14 The Battle Begins

It only took a moment for the band of these 4 hunters to wake up from their shock and begin to act. In situations like these, seconds and even split-seconds would determine whether one would live or die, they were very used to being in extremely dangerous situations like this and knew how to adapt if they were ambushed. But there was something different about this one, unlike most beasts they fought, even if they were ambushed like this they had some degree of confidence in being able to win, that was not the case this time. The dense aura around the beast was completely unique to itself, they had never sensed anything similar which meant that this beast was one which they didn't have recorded down in their manuals, due to the amount of hunting they did they were able to create a manual where each monster was recorded with its strengths, weaknesses and rank, rank was determined in a monster's power as a single unit.

Whilst Sora and the other 3 had fought against monsters much bigger than this, no one was looking to throw their lives away so they would always be extremely cautious against those beasts that they knew none about, you can't judge a book by it's cover. This was the way it worked for each new monster but what was truly unsettling to them was that this monster emanated an aura, specifically one of darkness. In their small village, compared to the massive cities that dominated the land ofElia, there were only a few people and monsters in the manual that could use aura, and these rare entities were both the most powerful people in the village and the hardest monsters to hunt in the vast land around them. People with aura had control of an internal energy that they could use to strengthen their physical attacks, sense the area around them with extreme precision and even move and react much faster than normal humans. For monster's it was the same, they had other benefits too though, anyone who held aura could communicate with another who could use it, so monsters with aura could communicate with humans with aura, due to the language barrier this would be difficult but when a monster or a human sent some kind of signal to the other, the other could more or less translate the signals they recieved to understand the message.

In this group of 4 the only ones capable of utilising aura were Sora and Del, there was one more in the group who could use it but they hadn't properly grouped up so their current location was unknown, trying to use aura to scan the surroundings for the other person would need time and energy spent not focusing on the beast in front of them, they weren't willing to put themselves under this level of danger so they just hoped that they would come to where the group was. Sora looked at the beast in front of him that was tearing through the camps, it was like a whirlwind of blades on a circular path around the camp. Sora knew that he could most likely only barely keep up with the beast, and it didn't look like it was at full power yet.

So: "Damnit! I can't even keep up with it's speed looking at it, I'm most likely gonna lose in a straight up fight against it!"

D: "Don't say that, your one of the 3 aura users in this entire hunting group! We can't crumble under the pressure or else everyone else will too!"

Sora knew that deep down but he couldn't help it, this beast was completely different from everything he had fought before, it's power could be seen in how it easily tore through the camp, it's speed was shown through how fast it moved from each part of the camp and it's aura didn't even need to be maintained, it was so powerful that it just naturally formed in a dense cloud around the creature.

K: "My bow ain't doing nothing to this! On the off chance that I'll even hit this thing that dense darkness around it will protect it from my arrows, my strongest shot needs time to prep and in that time I'll probably get torn apart."

Se: "I don't think any of us need to say anything else captain! It would be best to call for a retreat!!!"

Del had hesitated for a moment before looking back to the beast with an angered expression, with extreme resolve,

D: "No! We take it down, here, and now! That thing can sense us from an extreme distance, even if we run where can we run to without being found? Even if we escape who will it target next?! Hunters don't run from these things!!!"

Hearing their captain's resolve the members of the group felt ashamed at the previous comments they made, but they all still felt them to be true. Whilst they were all feeling scared right now the first one to speak up was Sora.

So: "You're shaking too cap... You're just as scared as we are..."

Sora's expression slowly went from one of anger to a slight smile.

So: "It's cool, honestly... fine... we take it down, here and now. I'll fight with you! Kuo, Seiju, come up with some kind of plan to be able to beat it.We'll keep it busy."

Seiju looked at Sora and nodded whilst Kuo was confused at how Sora was willing to fight even though he was scared, in the end he just sighed,

K: "Man, I'll never understand you guys. But hey, all I have to do is think of a way to beat it? Fine by me, not like I'm actually gonna be fighting."

Kuo smiled and looked towards them.

K: "After making those cool speeches you guys better not die, me and Seiju'll think of a plan - don't get too confident, I don't even think all three ofyou aura-users combined would be able to beat him."

Sora and Del felt embarassed to be told this but they felt themselves that it was true, after restoring their resolve's Seiju and Kuo began fleeing to an area far away from the beast but close enough to spectate and formulate some kind of plan to go against it. With only Del and Sora standing there staring at the beast they both took our their weapons.

D: "Don't die on me Sora, we need to win this..."

Sora laughed, trying to hide his previous fear.

So: "Well... I did say that I wanted a fight..."

Del smiled at him then looked towards the beast, with the same smile on his face, Sora and Del instantly charged forward to begin fighting with the beast.

Del clashed with the beast first, she was using a set of 8 knives that she would hold inbetween her fingers and thumbs, almost like claws, she was proefficient in being able to fight very quickly and was very precise in where she sliced, she went for a rare direct approach this time though as she had no idea where to strike the beast, she wanted to test the waters. Del would usually be able to hold her position due to the fact that she used aura for speed and strength but she was shocked to realise that she couldn't hold her position at all, she held for a second on the outer layer of it's aura before the beast noticed her and swiped out with what looked like it's claw. Blocking the blow with both of her hands, using the knives to alleviate the pain on her skin then the force provided by the blow to retreat backwards, aside from some minor wounds on her fingers she was fine. All of this happened in a second. "I couldn't even break past it's dense aura?!" She sent a mental signal to Sora "Sora! It's aura is exremely strong! Be careful!" Sora recieved the signal and put all of his aura into his fists and feet, completely ignoring defense.

Running forward he crashed into the beast. The monster had a definite reaction to this blow this time and was actually sent flying back, whilst not by much it was enough to stop it's earlier momentum and it now stood still, staring at Sora who had actually managed to force it back. Sora had also been sent flying back by the force created from his punch, he would not draw his sword until absolutely necessary, he too wanted to test the waters before he truly went all out. "I was only able to blow it back a little, but at least I stopped it from tearing through the camp. I focused all my power on strength and took a massive risk by not even putting anything into defense, if I have to fight at my full physical peak like this to even fight on a fair ground with it, I'll be at a disadvantage." This exchange between Sora and the beast also happened in an instant, but Sora already had all he needed. Whilst he knew that he could basically fight on the same level as the beast physically, his defense would be extremely low, he would have to simultaenously focus on not getting hit and actually fighting whilst all the beast needed to do was overwhelm Sora and land a couple of attacks before Sora would be too wounded to fight.

Kuo and Seiju were watching from far away. Kuo was surprised momentarily seeing that Sora was able to land a blow that stopped the beast but knew the basic situation as soon as he saw that Sora's expression looked like he was at a disadvantage, he had an idea of how aura worked through what he was told by the hunters who could use it including Sora and Del so he could guess that Sora most likely focused primarily on power whilst ignoring defense, meaning if he were to try and fight on equal grounds physically he would be inferior in terms of defense. Seiju also knew this, "Hmmmmm, we can't make an efficient plan like this, we haven't seen enough. He should be joining up with them soon, let's keep watching Kuo." The only light they had to be able to see what was going on was the initial campfires and the fires that had spread to the tents, most of the hunters were either injured and on the ground or had retreated to a safe position away from the beast. Kuo smiled, "There he is."

Sora was currently thinking of a battle strategy, he knew that Seiju and Kuo were watching so right now he was just trying to fight as sparingly as possible to get the most information out of the monster, Del shared this mindset and was also fighting this way. The attention of the beast was now fully focused on the two hunters in front of it and was now completely stationary, the red eyes inside the darkness staring directly at Sora, who was the hunter out of the two that actually managed to force it to take a step back. The dense aura began to fluctuate and grow more cold, before it seemed to have just been hanging onto the beast following it, but now it seemed as if the aura was being dispersed into the surroundings, unknowingly, it also sent out what it was thinking in the aura that was being dispersed, it sent out waves of signals that Sora and Del were able to hear. After they did they were shocked, most monsters were clear of mind and when sending signals, could be understood, but this one was different, when Sora and Del took in the signals and subconsciously translated them they only heard single words and segmented sentences.

"Confusion?"

"Able To Stop Attack?"

"Strong As Me?"

"Kill"

"Destroy"

"Light?"

"Demon?"

"Celestial?"

"Which One?"

"First Time..."

"Devour"

"Vessel Will Expire..."

"End Quick"

"Kill"

Sora and Del were shocked by these words, half of them they didn't know why the beast was thinking about whilst the other half they knew it was talking about them.

D: "Sora, it looks like this beast is preparing to go all out against us, I think we should too. As soon as it stopped I sensed the entire camp and he should be here in a couple of seconds, with all three of us here, if we all focus on offense we should be able to reach an overwhelming amount of power equal to the beast, it won't matter if we lack defense if it can't attack."

So: "Yeah, I can feel it too, still... what is that thing thinking about? It's completely different form anything we've fought so far. I've never heard so much conflict in something's own thoughts. It doesn't even seem like it knows it's sending out those signals..."

"There he is"

Another figure suddenly landed to the right of Sora and Del, it was a short boy that was about the same age as Sora, he had violet hair with with black and red leather clothes, he had a red scarf that went from his neck down to his legs. Sora and Del smiled.

So: "Took ya long enough Rez."

R: "Sorry, I was sleeping and was kinda off when I woke up to see that everything was on fire, doesn't help that I was on the other side of the camp from you guys..."

D: "Yeah yeah, that doesn't matter now. What matters right now is the beast right in front of us, you should have sensed it too right? This one isn't like the others."

R: "Yeah I could feel it from the other side of the camp, not many can do that to us."

So: "Rez, we're going fully offensive, don't put anything into defense, don't worry, we'll all be attacking at once - it's the only way we can get enough info for Kuo and Seiju who are trying to make up a plan right now."

R: "Thought so... Well, that thing isn't getting any more patient - it looks like it's about to explode with power, I think we should too."

Due to the fact that they were sending all these messages through aura they could speak to eachother extremely fast and over somewhat long distances. The beast's red eyes grew more savage and it looked as if they were glowing with energy. Sora slowly drew his sword, it wasn't fully out of it's scabbard, about halfway but this is where Sora stopped, he only stood there motionless, with one hand on the sword, his body arced forward and one of his legs forward and the other behind him, he was slowly infusing all of his aura into his arms, legs and into his sword, the sword began to slowly vibrate but Sora still stood motionless, staring straight into the monsters eyes. They had already worked out their attack plan.

The beast pounced forward leaving an explosion of energy behind it that created a crater in the ground it was stood on, expecting this both Del and Rez jumped forward to meet the beast. Del's knives burst with flames, essentially turning her hands into fiery claws, this was her at her peak, using both aura that she had an innate talent for and the magic she was most proefficient in to enchant her weapons. Rez jumped forward grabbing his scarf and it immediately disappeared, at least that's what it looked like, Rez was making extremely minute movements in his hands and fingers, sometimes moving his entire hand up and sometimes only moving one finger in such small and almost insignificant changes, what had actually happened was that his scarf had split into strings that were unnoticeable by the naked eye, the minute movements he was making with his hands was him moving the strings to surround the creature, he could use these strings in any way, he could use aura to make himself weightless to stand on one of the pieces of string to look like he was standing in midair, he could directly attack with it aswell. As he made these minute changes he also began enchanting his 'weapon' with the magic he was most proefficient in, lightning. The string immediately surrounded the creature, attaching to the trees, the ground and some of the tents that were still up, because of the current mental link he had with Sora and Del they knew where the string was, even without it they could use aura to see it but this was much easier, without the mental link they would both have to spend energy maintaining aura in their eyes to focus on the strings and it wouldn't be as clear as it was now.

Both of them clashed with the beast at the same time, one person took on one claw, the beast was now on two legs, with the other two being held up by Del and Rez. Del met the blow directly and was currently using both of her 'claws' to hold the beast's charge forward, Rez was much more indirect, he was using the strings that he had set up to tie up one of the beast's claws whilst he surrounded the beast with his strings, to his surprise, when he tried to move the strings down to cut the beast into pieces the strings actually stopped halfway through it's dense aura, no matter how hard he tried he couldn't get any further. The aura was like an extremely flexible balloon that could not be popped even if it was poked and prodded by sharp objects. Even though Rez wasn't directly dealing with the beast, it did not mean that he wasn't having any difficulty, unlike Del and Sora, he did not focus on strength for his weapon but visual acuity and precision, he had focused most of his aura into his feet, hands and eyes, his feet to make him seem weightless so he could move around easily to any height, his hands, not for strength, but for extremely precise movements and finally, his eyes to be able to see all of the strings he currently had control over. Whilst they struggled they actually felt they held the advantage as whilst they were definitely having a hard time keeping the monster in place, the fact that they were already surprised them, they never expected that it would actually work. Right now they knew that the most powerful single strike that anyone could use was the one Sora was currently preparing, as long as they could buy time for him, they could deal a massive blow to the beast, they knew Sora's strength, is his punch could force the beast back by itself, then a strike from his sword, whilst not being able to kill the beast, would at least be able to weaken it by an extreme amount.

"Im ready..."

Sora was currently surrounded by a faint blue aura, the aura then seemed to have been sucked into the sword and the sword began to grow blue. Sora moved his foot forward even further and put his remaining aura into his feet. Sora wasn't proefficient in a single magic but he was extremely talented in aura, he had a basic understanding of some magic and enchantment though. This technique utilised the full power of his aura and a basix fire, ice and wind enchantment on his sword.

"Tri-colour Strike."