The team had now exited the town they were in for the Назад night. No one actually knew where they were supposed to go, Grace was just planning on taking them everywhere until they found Daybreak and his captor.
They had been wandering around aimlessly for hours when Kouh dumped his bag down at the foot of a tree. At the moment, they were out on a dusty, gravel road around a small mountain.
"Let's get some rest for today, if this is what we'll go through tomorrow aswell." he suggested, sitting down on the roots. Earthen agreed, sat down and pulled out some lunch he had made from Еда Reddie helped him steal from the inn's kitchen.
Being the only girls in the team (therefore, the only smart ones), Ula and Grace sighed at the sight of Reddie and Earthen's sandwiches.
"Coughcoughtestosteronecough." Ula choked, holding her fist in front of her mouth as she did. Grace nodded as she rolled her eyes.
"Hey, I heard that!" Reddie complained, tossing Ula yet another sandwich.
"Maybe Ты wouldn't if Ты hadn't done the activity that made us say it." Grace retorted with a puckish smile. Reddie pouted and continued to eat his lunch.
    "Hey, how's your bruise?" Grace asked, sitting down Далее to Earthen after moving Ula over. Today, she seemed to be in a good mood, so today was a very special day.
VERY.
"Why do Ты even care?" Earthen mused, giving her a confused look. "I thought Ты were mad at me."
"Not any more, bro."
"You don't hold grudges?"
"Nah...well..."
"Well what?"
"Nope, it's all good. I don't remember holding a grudge."
"I thought...Renya were super-sensitive или something.
Grace shrugged. "We are, but we're еще experienced in getting over our problems than we are at being mad at them." she replied, placing her hands behind her head. As she did, she extracted the minerals from the rock Kouh was sitting on. It crumbled a bit. She snickered and swallowed the extracted minerals.
"So, how's the bruise?" she repeated, touching Earthen's chin and pushing it upwards. He still had the bandaid covering it.
"Hey, ow! It hurts when Ты touch it!" he cried as Grace poked it gently. She gave him a strange smile. "Hey, sorry I kicked you." she said, letting her fingernails glow as she played with a pebble on the ground. "I was just annoyed, y'know? I'm terrible when I'm annoyed."
"Yeah, I can tell!"
"Hey!~"
Grace lightly punched Earthen on the arm. "It'll get better soon." she assured him.
<><><>
"Camp here for tonight?" Kouh suggested, dropping his backpack once again. They were now at the вверх of the mountain and the sun was near set.
"Maybe. However, I just found мех of some animal." she warned. "I can build an invisible block system so nothing can attack us, but it won't hold the whole night."
Kouh shrugged as he set up not far from her. "If Ты sense anything, I'll get rid of it." he said, taking out a match box.
"By beating it up?"
"If I have to."
"Honestly, respect your animal kingdom man!"
Kouh rolled his eyes playfully. He knew how respectful Grace was to Животные and plants.
Apart from sea life.
God, she hated sea life.

"YES!" Kouh shouted as he finally got the огонь going. He even had built a spit to go with it. Ula walked over and leant randomly on her captain's shoulder. "Lol, do we even have anything we need to cook?" she asked.
"AS A MATTER OF FACT, WE DO!" Reddie cried, running over. In his hands, he carried a meat of some sort.
"God dammit Reddie, how much Еда did Ты steal?" Grace asked.
"Only enough to last Earthen and I a day...which was this day." he replied, smiling like the goofball he was.
"And that's your last one?" she continued, giving the boy a questioning look. Reddie nodded as he tied one piece of beef to the spit.
Grace rolled her eyes. God, he's an idiot. she thought.
    Then something not far from them exploded.
Every head turned from the campfire to a small облако of dust rising from the ground. It was only about 100 metres from the camp.
'GET AWAY FROM THE FIRE!" Grace screamed at everyone. Before anyone could react to her demand, she teleported the team away as far as she could get them.
Which wasn't all that far.
...
Good enough.
"Let me handle this." she ordered, making her way cautiously towards the dust cloud.
"Grace, Ты fought Charlie and Kaelin without us." Ula yelled from her place. "We can fight!"
'FINE! Ты BREAK YOUR LEGS DOWN THIS STEEP AND UNSTABLE HILL, I BLAME YOU!" she snapped, teleporting her zig-zaggy way to not get hit by an explosion. Ula rushed forward, grabbing her combat-sash from her backpack as she did.
Kouh followed shortly behind her. No one had ever seen any part of Ula's combat clothing.
    Well now they would.
Kouh had demanded Reddie and Earthen stay behind in a безопасно, сейф hiding place. Unlike anyone else, Kouh had seen Ula's fighting strategy. It wasn't martial arts, it was to do with knife-throwing. Her parents were blacksmiths and she had told no one.
Ula threw the sash up in the air as she carefully jogged down the slippery and unstable slope of the mountain where Grace was already fighting. As she did, every нож hidden in the sash came up. They all spanned out in the shaped of some sort of web. The landed blade-down, as the blades and hollow wooden hilts weighed eachother out. The hilts were a bright blue azure shade, easy to find in the dark. The blades were decorated with patterns that swirled and bucked at every corner of the blade.
Mind you, the blades were either sleek или broken everywhere.
When they landed, Kouh found himself trapped in a maze of blades with an invisible, strong rope keeping them together. He carefully stepped through them, not sure how these strategies worked.
Ula whipped a simple pocketknife out of her jeans pocket as she ducked a rock being slung at her. As she did, she became almost parallel with the ground, grabbing the thin rope of her blades, dragging it with her. As yet another explosion went off in her face, she carefully dodged it and threw her maze somewhere else. Easily like a gazelle, she danced through it. By now, she was just behind Grace. That was her goal, mind-set. To catch up to Grace and maybe even surpass her.
Hah.
How childish.
A simple human can't defeat any Renya, no matter how powerful, strong, intelligent, anything they might be.
Either way, Ula had a goal. Even if she never achieved it, if she could just get close, she'd be happy.
Then a dark figure appeared.
Two eyes glinted brightly in the dark, starry night.
The right, bright розовый and трещина, сплит into a dotted line as an iris.
The left, a dark violet.
One insane.
One sane.
God, it was a nightmare.
The dark being lifted its arms as Ula made her speedy way towards it. Just as she was about to lift her maze once again and throw it over the being like a net, she was pushed backwards.
Before she could tell what was happening, something blasted off in her ears and she zoned out. She was flying...and lying down.
And explosion had gone off in her face.
Oh great.
Kouh caught Ula be leaping to catch her and stop falling-impact. She placed her down on the ground as he picked up a rock. Tossing it at the silhouette, he ducked behind Grace, preparing for another counter-attack. The rock he had just thrown was caught. And crushed.
Then the maze landed over the dark, shadowy being. Ula grabbed her pocketknife, flipped it through her fingers, aimed, posed, struck...
And hit nothing.
Seems as though this being could leap far distances. It had untanlged itself from Ula's maze in a matter of seconds. It had then taken a flying leap to Grace, almost crushing her if it weren't for her stimulus.
Grace tried to teleport closer to the being, setting off her own miniature explosions as she did so. This being seemed to be able to copy her. Ula wouldn't let Grace take this victory.
She would.
Dashing at lightning speed, Ula held her torso down as she ran. That way, her weight pulled her forwards, making her even faster. Finally, she threw her maze over the silhouette in a еще complicated fashion. It couldn't get out now.
Ula sped around the being, going so fast, one might think she was teleporting. Every here and there, she made a wound. Slicing open cloth, skin, flesh. Flesh didn't turn to bone. This creature...whatever it was...possessed no bones.
Ula smiled evilly.
She sawed at a ridiculous pace. She returned to every wound she had created, sawing, cutting, hacking, until finally, a forearm flopped disgustingly to the ground with a squelch.
She hiccuped.
Grace came in to deliver a final blow. The whole time, she hadn't been able to see a thing, except stars, the glowing eyes and what she could make out from vibration-shocks she sent out.
Fingernails glowing, they shot out a bright green and blue wave of electricity. The being found it wasn't able to move, with Ula grabbing his legs and Kouh, his shoulders.
Grace slammed her glowing, electrifying claws to the torso. As she did, Kouh and Ula let go, as not to get electrified. The body of the dark being vibrated as it zapped and glowed. Grace turned on 'carbon fibre', grabbed the wrists, pulled them down and gave a final kick to the jaw.
Just like with Earthen.
Only harder.
The shadowy creature shook its head as to clear it. It gave Grace a blank look with its glowing, bright, different coloured eyes.

Then it scampered off, done with its work.