Amber looked at the target through a window, the supposed Boss of the Spiders who was inside the building they were surveilling.
He looked.....ordinary. Nothing to show that he was the leader of a city-wide crime organization. Currently, he was eating lunch in his office.
The fact that everyone in the vicinity was a Spider Member, was the only fact that alerted one to his identity.
Amber conveyed this information to Alicia, who came up with the plan of attack.
The hunt for the Head of the Spiders had begun.
................................................................................
A walked into the building, drawing attention from the criminals with his large stature and rough demeanour. He immediately began causing a ruckus, causing more people to arrive downstairs.
This allowed Amber to enter much more easily than before, as she simply walked into the top floor. She wasn't invisible or hidden, but it was more like people were simply not registering her presence in their minds.
She entered the boss' office quietly, not even breathing. She made her way forward to the oblivious man who was slouched in his chair, ready to end it at once, when he suddenly shot up and attacked her with a string.
Amber would have fought back, if she hadn't noticed that he didn't really know where she was.
'He definitely can't see me. So how does he know I'm here? I didn't even breathe yet!'
She focused intensely on her surroundings, and made out a large number of extremely fine strings across the room, all of them leading to the Boss.
'Annoying. Might as well shift to the next stage.'
Amber revealed her mana and flared it, before disappearing and moving again, as giant centipedes slammed out of the ground where she had unveiled her mana.
With every sweep, the Boss kept getting closer and closer to finding Amber's location in the cramped office space, even as she struggled to ensure none of the strings were touched or insects alerted.
The Boss was getting closer, now only a metre away from her. He was surrounded by insects and bugs that crawled up and down his body in a macabre display.
Suddenly, the insects on his body all pointed their heads towards Amber, and he grinned. Amber drew her daggers, dropping her stealth as she prepared to retaliate, when a large cloud of flame entered through the widow, perfectly avoiding Amber.
The bugs lunging towards Amber were burnt to a crisp, and where the Boss had been standing, a big black sphere could be seen instead, glowing slightly red.
It unravelled into a large centipede with blazing fangs and claws, revealing the unharmed Boss within. The centipede dove into the building's lower floors, compromising the structure as it jumped out, looking for the person who launched the flame attack.
Amber appeared behind the Boss again, and swung her daggers towards his neck when a string stopped her attack. from within the Boss' body, a huge, hairy, spider looking limb extended out, connected to the string.
A full human sized spider crawled out of the Boss' mouth, and yet the man himself was unfazed as he and the spider coordinated their attacks on Amber.
Amber dodged the sharp strings rushing towards her neck, and hastily blocked the Boss' Battle Aura infused fist. She gasped as she was sent flying into another room through the wall, simply from the force of the blow.
'Battle Aura? Even Alastor doesn't have that yet! This bastard is going to be a pain to deal with. I can't take more attacks like that.'
Despite the realization, the spider and the man's coordination was forcing her back, with the spider herding her into the man's attacks.
Just when another blow seemed inevitable, Amber felt herself be pulled backwards as bandages wrapped around her waist. The bandages from Tori's sword and the strings from the spider were in an elaborate dance, cutting and replenishing each other's mode of attack constantly.
With Tori occupying the spider, Amber was able to freely dodge the man's attacks, though it was still difficult.
'I need some prep time to charge an attack big enough to pierce his Battle Aura. But he knows that too.'
The Boss simply kept rushing in, not allowing Amber to think of much more than dodging.
Until A arrived, sending the Boss flying out of the crumbling building with a laugh.
A creaking sound was heard, and everybody inside realized at once.
'The building is falling!'
Tori and the spider leapt from a window, continuing their battle mid-air as they swung from to building.
Amber jumped out as well, aiming for the next building when she saw the Boss hurtling towards her. Before the Boss' attack could land however, A blocked it, a large sound bursting from their clash.
"Keep him busy," Amber told A as she prepared something.
A roared as fur sprouted form his body, his size increasing.
A and the Boss collided hard enough to cause a shockwave, and despite the Boss' much smaller size, he was able to resist A's force with his Battle Aura.
'Damn it, what is Karna doing?'
Further away, Alicia looked at the huge centipede that had just burrowed through an entire building, and roared at her. She sent a multitude of wind blades at it's joints, but to no avail as everything bounced off it's skin.
Alicia propelled herself through the air as she flew further up, and looked down to see the centipede moving up as well, as it leapt off the building, flame bursting from every one of it's claws.
They increased in speed, when Alicia suddenly stopped, and froze the centipede midair. It broke free immediately, some of the mana not even forming over it fully, but it's propulsion was stopped as it plummeted to the ground.
'Tsk. Can't even let it fall.'
Alicia ceated a pillar of wind to push the centipede up, while also creating rock spears from the rubble of the collapsed building to hold it in place as she descended onto it.
Alicia saw a few arrows land inside it's mouth, exploding into flames within it's body, causing it to writhe in agony.
'From inside?'
She grit her teeth, feeling an impending nosebleed arriving as she controlled multiple elements on such a large scale suddenly, controlling the flames on the centipedes legs as well to stop it from moving absolutely.
She touched the centipede, and it began freezing from the inside out, it's exoskeleton becoming brittle, it's struggle slowing down until it fully froze.
Even in it's final struggle, the centipede managed to bring it's leg down and stab through Alicia's side instead of the heart, as it was moved off course by an arrow hitting it.
Alicia smiled as she removed herself from the claw, and healed herself, and with another flurry of wind blades, shattered the centipede.
She wiped the blood coming from her nose with a handkerchief, as she turned to see the other's battles.
The Boss and A were still exchanging blows, but the difference between them was visible. Although A was pushed back, it was the Boss who was getting scared as the fight went on.
A never stopped laughing during the fight. No matter the injury.
Arrows randomly appeared from the distance, aimed at the Boss' eyes or vital areas, or just annoying him in general.
The Boss turned to escape form this wild battle, turning tail.
Just as the Boss thought he would be able to escape from A's dogged pursuit, he thought he saw an apparition of a snake coiling around him, before two long daggers sunk into his back.
Two arrows hit his shoulder's as well, at the exact time his Battle Aura faultered.
Amber's poison seeped into his blood, as she carved the daggers downwards, sweat beading her forehead as she had tried to imitate Alastor's oscillation technique, but on her blades instead.
Instead of letting her mana enter an opponent and then vibrate it, she coated her daggers in mana and they began vibrating imperceptibly, but at an extremely fast rate, allowing her to cut through the Battle Aura.
'Can't keep using this unless I want broken daggers.'
The Boss despaired at the situation, as he saw Tori return as well, covered in spider silk, but victorious.
He thought to himself, 'Am I going to die here? To a bunch of spoiled brats who don't even know the truth of the world?'
'No! I am the Boss of the Spiders of Eucoir! I refuse to lose like this!'
The centipede's frozen corpse began trembling, as did the spider's dead and dismembered parts.
They exploded and the viscera covered the Boss in a large, fleshy egg of sorts.
From afar, a white and black spear, accompanied by a dozen golden arrows, slammed into the egg, pinning it to the ground as a screech was heard.
A, back in his human form, looked at Alicia and asked, "So are we going to wait for him to finish or just....."
Alicia answered with actions, as she summoned a large firestorm, boosted by wind blades and Karna's divine flame, to cover the egg, and Tori contained and guided the firestorm with his bandages, concentrating it, as well as adding bits of the sharp material into the storm.
All that was left, was a white spear with black veins, it's tip buried in the fulgurite ground formed after the attack.