Moments later, the four girls returned to the camp to prepare for the confrontation with the beasts, having surprised a bunch of the hunters by teleporting in. Things appeared to be otherwise fine at the camp for now, but it wouldn’t remain that way for much longer.

“Ayzherie, get everyone organized and packed up, we need everything in the air as soon as possible. You can’t afford to hold too much of a defense, maybe against the beasts, but not against the flame.” “Exactly how do you plan on dealing with that many flames anyway? Didn’t it take too much to deal with just one?” “We also had a year to adjust, and these flames seem to be little more than embers in comparison.. but augmenting beasts… This is why we need to ensure we don’t have to worry about holding a defense. Get everything into the air.” Riyxia set the stone fragment she had recovered on a nearby table while rushing to ensure Ayzherie would be ready, helping her to organize the other hunters in the process. They had obtained the fragment, something they could research further once they had brought it safely back with them, but for now there were many additional concerns she wanted to have returned safely. Vwyx recovered some of her own samples of her work from the same table, stored safely away in a couple of small boxes. It was time to make use of her own research. Sryine was at that moment a distant away, looking ahead at their approaching threats.

This left the fragment abandoned on the table, and as Vwyx put sufficient distance between her and it, the fragment began to glow a brighter purple. In moments, the table was burned to ash powder, with fortune that there was nothing else of importance on the table, the flame rendering the sand below to a jetblack glass. Sryine screamed at that moment, but Vwyx responded to circumstances, having the sand carefully set her boxes down as she turned towards the blazing fragment. Even as she approached it, she felt the flames fade, the entire fragment going quiet once again by the time Vwyx was close to it. She had a moment of fear that no organic person should ever touch a thing this dangerous, yet her actions were without hesitation. She picked up the stone with her own hand, the fragment calm once again in the comfort of another flame. No, it wasn’t calm, her own flame was blazing.. it was enriched by this presence and offering. The fragment had not gone quiet, she was simply devouring the blaze it was trying to project. Knowing that they needed a way to deal with the fragment for now safely, she rapidly formed a jetblack crystalline shell over the fragment and set it into a solid stone shield she set over her right arm. Riyxia tried to step in at this point, to accept her own responsibility, but Vwyx’s stern uncompromising look made it clear that Vwyx wasn’t interested in discussing that particular matter.

“I think this is a good opportunity to present some of the supplies I’ve been working on. Ammunition, but nothing ordinary. Sryine, see what you think of these arrows. Yes, they don’t look anything like your normal ones, they should even be slightly heavier too, which is why I’ll need to provide you with a better bow for them. It’s a metallic mineral arrow with a crystalline arrowhead.. specifically onyx. If it looks like the same black crystals we keep using in instruments to improve the gift, that’s no coincidence. These arrows are designed to work with your gift, submerse themselves in it, and deliver a strike that makes optimum use of it. The arrowheads won’t endure the augmented gift for very long, but it will be long enough to make the shot count. Having the crystal shatter is only going to make things hurt more. I suspect you could then submerse it in.. say.. lightning.. and then you could freely manipulate the arrow along with its lightning. Attuned like that, you could even unleash quite a storm around the arrow too.. I’m sure you’ll find good ways to use them. I’ve also made myself some similar grenades, with the same onyx crystal at its core. I won’t be able to play tricks with them after throwing one.. not in the same way at least.. but I can easily configure what each one does in a moment before throwing it. Projecting gravitational force waves seems to be the easiest application, which can also be rather effective, but I’ve been having some small success with mist grenades too.” Vwyx opened the first two boxes in turn, explaining the contents in the process, and all while crafting a very high tension bow from nothing but sand. Having completed it just at that moment, she passed both the bow and the arrows over to Sryine, who started trying them out. Without her augmentation, the bow was almost impossibly heavy, as was the massive quiver of arrows.. containing several hundred within. Even trying the string, it was clear this would be impossible to move at all with a person’s regular strength, the tensile force was insane. She smiled at that moment, realizing how much fun this gift was going to be. Riyxia however had grown quiet and distant, Vwyx having taken her completely off guard in this turn of events.

“Riyxia, don’t just go thinking I’ve got nothing for you, I know that’s what you’re thinking. How could I make such ammunition for you, when you don’t use any ranged stuff? Well, you might not be carrying anything yourself.. physically. Your spectre however has been very good with weapons. This last box then contains a case of mineral-metal blades, ebony so that you don’t feel left out. Your spectre doesn’t use the gift though, so it doesn’t need crystals, it instead needs something that won’t break.. ever. So less like crystals, more like a durable diamond-edge. Unlike any other blade, these are like a full-body blade without a grip of any kind, so I don’t even recommend picking one up with your own hands. Possess them, go all dancing blades, and cut things to ribbons. Should offer you plenty of opportunity to do what you do.” Vwyx opened the last box to reveal its contents, the case inside designed to be easily carried upon the back.. if you’re somehow capable of dealing with such incredible weights. None of this stuff was going to be leaving with them, it was all far too heavy for transport, but she had gotten really good at making this stuff.. she could replace anything at any time, even while they were fighting if required. Riyxia took her case of blades with a soft wordless smile, still a bit out of place.

“Riyxia, get it together girl. This isn’t like you, and we’ve got plenty of work to get done. You three have got this, especially with such great stuff, so get out there and get stuff done. Don’t worry about things here, I’ll get us in the air. Keep your comsets on though, information is going to be important.” “Oh, yes, right. Thank you Vwyx, it might be best we go and test this stuff out right away then?” Ayzherie gave Riyxia a verbal push, something to get everything moving again. Riyxia shouldered her case of blades, easily numbering over a hundred and change. Vwyx followed behind as the two of them went to where Sryine was both testing her bow and reviewing their threat. Field testing.. that sounded more productive than just pulling a string. Sryine took a moment to ensure everyone was prepared before warping them all to the front lines. Most of the beasts weren’t augmented, especially the front pack, though she couldn’t be certain why. Either it was a matter of sample size, limited resources, or that the protective measures applied prevented the flame from any action in select instances. Being careful with the flame, that made sense to Sryine at least. Getting a closer look, that wasn’t the only thing she noticed.

Being set before the beasts mid rampage, Sryine quickly noticed that none of the beasts even cared about their presence. Obviously, they had instructions.. that came from the control Liyuzhe had over them. Right, Liyuzhe was testing her new utility, it was a controlled threat.. she of course didn’t want to kill them. Sryine knew instantly in that moment what kind of instructions the beasts would have, to destroy equipment and spare people, leaving them grounded and stranded, possibly losing important equipment that would set them back a while so that Liyuzhe could keep going without interruptions. It was exactly what she had threatened Ieqyisa with earlier. This also proved just how much Liyuzhe was underestimating the flame itself. Further in the back lines of the beasts, the biggest thing that had slowed down the augmented ones was a moment of confusion that had quickly evolved into them attacking each other in a chaotic destructive rampage. Some augmented beasts were fighting each other, some were fighting their non-augmented varieties.. beasts that didn’t even defend themselves as they were slaughtered. The general movement of the herd was drawing even the augmented beasts to begin moving in the same direction, turning the augmented beasts in their direction. Of course, they had witnessed it for themselves, controlling the flame.. just doesn’t happen. Technically, the only reason they had any control over themselves was because they were of the flame.. and had grown to accept that. Liyuzhe’s control was simply having a reverse effect with the flame, leaving no one with any control at all over the select beasts.

“Ayzherie, I hope you don’t mind, but we might need a slight change of plans. The beasts are scattered and divided, separating augmented from unaugmented. The unaugmented ones are going to make it easier to manage the augmented ones, so we’re going to need to mostly ignore them. The unaugmented are after our supplies, not our lives, so your hunters should be able to hold the lines against them with your defense. We will need to focus on holding the line against any that are augmented.” “Sryine, you’re asking for a lot, you know that right? Pack up quickly, and defend against beasts.. even regular stock ones. The hunters are also terrified, a problem I know you’re very inundated with.” “Yes, fear can help and hinder, I know. We’ll be certain to provide the defense a suitable display to instill them with a measure of confidence, while trying to slow the tide enough to make it easier for you. Vwyx, can you get on that.. the whole confusing and slowing down the regulars? We’re going to need to then spread out and cover more of an area, focusing on the flame.” Sryine warped off into the distance with her own statement, leaving Ayzherie to organize things at their camp. Riyxia took to her spectre form in an augmented series, taking possession of a large number of her blades as her physical body rushed to keep up as she went in a direction opposite Sryine. Even augmented herself, the augmented blades were still much faster than she was.

Vwyx was left to hold her grounds right where she stood, effectively in the middle. Confusion, slowdown.. it certainly wasn’t beyond her, which was probably why Sryine didn’t even wait for an answer. Vwyx however didn’t miss that illusions could have handled things impressively well in this objective, she was just being given this role because she was the least mobile. Teleportation, ghost walking.. she had nothing that compared to either. Fine then, she knew she could depend on her sandy environment, she was an expert in making the most of her terrain. A sandstorm would leave the beasts blind and confused, while shifting sands would become like a bog that would slow down their motion as the sands pulled them in, much like quicksand. Spread over a huge area, it would be generally harmless, especially to the augmented in the area, but it would be a simple way to do what was asked of her. As she brought her gift to measure for her goals, the shield she carried started to glow faintly again.. lit by the fragment within. As the power of her flame was asked for, the fragment infused her with many times beyond her normal. The sand started to move and swirl, both on the ground and in the air, but this swirl grew to an incredible intensity. Beasts left to the sandy winds quickly found the wind had grown violent and destructive, the sharp sand slashing many of the weaker ones to ribbons instantly, while causing serious injury to any unaugmented. The sand below them wasn’t just being a bog that slowed down the beasts, it actively tried to consume anything standing on it, pulling it under and crushing such creatures flat. This destructive force did nothing to identify targets, all three girls were left to suffer the wrath of the sands too, fighting to stay above the sands while the air slashed them repeatedly. Vwyx brought a quick end to the sandstorm, putting everything back the way it was originally.

“Ayzherie, nevermind, it seems we’ve got your defense better than estimated. Almost any non-augmented beasts were just wiped out, the remainder are being currently dealt with by the augmented ones. Sorry, this means we’ve ran out of a good distraction, and we’re going to have our hands full with augmented beasts seeking prey. Vwyx.. are you okay?” “Yeah, sorry.. that was a bit more than I thought it would be too. I’ll make sure to be more careful.” Sryine was at least glad to hear a reply from Vwyx, having feared Vwyx had completely lost control. With such concerns addressed, she found herself the attention of several augmented beasts that had nothing else as a distraction. Many were attacking each other, but some were turning towards her. She pulled out one of the new arrows and infused it with lightning, setting it to the bow as she aimed her first shot.

Vwyx was still confused at what had just happened, but she could almost feel the flow of the flame within her, almost in answer to her questions. The fragment had fueled her flame, giving her far more ability than she had first expected. It however did not share her own will, so it appealed to the nature of the flame itself, mass destruction. Thus, her augmented gift tilted towards an effect that was much more destructive than her original estimates. The fragment clearly was incredibly powerful.. it was also keeping her feeling very refreshed through the entire process, but it seems she herself hadn’t adjusted to the differences between the raw flame she gained from the fragment.. and the flame of her own essence. She wasn’t even certain she could completely compensate for it, she would have to instead be ready for the substantial destruction it would inspire. It might thus be good to reduce how much she depends on her own gift, and turn to mostly using her grenades, things she had made before picking up the fragment. Even a weapon of such a destructive nature would be less ruthlessly destructive right now than her own infused flame.

It was at that moment that she realized just how big of a problem things were, but she had no time to react. Riyxia was also currently infused by the fragment, and was ready to unleash against the beasts before her, the blades themselves wielding her infused flame. Riyxia herself was also preparing to use her own gift to her advantage in combat, likewise infused. It wasn’t just Riyxia, because while all of the ammunition provided was made while Vwyx was not infused, it wasn’t until after Vwyx had taken up the shield that she had then created Sryine’s bow. The bow was thus actually infused with destruction, waiting to unleash its first arrow. Having aimed her first shot, Sryine let the arrow fly. The arrow did not simply fly, it wailed, the projectile moving at an almost impossible speed. The lightning-disturbed air formed in a rapid vacuum in the process, filling with energy and leaving a sonic wave far worse than thunder. The arrow struck out like a beam, a wide torrent unleashed in the process that decimated the landscape before Sryine. The arrow meanwhile took full yield of its lightning in discharge at the target with its incredible velocity, the arrow itself effectively vaporizing on contact into microscopic shards. The storm of its flight was pulled into the point of impact, resulting in an electrical implosion of a substantial magnitude. The augmented beast hit by that attack stopped existing after that moment, as did much of the area around it. However, the space it held burst into a vibrant purple spherical inferno that rendered what was left of the ground far below it into a black glass, an effect that bursted outwards a short distance before the flame ran out.

Knowing the three of them were capable of some impressive things, Riyxia didn’t even consider that the bright display in the distance was far beyond what Sryine had originally intended. She didn’t even know that the burst from the bow had actually caused a measure of injury to Sryine in the process. Instead, she turned to confront the enemies who stood before her. These beasts though had an unnatural ability, even her attempt to swing at one with a possessed blade was avoided. However, even being missed did nothing to spare the life of the beast, the passage of the blade getting close enough to taste the essence of the beast present, an infused flame hungry for both the life within and the flame within. A colorless haze swirled around the blade while it was close, and the beast collapsed to the ground soon after, having been completely consumed. Only a colorless husk remained of the beast, which faded away in the wind quickly afterwards. At this point, the blade started to glow a faint purple as it passed even further from another augmented beast.. who was also consumed. A beast rushed towards her physical body with its augmented ability, only to find itself instantly unmade in a puddle not far from her feet. She jumped away when the puddle ignited with a purple flame, as if it was burning oil, leaving the sand a black glass once again.

“I think our exposure to the fragment has.. kinda had an effect on our own abilities. Everything is a lot more.. destructive .. and burny.” “No shit. By the divine, that hurt.” “The sandstorm? Sorry, I…” “Well, that too. I was talking about your bow though. It just sliced a really nice cut into my arm. … colored sand, nice.” Vwyx realized in that moment just how dangerous the bow she had left Sryine had actually turned out. “Sryine, do you need some healing? I’ll be right…” “No, thanks though. If everyone’s gift is currently bloodthirsty, I think I’ll wait on that.” “But.. I’ve already done healing after having the fragment, and everything was fine.” “When you were focused on safety and not killing, yeah. This whole willpower thing is a mind game, we become more destructive when we want more destruction. I mean, if you think this is just you.. consider that there really isn’t any actual flame in this bow. My own flame is just.. appealing to its design, obviously. It probably doesn’t help that we’re actually hunting flames, leaving their flames to just spill across the ground. … I wonder if that’s what it would look like if we were to die too.” “Please, let’s not think about dying. However, you might have a point about hunting flames. I’ve noticed the beasts that die spill as fire.. unless my blade devours them. By the way, those blades are glowing the worst purple right now.” “Yes, I think I’ll wait until later for healing, thank you. Pretty sure I can endure this no problem while augmented.” Riyxia figured that mentioning the blazing blades probably didn’t help her case for providing healing for Sryine, a fact that was missed originally. Sryine resorted to setting an illusion on herself to cloud the injury, an illusion of not being injured at all. She knew such an illusion had a high risk, it could result in her missing serious injuries and failing to adjust to any of her injuries, but it also cleared her head of all of the pain. She wondered for a moment if this was the sort of treatment Vwyx had all the time, just with the ability to still see any injuries.

Wondering about Vwyx, Sryine noticed that Vwyx was starting to seriously hesitate, having been absorbed in fear instead. Right, the fragment was too destructive, so Vwyx was afraid of hurting her friends. Worse, Vwyx’s augmentation tried to have her care less about things, and her reversal of that nature resulted in her caring even more to counter such an effect.. much like how Sryine had to shift her own emotions to compensate for her own augmentation. Reality, plans, serious stuff.. even numbers, that stuff helped her. It was this similarity that helped her to see what was going on, along with her very close understanding of fear. Meanwhile, Riyxia was practically dining on a cuisine of flames at this point. Sryine was the only one not carrying her own fair share.. of burning purple flames. Even the concept was terrifying enough to pierce through her augmentation, the pure embodiment of her greatest fears. But she also remembered what had caused those fears.. having left another to tend to the flames as she fled. Fear was one of her weapons now, it was something she was most proficient with, and she wouldn’t let her friends suffer without even lending a hand.

Sryine suddenly appeared near Vwyx after Vwyx had thrown a grenade.. to no effect. “Shield please.” “What?! No, I couldn’t…” “You’ve been burny long enough, share please. Some of us are getting hungry?” “I.. what?” “Thank you!” Sryine took advantage of Vwyx’s sudden confusion to take the shield, warping away right after. “Sryine, you know that…” “I know that this is a scary situation, but I know I’m not the only one here with fears. Go spend some of that destruction on some beasts, get it out of your system. Try not to do the Riyxia thing and eat your victims, things will just take longer that way. Not that I mean any insult to Riyxia’s way, I will just remain safely way over here doing my own destruction in the meanwhile. I think it's safe to assume that, in this situation, anything we do is dangerous. Let’s just try to minimize the damage and avoid doing anything in even the general direction of each other, okay?” Vwyx had no reply for Sryine, but took a moment to cool down and get her thoughts together. Now both of her friends were fully imbued with the fragment, they were all dangerous. Sryine was even saying that this nature couldn’t be avoided, only worked with. It was just like how her circumstances with pain were, but it seems she was letting the fear of pain haunt her. Pain was something she knew, a nature she knew she couldn’t run from. Destruction.. was in all of their nature. This was so crazy.. something which clearly felt like augmented Sryine.. but maybe Sryine still had a good point.

Vwyx set her gift into another grenade, changing its properties with her own influence, and threw it long, trying to get some good distance. The grenade struck the ground and exploded in a shockwave following its original momentum. Rather than explode once as it was designed for, the thing opted for a massive chain reaction, cascading a series of bursts that bent the very air itself in waves. This ripped one of the augmented beasts apart into a blaze of fire.. while also throwing back a short distance a number of the beasts behind it. This also had the unfortunate effect of getting everyone’s attention, all of the beasts in her area deciding at that moment to turn upon her. She rapidly crafted a stone hammer out of sand.. still uncertain what destructive nature had been implemented into her design, as she stood her ground against her foes.

Sryine meanwhile was realizing how hard it was to use a bow while carrying a shield, the stupid thing getting in her way no matter what arm she puts it on. Accepting the fragment was a fair thing, but in that moment she had forgotten to consider what it was sitting inside. To compensate, she applied her gift to the flow of time, using one posture to load the bow up.. Then accelerating herself so that she could switch postures and the arm carrying the shield when it came to firing the bow. This involved having the shield on the arm holding the end of the bow while loading it, and in the moment of firing.. she would take that instant to switch the shield to the arm that was no longer pulling the string. Her second shot was much like the first, the bow generating incredible force.. but now even the lightning beheld its own hunger. Rather than simply result in an electrical implosion again, the target became an electrical node that discharged violently in an electrical chain to everything around it. This electrical current turned sandy hills into brilliantly white sparkling gems that continued to discharge its electrical excess. Waves of lightning rippled across the field in this way until all of the extra energy was spent, a storm cloud gathering overhead due to the major buildup within the ground, the only real place for all the energy to go. Once the sky had gone pitch black, a massive surge of lightning erupted everywhere before her scouring for the skies. The air was still filled with so much electrostatic energy that her hair was standing on end.. and her comset had shut down. The lightning wasn’t having any serious issues for it directly, but the ambient light and energy.. and effect of the flame itself.. those were things that overloaded it and forced it offline for the moment.

While Sryine was left to wait for the discharge to end, left blind and unaware because of her gear shutting down, a beast had managed to sneak up on her with its increased maneuverability. Left without recourse, Sryine dropped the bow and drew her rapier, bringing the shield to bear to block for her. She knew that she wasn’t good with a shield, the shift in balance was not to her advantage. It was thus not surprising for her at all that her strike missed, and her block failed. The rapier went flying from her hands in that moment as the beast pinned her to the ground, the direct contact of its claws cutting into the flesh of her already injured arm. Her raw gift was all that she had going for her. She knew, calling forth the elements at this range could be really dangerous, especially after that last shot, so she resorted to her other gift. Her illusion started to try to find a new aspect for herself.. and the pain returned to her. At that moment, the injury distracted her thoughts, her pain taking shape in the illusion. A red blob flowed over her, looking akin to blood itself, until she seemed to be that blob. As the pain began to flare, so too did she, and the fragment responded. The illusion of blood lit with an illusion of purple flame.. a flame that enveloped and consumed her attacker. This illusion did what illusions did best, it attacked the mind of her assailant.. with destructive force. Being left with measures trying to control its mind made it even more vulnerable, the flame within it awakening in response to the presence of the greater flame to completely consume the shattered will of its host. The beast was dead.. its body completely unharmed, but it’s mind viciously decimated. Sryine took down all her illusions to assess the situation, the pain returning to her newly kindled. The beast looked perfectly fine.. but was so obviously dead to her. The beast also no longer had any shimmer at all, it’s flame was gone. With her own illusion removed, Sryine was also able to notice the wound of her arm.. a wound that was causing her to lose blood.. the blood was no longer red. Her injured arm almost seemed as if she was a purple blaze, both inside and out, the red over her arms having turned to purple instead.. the sand that collected her dripping blood shifting rapidly to black glass.

The thought and moment was almost surreal for Sryine. In a way, she was on fire.. and yet, she wasn’t. She was the fire, dripping free from her own body. Sure, that was still a bad thing.. Bad because she was injured, bad because her life was dripping from her.. bad because she was incinerating the sand she stood upon. But, this was the one time she was faced with seeing a flame that was.. her. It was like revealing the mask of herself and finally seeing who she actually was. The invitation to descend into madness was so inviting, but she focused on the practical concerns. Her blood.. her flame.. it could wreck things like this, especially while she carried the fragment. Her body seemed to be adjusted to the flame, even having her arm on fire didn’t cause her any further injury, it was just her fire, her body had long gotten used to it. But her body had never unleashed her flame so.. purely, there were other things that wouldn’t be so used to it. Her clothing for one.. a notable flame hazard. She encased the cloth in a conjuration of a bit of water, drenching her completely, a concerning state itself, but not as bad as the alternative. Her flame flickered in the water, but relit instantly. After a turn of her head, her hair lit on fire too, but itself was also resistant to her own flames, the hair turning a vibrant purple while ignited. Sryine got herself set into a mantle of water, to protect her stuff from any further flames. She was even forced to take the comset off, so that it didn’t suffer any burns.

It was clear that this flame was just like her blood, she shouldn’t think of it any differently. Blood flows from a wound while a person is hurt, so she would be ablaze until her wounds were healed. There was no alternative, she would have to get healing from Riyxia before things got any worse. She warped over to Riyxia just as Riyxia had unleashed another wave of death, stepping out from a safe direction.. behind Riyxia. Riyxia spun around at Sryine’s approach, went pale, and fainted. Sryine sighed, this was not what she needed at that point. She looked around for Riyxia’s spectre then, though it was hard to spot while everything was shimmering. Her comset might have made things easier.. but that wasn’t usable at this point. She instead waited for one of the blades to float right up to her, also glowing a vibrant purple.

Sryine knew communication was only one way, and thus explaining things would be very difficult, so instead she just showed her injured arm for the blade’s inspection. Once the blade backed away slightly, she poured an illusion of water on the sleeping form.