Stepping Up

While she was dissatisfied with such treatment Tearia kept her silence and eventually it reached a somewhat stiff silence between the three of them as they waited. After a couple of minutes Tearia had recovered enough to at least fight again. Well her hand still was in pain still it wasn't something she couldn't ignore passing it off as no big deal as she stretched lightly.

"I'm ready now."

"Alright, There should be some more beasts up a little bit ahead in the tree's a little from here from what I saw while fighting before."

"You could see such things?"

Surprised with his observational skills in combat she continued to be impressed more and more with Xilo. Doing something similar herself was definitely an impossibility at her current state.

"Yes, Let's go."

Taking her surprised attitude as nothing serious he ignored her and started walking toward the area he was talking about earlier along the mountain's edge. With enough energy back after her fight Tearia followed XIlo and Xelfia a little to his side when a thought finally hit her. "Why isn't Xelfia fighting herself or taking the lead? Maybe she's a guard." Speaking up her question she lightly asked the question in passing.

"So why didn't Xelfia fight herself?"

Well XIlo did know the answer himself he chose to let Xelfia speak and give her a chance to talk more with Tearia while he kept his eyes on the surroundings in case anything happened. Xelfia noticing XIlo didn't intend to speak up for her, hesitated a little bit before finally answering.

"I-im just not used to my current body while fighting at the moment. Plus as you could tell they are too weak for me to even get any real experience out of it. So it was better to let the two of you take the advantage of the situation."

Picking up on one particular part of Xelfia's sentence she replayed it over and over in her mind while being confused.

"Not used to your body?"

"Yes, I'm not used to my body."

"What's that supposed to mean?

Freezing slightly, Xelfia realized she probably said something she shouldn't of outloud. Quickly looking to Xilo for help she turned to face him and pleaded with her eyes but Xilo wasn't in a much better place himself. While it might not be the biggest deal to speak up about Xelfia, he knew there was potential for people to hate Astral Beasts a lot more than he previously thought and he was afraid that Tearia would discriminate against her. But it was too late to do anything now that they had already slipped up.

"Haa..I hope you can keep this secret if possible."

"..?"

"Xelfia isn't human and only recently was able to transform that's why she has to get used to her body."

Struck with Realization she finally realized why those words sounded somewhat strange to her. But the thing that stood out to her the most wasn't the fact that she was a Beast before but her previous line of thought. She had thought Xelfia was a guard for Xilo potentially but now with admittance she knew Xelfia was in reality Just a pet to him. "So she's just a pet huh, That makes things easier." Of course she didn't say such a thing out loud in case she ended up admitting such a thing and offending him and Xelfia. That was the last thing she wanted so she kept her own thoughts to herself and just solidified it in her mind as facts.

"I see. Makes sense, Should we try and find stronger Beasts then to help with her then?"

"No need to do so now, If we find one along the way luckily Xelfia can then take care of it but without being able to fend for ourselves in a similar situation it isn't smart to risk it. So for now keep us in this level of strength for hunting grounds ok."

"Ok!"

With a smile she heard the slight hidden meaning behind that. "He wants me to show him more other times, Yay. Perfect." Unfortunately her thoughts were interrupted as they stepped in front of their next prey. Seeing the numbers and general strength of the Beasts she knew Xilo was most likely going to handle it on his own this time without any help. After spotting the Beasts Xilo stepped forward and quickly defeated them with some disappointment that they weren't any stronger. After that they spent the remainder of the day looking for more and more beasts to hunt together until eventually after a couple more fights they stumbled across a Beast too strong for them to confidently fight. But It was a Beast that was the perfect level for Xelfia to give it a try with relatively safe surroundings. It could finally be

her to turn to get in some practice herself and get to shine.

"Looks like this one is all yours."

"Haha, I've been waiting all day for this chance. If you think I'll let it go now you're crazy."

Both smiling at each other Tearia watched as Xelfia separated herself and confidently walked towards the Beast standing a little ways away from them pinned against the Mountains wall with nowhere to run.

"Let's see what you're made of, Pet."

In a voice neither Xilo or Xelfia could hear she quietly mumbled that under her breath as she waited for her to start fighting.

Itching to fight finally and blow off the rust in her body she approached the undead Skeleton in front of her that was probably around the Cosmos Stage from her estimate. It probably wandered out of the mountainous area and was able to survive until now but now it had met its maker. Since it was practice though for her she didn't want to go all out and just kill it so to start off she would just use her Astral Energy without any elements. If she did use them then it seriously would be killed in a instant and that would be awkward especially after all the time it took to even find one

"Good luck."