Aero hunted the rest of them quickly before returning to the inn. It only took him two and a half flowers, so plenty of daylight was left in the day. With not much else to do, he did some path charter exercises. At the same time, he did stretches to keep the blood flowing and temper his annoyance when he failed an exercise.
"is that even a real route? What place has there blackholes and whole in a dark nebula?" the helper stated it was real,' the white hole and nebula led to the creation of a rare element that was worth a planet. Aero blinked, "so who owned the rights to that?"
'it is a collation. The rare element helps produce power for several star systems and has high medical value.' well, no wonder it was worth a planet. He wondered if the lord of greed had any finger or appendages in it.
Another few excuses passed before there was a knock on his door, 'it might be Inna.' but that thought didn't stop him from preparing to enter fight mode. When he answered the door, he wasn't that surprised to see Galia, and the two exchanged words before it reached the point that she admitted to just checking if he was back in the in.
"I want to make sure my teammates are safe; don't take it personally." then she walked away.' that sounded rehearsed,' which brought back some annoying memories that he didn't let relate to her. She rehearsed for a different reason, and Aero was fine with that.
'it's okay, it's okay,' he tried to distract himself with the exercise. This one required him to plot a course for a really specific ship type, one with great faster-than-light travel, but it was a really delicate system. The situation was not helped as the ship was being chased by parties without systems to defend themselves.
'so the biggest problem is getting to allied space for reinforcements.' looking on the map, he saw three types of terrors his ship could go through. The worst option was space, which was at war with its allies. The second option was complete neutral territory, which wouldn't help him nor stop the pursers.
The third option was a mixed bag; it belonged to mercenaries, a concept that didn't exist on his planet; he could hire someone to defend his ship or buy time. But his pursuers had allies in the area. Plus, they could also hire someone to stall his ship. "well, this is a puzzle; the first option was already out. " going through enemy territory with the resources the ship had was a death promise.
The third option was kind of good, but the middle option was the best. But he needs a way to improve his odds, looking over his resources and options he had. 'there is not really a simple way to do this; still, going through the neutral territory is the best option. But I would like a way to stall my pursuers or maybe boost my own speed.'
After several moments of thinking on the issue, he realized a mistake he had made. 'I assumed I could only hire mercenaries if I went through their territory.' but that wasn't true. In fact, he could hire some and sick them on his enemies. This brought him more time to get supplies and repairs.
'I don't even need the mercenaries to take them out; just stall and harass them as long as possible.' Smiling, Aero input his choices, then sat back and watched them play out. It went well; the mercenaries failed to stall for long enough, and the firepower was a bit too much for them to match.
"Well, I got enough fuel for full speed for a period of time. He also manged to require some argement for his ships so that could help. Which quickly came in mand in a certain stretch of space, fending off the attackers long enough for him to dive around a moon. Which provided enough cover for him to shoot out an engine.
From there, he managed to reach a safe space before getting caught, "good." aero sighed looking over the plot. "where are you getting these, by the way?" cause of the number he's done, the helper had a higher imagination than he thought, or they were getting these from somewhere.
'some I craft myself, but others are reports,' they didn't specify on which. But it made Aero think about it. A lot of them had two kinds of danger. The greedy, or the natural forces of the universe. The latter was the simpler option.
Checking the time aero to decide he had time to meditate and practice some energy manipulation before bed. He sent more chains at the beast tonight. He knew the beast was going to retaliate soon. But with no real way to expect what was going to be sent his way, he was stuck just to continue his normal training. so at least if he died he would do so fighting, for some reason the helper shower concern about this idea igogly.
Aero didn't have a nice sleep that night. He vaguely recalled the beast trying to bash in his mind. It left him with a pounding head; why it attacked like that, aero wasn't sure. But he did spend some time collecting himself and practicing some mental fortification techniques the helper pulled up.
'Well, let's hope that works,' he wondered for about a flower before he could feel the beast start trying to hook on his pride. Which only aggravated his head, but Aero pushed the attempts off., which is how he spent the day, the beast's petty attempt to get into his head only for Aero's hard headness to show its face, pushing through it and going through the day like normal despite all the attacks.
"Aero, you're not looking well." Galia stated aero gave a flat look despite his wobbling. "just let it go. It's not something you can help me with." she didn't seem to believe this, so she remained ready to try and listen if he said anything.
He didn't mention anything about it until the pain in his head became so great that he had to sit down, 'by the zalts, this can't go on!' everything was spinning. He felt nauseous and feverous; if this kept up, he was going to faint. 'can't let that happen, can't let people see him faint.'
With measured breaths, he forced himself to his feet, making a quick stop to grab a drink that helped a bit. He forced his feet to move towards the inn. He was very aware that someone was following him. It might have been his teammate. But he was more focused, keeping his feet in front of him.
It felt like days before he walked into the door of the inn, ripping it open. He belined for the stairs, and he bumped into several things. Maybe people, maybe furniture. But he made it to the stars, and then his focus was on making sure he didn't fall on them. He felt more eyes on him, but few, only two, followed him up the stairs.
It still took too long for him to reach the familiar scent of feeling of his bed. Flopping down in it, he tried to banish his nausea, but it persisted along with the pulsing in his head. When someone touched him, he made an attempt to hit them, but he knew he missed.
No one tried to touch him for some time after that. He wasn't sure how long, but then someone was touching him again. he couldn't hit them because they were also holding out his hands and feet. He thought because they couldn't have that many hands brought, 'unless they were an alien.'
After a lot of touching around his face and head, they tried to feed him something. They tried to feed him something. He tried to bite them for that. Then, someone had to hold his jaw open while he repeatedly bit someone. He was too sick to put up the fight he wanted. So he was forced to swallow something so bitter.
Not a moment later, the pounding in his head started easing. Enough that he could focus on the people in his sight, which was first the healer he was trying to bite. Then, looking at the people holding him down, he would have given them a harder glare if he hadn't just tried to bite off a healer.
'when was the last time a healer had to have me held down?' instead of thinking on the probably worrying thought. Aero focused on the healer, who noticed her medicine was working. "are you with us?" aero nodded, which made her smile. "good, I don't know what's causing your migraines. But if it got worse, your mind would have shut down."
"how bad is that?" aero rubbed his throat, unsure why it was so sore. he didn't recall screaming or anything. Maybe it was the medication that was forced down. "you would have fainted for days, which is the best-case scenario, as it can lead to a deep and long slumber that can last months. If you don't waste away before that happens."
"Alright, that's bad," sitting up, he felt a spike of nausea but pushed it down so he could face the healer. Speaking to her about what he should do about the migraine to prevent it from getting this bad. Unfortunately, most of her advice was about stress, which Aero managed just fine. But she did have other bits of advice that would work when the beast attacked him once more.
He was thankful when it was just him in the room again. Unfortunately, he had to keep the door open in case he blacked out again. So, for the moment, he was lying on his bed, trying to fortify his mind from the beast. Who was already at it again, 'Alright, let's do this carefully!'
He closed his eyes and tried to sense the beast's attacks. He could feel his mind each time the beast struck. But not how and when 'there are always warnings before an attack.' the splitting of the air, a slight remble in the ground. A breath, so there had to be some kind of warning. Just because he couldn't sense it yet didn't mean it wasn't there.
For the next flower and a half, he resisted the stabbing and burning pain of the beast's attacks. Using every method, he had to try and feel the incoming attacks. Finally, he seemed to feel the parting in energy the beast was causing. Expanding his own energy he felt it again, but no time to react.
But that didn't continue to be a problem as slowly he got the change of it with time to react, then a new problem. Moving his head didn't dodge the attacks, so he had to block them. First, he tried creating a shield around his mind, which sorta worked. His head still hurt, but it weakened the attack's strength; increasing the shield's power didn't help. But adding a layer helped a bit more.
'too bad I can't maintain it for too low,' his head ached for multi-tasking over his limit. 'even if I could, it's a temporary solution until he could stop the beast's assault. Taking a breath, he solidified the two barriers around his mind. Giving his space to think, maybe come up with a counterattack.
His first thought was to send a sharp energy into the beast's cage and see how they liked that. But he put it on hold as he was sure the beast would counterattack. The question would be whether it would be physical or mental; he has to cover both bases.
"uh," he knew the best way to do that was to get his two teammates to help him. Have them cover him physically while he was defending his own mind. "putting it off isn't going to help." grumbling, he got to his feet and walked out of his room, swaying a bit, but pushed forward until he found Inna.
"you should not be walking," she stated, looking at him and getting to her feet quickly. "what are you doing up?"
"the pounding in my head is the result of an attack. I'm going to counterattack but might get counterattacked. I need you and Gaillia on guard in case anything happens." Inna had many questions, but from the pain Aero was showing on his face, she decided they could wait and moved next door to get her teammates.
"never boring," Galia mumbled after she was given the cliff notes. "All alright, let's do this." aero rolled his eyes before focusing, unleashing the full force of his stored power. "wow!" Galia took a step back. The air in the room had changed. Charged with something that didn't feel hostile to them.
'I definitely don't want to get hit with whatever this is.' Inna thought, backing a step back. Aero focused the energy on many sharp implements, most of which were knives. Kitchen, hunting skinning, which was sent into the beast cage.
He only sent a few at first to test the water. When nothing immensity tried to kill him, he sent a few more. Two more bathes went before the beast acted. Or it was a completely natural earth quack," by the zalts!" Inna swore before sharing a look with Galia before she raced outside to see what in the stories was happening.
When he joined the crowd outside, she saw something very large digg itself out of the ground. "oh zalts...wait!" she paused when she realized she recognized this massive creature. "the stories didn't do it justice." she turned back around racing back inside, aero was still meditating while Galia looked ready to grab him and run.
"what's going on?" Inna could not believe what she was about to say." remember the last trials from the zaltess of combat. Galia blinked, confused." you mean how she faced 14 massive creatur-no please, no!"
"It's just one," that didn't stop her teammate/friend from swearing. Honesty, she wished she had that large of a vocabulary, but at the same time, she didn't think there were enough words to describe how she was feeling. Taking a deep breath, Galia asked what they should do.
"I'll be honest, I don't know. Wasn't taught for this situation."
"so thinking on our feet?"
"yeah."