14

'she is great!' Aero thought lugging his bag over his shoulder. his mother took the fact he was going on a mission pretty well. by that the teen meant she didn't look overly worried, she was worried neither of them denied that. but she was confident in his fighting ability that he would come home.

since it wasn't too far and he wanted a bit of alone time aero walked to the mission location. it wasn't too far, only taking more than a half-day of running and walking. of course, the first thing he did at the location was find a safe place to rest, his strength regained he began hunting for his prey.

"well that would be hard to miss!" he peeked around the tree to see the incredible hill the eebs had turned into their nest. they were the aggressive kind, one saw him and it would send signals to the hive and they would swarm him. "okay time to sew a bit of chaos!" staying in the shadow of the tree he hummed out a melody causing the trees to catch fire. not a fire that would burn hot or long but the kind that would create an obscure amount of smoke. eebs were smart enough to know how to put out the fire, they would send out drones to do so.

Aero slathered these drones, then waited for the invertible response of soldier ebbs. they would be a harder fight but aero didn't plan to take them yet, as they were dealing with the fire he snuck into the hive. since the soldiers were dealing with the fire, the hive would only hold gather gathers and young and the queen. the latter was his target, without the queen the hive would fall into immediate chaos which he would increase.

finding the queen's chambers was difficult to find as this hive was a little labyrinth. he had more the once run into a stray ebbs. thankful they weren't fighters and didn't have a strong exco skeleton, that cave under a single punch. but the blood splatter was large," oh zalts will this be hard to clean up later." peeking out of his hiding shadow he looked at the queen she was much larger than the last one, partly because she was laying eggs.

"makes you so slow and easy to skill!" finding no guards he stepped out of shadows swinging his staff to craft the strongest fire melody he knew. *SCREECH!* he ignored the queen's distress call to focus on the Cyran flame on his staff. on his mistake and it would burn him as well, so he approved slowly as the queen cried for help and tried to run but was too heavy to move an inch.

"may the zalts be with you!" with a swing the Cyran fire touched the insect, it races across its exoskeleton. it pained screeches hurt his ears but aero ignored it, the fire was already spreading the queen's death throws weren't helping. 'gotta leave before I get roasted alive!' he ran out of the room pushing when he realized he didn't know which way to go, 'pass three tunnels then turn right!" the helper instructed.

with their help aero was able to put a good distance between him and the fire, "so how do you know your way around?"

'i scanned the nest as you traveled, turn up here!' aero jumped grabbed the edge of the tunnel before pulling himself up to start the climb, he asked the helper if they could tell where the soldiers were entering from. that helped him avoid the larger groups and slather the smaller one. when he reached the outside of the nest aero started playing a new melody. it was a fire type but instead of burning hotly the sire wouldn't go out easily and was a slithering flame.

'my lord is spreading a fire really the best solution to this problem?' the helper asked as aero dragged the fire across several entrances to the nest. "maybe not but it's cheaper than buying more decay powder for all the corpse, not to mention the time it would take to safely kill this number of ebbs!" he shivered remembering his encounter with the babbits, he could still clearly visualized the bite the singled his downfall.

"Okay that should do it!" the pride lord said whipping soot off his forearm exco skeleton. he needs to wash well soon, but first, he had to make sure this first didn't spread burn the entire forest down. a lot of food came out of this forest. 'actually did the ebbs put out the tree I put on fire,' the answer to that was halfway and aero had to finish up.

"Okay so how long before I start the wind melody to push the fire into the hive?" his stomach answered that question. he left the area to head where he left his supplies, such as medical and food. it would be stupid to bring it closer where it could get caught in the fight or the fire. after eating his full aero didn't return to the burning nest, instead, he went around to the nearby river." this is a good enough distance for that melody when I need to put out the fire," but for now time to make sure he killed them all.

standing before one of the burning entrances of the nest, "oh smart little things!" getting uncomfortable close to the flames aero could see several eebs hiding back. they were trying to wait out the fire, too bad the teen had a plan for this. all the tunnels in a hive-like this were connected to the central chamber where the queen previously laid eggs.

stepping back the young lord started going through the motions of a medley, he could feel the winds gathering around him growing stronger with each note he played. it was the wind storm melody"HAH!" he directed the wind into the tunnel, the fires being absorbed into the winds. he could hear more than a few dying screams as the fire was pushed into the tunnels, Aero could feel the strain of sustaining melody but he kept it.

though he couldn't see it aero knew the fire was escaping from the other entrances. he kept it up for no mother then 4 petals, "ugh!" he almost dropped to his knee when he stopped directing the winds. he was more than tired enough to drop to his knees, but he refused to for no other reason than his pride.

'my lord this is an impressive feat!' the helper praised as their lord slowly but evenly walked to the river. taking a few even breaths, his arms shook a little as he swung his staff to the correct notes. the water first current from the river, gathering around his feet before he directed it towards the fire. "it's gonna take a long while to put all his fire out," the ash cloud above would probably get worse before he got done.

'oh, this cold!' aero sighed as he sunk into the water of the river. it felt great after a day of fire, it was kinda cold but it still felt cold, he didn't waste a moment washing all the ash and soot off him. tomorrow he was going to check the nest, to make sure he killed everything and that all the fire had been put out. it didn't matter that he badly flooded the nest, if a forest fire started he didn't want it to be his fault.

after he was clean as he was gonna get in a river aero left the water and started setting up for the night. as he put together his sleeping spot aero downed some jell, now that he was calming down for the day even though there was still a good amount of sunlight he could feel the aches and pains his body." how bad is it?" he asked the helper.

'no few minor cracks in your bones, they will heal in a few days.' aero hummed in response as he laid back against the ground, he could feel the mention crakes. he closed his eyes and let himself be taken to the realm of Onna, it was a colorful night for him unit the light of the rising sun. "okay time to get work," he rose ignoring the deep ache of his bones. "okay, check and then head back tot he small village and catch my carriage home!" with his plans set aero cleaned up his campaign his spot, he spent 2 flowers thoroughly checking the nest. he found plenty of brunt exoskeletons and eggs that explode for the heat, but no trace that anything managed to escape the flames.

"This will do!" he cheerfully ripped the remains of the queen's eyes out. he was kind of amazed they survived the fire, "like stone?" the heat had boiled always all the moisture in the eyes. it would take a bit of force from him to break them, unlike when they were wet and it would be easy to drive his fingers into like one did jelly.

taking the eyes back to camp he tossed them in his bag and started making his way back to the village. a four-flower walk wasn't too bad, as the scenery was nice and he could talk to the helper about the transition. he would have to give his energy away in a few flowers, the box wasn't that far away. "so what does this thing look like?"

'it about half you're size, my lord,' the helper stated aero nodded, 'it also recently entered your start system.'

"Okay so not that much longer huh," aero started playing with his staff for a bit of stimulation. the helper applauded his skill repeatedly, clearly stroking his master's ego. it was because they thought it would be good if their lord took pride in something other than his ability to beat the shit out of others.

by the time aero arrived at the village the sun was nearing the horizon, at this point, it was kind of too late to get a carriage unless he did some kind of threatening. but he kind of wasn't in the mood for that, too tired to make people pray to the zalts and zaltess. so instead he camped out in an inn, he almost got into a fight because the owner refused to let him buy a room.

thankful he was able to convince her that he was alone and that there was no one to buy a room for him. of course he did pay or the tables he broke in half making his point that he could take care of himself. ' everyone see my gender and thinks I need someone to take care fo me! you think with me being in the news several times across the year they would know what I can do!' frustrated aero messed with the empty bed the inn had given him.

'my lord?' the helper gently started, 'how do you know you're still in the news? I never seen you read it?' aero stopped for a moment causes he had no proof of that, he just thought everything was new's worthy on some level, maybe not front page every day. he just at this moment realized how arrogant this was.

sighing he made a note to check the news in the morning, for now, he climbed into the bed weapon in hand. luckily nothing disturbed his slumber and in the morning he had first meal at the end before grabbing a new scroll on the way to the garage. the scroll was a bit longer thing his arm, he unrolled it as he set down in the carriage, ignoring the other riders.

"huh I am in the news!" this was a pleasant surprise but he did want to know why they were still talking about him quitting the school and what that meant, "oh those are fighting words!" he was gonna find this person who said he quited because the pressure of training was too much for him.' i quite because it got tired of people treating my like glass and people thinking it was okay to keep him form he path he chooses.'

he rolled the scroll back up and decided to watch the sky go by as the carriage treaded down through the forest. it was a calm ride and aero let his mind wander, of course, he didn't take his hand off his staff the entire time. long carriage rides like this stopped a couple of times to let people stretch their legs and answer the call of nature if need be. maybe even have a snack for two. when the carriage stopped for the first time aero didn't get off, the second time he had to. the third time, when the sun was setting and they were nearing his stop.

'okay getting home soon turn in the eyes get my money and then check on the guys.,' he really hoped people haven't been tried to stop them from pursuing their desires, their pride. because that would definitely be a problem he would be dealing with, 'i can't get physical with people. remember that aero!' okay he was talking to himself in the third person.

stretching out he headed back to the cart 'okay think how can I get people to leave us alone?' thinking over it all he could really come to was intimidating. he didn't really know another way to make people leave him be. 'is there such a thing as nonphysical intimidation?' what would discourage people without getting physical.

"number!" he took his seat on the carriage. a large number could be intimidating epically if they were coordinated. yeah that could work, he would just need to convince the others to support each, he wasn't sure how hard that would be. it wasn't strange for guys to help each other out raising children but standing against the norm was definitely going to be something different.

but different was a good thing and he would be leading this group. 'my lord may I add something?' aero gave the go-ahead. 'there are several rebellion techniques across creation, several of them don't require any physical might. would you like me to describe a few of them?'