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She had a thing in a chokehold, which was not new. She's put many things into a chokehold; it would hold something still enough if she weren't aiming to kill it. Something that was still up in the air at the moment. 

If they kept clicking their zaltess damned claws, her head was starting to swarm so badly. She'd either lose her food. Possibly worse, and pass out. Either way, she was just pissed. Looking up, she saw her teammates. 

Aero was just right out, smashing the claws, probably too badly to recover from. While Idit was swinging one around by the claws. 'I hope she doesn't burn through all of the collected energy too quickly.'

Turning, she kicked another in the face, following the motion and using every bit of core strength she had. She threw the creature into another, jumping, and she avoided their claws, trying to snap around her ankles. "Ha!" 

Her foot came down on its face before she used it as a foothold. Swiping around, he kicked another in the face, whipped back the other way, and punched one. Back flipping away from the ground. She flipped a few moments until he was back to back with Aero and idit.

"By the zalts," Aero rolled his shoulder, trying to relax the muscles, feeling the scratched skin sting. It wasn't deep, not giving more than a few drops of blood, but he knew it could prove to be a problem. Even worse if it got infected. Flexing his finger, he tapped the holes of his flute staff. "All fire is immediately out." That would spread too quickly.

Just as fast as the beatscopin. He thinks that it was; the coloration might be off. Also, the claws might be wrong; he wasn't taking in the details at the moment. To focus on victory and survival. 

Spinning his staff, he knocked its tail to the side before planting the end of it on the ground. Jumping off the ground, he braced himself against it, kicking the one in front of him directly in its carcass. It was hard like his own. Aero didn't let that stop him from kicking several more times until it tried stabbing its stinger at him.

Kicking back, Aero flipped around, getting his eyes on it the moment it tried flying at him. But aero feet had hit the ground, and he had the leverage to swing the staff out of the ground and directly into the underside of its body. 'Yeap, just as hard,' but that didn't stop him from knocking the thing silly.

It scrambled to restore its balance, failing as Aero unleashed an assault. Listening to the sounds the carapace made when he struck it, Aero quickly figured out the weakest parts of the carapace.' Of course, it's the parts open for mobility,' sidestepping a claw. Aero spun the weapon over his shoulder, bringing it down on the offending limb.

Spinning his staff back up into the creature's face, he had to step back when another pair tried to pin him. Dropping into a split, he watched them pass over him before spinning into a rising spinning kick.

He managed to hit one, while the other two reeled back, diving forward with their stingers aimed. Tuning his momentum, Areo flipped back, rolling through a bush of flowers. Knocking petals into the air.

The creatures rushed him, and Aero huffed. Standing quickly, he used the rising motion to strike the first from the bottom. The other two, lashing their claws at him, Aero stepped back and subdued them. Until one swung so wide, Aero felt it was wrong to take the opening to grab it and swing it into the third creature.

Inna was burning through her energy. But Zaltess, was it thrilling right now? She couldn't think of anything that compared to the rush of the wind, all the energy rushing through her body. Pumping like her breath through her blood, giving a new, clumsy edge to her weapons. 

Putting her energy into her weapons was a big drain on her reserves of energy and stamina. But right now, she didn't care; it was a little reckless, but Inna thinks she can afford to be a little reckless at the moment. 

Throwing her head back, Inna watched as the tail passed where her head had been a moment before. Flipping her blades around, she drove them both into the tail, and the creature shrieked. Clawing, clicking, aggravated, right before she kicked it right between its eight black eyes. 

"UGH!" She immediately recoiled. The tail, which had been torn open, had caused gunk to splatter over her front. "Ugg! It's in my mouth." She gagged twice, turning over her battle instincts, reminding her she was still in the fight and the creatures were not happy about what she managed to do. 

It stuck her in her mind for the next few moments, directing the flow away from her weapons so she could completely focus on evasion and blocking. Inna clicked her tongue as they came close to catching her twice in a few moments. That clicking that messed with her equilibrium wasn't helping. Should have aimed for the claws," she thought as she turned things around. 

By grabbing one of the creature's tails and swinging it around. It screamed as she used it like a frail, swinging it into the other two. As she rushed back to her teammate's side. "Had enough excitement, you two?"

"More than enough," Aero replied, shifting to the tips of his feet before moving around, picking up enough speed that his staff started playing notes. Speed that helped him dodge the assault of the bugs.

Ending the melody, he stabbed it into the ground," ugg!" With a grunt, he ripped it back out along with he blade of stone. It took him a moment to adjust to the new weight as he spun it into the air. With a shout, he brought it down right onto the carapace of a creature.

"AHH," Galia recoiled as its blood splattered onto her face. Thankfully, it was only blood. Quickly wiping it from her eyes, ignoring the smell that came from it, she turned to grab one of the creatures. grabb it stupid clicking claws dicing her knee up into its face. "hAA!" 

With a roar of effort, she ripped off the limbs, tossing them to the ground before grabbing the tail, which immediately tried to stab her. "May the zalts have mercy on you," cause using the creature as a frlail sure as wasn't her mercy.

"Ha!" Galia swung it into two different creatures, before she threw it in Aero's direction as he swung his weapon in a circle around him. Cleaving through two different creatures, plus the one she threw at him.

"Ugh!" The stone blade hit the ground before he managed to pull it back into the air, while he missed the creature by a few inches as it was backing up. Aero uses the weight and momentum to throw himself into the air. 

The carapace gave under the double knee strike. Landing on the ground, he took a moment to rest.' Okay, this trick is a bit killer on the arms. stanind g up, he pulled his weapon to his side. Weight side on the ground, looking around the battlefield, ' so they're still not doing anything.' What rude little observers, aren't they!'

Whipping around, dragging the edge through the ground, he swung it up into the side of Scorpbeetle. Launching the blasted thing into one of the clickers. Inni jumped on them, knocking down the creatures, driving her blades into their heads before rolling off and throwing them into another.

"Only five left!" Gaillia shouted, knocking one to the ground. Before stomping on its skull." Make that four!" Seeing their number diminish greatly. The remaining insects decided to make their retreat. not before one rushing into the luggage and snatching something." Hey!" Aero shouted, flicking his staff to dismiss the weighty blade before rushing after them.

As he did, he realized what was being taken:' The decay powder?' Why on earth would they take that?' Either he leaned forward, trying to push through the turbulent winds of the valley. Which didn't seem to bother the flying insects. 'Do they think the powder is food?' Either way, Aero wasn't going to let them get away with his stuff.

He chased it for a few miles before slowing down to a more sedate pace. Watching as it dropped into a hole at the base of a hill. It narrowed itself inside, pushing dirt to cover the hole. "Well, that's just great," grumbling for a moment, he tapped his finger away on his staff, trying to think.

"melodly to move a bunch of earth," as he practiced playing the notes to jog his memory, the next question was, did he collapse the tunnel and crush the insect, or did he open it so he could just retrieve his powder?

Licking his lips, Aero decided to compromise, drop enough earth to pin the annoying thing, and then retrieve his powder. "Yeah, that will work." Standing, he slowly approached the covered hole, feeling a pair of eyes on him. Aero felt something throbbing in his head." Seriously," he wondered, " what was motivating these people?

Sighing, he let his pride energy spread out until he felt their presence. 'One person, decently strong pride. I'm getting hints of combat and sewing. But the rest I'm unfamiliar with or are too small to be identified. He still didn't know who was following him, but in this way, he could at least keep an eye on them.

"Now let's play in the dirt," spinning his staff above his head to build some speed. Letting it go, he left his spin done the length of his arm. Rolling over then under his shoulder before he grabbed it, playing the even numbers of notes after snatching it out of the air. Rotating around his wrist before he slammed it into the earth.

The ground below him cracked and sank, filling in a small tunnel. "Oh, that's not small!" he hopped back as more and more ground started to sink. His melody was causing a chain reaction." zalts and zaltess!" he had to move back almost 4 miles before the sinking stopped. "Busy little thing, weren't you?" Moving over, he listened to the ground, though the muffling of soil and stone, and he found the bug's location. 

Some digging, he found its tail. Acting, quickly, he sang a short 3-note melody that generated a stunning pulse of energy. "Okay, now where is my powder?" He digs through what he thinks is the path the creature dug. Aero searched for his things, 'Ugh, just when we can't really take a real bath.' he could feel the soil caking his skin." What did this thing even want with the powder?" he asked if the helper had any suggestions, mostly for the conversation.

"Here it i- damn it." The thing tore a hole in the side of the bag. Turning the bag, he prevented more of the powder from falling as he walked back to camp. 'With this wind, the powder could do some serious damage.'

When he reached camp, Inna and Gallia were done collecting things from the creatures that attacked them. "Oh, that is dumb luck," Aero mumbled as he brought out his bag of decay powder. 

The first thing they did was split Aero's powder between the bags before spreading it over the remains they weren't planning to sell, sitting back. Aero glared at the rotting piles. "I'm just going to go to bed." If anything else attacked, they'd be able to get a nice night of sleep. 

Spreading out his energy again, he locked in on their observers again, who still haven't moved beyond a certain range. " I know they're not just going to watch forever. But I don't care at this moment." Leaning back, he focused on sending energy to the beast's cage, making sure it locked down before he went to bed for the night.

Inna spent some time trying to restore her spent energy before she went to sleep. Spread over her bed, covers pulled tight over her. Keeping the chill out, party hiding her face, she was sleeping with her weapon. 

Turning around, she pointed the blade at the person trying to walk past her bed without even opening her eyes. "They finally came out of hiding." Aero sat up, turning to face the intruder she was holding at bay.

Then his swift shift raised his staff and brought it down on Gallia's sleeping form. "AH!" With a pained shout, she jumped out of bed. Touching the grass for a moment before rushing into the second intruder. hA! Hold still!!" Galia quickly pulled her target into a double joint lock before turning to Aero. 

"Seriously, following us around so long and not even introducing yourself. I think that is quite rude. What do you think?" Inna rolled her shoulder, getting some blood flowing." Oh, more than rude. definitely creepy."

"Now are you going to talk?" Gaila asked," Or will we have to spill some blood first?" She stabbed her deboning knife into the ground next to her captive's head. Slowly, she dragged the tool closer until it was drawing a drop of blood. 

Her captive didn't move other than looking at Gallia out of the corner of her eye. " Oh, bluffing." It was Aero who responded." We're hunters, getting desensitized to violence. comes with the job." Aero pulled out his skinning knife, holding it up in the pale light of the world's natural satellites.

The light reflected into the eyes of the standing hostage. The moment they closed their eye, he moved, until his blade was at their neck. Aero made a head gesture at Inna. She stood and moved back so she had sight on both of them. "Seriously, I'd talk if I were you. Our dear leader isn't particularly a patient one."

"We have nothing to say; we were just checking in on the inn." They couldn't hold back a collective eye. We know you've been watching us for the past few days. If you wanted to check, you would have done so when you arrived. But you watched us, did your best to hide from us."

"Not that it was much good, " Aero snarked." Now, why are you here?!"