The grueling struggle against the manticore continued. The site of their battle had long been turned into a complete mess. Shattered gravestones lined the ground like confetti and many parts of the earth were gouged out by the weight of each of their assaults.

For the most part, Nemeadas and Garmr were able to drive the attention of the beast towards them. Yet with its powerful strikes, agile reflexes, and a trademark ironclad sturdiness, it became exceedingly difficult for either of these two to get a solid hit in without having to resort to trading equal blows. While Garmr was perfectly willing to go to such lengths to edge out a victory, Nemeadas prohibited it vehemently and she could only listen to him begrudgingly.

This left Krakjen and Jackie free to take care of the tail end of the manticore. But even that was difficult with how much the beast was moving around leaping and bounding distances which spanned meters at a time. Nevertheless, if that was all Krakjen had to deal with, then he could have made something happen with time. Alas, with all the spines that covered the backside and tail of the manticore like armor, it was close to impossible for him to approach and he could only do so with sparse opportunity.

Jackie on the other hand, had the skills and ability to do what he could not. What she lacked in return though was the means to hack through something even Krakjen failed to with his halberds. The best she could do in this situation was to try to whittle away the manticore's endurance by making it bleed from the scores of paper-cut equivalent lacerations she managed to leave behind. This was also after switching to her aetherblade daggers, which currently hummed with an ultra high frequency vibration arte.

As it stood, they were fighting two battles against the same manticore and it was a stalemate on both fronts. Without any outside interference, it would soon devolve into a contest to see which side would tire out first or make a mistake.

However, VGT Tyr consisted of six members, and they still had two more to tip the scales: Yajinn and Iteza. Although the elemental spirit did not have much freedom to act while maintaining the network of supporting artes, they were still able to manage the drones to help in ways that did not directly impact the fight ongoing. Which left the Oni, Iteza, who was entirely free to attack from his perch far from the danger of retaliation. Had he been up against the manticore alone, it might have been a different story, but as it was now, the creature was too occupied with Garmr and their leader to even spare a look towards his general direction.

Iteza grinned menacingly. Aside from his first arrow which detonated upon impact, the rest have been inert and drab by comparison. The truth was that he was a physical fighter and, on top of maintaining the functions of his exo-gear, he simply lacked the aether capacity to frontload all his shots with that same kind of firepower. But what he lost in quality, he more than made up for in quantity.

By not having to spend that time casting the arte before each shot, he could easily aim and fire three arrows in the same time it would have taken him to shoot once. Not to mention his shots were getting to the manticore now. It was reacting every time he scored a hit on it. And now, his barrage of arrows did not stop, and with Yajinn's drones delivering him a constant supply of arrows from the mobile armory, he would not stop until he had turned the manticore into a bloody pincushion.

…

"Hold on." Sensing something being wrong, Garmr halted in her tracks and temporarily fell back.

As the manticore continued to accumulate slow but meticulous damage, it began to act up. Its behaviour changed suddenly and it withdrew from its constant hyper aggression. Instead, its body bent low on the ground as its tail raised up like a scorpion's stinger.

With Sheng's warning about how the manticore could shoot out its spines still fresh in their minds, they would rather be safe than sorry. Garmr pulled out one of her barrier sticks and activated it at full throttle to protect her entire front. Nemeadas, who had been right by her side, did the same thing.

Barrier sticks— strong, convenient, and portable. Everyone on the team had at least three on their bodies at all times. When these personal aethertech barriers were deployed, it covered their front like a riot shield and it could protect them from physical strikes and artes alike. The only downside was that it merely lasted an hour at full strength, on a full charge, however that limit was one which could be circumvented by supplying the stick with the operator's own aether.

"Shields out—" He warned the rest of the team, but as he spoke, the manticore whipped its tail like a sling. And like a bullet, one of its tail spine was ejected straight towards him. Even knowing that he had been behind cover, he jerked his head to one side out of reflex. It was a great thing that he did too because, halfway through— the spine had embedded itself halfway through his shield and just narrowly missed scraping against his ears.

Nemeadas frowned. Well that was not ideal. Against something that moved this fast– had he not been behind cover– he might have attempted to catch it out of reflex. That was his training as a martial brawler. Was he wearing gloves? Yeah, he was wearing gloves, he reassured himself. When next he spared a glance at the manticore in the distance, he was sure that it was snickering at them now, with its big ugly face that vaguely resembled that of man's.

…

Weaving through the trees and buildings alike, Garmr ran like the wind. Behind her was the massive and unstoppable figure of the manticore chasing her through the cemetery like a big house cat. Its instincts had been lit ablaze and now, whether it was statues, buildings, or trees, it tore through them with a one track mind in order to hunt her down.

The balance of power had shifted and the battle had changed into an entirely different one. The manticore was fast as it ran, but it was lumbering and failed to adjust when Garmr would weave dexterously through obstacles and even right under the beast's legs at times. But when it approached too close for comfort, support fire from the others, namely Iteza, could distract it just enough for Garmr to land a retaliating blow that could send the thing reeling back momentarily. Even its dangerous tail projectiles could be mitigated by her shield when in conjunction with the watchful warnings of Yajinn, who was keeping a birds eye view of the entire chase through the eyes of their drones.

"It's coming!"

Garmr heard Yajinn's warning and raised her shield in kind. Almost immediately, she felt the stinging recoil of taking a hit as the manticore's tail spine deflected off at an angle and exploded the dirt in front of her. Tasting the dirt in her mouth, she leapt over the hole without slowing down and in fact even sped up as she rapidly approached a path with two statues on either side of it.

Then, she crossed the boundary with the manticore right on her trail.

"Now!" Nemeadas commanded.

With Garmr as their cue, both he and Krakjen stepped out wielding a great axe with a handle two meters long and a cutting edge over half that length. It was a monstrous weapon, perfect for monster hunting. Swinging with all their might at the manticore's leg, the axes cried out as it whistled through the air. Bang! They wedged into the manticore's shins and the beast never even saw it coming as its legs were knocked out from under it.

It kicked up in the air, tumbled, then crashed through a security building as if it were made of paper mache. Its legs bled, but they remained still firmly attached. It was able to get up only a moment later. The axes on the other hand had their heads warped by the extreme traumatic force and were no longer usable. Something really had to be said about Garmr's blade, which could continue to endure blow after blow against the manticore without so much as a scratch, where these weapons the guild supplied them with were being trashed like disposable utensils.

When the manticore looked back to see what it had tripped over, it saw the shrinking figures of the two sprinting away in a hurry. Enraged, it whipped its tail twice to attack with a projectile spine, but just like Garmr had done so before, with Yajinn's warning they had plenty of time to block it.

Its eyes seethed, but before it could chase after them, Garmr reappeared, sailing through the air with her sword flashing high above her head. She batted the manticore's skull like a mailbox and the rest of the beast was soon to follow to the ground.

The manticore snarled and attacked her with its tail. But Garmr had anticipated it coming from the start. This time she did not even bother using her shield and straight deflected the projectile with the flat side of her sword.

"Come and get me." she taunted, with her sword perched upon her shoulder.

…

Again, the chase continued. And again, the manticore had been led by the nose and fell for the traps which Nemeadas and Krakjen laid hiding behind. Then it happened for a third time, and then a fourth. But after that, even the manticore grew smart to their behaviour.

It did something that would change everything.

"Watch out, it's going to use that hiding arte!"

Yajinn, being the one most removed from the chaos of the battle, picked up on the signs first. But even then, it was too little too late. It shifted. It was slow to notice, but it was quick to happen all at once. The fur on the manticore's body stirred as it began to lose substance the same way smoke from a candle wisped away. And then the beast was gone, its entirety melded away into the night like a forgotten mirrage.

"Shit!" Iteza cursed. His arrow, which had been shot the moment of the warning, ended up slipping through the air and continued unhindered until it hit a tree on the far side of the cemetery. "I had it!"

"Forget it, Iteza. Everyone, shields at the ready and stand on high alert."

Once again, Nemeadas gave out his order for the team to be on the defensive. Even with all the vision enhancement artes that Yajinn had supported them with, none of them could pick up on the manticore anymore. The sheer effectiveness of its hiding arte was just that potent.

It was regrettable. Just as the scales had tipped back in their favor, the manticore had flipped the battle on its head again. Even worse, how would they block an enemy they could not see attacking?

"Garmr," taking out a second barrier stick in his hand, Nemeadas approached Garmr from behind. She glanced at him and the two worked together to cover each other's blind spots.

"Yes?"

"Are you able to sniff it out like before?" He asked her. He knew that was what she had done at the beginning, so perhaps he would be able to rely on her to do the same now.

"Sorry, it's hard to tell," she shook her head apologetically and looked towards all the blood splatters and shed fur that littered the cemetery. The manticore's heavy scent permeated everywhere. As far as her nose was concerned, manticore was everywhere, and that was not helpful.

…

"Jackie, come."

From far away, Krakjen called out the small Lagos fighter over. With his abundance of arms, Krakjen was able to do what the others could not and used five barrier sticks to shield himself from all sides. But due to his peculiar frame, there was just enough room left in there for Jackie to take shelter within his security.

"Coming!" Jackie replied, before making a quick dash over. Once she was there, she slipped right through a narrow gap and landed directly onto Krakjen's shoulders.

"Hold on tightly," Krakjen told her. That way, even if they were to get battered around, Jackie would remain secured.

"Holding on tightly, yes!"

…

Watching everyone pair up from afar, Yajinn also waved down Iteza as well, but not before making way to the ADVs first. There was a FBDS inside the mobile armory, and using it, they were able to set up a complete barrier which encompassed the entire vehicle.

"Come on, what are you waiting for?"

"Yeah, I heard you," Iteza said bitterly. Gritting his teeth, he took one last look towards where the manticore had vanished. He cursed silently before finally putting down his bow and heading towards Yajinn. With the key access tag he had in his possession, he passed through the barrier with no resistance.

"What now?" He then asked while quickly going inside to grab some more arrows to put into his quiver. But grabbing one, he noticed something off about it and he had to compare it with the ones he already had. When he came back out, there was something on his mind and it brought his gaze onto Yajinn's face.

"Now we wait for orders, I guess… Why are you looking at me so intently like that?"

"Hey, you." Iteza stated.

"W-What?"

"You're looking awfully pale."

Yajinn was surprised to hear this, but ultimately denied his claims.

"…I don't know what you mean."

Hearing this made the Oni look at Yajinn with a narrowed eye, but being the kind of person he was, the only thing he had left to say after this was, "You're a good liar."

"…If you can tell that much at a glance, then maybe you should be less dumb with your everyday decisions. Maybe then, Nemeadas wouldn't scold you so harshly." Yajinn smiled stiffly.

It did not come through while using the comms, but now that he was this close, Iteza could tell that Yajinn was a lot more winded than they showed. Though they acted casually still, the truth was that it was taking everything out of them in order to just stand and breathe properly. Body language had too much to tell about their current condition.

It all started when he took a closer examination of the arrows back in the mobile armory. He felt that they were a bit plain compared to the ones he had just shot only a little earlier, but how could that be the case? For a fact, he knew the arrows were produced with industrial precision, so what could it have been? He realized what it was when he took out an arrow from his quiver to compare the two side by side. One clearly had been tampered with using artes.

While he was not the most sensitive towards detecting artes, even a child could tell something was off when putting two things side by side. That was when he came to the understanding that Yajinn was using artes to imbue all the arrows he had been resupplied with. He was not good enough to tell the effects of an arte he did not himself cast, but now he knew it was no longer just his imagination that the manticore was being more responsive to his shots.

He had shot hundreds by now. Just how much aether must Yajinn have spent to do all this on top of maintaining the supporting artes on the entire team? It was no wonder that they were suffering from exhaustion right now. All of a sudden, Iteza had newfound respect towards this memelord of an elemental spirit.

Then, Yajinn addressed the team.

"I think I have a good idea of the kind of hiding arte the manticore is using. If I'm correct, then it works by shrouding the caster behind a camouflage veil. It's quite potent and will let the manticore remain hidden even as it prowls around. But once it attacks, it will tear a hole in that veil and temporarily reveal itself."

"So we are to be ducks sitting then." Krakjen said.

"What about after it tears the veil?" Jackie asked.

"I'm afraid that as long as the veil itself is there, any tears will simply close up after a few seconds." Yajinn shook their head. "Garmr's flames must have burnt it up entirely at the beginning. That's why the arte didn't activate again afterwards."

They all looked towards Garmr with expectation, but Garmr could only apologize to them.

"I'm sorry. I can't. I already used up all my reserved vials earlier."

Her blood had the extremely violent property to spontaneously combust when exposed to the outside air. By drawing her blood regularly into specialized vials, she could use them at her discretion during a fight as a quick distraction or to do serious damage. But in this case, she had already used up every last one of those vials in the beginning. This left the team stumped for choices.

"Yajinn, can you do something about this? None of us are a pure caster like you. If anyone can do something right now, it would be you." Nemeadas asked, wanting to continue exploring his options.

"I can…" Yajinn let on reluctantly.

"But?" Nemeadas pressed.

"You know I'm not very good at casting artes manually. If I do it, then I might have to stop maintaining the supporting artes. If only I had programmed it into the drones, then…"

Hearing this, Iteza shook his head and mumbled, "And you were starting to look so cool too…"

"You try doing it then!" Yajinn punched the Oni, though the impact of that hit was rendered moot with the protection of the exo-gear.

"Talking does nothing. Fighting will." Krakjen told everyone. Before they knew it, he had given one of the barrier sticks to Jackie to hold and he was going around the cemetery tearing gravestones off the ground. With these as ammunition, he began to throw it at completely random directions in an attempt to bait out the manticore. "Bait it out. Retaliate after it attacks. Simple."

"I suppose Krakjen is right."

"You guys are insane." Iteza gawked. Even Nemeadas agreed and was doing the same thing Krakjen was. And not long after that, Garmr also joined in on the madness. They really were planning on uprooting this entire cemetery.

"Yajinn, if you can do something, anything at all that might resolve this situation, then please do so. Even if you have to stop the supporting artes, keeping your abilities in reserve in favor of maintaining a hopeless status quo will do us no favors here."

"Eurgh. Et tu, Nemeadas? Fine!" At their leader's behest, Yajinn crumbled under the pressure. "I'll do something about it! Just give me like ten minutes, okay? God, I haven't done this in so long. Shit, how do I do this again? Ahhhh!"

…

…