“I’m weak.” Fenix thought to himself. “For a Hunter like me to have such a weak essence...I can barely start a campfire, or throw a ball of flame. I even had to wear crutches like this sword and gauntlet; the family relics.”

“My gauntlet passively charges itself using my essence so that I can actually hurt something with a deadly burst of flames. The entire time, my gauntlets were already charged with power to use, but I’ve been overcharging the gauntlet to a degree that even I can feel it burning.”

Fenix remembered back in his training with his grandfather, the day where he managed to beat him. He was feared back then as the Red Dragon of the East. Who’s real name is ironically Dragon.

A 5’7” tall old man with receding silver hair and well-kept and trimmed mustache wearing a red gi with a dragon-styled behind the arms and back. Despite looking old, he had an intense muscular frame underneath the gi. He held what soon would become Fenix’s Gauntlet.

“I’ve shown you Hellfire for the past few years. You lack power in your essence but I have trained your body to its peak in order to overcome that weakness. In other words, you got guts, Fenix. Here.” His Grandfather handed him the Gauntlet. “Put this on. It will passively charge up with your essence inside the gauntlet so you can release truly devastating attacks.”

“Use it well.”

Fenix looked down at the demon as he was being held up by a battered-up, injured Aria.

“Prepare the finishing blow, Leader!”

“Yeah!” Aria dived down with Fenix at a blinding speed. Halfway diving, he released a concentrated beam of fire, going faster than the two diving down straight to the eye.

The eye’s pupil dilated as something appeared in front of the center of the eye, energy coalescing into a massive ball of unholy energy and releasing back into the fire beam as they collided.

Their diving was ceased when the force of the beams struggling actually halted the two from going down.

Fenix was surprised. He expected to be easily overpowered when the eye’s beam clashed with his own. Yet he and Aria are still alive and were being lifted by the force of the beam clash alone.

“What power!” Aria exclaimed as she stopped flying from the sudden push of Fenix and the Eye’s beam clash. “Are you all right, Fenix?!”

“Y-Yeah!” He grits his teeth as he began focusing more of his essence into the beam. “I’m surprised I can even do this!”

He’s running out of power.

“Transfer your power to him. This demon is worth that transfer.”

Understood, however, this will prevent me from healing you during this fight and I can only heal you after I eat the Eye.

“That is quite all right. Now, begin the transfer, offer your power to his essence!”

Understood. Converting Unholy Energy into consumable energy to the designated target: Fenix Lytle.

Aria gently grasped his shoulder to make the transfer. “You can do this, Fenix!” She encouraged him as the transfer was gradual and progressive than an instant boost. Fenix’s beam was growing wider, stronger as his beam was pushing down the Eye’s.

“HRAAAAH!—” Fenix let out a cry in pain and determination. His gauntlet was white-hot, his hand being scorched by his own gauntlet even with the natural fire resistance of most Fire essence users have.

The Demon’s beam shrunk with every passing second as Fenix’s beam was but a couple of meters away. But that was enough to defeat the Demon.

The Eye’s eye started bubbling and sizzling as it was being boiled from the intense, concentrated heat as if it was staring directly at a red giant. It made the Eye cancel its beam as it allowed Fenix’s to pierce through instantly!

Its arms raised up from the initial impact and momentary pain of being scorched before Fenix’s beam disintegrated the eyeball until his beam reached the dry earth, scorching the dry earth.

Disconnecting and ceasing transfer of power.

Fenix stopped firing as his gauntlet was emptied of essence and power. Fenix was gasping in pain and fatigue from firing an all-out attack. “We did it…” Fenix slipped from Aria’s hold on his shoulder as the force of the beam is no longer pushing him in the air.

“—Ah…”

“Ah!—” Aria immediately grabbed him by the collar of his outfit. “I am so sorry!” She apologized as she nodded. “Mh...though, you dealt the most damage.” She lightly giggled as they went back to the ground, gently dropping Fenix.

“With the demonic threat now defeated. We must bring a proof of our hunt to the guild...luckily there is an abundance of them lying around.” Aria looked around as teeth were scattered around everywhere.

“Yeah...I’m surprised how you’re able to deflect all those teeth that fast.” Fenix placed his other hand on the still scorching gauntlet in order to regulate some of the heat flow from his arm. “Fffu-” He closes his eyes and breathes in quickly. “I mean, Gods, that burns.” He flexes his fingers under the dark fabric and rotates his shoulder in order to help alleviate some of the pain. There were definitely first degree burns.

“Oh dear, let me have a look at your arm...” Aria spoke as she walked over to him in order to remove the gauntlet.

“N-NO!” Fenix yells reflexively, pulling back his arm, before stopping and presenting it once again with an only half believable smile. “I mean, no, its fine don’t worry about it.”

Aria froze in place for a moment before continuing forward and stopping near him. “It must be painful, allow me to have a look. I know a spell to tend light wounds.”

Phoenix shakes his head and stands a bit taller. “Sorry but, it’s, well, something I’d rather not talk about...let alone have you see.” Fenix says with a halfhearted laugh. “It’s fine I swear, nothing compared to your wo-”

He was suddenly caught off guard as she spoke. “Heal..” And placed a hand atop the now only lukewarm gauntlet. Feeling immediate relief in his limb.

“O-oh, that's...thank you. But, I mean, I didn’t think Hunters had any real affinity for magic. How did...?” He was surprised and impressed once again.

Aria, for once started panting and sweating in exhaustion as she stopped channeling the spell. “Do...do you feel a bit better?”

“Y-Yeah...a bit. Thanks for that.” The burn was there but it wasn’t as severe as before. “But you didn’t answer my question.”

“M-my apologies. Hunters can do magic, but most, if not all Hunters don’t bother learning as it is not worth it for we are extremely weak once we cast it.”

“Then why did you bother to learn a healing spell?”

“My reason is to tend light wounds to someone I can help before sending them to a proper cleric or doctor. And it seemed like you were in pain, so I had to heal that burn.”

“Again, my injury is not as bad as yours.”

Suddenly, the ground started quaking as the source was coming from the deceased Eye. Its limbs were wriggling and flailing about as the eye’s limbs started separating itself from the body and started crawling and surrounding the two at a terrifyingly fast speed.

“It’s still alive?” Fenix quickly raised his gauntlet but it was basically completely drained.

“No.” She corrected him. “Do you know what a starfish is, Fenix? When a starfish’s limb gets cut off, the limb is still alive. Eventually, the limb will regrow into a brand new starfish. If we let these limbs remain free, ten new eyes will come back.”

“You mean we have to completely disintegrate all of these things?” He gave it his all to even destroy the Eye’s eyeball. Before he could pull out his family sword, Aria lifted her only arm to stop him. “Aria?”

“Fenix...allow me. You have defeated the main body, allow me to deal with the limbs.”

“In that state?”

Aria gently smiled. “Have faith in my skill. Now be at ease and relax. I will make this desert stop its shaking.”

“Petalouda.”

Understood. Initiating life steal to convert the victim’s life force to yours to heal all injuries with each hit.

Aria pulled out her scythe and started walking slowly to the nearest limb. “Calm yourself. Steady your heartbeat. Follow a rhythm and dance to the beat.” She said aloud to herself. “Easy, gently. The Papillon flies across the silent graveyard, dancing around as the only beat is the fluttering of its wings.” Aria’s wings grew larger, spreading more butterfly dust around as the world turned gray.

“Papillon Chorus.” Aria chanted. The world was colored gray, the world turned silent, and the movements of everything were slow like a slug. The only thing in color was herself, the only sound made in this gray world were her footsteps and her slow, calm heartbeat. She pulled out Petalouda and sliced, rend, cut the entirety of the limb. Yet her swings were silent, the flesh cutting through with no noise. Each cut followed the rhythm of her heartbeat, along with the steps and movements.

“Follow the rhythm of your heartbeat. Hop. Swing. Skip. Cut. Dance. Rend.” She finished the first limb as she moved onto the next one, and the next one. Each kill repaired her injuries, her broken arm fully repaired, and eventually, she started dancing gracefully once fully healed, she performed an elegant and powerful dance that rended everything around her.

Aria ceased her dance once she killed the final limb, flying back into the center and stood in front of Fenix. Striking a graceful pose with her hands extended up along with her scythe. “The chorus has ended.”

The world regained its color, sound returned as she can clearly hear the noise of splattering goop onto the ground as there was not but a single trace of the Eye’s limbs in sight, only the destruction it caused and its green, thick goo.

Fenix was speechless. He saw the entire thing go down. She first walked and suddenly vanished into a blur. He witnessed her cutting everything apart at a horrific speed as if she was like lightning personified. It all happened in a span of 4 seconds.

“I guess this is...this is the essence a true Hunter has.” Fenix said as Aria approached him. “Your wounds-” He took quick notice of her being fully healed as if she wasn’t injured at all. “You’re fully healed!”

“Indeed.” Her wings vanished as her scythe’s blades retracted and shrunk a bit, reverting back into a staff as she unequipped it. “It is all thanks to the weapon I wield. While that doesn’t excuse me to be reckless, it is very helpful if I am ever damaged. This weapon I wield absorbs the flesh and souls of demons and use them for power.

“You’re really one surprise after another.”

“Now come, we must pick up a tooth as a proof of our hunt and call this mission a success.” Aria picked up a stray tooth. “Though...I am now worried about the truck. There are still resources there we can take...but I suppose I can mark the coordinates to have those supplies be extracted.”

“That sounds like a good idea.” Fenix adjusted his Gauntlet, it was cool now, devoid of his stored power. “I need to recharge.”

With the two finally accomplishing their mission of eliminating the monster that attacks the trucks, they vanished via teleportation and returned to the guild.

“So the threat was not a Sand Wyrm, but a rare type of Demon known as the Desert Eye?” Ria inspected the tooth of the worm with a magnifying monocle

“Correct.” Aria affirmed her with a simple smile as she stood beside Fenix. Fenix could feel his back being stabbed with sharp glares from Aria’s fans that he twitched a bit when he could feel another one glaring at him.

“Just from checking this without this magical monocle. It’s really fuckin’ disgusting just from holding it.” She dropped the tooth on the desk and flicked her hands in disgust. “But this monocle is telling me that this tooth belonged to something very unholy and nasty instead of being rich with mana like most monsters and megafauna have.”

Ria removes her monocle and pulls out a hammer and chisel and started chipping a fragment of the tooth into a small zipped plastic bag. “Just needed a small sample as proof. You guys can...I dunno—Reuse this tooth or sell it to some monster collector? Just get rid of this thing off of my desk.”

“I think I know how to deal with this.” Aria reached for Ria’s hammer and chisel. “May I?”

“Go nuts.” She gave it to her as the moment Aria took hold of it, she started to calm herself again.

“Papillon Chorus.” The world turned gray and silent once more as Aria started chiseling the tooth into blunt shards the size of pellets and once she’s done chiseling. The world regained color and noise.

“You really had to use your essence for that?” Ria sounded as Fenix and she witnessed her chiseling at a fast speed.

“I know how you do not like to waste time.” She cupped the pellets and turned to the glaring fans. “Here you go, my fellow followers!” She threw out the pellets as the fans gasped and started reaching to grab one of Aria’s spoils.

“I got one!”

“I got four!”

“A souvenir from the Black Butterfly herself, this is better than an autograph!”

“It’s worth more if this is an autograph!”

“You idiot! She doesn’t have the time to sign all these pellets with her name.”

Aria cleared her throat at the crowd. “Please take a closer look at them.” She beamed a peaceful and lovely smile as one screamed and took a photo of her smile. And everyone gasped in awe to see that Aria individually chiseled her first name on each of them.

“Woah! Lady Aria managed to not chisel the tooth but also wrote her name in all of them in such a short time!”

“Awesome! I love you Lady Aria!”

BANG!

Ria pulled out a shotgun underneath the desk as the booming round made Fenix bounce back in shock “Shi—Shoot! Ria, firing indoors is dangerous!” Fenix almost cursed in response.

“You fanboys and fangirls get the fuck out already? She already entertained you guys enough by giving you autographs from demon tooth shards. So all of you fuck off and come fawn all over her tomorrow!” She aimed her shotgun at them as the fans quietly backed off in fear.

“They’re gone...thanks for that, I guess…” Fenix sighed in relief as the glaring finally stopped.

Ria lowered her shotgun back under the desk as she rests her head on her hand that leaned on the desk. “I didn’t do it for you. Their shrill screaming and fangirling were pissing me off whenever Aria here comes to finish her missions. Can’t you just tell them to stop doing that?”

“I-I wish I could, but I do not want to reject their appreciation and gratitude towards me...even I myself do not enjoy the unnecessary praise and admiration...I understand how they feel towards me and allowed them to continue…”

“You’re way too kind despite looking like a really big goth girl.”

“I-It is to improve my combat abilities and is more attuned to my essence!” Aria’s cheeks turned red before clearing her throat. “S-So Ria—”

“Yeah, You two will be getting your pay soon after your consolation rewards like having a truck’s worth of supplies arrive after being extracted by the Scouting Corps.”

“Not that...have you…” Aria pushed her fingers together. “Have you seen Dear Celia as of late?” She said with her red cheeks turning redder.

“Oh…Ohhh… Yeah, I saw her. She just took a mission today.”

“D-Do you know when will she return? If possible I would like to know the exact time of her arrival to greet her.” She started breathing hard as her composure is slowly breaking, forgetting her junior, Fenix is starting to take notice of her breathing.

“Uhh, Aria?”

“You said that in the most creepy way that if I do know, I wouldn’t tell you.” Ria reached over with a handkerchief and wiped Aria’s chin. “She might be back tonight. It’s just a mission to hunt down a Mega Bear that’s attacking a town. Might be quicker since she brought in some friends with her.”

“F-Friends? They must be the new friends Dear Celia talked about this morning…”

“She was being carried by some tanned girl who hates my guts. Guess she likes her since she knows that girl annoys the fuck out of me…”

“L-like!?” Aria stiffened as she pushed her fingers too hard that they snapped and dislocated.

“ARIA!”

“I’ll take you two to the clinic. That way I can call in break time because of ‘emergency’ reasons.”