Rei thought he had received an email to himself only before having Sylvie texted him about it. His mind started to wonder why the magenta haired girl was included to the scouting mission when the supposedly tasks were mostly sent to the assault division only but couldn't get himself to ask the sender or the headmaster themselves since he felt like its too much to ask for especially with his status and how he was already accepted in the academy.
It was supposed to be him and Sylvie but the trio had arrived late due to the amount of email that they were checking through their school website.
"Yo! What should we wear?" Haruki asked while they were discussing their lunch break.
"For me. I'll wear my standard assault division uniform. For y'all, I recommend something professional yet practical." Rei responded as he had already finished eating his meal. "And as well, bring some stuff for emergencies so that we can contact our seniors if things go south." He added as the rest just nodded their head in agreement.
"Alrighty. See y'all at the entrance?" Sylvie said as all of them nodded their heads before they went to their dorm room or at their lockers to pack everything that they would need despite the simplicity of the mission details.
...…
Kamigami Academy, School Gate, 1:30 P.M
A simple E-rank scouting mission to check some abandoned premises if someone is trespassing in the area since the authorities have deemed the place unsecure and out of boundaries.
Rei walked to the entrance as he was the only one that the group was waiting for. "Holy- Is that your uniform?" Haruki asked as the rest of the girls caught up, "Yeah. It's the uniform that was given to me." Rei answered as he saw Sylvie eyeing him up and down.
"I'm not gonna lie. No harsh feelings. That outfit suits you more than those in your wardrobe…" she said before Rei immediately retorted back in which Sylvie just giggled at his reaction.
"Why is it better than the rest of his outfit?" Erika asked when they all started walking while Rei took the lead since he was the team leader and had walked through everything in Ethereal especially with Eunji and Rinka's guidance from the previous month in which had drilled every route into his head.
"It's much better if you don't know…" Sylvie responded although she showed a picture on her phone, Rei wearing a common outfit with a shirt that said 'shirt'.
"You know what. You're right. I shouldn't have asked." Erika said while holding herself to let out a laugh while Haruki and Hinata were already chuckling to themselves.
Rei could feel his embarrassment catching up to his face but decided to maintain a professional look, guiding them to the east corner of Ethereal while they chatted for a bit on the way which made the male even more embarrassed with the stories that Sylvie was sharing with them especially those memories of how he embarrassingly knocked himself out from accidentally hitting his head against the shelf at his old place.
The walk and the atmosphere on their way was somewhat warm, safe and content although once they arrived, it immediately turned into dread and uneasiness.
...…
East side of Ethereal, Abandoned Premise, 2:45 P.M
An abandoned building that had a tape that said 'out of boundaries!' although Rei understood why they needed to check it out since some people around the ages of 15-16 may do something stupid especially when they're still teenagers that are growing up.
"Is anyone's communication devices working?" Rei asked before using his own device to confirm his to be working into their connected earpiece.
Lots of buzzing before hearing each other's voice through the earpiece, "Yup."
Rei nodded his head before they all went in, his prowess activated to boost his passive ability for spiritual energy sensory.
He was focusing on trying to locate if there's any nearby people or anything suspicious until the sensation of the mental link between him and the ancient being within him was cut off although the latter still managed to make some words.
"Brat! Run now!"
Rei didn't hesitate to tell the rest of the group to retreat although the eerie and chilling atmosphere had frozen them, similar to what Sylvie had experienced from before they all looked forward.
A glowing singular eye, golden yellow with fox like slits emerged out of the shadows. Its figure is worse than what Rei and Sylvie had seen from before.
"Everyone! Retreat! Call reinforcement!" Rei commanded as he immediately copied Haruki, Hinata and Erika's prowess.
Flames burn any limbs that manage to get close to them while combining wind and water prowess to create a large gap between them and the monster in front of them to form a barrier of glacier spikes.
Sylvie immediately got a hold of herself before using her time manipulation prowess to freeze time for a bit before grabbing the trio while Rei followed, copying a bit of her prowess before letting it go immediately.
"We can't fight this one! It's like the creature that senior Eunji fought from before!" Rei stated while the other trio nodded their heads as they immediately ran, "We'll call backups!" Erika said as she used her water prowess to slide smoothly to escape its reaching limbs although Rei stayed behind to buy time.
...…
Sylvie and the trio were almost at the exit when they encountered a group but what surprised them the most was something that took a lot of their spiritual energy. "What was that?" The magenta haired girl thought to herself before being separated from the trio as she was the only one who got trapped in some sort of teleportation wrap.
She noticed her reflexes becoming slower and sloppy due to barely avoiding a cut on her cheek nor almost getting stabbed if it weren't for Rei's training to her.
"These people… they planned this!" She gritted her teeth before trying her best to stall time as she immediately defended herself with a slight boost of her weakened prowess that allowed her to speed herself up slightly while freezing the latter a bit quickly.
...…
Haruki used his flames to buy time for the other two girls as he stayed behind, using his bow which was a relic to use other flames as a substitute to his own prowess but had to use both.
"Damnit. My spiritual energy isn't enough to burn through them but luckily I brought my bow…" The male muttered to himself before swiping a hit with his relic against those who tried to get close to him.
"I just have to buy them time to bring reinforcement!" Haruki thought to himself before shooting out three flame arrows out of his bow which struck at least three people that immediately went down. "Whatever ability or prowess that they've used to weaken us, there should be a limit to it if the enemy is this weak!"
The male immediately dashed away before shooting another set of flame arrows, three to four at best as it managed to at least get another three. Although, he was immediately pinned from what seemed to be a heavy invisible weight which put him deep in the floor.
"Nice. I can have fun without you wailing around!" A large guy with a messed up face holding what seemed to be a large butcher knife.
"Fxck!" Haruki cussed to himself before setting himself on fire with his white flames, barely able to keep it up while the weight on him immediately vanished.
The large male was mad but didn't hesitate to dash in despite their size which caught him off guard. "This guy can run?!" Haruki panicked as he immediately grabbed his bow before shooting at least five to six flame arrows which ended up being tossed aside by them.
"Jeez. For someone this big, they really are agile…" He thought to himself before feeling a bit uneasy if he would last for long to let either of the girls not Rei to catch up and help him or for anyone to call reinforcements.
...…
Hinata and Erika were trying their best to push the opponents that managed to ambush them. "They're trying to keep us from escaping… For what?" Erika thought to herself before using her water prowess but the pressure and power was weaker than what she expected.
"Then that sudden loss of our power that seemed to diminish all of the sudden… Isn't this-" Erika couldn't finish her thoughts when more people went in to try to apprehend the two although they're doing better since they've managed to at least know three or five people the moment the people tried to catch them.
Meanwhile, Hinata was trying her best to maximise the weakened state of her prowess by putting enough spiritual energy behind the burst of wind that she can manifest although they were getting pinned due to how many people were surrounding them the moment time passes by further.
This entire situation was something that they didn't expect and were trying their best not to panic due to their inexperience while dealing with something dangerous that could have their lives stolen in a second.
...…
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Additional Information…
[Ethereal Gauging Results]
[Name: Hinata Hayasaka]
[Prowess: Wind Control (3.1) {1.5 weakened}]
[Fifth Year Student, Sorcerer Group A Division]
...…
[Name: Erika Delilah]
[Prowess: Water Manipulation (3.9) {1.9 weakened}]
[Fifth Year Student, Sorcerer Group A Division]
...…
[Name: Haruki Nakamura]
[Prowess: White Flames (3.0) {1.5 weakened}]
[Fifth Year Student, Rescue Team Division]
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