"One day left," Daniel spoke into a sending stone as he checked his map. A week had gone by, mostly in a blur of enchanting and conversation. The new style worn by Khiat's parents was a testament to that, as was their slightly embarrassing, persistent gratitude. "Besides one or two fights we've been good. Definitely looking forward to having more than a shack to walk around on though, this is like the longest flight ever."

"Well you're dealing with it well. You'd have been committed on Earth if anyone kept you in a plane this long," Alex replied. The sending stone he held was not linked to anyone else's on the team, and was in essence a direct line.

"Perks of being a magical craftsman who does monster hunting on the side, always things to keep me busy." His eyes found where Shuni was, visible only by aura as they were passing through some dense cloud cover. Nothing like a storm where entire patches of sky had reduced visibility, but he'd still put about 60% of the terrain as concealed by the fluffy white things.

"Everything alright? You sounded a bit weird toward the end." Daniel froze, dreading that Alex had gotten some kind of relationship-based power while he'd been gone. Her class was incredibly music focused, but it still had its roots in Bard.

…not that he was in a relationship or anything. That he could easily lose track of time when he talked to Shuni while enchanting was beside the point. "Don't worry, we're all good," Daniel replied in as straight a voice as he could manage. "How's the construction going?"

"Finished," Alex shot back with a hint of skepticism, informing him she had yet to drop her suspicion. "They were pulling huge chunks of rock out of the ground like kids playing in a sandbox. It was crazy."

"Crazy expensive too," Daniel mumbled. Like any magical talent, good Builders knew they could charge as if every potential customer were a detached millionaire with a suitcase of cash on hand. "Spinner?"

"She's… learning. It turns out being a giant spider doesn't give you any advantages with the violin, but she has heart. Almost as persistent as Padri too. Shouldn't have mentioned that you'd gotten the recipe for flamethrowers."

"Heh, I can imagine." Daniel decided not to correct Alex's reference to his formulae because at this point she was definitely doing it on purpose. Probably wouldn't mind as much if she didn't keep calling avianoids 'halfbirds'. It is a cleaner name, but it's also…

Distracting himself from the question of how much more confident he'd be with Shuni if she were human, Daniel bade Alex farewell and looked out at his surroundings again. Flying, that would never get dull, but Threst's skies were losing their charm.

A gray blur landed beside him, barely disturbing the vaguely trampoline-like roof of the mobile fortress. The interior was reserved for the refugees, and things might have been more uncomfortable were it not for muffle sound allowing human and duskers passengers their own quiet corners.

Shuni had a pendant with that enchantment around her neck as well, vastly improving her stealth when she activated it. "Hey, eyes are up here." She cocked her head and smiled. Avianoids may lack some aspects of human culture due to their biology, but that didn't make them ignorant of common trends. Hell, Spinner had subconsciously shaped her body off of what she'd picked up while still a full monster.

"You wouldn't mind leaving Threst, would you?" The question threw Shuni, who'd probably been expecting some kind of banter in return. Daniel was thinking about the future, however. "I know I'm going to have to eventually. Not just this region either, but the entire Realm. I don't know if there'll be anything to come back to once all of this was over."

The question made him feel like an ass, ambushing her like that, but it was one of the many things on his mind. It made him understand Evalyn's fear of him vanishing back to Earth, though in fairness she'd tried to set up better.

"Who could complain about exploring the world?" Shuni asked rhetorically, though Daniel knew her well enough by now to tell she was being evasive. She was pretty good at it, being a Rogue. Still, she shifted as Daniel's light gaze saw straight through her. "It's a lot. There are places out there where it's hard for us to live. Threst's as good as it gets for us. I mean, some regions out there are almost always on fire, Daniel. I don't like heat as much as Tounaki does."

"I doubt a god's hiding somewhere like that," Daniel assured. Although, I wouldn't put a volcano lair past Scythe. "But… alright, I'm going to ask something I already have before, except you can't judge me because it's me being a good communicator. If you didn't have any interest in me, if you'd kept up with your old team, would you rather stay here?"

Shuni's hand went to her pendant to double check that it was on, though Daniel already knew it was on as the ambient noise was filtered out. Importantly, she didn't protest anything he'd said, thinking instead. They were beyond the point of denying their feelings, though hesitation remained.

Daniel was functionally immortal. That screwed with his head whenever he thought about it, and it had implications for his love life. It was foolish to wait for someone perfect to show up, but stupid to jump into a hasty romance. Daniel wanted to avoid another Claire, Shuni had deep set trust issues and was generally reserved. While he felt she was genuine, competent, and cool in a hot way, he'd yet to grow comfortable enough to commit to anything.

The same was true with her. "I don't know. If I was stuck here and they broke the Spoke I'd run. Who wouldn't?" She shook her head as she got to the point. "Don't worry, you're not that much of a looker that I'm throwing away anything I'd miss. Well," she qualified, growing a bit more serious, "The easy flying here, I would. I could manage in the ruins, but my shoulders were sore for an entire day after we got out. Yeah, my arms shift to wings, but those stay the same."

Daniel panicked for a brief moment as he tried to decode whether this was Shuni covertly asking for a shoulder rub now. It was close to being out of character for her, but unlike him she'd been flying for most of the day.

Hunter saved him from making a decision, although if he had a choice he'd have taken the risk. Gordon sees something. Maybe a monster. Get ready.

Daniel sighed as he pulled out his blast bow and team sending stone, the moment ruined. While he and Tak let off the occasional Attune to Nature to steer away from monsters, Gordon and Qess served as their primary scouts for obvious reasons.

"Sigron, get in position just in case," Evalyn was saying as both his sending stone came out of the bag of holding, and Shuni suppressed the muffle sound enchantment. The Knight nodded as he landed next to them, moments before they took to the air.

"What's up?" Daniel asked, trying to sound more at ease than he was for Khiat's sake. They'd done a good job of avoiding trouble since reaching the border and the last thing they needed was to be attacked at the finish line.

"Caught a glimpse of something at least two kilometers above us," Gordon replied, voice carrying through the stone as the Ranger was too far forward and above to be audible otherwise. "Nothing on the senses now, but that just tells me we could be being stalked. Heavier cloud cover today, almost more mist than air. It's like we're in deep jungle."

The mobile fort shook as Khiat rolled out of the hammock that still hung from the underside. The platform made for a decent dwelling but not one that could comfortably fit three duskers and the rest of the refugees.

Not good, Daniel thought. If monster they didn't want to fight came from above they could normally dive away from it and hope it didn't have an ability that let it break the speed limit. But the platform had enough drag to limit its free fall, and they weren't going to risk any of the unBlessed being injured or thrown out from such a maneuver. They had a plan to protect them in the worst case, but it meant standing their patch of the sky instead of running.

"I'm entering stealth, going to bounce around the clouds." Shuni's form blurred once more, and when he lost sight of her the tag on her vanished. "I'll ambush anything coming at us."

"Our team doesn't have much for long-ranged options," Gordon continued, flying somewhat unsteadily back as their formation closed. "We're used to running down our targets, not the other way around."

"I can confidently say we've got range covered," Evalyn replied. "Taloran, do you have music that impairs enemies?"

"No. I have songs that-"

Qess' voice interrupted the hyperbolic Bard. "Move!" Daniel saw it a second after she did, too late to have shouted a warning. Glinting like stars high above, points of light appeared before crashing down. The thin beam was the fastest attack Daniel had seen barring the true lightning he'd wielded through his Spoke.

Six from the initial volley had targeted the Ranger, and while she dodged two, the rest speared the level 3's wings. With a sharp cry the avianoid began to fall uncontrollably, both her normal and magical wings damaged to the point that they failed.

Gordon had faced a similar barrage but had managed some kind of instantaneous speed boost to get out of the way in time, having not spent his precious moment of reaction time to warn everyone else.

The rest of the rain of death fell in a scatter, each Blessed receiving attention from at least one. Daniel grimaced as he saw the hole cored into his Focus Shield, though he'd been able to block further damage by putting his indestructible Focus in the way.

"Area-

Daniel froze time in the middle of Sigron's incantation. You two alright?

Caught my leg and Tak's back. We're healing, Hunter replied. Didn't feel too strong, but that came from far away.

It might not be strong, but it got through half my shield and knocked Qess out of the sky. And they're fast. Daniel observed his surroundings and saw neither the enemy nor another approaching volley. We'll be down Sigron and Qess, at least. Her boots will still work but she can't fight with just those. Unless Evalyn says differently, we'll have to hide in clouds and force whatever this is to come to us.

Good plan. We will stop something if it does come, then you kill it, Tak summarized. Or do whatever Evalyn says.

It would be nice if the whole team could be here. With that, Daniel stopped wasting mana and released his ability.

"-Denial!" A spherical shield of light surrounded the flying house Sigron was standing on, the Knight defiantly looking upward with his shield arm raised. He hoped the lack of force behind the beam attacks would matter more than their penetrative power given how the shield power worked.

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Daniel then considered and decided against reaching out to Janice through his sending stone to her. They hadn't asked for help before, and Zolyra's warning about conserving her higher level scrolls came back to him. They were still far enough away that the only aid they could expect would be through teleportation.

"Keep together!" Evalyn shouted, drowning out the other people trying to talk. "If you're hurt, get under Sigron's shield. Eyes open, take cover."

Daniel had already accepted Hunter's Keen Senses, and as he took position at the end of a cloud as if skulking in a bush he both charged Power Shot and desperately searched for an enemy. It'd let him hit the first thing that appeared hard with the downside of having to manually aim.

"Qess is out," Gordon said, relaying what he'd seen from the transcription stone sent by his hunting partner. "Taloran, follow Evalyn's lead. Marky… heal who you can." The surly Druid's aura crossed his arms but didn't protest.

Quiet fell over the sky plains as everyone stretched their senses for either enemies or more attacks from above. As Power Shot was reaching the halfway point of its charge, Daniel's empowered hearing isolated wing beats. Thanks to the work he'd put into marking with Identify Creature, he was able to use that brief moment to apply an aura on the enemy.

Sharash - (Cerulean Sunburst (3), Bard - 2, ~Converted~)

The tag Identify Creature applied could reveal the kind of thing he was looking at through its formatting. While he'd never seen this exact layout before, that was because he'd lacked the monster domain the last time he'd identified Rorshawd.

The implications sent him reeling. If he wasn't concentrating on Power Shot he'd have grabbed for the messaging scroll to Zolyra, this information worth burning one of the two remaining charges to keep secure. Instead he focused on lining up his shot as best he could while Hunter relayed his fears to the team.

He was about to fire when the possibly mortal-piloted monster broke from the heavy cloud cover and hovered in the middle of their group. It was the most aesthetically beautiful monster he'd ever seen. The dragons he'd faced had a kind of terrible majesty, but the truck-sized bird pulling out of a dive had them beat. Its outer fringe was clear blue, while shocks of bright yellow ran horizontally from the body to the edges. The colors blended at the edges and seemed cast in direct sunlight despite their surroundings, giving the appearance of an oil painting rather than-

What am I doing? Daniel shook himself out of the entrancement in time to use Power Shot before it overcharged and dissipated, but he couldn't bring himself to move the barrel of the blast bow in line with the monster. He'd been on the receiving end of mental influence powers before, and he recognized another now as his Focus Shield lit up with a notification he could still read despite the hole repairing itself.

Alert: You are currently under the effect of a hostile Feature: Entrancing Presence. Your Defense: Wisdom was unable to overcome the aggressor's Offense: Charisma

"Reverse-taunt effect!" Daniel called out as, with no other option, he released the fully charged Power Shot to fly behind the cerulean sunburst. There were shapes flitting about behind it, but the monster was both forcing his attention to it while suppressing any hostile desire. He managed to tag at least two others, but couldn't track them as they flew around.

When will alone wasn't enough to defeat the influence power, Daniel turned to his own. "It's… ugly." There was resistance as he incanted, but Reassure provided the leverage to remove the effect on him as it was self-cast. Afterward it was like he'd come out of a tunnel, his awareness expanding once more across the battlefield, though Sharash's presence still crept at the edge of his mind. The effect would probably apply again after long enough, but they had bigger problems.

Torust - (Irontusk Grinder - (2), Druid - 1, ~Converted~)

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Fashaw - (Adult Nettlewing Gryphon - (2), Ranger - 1, ~Converted~)

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Astirus - (Lodestone Ludegrund - (2), Arcanist - 1, ~Converted~)

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Voshast - (Ephermal Harpy - (2), Martialist - 1, ~Converted~)

They'd been ambushed by a team of former hunters. If Daniel was right, judging by the lack of the forced transmutation tag and how the enemy was moving, these were people like Rorshawd who had willingly given themselves to the Origin Beast through whatever communion was.

In the moment the Sharash had distracted them, the other four had searched for members of his team and were now attacking as they struggled to cleanse the reverse-taunt. A sixth must have still been above as the glittering beams came down at the same time, injuring Taloran who'd been a little too taken by the distraction.

It was chaos amid a backdrop of dense cloud cover. Evalyn was attempting to cleanse the rest of the team with her music, too busy to direct the team to do anything other than defend themselves. Daniel's priorities were adjusted when he heard Shuni's pained shout.

The Rogue had been countered the hardest out of all of them. She relied on stealth and mobility for defense, and often positioned aggressively with the knowledge that she could escape danger. The appearance of the cerulean sunburst had made her pause, while the lodestone ludegrund hosting an arcanist's soul had locked her down. The variant of a monster he'd seen before had a smaller trackball in the center that moved outside the body opposite the direction she was trying to flee. With her stuck in one place outside of cloud cover, she was left vulnerable to beams from above and the spectral weapons floating around the ludegrund.

"Evalyn, I'm going after Shuni!" He didn't wait for a response, springing immediately into action. The moment Daniel exited the cloud he was in, attacks descended on him from above. He still couldn't make out what was casting that, but as they'd focused on the level 3's before the next shots concentrated on him now. Aware of what they would target, Daniel turned in the air and took the shots to the front to save his wings.

It felt like getting stabbed by the hexscuttle stalker as they lanced through him, piercing through his armor with minimal effort. At the same time, the air vibrated around him as the monstrous Bard shrieked. Not only did the sonic damage threaten to blow out his eardrums, but his pace noticeably slowed through the air. Hostile Bardic Music.

Behind you! Hunter shared a warning in his mind and Daniel saw the 'irontusk grinder' swooping down toward him. The Druid had to be in a combat form as the double-headed avian monster didn't have any tusks, though the beaks looked extremely sharp.

Adrenaline, not magic, slowed time as Daniel looked between the aggressors and Shuni, still caught out. This is Soraso. Fucking bastard, this is his men targeting me. There had been the possibility of mortals coming to arrest Daniel, though they'd hoped the honor inherent in the system would prevent something like this aggressive ambush from happening. Soraso was still attempting to operate above board, and putting a hit out on another team without an airtight case would damage his image.

Worst case Daniel could sneak away with Khiat's parents and have Rasalia speed away to bail out the rest. But this? Daniel had not for one second considered what would happen if those as faithful as Rorshawd had been reached the Origin Beast. It cast the Spiritualist's plans in a new, terrible light.

Hunter, I'm borrowing Beast Mode, Daniel thought back in reply as the Druid neared him. His brother didn't object, hearing and feeling the murderous intent in him. I'll combo with Reciprocal Cleansing Strike, then give it back.

The cooldown… fine. Fighting one with poison, but we'll be fine. Don't die.

I'll give you Fortitude then, and I'll take the poison if it gets too bad. Don't die on me either. Another beam from above struck during the shift, and thanks to the loss of his former oath bond all of his wounds were still present. That wasn't always a bad thing.

Daniel loaded Grounding Roar into Might and Magic and grabbed the result as one of the monster's heads came to bite into his shoulder. Looking at it reminded him of Rorshawd, and with Shuni still desperately trying to stay alive in the background, there was more than enough to feed Defiant Rage. "Traitor," he growled, making no attempt to block the attack coming for him.

As a sharpened beak cut into him, clamping down to prevent him from getting away, Daniel clawed at one of the necks and released the power. Reciprocal Cleansing Strike, one of Hunter's newer powers from recent awakenings, canceled the movement penalty the enemy Bard was afflicting him with. When the blow landed, he felt his gamble had succeeded.

The ability not only cleansed one effect but gave Hunter, and thus him, a chance to inflict it back on whoever they attacked. It wasn't guaranteed, and the ability had a cooldown that prevented them from spamming it, but the combination of that stacked with the disruption from his own Grounding Roar severely impaired the double-headed Druid's movement. The second head had been coming in for an attack as well but began moving at half-pace, easily allowing Daniel to dodge it.

Going all out, and aware that Hunter was wide open in poorly-fitted armor while he was using this body, Daniel then used the mana expensive Opportune Moment ability to give him a brief window of bullet time. Literally, as he slowly pulled out the blast bow from his bag of holding. Daniel planted the barrel into the feathers of his enemy and somewhat clumsily fired with a claw.

The force of the exploding round sent both of them flying away from each other, with the Druid prizing a decent portion of his shoulder as it came away. It didn't matter, because he'd just dealt a massive amount of damage to it. Ferocious Healing cared not for the source. That was the other reason he'd wanted to borrow Beast Mode, as that stacked with his latent Regeneration to almost fully heal him despite the friendly fire from his own gun. It saved him both a healing potion and the time spent using one. Even if he'd developed a syringe based on one recovered from Rikoor, Shuni couldn't afford another delay.

Sending Beast Mode back with his thanks, and another shot at the Druid who'd survived the initial hit, he rushed to Shuni before one of the other former Blessed attacked. The strange ludegrund tried to intercept him with the summoned weapons flying around it, but Daniel was easily able to dodge around them.

The monster let out an odd shriek tinged with fear when Daniel prepared another point blank shot on the ludegrund's weak point. He hesitated, but only for a moment. The blast bow jerked as he sent an exploding round into the main body, rather than the sphere that represented its head. That was enough to send it spiraling away, heavily injured. Neither the class nor the monster made one particularly durable.

I could have killed them, Daniel thought. He had every reason to, but…

His arm shot forward and blocked another glittering beam from above with the Focus Shield before it could hit Shuni. She'd yet to break out of the enemy Bard's effect, the cerulean sunburst remaining relatively untouched as the rest of his injured team fought off the other monsters. Between the unassailable sniper above and the level 3's debuffs, the monsters had kept the momentum.

"Give me your arm. Hey, stay with me." The Rogue was in a haze that grew worse as Daniel flew them into a cloud, but the incantation helped clear some of what was assailing her. The healing potion did the rest. Shuni looked almost as bad as when she'd been fully paralyzed in the ruins, covered in small wounds and bloodied armor with occasional circular gaps missing. She would've been dead without his armor, and she wasn't the only one in the group either.

"Damn it," she cursed, shuddering slightly as the sensation of magical healing took hold across her body. "Again. I-"

"You survived. We all got ambushed, this isn't your fault." He pressed a normal healing potion into her hands as he stored the used syringe. "Evalyn, Shuni's fine. Anyone in danger?"

"Sigron's shield's holding," she said quickly. "But the green scaled one is poisoning everyone while that damned songbird counters whatever I try to do. If we didn't have Gordon, or Tak and Hunter…"

Anger burned within him again at the implication. His hand clenched the sending stone on his head for a moment as if to tear it off, and in the next moment he knew what had to be done. "Shuni, are you alright?"

"I… I can fight. They got my wings, but I still have yours." There was no confidence in her voice. With others she projected it, putting up a front, but he knew self-doubt was eating into her. "Not going to let everyone down."

"You don't have anything to prove to anyone." It cost precious seconds, but he drew her into a one-armed hug before letting go. It was about all he could do as the enemy Druid had recovered and was on the hunt for him. Were it not for the rest of his team holding on they'd all be swarming him. "You're a badass ninja, and it's your turn to bring the pain. I'm about to give you a huge distraction to work with. Hit them hard for me."

They were close enough that he could see the light smile despite the cloud around them. "Careful, keep it up and I might think you like me."

Daniel smiled too, the killer instinct within him dwindling, before he stoked it again. Hunter, we need to take out the level 3. Let's link up and end this.

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