Ruins upon ruins, wherever one's eyes roamed there would be ancient remnants of a civilization unknown, some of these broken structures were still shining with energy but most have been reduced to mere scrap or stone

Tak tak tak

A pebble bounced off wildly all around the place, rebounding off one rock to another fallen structure until it accurately found it's way to the front of a very focused Ellis

Ta! Tak tak

She kicked it back while trying to bounce it off walls on it's way to the bored master of hers on the other side of this big square crater, the small pebble steered off trajectory however after the second rebound frustrating her to no ends

YuJu said nothing and picked up another pebble, casually threw it in front of him and kicked once again, the produce of this normal kick however dazzled Ellis with how precise it remained throughout its entire journey, at least until it reached her who went about messing up the beautiful play

'If only this was a ball...'

It was easy to calculate at least a few bounces for a round thing like a ball but such an uneven object was hard to predict, there was always something that messed things up halfway

The two of them have been at it for five hours, at the beginning it was fun for her but as time passed boredom started to replace the joy and she realized he was actually training her lightly while they waited

'What is it exactly that we are waiting for'

She must have asked herself this question a few dozen times already

Crack crack

This time though the answer finally revealed itself as both YuJu and Ellis stopped playing and looked at the side of the crater where they picked up on the sound of heavy footsteps

"About time you got here"

YuJu smiled and stood up, lightly stretching his body which Ellis followed suit while keeping an eye on one of the five armadillo like creatures

These beasts were of human hight and had a long tail with a mace-like end fitted with metal spikes, all but one who remained bereft of any equipment

"You fight the small one, I'll handle the rest"

He pointed her to the one without any equipment while he lunged at the others

Ellis stared at the beast who remained still even as his companions engaged with YuJu, those beady eyes stared back at her as well, the two had come to a quick understanding about each other's nature

Aura spurted out their body at the same time as if it was all rehearsed, Eliis took her twin swords while covering her entire body with the purple glow while the beast covered his tail's end with it, giving the metallic glow the shape of spikes

There seemed to be a smirk on the beast's face as it realized how crude the enemies use of this precious gift was, this put a frown on her face as she rushed to cut the adversary apart

There was no movement from the armadillo until her running figure was within a tail's reach, only then did it swing the mace end in a downward smashing motion

'So slow'

All she needed was a simple sidestep to get out of harm's way, how could such a dumb slow attack ever land

"!!!"

One of the shining spikes suddenly protruded from their place to stab at her, almost succeeding in doing so too if not for her timely reaction

"What was that"

She asked herself while holding the gash at her side, that was a close call

The shrew armadillo gave no break however as it followed with a swipe attack, those big and pointy nails were much faster than their tail counterparts requiring Ellis to dodge with all she had, at least until the wrecking ball came crashing at her once again

Boom boom boom

While the beast held great advantage over the human a complete opposite image took place next to them as the lonesome human played with the four beasts with quite the ease, avoiding every attack like a shadow as knives fell out of the spatial storage before being kicked into the big beady cute eyes

The others noted the ease he showed while dispatching them, clearly they were not his match making them want to ball up and avoid this deadly foe, their all-out attack equipment prevented such actions however as they would only impale themselves with the spiked if the tried

"What a flawed weapon, it removes the biggest advantage of their race"

He criticized while shaking his head, he already didn't approve of weapons and for an entire species to use something that pushed their advance backwards meant extinction was around the corner

"Those are some nice moves though"

As flawed as it was the small beast managed to find a way that makes use of this weapon by replacing it with aura, this gave room to many possibilities as the flexibility of an intangible yet tangible aura far exceeded that of any alloy, furthermore it could roll into a ball when needed just by allowing the spikes to disperse negating any drawbacks whatsoever

'Not that it looks like it needs to defend'

Quick hands, slow but wide-ranged tail sweeps carrying a surprise at the tip and an impenetrable shield covering most of the body insured Ellis held no chance at victory in a fair fight whatsoever

He wasn't worried though after all this was no fair fight, how could it be when an unintelligent beast was battling one of the craftiest races in the Infidome

While he observed the little beast it was trying not to look at him at all, looking away from the one it was fighting would ensure a sizable attack that it didn't want to risk even after hearing its comrades' painful shrieks

'It's not giving me a chance to launch an attack, Master isn't lending a hand either'

She could somehow feel that he wasn't going to, it was through the connection being built between them after the recent escapade

'Then I'll have to create my own'

Sometimes you gotta make a door

Boom boom!

While carefully avoiding the attacks her mind spun for way to turn the tables, she didn't have a creative mind and wasn't as quick-witted as she would have liked to be, she was however very observant and diligent person which brought up an idea to the forefront of her thoughts soon after

'Hmm, perhaps I can do it too'

It wasn't anything original, in fact, it was just a copy-paste of his movements, but that's the best she could come up with on such short notice

The beast knew nothing of her plans and kept trying to land a hit on her so as to go and help those eerily quiet comrades who suddenly went silent at some point during the short fight

'Now!'

Some short swings later Ellis got the best timing to put her plan into motion when it was withdrawing its tail and swinging its nails to buy time for another sweeping attack

Seeing the very pointy nails swinging at her she didn't doge this time nor did she block the attack, instead she threw the swords into the air and spun in her place

"??" "Ohh, nice one"

While the beast was confused YuJu already figured out her plan, sure enough by the time Ellis spun to face the attacking nemesis again she was holding a huge hammer with both hands, smashing the big object that came out of nowhere into the unexpecting fellow's wrist

That wasn't all though for it probably didn't cause any damage to begin with, what she really needed was the momentary gap this surprise attack created

"Haa!"

With the twin swords caught out of the air two large cuts were made on the chest and neck, not too deep but that was all she needed to achieve

Boom!

Dodgrolling to the side she escaped the incoming tail attack and started to go on the defensive, avoiding all attacks and making no efforts to mount her own on the cautioned beast

"The age-old method of choice, when you can't beat them poison them"

Like master like slave, just as she killed her nemesis by poison he'd also poisoned the four beasts by applying some to his knives

Speaking of likeness he couldn't help but smile at the method she just utilized to win the battle

The use of the spatial storage to throw an object out was very very harsh, still, it did the trick'

Her clothes were ripped from the front but nothing major happened

'Guess its finally time to teach spatial awareness, the stuff we brought to help with that must be collecting dust by now'

He looked forward to sharing the awkward training he once did, sometimes teasing the redhead into scarlet made him smile quite the bit

"Hmm, I cant learn from them as well though"

Muttering to himself he sighed, that small breath of air managed to disperse the cloud of smoke taking the shape of a clenching hand

"Looks like my aura is not a physical-based one, it's not hard enough to have an obvious effect on the physical realm, guess I'll have to look for other approaches"

Every aura was unique, just because one could turn into a weapon doesn't mean every aura has that potential, even if the possibilities were limitless they were only so in their own department of use

…

"You did well"

Patting the redhead overlooking the dead body he praised

"I only copied you Master"

"True, still you prevailed, as long as you are victories it matters not the method you make use of, bearing in mind the sacrifice is reasonable enough"

Moving toward the dead body he yanked a bracelet around the base of the tail, walking with it to a big circle on the edge of the crate, there he sat down and waited

"...."

"...."

Seconds turned to minutes which quickly morphed to hours but nothing happened, nor did he do anything whatsoever

All of a sudden he finally made his move, quickly grabbing a sandwich and...eating it

"Master, are we staying here?"

Ellis couldn't help but ask at this point

"Yup"

"But won't we be late in arriving at the destination? I remember you saying we had a time limit"

"We are here"

"??"

His eyes stared at the big crater, or more so its edges

"This is the final destination, or rather, this thing is the gate that leads there"

The confused servant of his tried to comprehend what he was saying by viewing the place as well, sadly all she could see were small walls making up a square crater filled with rubble and no gate in sight….

"Wait! This huge thing is a gate?"

"Indeed, it is one that leads to our destination, the..."

Allowing suspense to bubble in her heart he paused, giving it a few more seconds before continuing…..