The three girls went to help setup for their first hunt, joining the other hunters in their morning preparations. There wasn’t much time left before everyone would be setting out, they would have to make sure they were ready to go soon.

Vwyx and Sryine did not take long to begin developing a similar reputation to Riyxia. Vwyx had actually terrified Dhyinze by sneaking up on him, he was actually shaking for a while after the incident. Jwyexzn meanwhile crashed into a table in shock when Sryine went to greet him, looking similar to the days when he was pleading for his life. The whole reaction was making them feel kinda otherworldly, something Riyxia had understood previously. Riyxia was finding it interesting that she wasn’t the only one capable of giving this reaction, something she was finding rather comforting. She in turn was trying to put in considerable effort to not have people quite as alarmed as they might normally be.

“Ayzherie.” “Oh! Riyxia, it’s you. Sorry, I didn’t notice you there. Everything going well?” “For the most part. I’ve been thinking about how we should properly make this work. While the hunters are here to get a job done, our helping out will be mostly from the perspective of field training. To that end, I feel it would be best if we proceeded a distance ahead of the other hunters, to feel for ourselves the best way to proceed. This distance gives us room to test our own ability to make proper decisions, to evaluate our own ability, will make sure that we do not get in the way of the other hunter’s preparation, and will also ensure that there is backup available if we need it. It might in that way prove to be the most ideal form of field training. In addition to the gear your hunters have recommended for everyone, we’re going to also make sure to bring weaponry matching the results of your own training, something I had gone over with Jwyexzn. I’ll be bringing the protective gloves you’ve had me use of course, while Sryine will have a rapier, longbow, and a set of arrows. Vwyx meanwhile will have a halberd, a satchel of throwing bombs, and a banded case of raw metal. We’re still working on that last one, trying to figure out something light to not cause much problems, while still being heavy enough for her to make use of.” “Try to work with some of the alloy metals, they tend to be light but durable. Also, make sure she uses one of the small satchels, we can’t afford to spare too many of those spheres. Sryine should also be using the sheet metal arrows, the wooden ones are harder to restock around here. You should each bring some extra flares as well, especially if you’re going ahead.” Riyxia took account of Ayzherie’s recommendations with a nod. Ayzherie really didn’t like the risk the girls were taking, but she knew that trying to appear too controlling would backfire against her. The fundamental decisions Riyxia had were sound, keeping out of the way but close enough for backup, so hopefully things will be alright.

Riyxia met up with the others and ensured everything was in order. Once all preparations were completed, they coordinated their departure with the rest of the Hunters, including going over a map of a suitable area for their own operations. Riyxia made sure to keep a copy of the map for her own reference. They set off slightly behind some of the other Hunters, but made their way beyond once the Hunters reached their first destination. Riyxia took a moment to account for what this implied, that the three of them would be a sort of first line of defense, the vanguards for life on the side of death.

“So, why didn’t Ayzherie come with us anyway? I noticed a lot of the other pack leaders were around.” “Ayzherie has some personal reasons why she can’t come, her situation is kinda complicated and we really shouldn’t pry.” “Oh, okay. If you say so.” Sryine shrugged, accepting Riyxia’s insight. Riyxia understood that such a secret had been entrusted to her in good faith, she wouldn’t even share more than was necessary on the subject, even with her closest friends. However, she knew that leaving the situation in ignorance would only cause additional concerns. Leaving things open for Ayzherie to further explain if desired was the most ideal solution.

The three girls arrived in the general area they had been assigned to. Other than keeping safe, there weren’t many expectations left to them either. If they let beasts through, the Hunters would be there to intercept, their support was mostly just a bonus, really. In that regard, Riyxia understood that she was in no position to take any risks, she was only to look for opportunity. As she started settling in, preparing a defensive perimeter, she noticed a familiar face approaching, the beast leader she had fought earlier. Sryine had noticed it as well, but Vwyx’s human sense had so far missed what was going on. Riyxia silently stopped Sryine, passing a threatening glare towards the approaching beast. The beast in turn decided this was not worth its time, and turned away. This led to Sryine’s confusion, weren’t they here to hunt such beasts? Why would Riyxia let such a big one go without any real regards? She left her questions unspoken, still silently worried.

The girls were left in peace for a time, getting plenty of opportunity to settle in. Vwyx and Sryine found a place to get comfortable, but boredom quickly fell upon them as they pulled out their cells and started to make use of them. Riyxia sat there quietly attentive, searching with both her eyes and her spectre to make sure they remained safe and aware. Eventually, she spotted a looming threat, a pack of beasts had started to form a perimeter around them. These beasts were even smaller than the pack she had dealt with before, but with even greater numbers. She also suspected their pack leader was around somewhere too. She withdrew her spectre to improve her concentration, and stood up ready. The other two girls hadn’t noticed either the beasts or herself. The beasts drew in closer, themselves unaware they were being hunted in turn. Her rage gave her an advantage, one that she would need, so as one of the beasts wandered too close to her, she roared at it, her feral rage descending upon her. The beast was more startled and frightened than either of the other girls, but everyone was brought to attention in that moment.

Riyxia took to her initiative, and unleashed upon her opponent, her prey. A single punch decimated her foe, crushing it in an instant, as she turned towards three more with a volley of sundering kicks. Her foes were fading with incredible speed, not even needing her to even include her gift as yet, but at one point she had noticed some of the other beasts had approached and surrounded Sryine and Vwyx. Vwyx drew her halberd and started lashing out at her foes, injuring one but leaving her open to another. Sryine lashed out at it with an illusionary sword, causing it to stagger in surges of anguish, but herself not proving fatal either. Several others charged at the two, quickly overwhelming them. Riyxia pulled back to support, but she was a distance away. Opening up with her gift at a longer range than ever before, she ripped apart three of them with her reversed healing, unmaking them where they stood. Sryine shrieked in surprise, totally not expecting one to simply fall apart like that. It did not take her long to figure out what had happened either, the forming of wounds looking like a complete reversal of Riyxia’s previous healing. She could do that, cause wounds just as easily as she could mend them? Was that really a thing? Between life and death, in equal portions, Riyxia’s gift could literally bring both with its healing ability. It was around this point that she managed to notice Riyxia herself rapidly approaching, the grim aspect of death herself. She somehow seemed more intimidating than the beasts in that moment, a feeling that only increased once Riyxia started laying into her prey with a snarl.

Vwyx made use of some of the nearby stone to forge herself a heavy block, one which she melded to a rod made from some of her raw metal to provide her with a good quality maul. Making use of sweeping motions, she managed to push back some of the numbers that were still bothering them, many which still died once Riyxia lay into them. Sryine swapped her illusionary sword for an illusionary bow, piercing into her foes from a distance as Vwyx kept them back. As the three of them quickly started to gain the upper hand, Riyxia caught a sudden motion approaching them, the pack leader stepping in to provide a needed advantage. She would have to let Sryine and Vwyx try to hold their ground while she dealt with the looming threat. This leader was also large, not quite as tall as the previous one, but it was longer. It was also still taller than her, at least while it wasn’t in position to pounce.

Riyxia leapt towards the leader herself, snarling viciously, the beast responding to her challenge in kind. They both charged each other simultaneously, Riyxia still connecting first with an uppercut. On impact, she followed up with her gift to magnify the injury, the sound of shattered bone rippling along the beast's body. The beast backed away for a moment, it’s injuries taxing, as Riyxia adopted a defensive stance, growling in wait for its next move. The beast charged again, aiming for her arms in an attempt to reduce her capabilities. In a flurry of motion, she dashed behind it instead, grabbing it by the tail and using the momentum to suplex the entire beast over her head, decreasing its resistance to impact in the process. The beast’s head slammed against the stone with an audible crunch, the serious wound also leaving it excessively dizzy. Once again, she waited for it to make a move, the beast trying to get her off guard by lashing at her with its nearby hind legs. She blocked the leg with her arm, disconnecting the leg completely and causing it to thrash a full body tackle towards her much smaller size. With a still unnatural mobility, she dove under it and struck it from below with a kick, sending it higher than it would have wanted. When it descended, she followed with a backbreaking thrust kick, causing a serious enough injury at this point that the beast passed away instantly as its corpse smashed into the rocky wall.

As Riyxia turned towards the remains of the pack, the entire pack yelped in fear. Most of them fled at this moment, but some of them panicked and lashed out at either her or her friends. The ones who did not flee were quick to die. Riyxia took a deep breath, her rage subsiding rapidly as she went back to relaxing. Vwyx and Sryine exchanged a glance, themselves not relaxed at all. Just what had they witnessed there? Was that really Riyxia doing all that, because she sounded much like a beast herself. Their thoughts from the night before started to bubble up worrisomely. They had seen how Riyxia had been with all the black, a subtle and intimidating shroud. They had seen her destructive potential when mad, her fists causing some serious damage. They had never seen her growl like that before, nor had they seen her use her gift so destructively. As they all shared a rather limited reach when using their gift, they had all noticed that she had commanded her gift with a range that far surpassed what should have been possible, let alone the explicit harm delivered by her healing. Riyxia was actually pondering much of the same herself, realizing that she had just exceeded her potential range by an impressive amount. Also notable was how inflicting harm with her gift before at large scale had consumed vast amounts of her stamina, but this time she felt fine, like it was only a warmup. The whole thing had taken very little from her, the other two girls were far more worn out doing far less.

“Riyxia, are you alright?” “Oh, yeah, I’m fine, not even a scratch. You’ve got nothing to repair this time.” “No-no, not like that. I mean, it’s good you’re not hurt, but… Wow, I didn’t realize things were this serious.” “Huh? Did I miss something?” “Other than your destructive impulses setting you into a feral rage that had you move like a force of nature?” “Destructive impulses?” Vwyx explained to Riyxia the discussion she had missed the night before, the nightmares that had beset those who still dreamed. Nightmares about losing control and succumbing to destructive impulses caused by their relation to the Astral Flame.

Riyxia wanted to call it all nonsense, but it was subtly obvious that a person getting a little angry doesn’t exactly have the same results as what she had achieved. If it wasn’t the fault of the Astral Flame, then it was due to flaws in her own artificial design. This was a problem for her in either case. If it was her own personal flaws, her artificial nature simply being granted access to call upon excessive ability in times of need, then keeping people calm about her artificial state would become harder over time. However, if this was due to the Astral Flame, much like her friends worried, she would have to worry about not losing control of herself and letting her rage consume her. The latter she felt she was making good progress with, but it would come with extra complications. If this was due to the Astral Flame, then her friends were in just as much danger because of it as she was, and they did not have a grasp on how the whole process worked. If they ended up losing control unexpectedly, there would be even more trouble.

However, maybe things were in place to work out. If the situation here was the former, she believed in her friends to help her work out any trouble that came up due to any such artificial flaws. If instead the problem was the latter, that would mean she would be expected to be a good role model for the others, while making sure they remain in control and to bring them back to their senses if ever such control was lost. This second outcome would impart a huge responsibility upon her, something she would have to be prepared for. To have something like her rage, imparting considerable ability, yet to lose all sense of control over it. She could just imagine the sort of destruction she could cause if ever she were to lose control over her own rage, if the aspect of death were to take her over completely. Such capabilities would befall either of her friends, and she would have to stop them somehow. Such a feat would be impossible without making use of her rage herself. She would also have to make considerable use of her gift to accomplish this, to ensure they suffered as few injuries as possible, and to heal any that resulted in the process.

Sillence returned to their little section, the three girls finding themselves left alone once again. This opened an opportunity to return to their thoughts, but none of them felt distracted enough to immerse themselves in something else, leaving all of the cells safely stashed away. As the three relaxed, they could hear sounds have started up elsewhere. Riyxia climbed up to a better viewpoint and noticed that Hunters elsewhere had also broken into combat with their own beast packs. With their training, supplies, and coordination, everything seemed to be in order elsewhere. The other hunters were actually holding their own far better than Sryine and Vwyx had fared, although in truth they weren't even being half as efficient as Riyxia had been while in her feral fury. Making use of her aspect of death, her aspect of destruction very possibly.. it was terribly efficient but something she would have to personally keep in check. Just as the shroud of night had to give way so that life could reveal itself during the day, so too would she have to find her own balance.

She put this into consideration, deciding that she should not be so quick to depend upon her fury for these situations in the future. She might not be as efficient, but she should still be perfectly capable of dealing with most situations without depending on her destructive impulses. The hunters didn’t have such resources, and they had everything in order. This was supposed to be training and practice, simply using her rage to deal with the matter was certainly taking the easy way out, they wouldn’t learn much of anything that way. Besides, as she was the only one who could do such a thing at this point, it wasn’t leaving much room for her friends to learn things for themselves. At close range, she was still plenty agile, her gift was pretty impressive, she should do perfectly fine in such a situation. The only thing she needed to worry about was that she wasn’t caught off guard anymore, to be taken out of the equation before the fight had even begun. For this purpose, she remained attentive at all times, aware of her surroundings in case any beast dared to approach them. She refused to be the one to suffer from a sudden surprise attack any longer.

They remained this way for a while longer, the beasts occupied elsewhere for the most part. A familiar lone pack leader looked upon them from a distance, mourning the loss of a comrade who did not know when to quit.