Far away from Hettur.
An adolescent nimm was accompanied by three imps as he scaled up the mountain. One of the imps bore a glower on his visage, another seemingly gloomy, and the third a more cheery mien that bordered on pollyannaish considering the expressions of her company. The colorful quadruplets trekked in anything but silence, reaching the summit after a long journey.
"Are you sure the captain will be around here, grey man?" Lady's optimistic tone was only slightly tinged with doubt as she sat upon a flat surface of raised earth. The platform carried her upwards, effectively trading one form of exhaustion for another. Still, mana exhaustion was easier for Lady to deal with than physical exhaustion. The flowers on her left arm bloomed in an arrangement of yellow and white, what she considered her happy colors.
"No Lady, if you listened to the FIFTY other times I answered you...you'd know that it'll take a lot more time." Lark had almost had enough, deeply frustrated but trying his best to suppress it. He could understand where the imps were coming from, he missed the guy as well. But did they have to make his ears hurt like hell while they worried?
Teta glaring daggers at him didn't help either...Lark was sure that if he couldn't find Alban at all Teta would be enjoyed. Then the crass imp would have a reason to attack him, and to be fair he was the first one to threaten Lark. Of course, all of them had taken their own methods of minatorial approaches several times during the voyage.
"But I wanna see him nowww!" Lady whined her opines right into Nevus' ear, the imp in question wondering what *he* had done to deserve it. Feeling his eardrums rupturing, Nevus chose to speak up again. The amount of times he had talked on the trip that could be counted with one hand now suddenly jumped to two.
"You should be patient. We'll see him soon enough." His attempt at mollifying Lady had worked for a bit...up until Teta decided to grace his statement with a retort. The sharp imp could never let anyone get the last word in.
"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know you were a prophet Nevus! I wish you'd reveal that shit earlier, then I wouldn't have to move around with this pompous looking prick...what a shame."
The pompous prick in question *was* a prophet, not that anyone knew that. But somehow Teta's doubtfully ludic remark had hit a bullseye. Lark was most wary of Teta not because of his constant insults and implications, but because of how often Teta said something that pertained to him with seemingly little to no information. If Lark didn't know any better, he'd think Teta was a soothsayer too.
"Gahaha! He *does* look pompous!" Lady's whines had stopped completely, replaced by a merry laughter. She was the one who indulged the most in Teta's puckish wit, throwing shade in all directions she could when she chimed in. She couldn't add on any further though as she was currently laughing up a lung.
Lark and Nevus sighed, the duo were the two most mature monsters in the area...that was for sure. Their vocalized fatigue was quickly stopped when they heard the unfolding of wings. Lark turned his gaze to Teta and saw the normally playful expression on his face turn stern and grim.
"What's going on?"
"I see it. There's something going on and it looks like the boss will be in trouble. That's a large army."
"How do you know he isn't on the side of whatever you're looking at?"
"Simple. Boss wouldn't be caught dead in a huge group like that for a prolonged amount of time. I gotta go."
"But Teta, we're supposed to go together!"
"I'll meet you guys there. See ya." Teta zipped towards Hettur at the fastest speed he could manage, moving midnight at full speed as he left Lark and his fellow imps behind.
—-
Back to the battle.
Milia's face was scorched black when the huge bolt of fire assailed her. She was leagues beyond her army and even she felt intense pain, so she doubted that any of the monsters that followed her were alive. As she extended her yellow aura and scanned her immediate area, she confirmed that there were no more of her troops left around her...at least not alive. The army had traded an opened gate for body bags, essentially.
"Wao- you're really strong. It's a pity, I don't think I can beat you. But I can make your life bad for a while, I think." Alban's friendly voice found it's way into Milia's ears, the deep and mellifluous tone captivating to listen to. His eyes were narrowed firmly at the minotauress that stood before him as his insides wriggled with the feral aura that painted his insides with adrenaline. As his countenance became increasingly ferocious, his firmly affixed grin seemed completely alien on his visage.
"I was wrong. You're the strongest here, I'm sorry for not knowing that earlier. I wish to enga-" Her vision was blotted out so quickly that it left her unable to react. That wasn't to say whatever happened was faster than her, as that wasn't it at all. What surprised her was how sudden the movement was, she hadn't even seen Alban switch his stance before his fist crashed into her face.
"Will you shut up? I thought we were supposed to be killing each other here." Alban's voice rang out loudly into the air, the soft statement seemingly blaring into Milia's sensitive bovine ears. Milia stood up and sized up Alban, a trickle of blood flowing down her nose. Alban thought of Nimral before bringing his movements to mind, gracefully yet nimbly speeding towards Milia as he had once been before.
Milia discarded her axe and quickly adopted a stalwart stance. Although Alban had the impression that he wouldn't be able to do much damage to her body, she had already underestimated the savage boy before her twice. And she had two wounds to showcase how stupid it would be to continue to do so.
Alban arrived right in front of her face as she swung her arms in order to intercept him. It was an expertly timed attack that would've succeeded if Alban's goal was to land another face-scrunching blow. It was not, however, as he performed a front flip over Milia's head and launched a flame clad kick at her nape. Milia ducked low enough to kiss the ground, hoping to set off Alban's balance enough to quickly take him out. No such luck was had though.
The very ground underneath her that she had repeatedly dominated throughout the entire war was no longer still, opening up in an attempt to bring Milia into it's deepest recesses. The hole was barely large enough to swallow her up, but Milia considered that to be intentional. It very much was.
Trapped between a rock and a hard place, she did not opt to move her head up and receive Alban's kick nor fall into the earth. She stretched out her haunches as far as she could, affixing herself to the sides of the hole she was partially in. Alban missed her by a long shot...although the snow around him had melted into water at that point. He used said water to cushion his descent and quickly right his position faster than Milia could take advantage of it.
"Skilled at three elements? You're interesting." Alban only answered with a widening smile as his wild aura spread around him, enveloping him even further into a primal vibe that could cause dread in even the most seasoned veterans. Milia was no different, except in the fact that the fear she felt crawling along her spine spurred her even further into action. The two disorderly monsters were both excited to continue.
Teta has arrived just above the scene of the battle, a red fog laced with gritty blacks settling around him and heading towards his finger. Just before he could shoot the mana that crawled along his fingertips, the world before him flashed white.
The same happened for all the monsters in the battlefield. The once packed Hettur had become a ghost town at a moment's notice.