Voxea's punch turned out to be a bit more effective than anticipated. A loud cracking noise occured as her fist made contact with the Echo, which was followed by the sight of it being sent flying into the air.
Coincidentally, the Echo's sudden flight broke the tether it had with the ball of aether, allowing...I just remembered his name was Boleros, to bind the monster and severing his connection to the Echo.
The Echo let out a painful wail as it soared through the air, and disappeared the moment it had hit the ground. Shortly after, the Fog of War began to disappear.
As soon as the Fog had completely faded, I proceeded to almost collapse from sheer aether drain. Luckily, Voxea was there to keep me standing.
[That...was awful], I complained to Voxea.
[At least there were no explosions this time], Voxea replied with a bit of snark.
[...true].
"Boleros! When did you become a binder?!", I heard Alyra cry as I watched the girl run to embrace her rescued brother. Seeing the two embrace brought some warmth to my heart.
"I...think just now?", he replied in a sheepish manner. Evidently, I felt a bit of kinship with the young man in relation to how he became a binder.
"Silvia!", I heard Savina cry out.
"Huh? Bwah"!
No sooner did I hear her that she suddenly rushed up to me and began hugging me in a worried manner. I had a sense of deja vu, but I wasn't sure why.
"Why do you keeping throwing yourself into reckless situations?! We could've just ran after you had already rescued the guy!", Savina scolded as she held me tight in a hugging neck lock.
"S-savina... you're choking me...", I said as I tried to free myself. Meanwhile, Albina and Bori began to check out Voxea, who for her part was just floating there and acting coy.
"Uhh...Silvia. How long..."Bori said while trying to figure out what his exact question was.
"How long were you hiding this crazy thing and your other powers, brewer girl??", Albina asked in a straightforward manner whilst pointing at Voxea.
"Well...hold up".
I was about to explain/semi-lie about how Voxea and my other magical abilities, until I heard the sound of distant footsteps, voices and the baying of dog-like majimonsters. Evidently, the local guard was alerted to our fighting.
"Quickly, the aether fluctuations came from over there"!
And it sounded like they were getting close.
"Silvia, what's wro-" "We gotta go, now"!
With that declaration, I proceeded to push my friends away from the battle area and back into the alleyways. I did not want to see the inside of an Imperial prison cell...at least not yet.
_________________________________________
{See? Told you they'd be fine. My girl, Voxea, still got it even after all of this}, Belladonna said with a smile.
Malgorius just silently nodded in agreement to her statement.
Unbeknownst to Silvia and company, their little excursion off academy grounds did not go unnoticed. Malgorius and Belladonna had detected the group sneaking away, so they decided to follow to make sure they didn't get into any major trouble.
Malgorius was tempted to jump in when the Bultungin had defeated the group's first wave of monsters, but Belladonna had held him back. She believed that Voxea would be more than a match for the hyena beast. Even when the Echo appeared out of nowhere.
{On that note, we should probably get out of here}.
{Should we help the kids cover their tracks}?
{Nah, they'll figure something out}.
The ghost and binder duo proceeded to disappear into the darkness after their short conversation.
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"Interesting...what a fascinating girl and an unusual maji...monster", an androgynous voice commented to the wind.
High above the alleyways, and out of sight of both the group and the teacher, a lone figure stood atop a steeple, watching all the while.
The figure was wearing a strange, dark colored robe that seemed to blend with the night sky, a set of rings embedded with active drajules and a simple wooden mask. But the thing that would draw one's attention, if they could see the figure, was the strange silver medal, decorated with the image of a wolf eating the stars, resting on his lapel.
"It's a pity...that Ilexi...didn't survive...at least I have...good data", the figure stated before jumping off the steeple. A loud bat cry followed by the sound of a powerful gale soon followed, as the figure disappeared.