aimi began preparing their respective armaments, the prior being 4 of her swords only and Aimi being her complete set.

“2!”

Grayson messed with something akin to a control panel at this time. The one thing Aella was bad with was technology, as she didn’t properly understand it yet, so she couldn’t begin to guess what he was doing.

“1!”

Seraphina was…

“Okay! I know Aella is really scary, but if you hit her really hard, then she surely won’t be able to retaliate! We got this, Aethy! For my Magic training!” She cheered, pumping herself and Aetherion up.

Seraphina was being herself.

“Begin!”

In anticipation, the jungle’s dense foliage rustled in the wind, a natural symphony accompanying the imminent clash. Aella stood poised, allowing for her fletchling foes to take the first move.

Aimi took the invitation in strides, thrusting forward with great speed only for Aella to evade with centimeters to spare, quickly retaliating with a wall of blue flames, causing Aimi to retreat briefly. The moment she did, Eidolon Gear came flying at Aella, only for her to ignore it and leap up a nearby tree as it flew straight through her.

“Didn’t we talk about illusions not working on me?” Aella shouted, taunting Grayson.

Her words were interrupted by the real mechanical Dragon flying at her at its top speed, shocking her as she narrowly avoided its charge. Her eyes widened in mild surprise.

“Oh, I can’t sense it because it’s a robot… I should have thought that one through. Hey Stormy, deal with that one!”

“Krr!” Obeying the command, Stormy flew straight off of her head toward Eidolon Gear as Aimi and Aetherion came straight at her, their speeds being far higher than what Aella imagined, forcing her to narrowly duck before kicking Aimi away and blocking Aetherion with all 3 of her swords.

‘Buffs? Is that what the Idol Dragon does?! That’s cool! Why can’t Stormy buff?!’ Aella lamented casually.

Eidolon Gear, engaging with Stormy, created a spectacle of lightning and metal, their clash a thunderous instrumental that echoed throughout the jungle despite their relatively small sizes. Despite its size, the tiny Dragon contended with its larger foe with a vortex of electrical energy, countering the mechanical Dragon’s every move.

Deciding to go on the offensive, Aella sent 3 of her swords outward, forcing Aimi to parry its relentless assault. As she turned to deal with Aetherion, the giant Dragon instantly sent a burst of electricity toward her, only for it to singe her hair as she ran past it confidently.

The giant Dragon roared in frustration as it tried and failed to strike her. One hit was all he needed to activate his gravity increase, but since Aella knew of such an ability, it was only natural that she would be extra careful of it.

While dancing around Aetherion, a sudden beam of light came straight at her, which she wasn’t able to dodge, forcing her to reinforce herself with mana, but even then, the force behind the attack sent her flying back at a high speed, giving Aetherion a perfect chance to fire off a powerful breath attack at her, just narrowly grazing her skin, allowing for him to increase her weight.

Nearly losing her balance, Aella clicked her tongue while she turned to Seraphina. “I forgot you could do that!”

This was the first time Aella had seen Seraphina use anything aside from her golems. She knew that Fallen Angels had both Light manipulation and Black Flames, but the possibility of Seraphina using either eluded her.

‘Hmm. I was planning to fight without using my wind, but is it even possible for me to harm Aetherion without it?’ She mused inwardly, parrying another of Aetherion’s powerful claw attacks with her fans before slashing at the big guy’s scales.

Speaking of Seraphina’s abilities, which she has yet to use, a pitch-black inferno flew toward Aella, which she promptly parried with her blue flames. The two met in the middle and intertwined, their unique properties causing them to be unable to pass each other.

Black Flames, which are said to burn eternally, and the blue flames of the Foxin, which are said to bring life just like that of a phoenix, neither could make much progress against the other. It was clear that Seraphina’s flames were more robust, but in an Abyss nest where Aella had effectively infinite mana to burn through for her foxfire, that didn’t really matter.

“Destruction Lance!” Aimi shouted from the distance.

Suddenly, Aella’s instincts and senses screamed at her to do something, so she recalled all her swords while manifesting the rest of them.

“Fox Mask!” Aella shouted in response, her swords forming a circular shield as Aimi’s spear barreled toward Aella like a ballistic missile.

The spear tore through several of the created shields, stopping in the last layer but still having enough force to send Aella backward. Before she could regain her footing, Eidolon Gear and Stormy came crashing towards her, their battle still strong. Further, a second spear came darting, to which Aella quickly responded by blocking it, but it flew straight through her shields.

‘An Illusion! Shit!’

Just as that thought crossed her mind, Aimi approached her with Aetherion close behind. This time, despite the numerous more swords she had out, Aimi skillfully parried and dodged through them while Aella had to focus on not being bombarded from every angle.

What was going to next? A pitfall! Seraphina created a massive golem out of the earth beneath Aella, which not only made her fall briefly before she began flying but also tried to grab her, forcing her into an awkward angle down the hole.

‘How the hell? These people have never worked together before, yet they’re able to coordinate with each other so well? I’m not even sure if I could manage this with people I haven’t met. Aimi has gotten formal training, and Seraphina is a genius, so an argument can be made for them, but where did Grayson get this shit from?’ Aella lamented.

Truth be told, they had far exceeded her expectations. Seraphina was managing to comprehend how to use mana from her Aetherstream as the battle progressed, not to mention Aimi’s strength behind her attacks without any form of magical reinforcement.

“Interesting! Truly interesting!” Aella shouted, darting out of the hole with the sun as her backdrop.

The moment they lost sight of Aella due to the glare, Aella’s speed suddenly increased. She appeared behind Aimi instantly, slamming her into the ground and sending half her swords after her before changing her attention to Seraphina.

The speed at which she charged her made Seraphina yelp. As if this was a summon, Aetherion came to the rescue, slamming his front legs into Aella, only for the girl not to budge and look at the massive Dragon with a terrifying smile.

“Wrong choice!” She cheered, creating a tornado of blue flames around Aetherion before narrowly avoiding a ball of iron that she could only assume came from Eidolon Gear.

Unfortunately, it seemed they predicted this move as Seraphina dared to copy Aella’s move and engulf her in a spiral of black flames, firing off several beams of light into the fire, but all of them were missing.

Then Aimi somehow recovered from Aella’s ten swords and came back to slash at her neck, forcing the young fox to duck down. By the time she got back up, Seraphina had dissipated the flaming pillar but had a knife of black flames to Aella’s neck, with Aimi pointing her spear directly at her as well.

The slightest movement from Aella would cause her to be decapitated.

“How ruthless.” Aella chuckled.

“E-eh? Did we manage to beat you, Aella?!” Seraphina questioned.

Aella shrugged slightly as Stormy quickly escaped Eidolon Gear and returned to Aella’s head. “You certainly did far better than I expected.”

Faded2Fate

So, funny story. Yesterday morning(Jan 10th), at like, 3 am, a friend of mine bought me Monster Hunter World. So now, if I end up enjoying this game and going down the rabbit hole, I'm blaming all of you for killing my wallet.