Counter Attack

      The remaining monsters started to engage with the defense squad.  As soon as the creatures were in range each side began flinging their spears or pots at the monsters. The spears would burst into an element of fire, water, earth, air, or a combination of any of them and then hit the creatures with a earth shattering force. It was like an elemental hurricane concentrated at a select spot. The pots were the same except instead of bursting mid air and taking the form of an elemental shot it was instead just exploding with the element on impact.

      Furred coated beast, hardened shell insects and slimy skinned bugs all were hailed with vicious attacks from the front and yet kept rushing forward.

       From the side the blue behemoth that was controlled by Ro rammed into a giant red ball with black circles. The ball cracked and shattered with blue blood spurting out and drizzling down the side.

       The ball turned towards Ro and its black spots became spikes. Then it spun and rushed him with all its might. 

       The attack caused cuts and wounds to Ro and his beastly form yelled out a roar of pain.

       His friends on his head were clinging to Ro's hair trying desperately to hang on. Es was frowning and thinking to herself "any damage he takes in this form is also done to his real body, please be safe."

        Ao was clinging to his friend's body by tieing the hairs around his legs. He did this so he could focus firing his laser at oncoming enemies.

        Ao had been shooting his laser using his whole hand causing his hand to light up a bright purple. He thought to himself "better concentrate my shots on a few targets."

         Os had a long yellow spear that was a bit transparent and so long that he could stab nearby enemies deep through their bodies.

         Os looked over to Ao and said "don't waste your kin so rapidly, this battle might take awhile."

         Just as that was said everything around them began shaking a bit. The red ball was now shown to be a tall ladybug with giant black claws.

         Ao rubbed his head before asking "do you think that kin is organic?"

        Os shrugged "you won't know until you try to copy it."

        Ao looked at the bug and then quickly got back to the monster he was killing which was a horse and tiger hybrid. He focused a  little more power into his attack and managed to slice off the monster's head.

        Ao then untied the fur from his legs to jump off his friend while growing wings to fly up in the air.

       Ro was trying to overpower his opponent by ramming his head and body into the bug but was simultaneously getting slashed by the claws as he was attacking.

       Ao flew up beside the monster and touched it with his scale less hand. He could feel the kin energy that rushes through the creature's bloodstream lay dormant waiting to be activated. Ao's kin did not react to the creature's kin the same way it reacted to the butterfly's and he was unable to copy its ability .

        After Ao failed to copy the power he flew a good distance away and went up to where he was head level with the bug. He formed his hand in the form it needs to be for his soul blade attack and then he did the move managing to slice off the monster's head thus making a waterfall of blue blood spew from its body.

         Ao could feel how much his kin shrunk. Kin when being used or being prepared to be used felt like a pulse throughout the body. When he reached and looked for more power he could feel much less than before.

        He flew over to Es and sat beside her "I need to ration my kin and use it less so do you think everyone else can last?"

       Es had the index finger and middle finger touching the finger of the same name on the other hand while having the rest of the fingers folded back "there is only 5 left we can do this."

       Ao looked around and noticed there were only 5 beasts left. He looked over to her and noticed the hands "is that the move you never showed me?"

       Es smiled "my ultimate technique."

       Ao smirked "guess this day was all so you could show off."

       The veins on Es hands were bulging and she started speaking a bit slowly "could.. you… uh… get… warn… Ro."

        Ao nodded "does it just go in a straight line in front of you?"

        Es had now started shaking as if it was cold "no… wider."

        Ao put his hand on her shoulder "ok so does it hit everything in front of you."

       She had this wide eyed look in her face and with a light voice she said "ye...s."

       Ao flew to where Ro's ear was and yelled into it "get behind the defensive line."

      As Ro heard this he turned away from the gecko headed bull he was fighting and quickly rushed toward the row of townsfolk trying to get away from the enemies.

     Ao had grabbed onto Ro when he began moving. He climbed to where Es was and spoke to her "ok so we're almost read-."

       Es spoke a little faster then before and her eyes were a bit back to normal "I… can… do it ...  now." 

       Ao understood and picked her up and flew her to the ground below and when they got there she rested both her feet on the ground and put on a straight face with narrow eyes and eyebrows bent down. She was facing the remaining beasts and with a stare coming from her eyes she said "Burst art: Opening the Gates of Destruction." As she said that she opened her 4 fingers wide and a large pulsing wave of green energy was emitted away from her body. The wave tore deep into the earth and caused shockwaves in the air leading massive damage across the battlefield. The fallen enemies were picked up and thrown around and thrashed with even a number of the monsters' bodies becoming broken and deformed from the  damage.

       When it finally hit the intended targets it managed to pick all of them in the air and bend and smoulder them causing their skulls to crack and their arms to bend backwards with their bodies being crushed.  

        The beast continued to swing around in the air with their body being shattered piece by piece and until they landed a good distance away after crashing into the trees.

        Es let out a gasp and then fell back on her back and closed her eyes and started feintly snoring.

       Ao picked up Es in both arms and carried her back to the milia.

      Everyone looked in the distance waiting for the next assault or for the monsters to get back up and come back but the anticipated danger never came.

…

The kids were in a circle surrounding a small table that had a white soft rubbery substance along with very juicy fruit balls, meats, and snacks on it.

         Each child was stuffing their mouth with food and occasionally taking some of the white mush.

        Es ripped a piece off the white mush and brought it closer for examination. She opened her mouth to say "so this refills kin" while eyeing Ki the one who had told everyone about this interesting property.

         Ki smiled then swallowed a piece of pork in his mouth "I guarantee that your kin will come back even better than before if you eat it."

        Ao nodded "I already tried it and my kin is at full power."

        Es looked at the lump and bit then instantly she started smiling with opened eyes she seemed to be enjoying the treat. Ao laughed a little "tastes like cotton candy right?"

        Es nodded as she then chewed a bit and swallowed. "A bit thick but very sweet." Es felt inside for her kin and could feel a large vibrant pulse through her body. "Very convenient to have this so how did you get it?"

        Fi's eyes lit up and he was about to speak but Ki started first "it came from a slug and it got in our mouth."

       Os and Ao and Ro laughed with Os gripping his chest.

       Ki smirked "funny since you all ate it too."

       Ro stopped but the other 2 kept laughing. After a few seconds of the boys making loud boisterous sounds from the mouth Ao stopped and said "ok you got us there."

        Ro yanked a piece of the mush and inspected it. "So is this kin made?"

       Ki responded with "yes I think afterall I don't see any other explanation."

      Ro looked over to Ki and said " there are rare things that have strange effects when in contact with kin such as sparkle flowers from the south that explode when in contact with kin."

      Ao chipped in "well if there was a slug similar to this one it would be well known and very often in use but since this is just one occurrence its most likely due to its kin."

      Ro was still analyzing the rubbery white substance then asked "what other properties does it have?"

     Ki finished an egg he was just working on and said "it can absorb kin but only in its active state not in its dormant state and it can only do that so much." 

    Ro took a bite and chewed and swallowed "it probably can't absorb more kin than that was put into making it which is something I know from a book I read that was  about kins that interact with other kin."

    Ao leaned back and put his hands on the ground to support himself "I wonder why the monsters attacked in the first place."

   Ro answeed "well I already told the leaders this but  when I was dwelling inside the beast I felt some other weird kin inside the creature that wasn't its own so maybe someone was controlling them with their kin."

   Fi balled his fist and scrunched his face a little then stated with a louder than normal voice "i'll make sure they pay."

  Ro fanned Fi down and said "chill thats just a theory we honestly don't know."

  Fi slammed his hand down on the ground and looked in the direction of Ro "how else do you explain a single concentrated attack of a bunch of species that aren't related to each other on a single place, face it someone had to want to take this place out and when I find them I will have their-."

   Ki grabbed Fi's arn "man chill we don't know if its true or not."

  Fi shrugged Ki off and said "well if it is they are dead."

  Ki frowned for a moment and just looked with his frown with dismay. 

  Ao raised a cup in the air and said "to protect those we care about with all our might."

   They all clanged their cups together in agreement.

   For the rest of the night they eat and slept.

   In the following days the bodies of the animals  were made sure to be dead and help was reached out to other towns in case of a second wave.

   Ao was just outside of town practicing his art.

   He had long wooden sticks in his hands that he would alter one by one. First he took the stick closest to him and held upright and then said "world art: Graceful Tool." The stick bent and turned and made a cracking sound as  it formed into a purple wing.  Ao stuck the end of it deep into the ground and said "success."

    He then held up the the next stick the same way and said "world art: Great Item." The stick became a metallic purple and was thus stabbed into the ground with the words "success."

   He held up the third and final stick and said "World art: nature's beauty." The stick turned into a yellow flower which grew downward into the earth and planted itself.

   Ao gave the flower a thumbs up while saying a "success" to it.

   Ao walked back to the town in his full outfit with a smirk on his face. 

   The outfit was the same except a green shirt that had sleeves reaching his wrist and with brown round pebble like buttons. There was an image of branches upon branches spreading throughout the whole outfit but the branches were a light green  color.

     Ao walked in town and passed the few destroyed buildings that were hit. They were all store houses so no one was hurt. 

    He went through town with everyone thanking him for his assistance in protecting the town and praising him for his valor. Eventually he got to his house and went through the door to find guests.

    There were three visitors who each had something on their back wrapped up in yellow cloth and they were wearing black coats that were like trench coats but without the collar and the coats had gold lining on the sleeve, legs, and mid drift. The uniform for agents.

      Ao's eyes opened wide and the next few steps he took were careful and concentrated upon. He noticed the guests were talking to his mom so he moved to go upstairs but his mother spoke "son, come over here."

      Ao respectfully walked over to the chair where his mom was sitting and stood beside it. He looked up towards a green haired average sized man and said "hello, how can I help, sir?" Ao came above the man's elbow but below his shoulder although to Ao the man was a golden statue that was sacred to the touch.

     Slyena put both hands on her son's shoulder and said "we have been talking about a lot of things like the fact that what happened to our home happened to others."

     Ao shook and then looked behind him to his mother and asked "really?"

     The green haired man said "yes many villages, towns, and even cities were attacked with the larger the population of people then the larger attacking force."

     Ao's mouth was turning downward from the information and he made a suggestion "do you think someone could be controlling the animals, i mean me and my friends were thinking about it last night?"

      The man smiled and said "yes we figured the same thing so we are going to get an investigation party to find out who did this and make them answer for the crimes." 

      Ao gave a light nod and responded with "that must be you guys?"

      The man smiled and started rubbing his head "no, we are here to protect this place if there is another wave of attack."

      Ao smiled "thanks for coming since the last time they came my mom had to do most of the work and the rest of us did clean up."

     The green haired man scratched his head "how many came before since your mom from what I hear has legendary strength and was close to becoming gold before she retired."

     Slyena hugged her son and said "I became better at other things rather than fighting."

    The guest guy gave a smile that was a little bigger and said "somethings are more important than the job."

    Slyena just stared at the man and responded with "this..." patting Ao on the head "is my life's purpose."

   Ao smiled and held his mother's hand.

   The guest guy continued the conversation "well other than trying to find out what mad man is causing trouble there is one other objective we have." He then bent down to be closer to Ao and asked "do you wanna be an agent?"

     Ao gave a smile with a firm "yes."

    The man stood straight and said "great, we are gonna test you and your friends tomorrow morning and the ones who pass become official first layer agents.

     Ao did everything he could to keep his excitement under control and for the most part he did other than giving a light smile.

     The man was turning to leave before looking at Ao then giving a question "what is your age?"

      Ao answered with "14."

…

     It was a few days after the meeting with the green haired man. Ao and his friends were in front of this yellow building and waiting to be called on.

    Ro was staring at the dirt not saying anything before he said "do you think we are ready?"

    Fi gruffed and crossed his arms "I am over ready and have been for like 2 years now."

    Es put her hand on Ro's shoulder and said "look I want to reassure you but if you can't believe in yourself you should leave and come back when you know you're ready."

    Ro grabbed and tightened his hands around his knees "your right, I am going to succeed no matter what."

     Soon after that was said one of the men from before came in and announced "the World's Test is ready to begin so step forward if you have everything to succeed."

To Be Continued