As per usual, Venus was in first. This time, Baoba would join her, along with Urtica. There really wouldn't be too many opportunities to shoot with a bow, so this was the less useless he felt he could have been.
Urtica entered first and fast. Before the rest of his team had any time to enter, he let a few arrows fly. That was the main advantage of being on the offensive.
The hidons had a dark coat, so seeing them was actually really complicated. They only knew the number, or even that this place was occupied, because of Pando once again.
This close, though, it would be hard to miss.
The first shot hit, and instantly woke up the pack. While they were shaking off their daze and locating their opponents, the second one claimed its victim. And before the weirdly intelligent beasts could get into formation, they lost another member.
'Three down. So much more to go.'
Capcsium had chucked a flaming ball of wax over her allies. The hidons effortlessly dodged, but the projectile fulfilled its purpose : light entered the battlefield.
The view was truly discouraging. Even on all fours, the beasts reached about half of Venus's height, which was no small feat. Their maws were slightly open, revealing canines the size of fingers, and their seemingly steel claws had bloody stains on them. The jet black of their fur contrasted wildly against their bright red eyes, completely devoid of whites.
And there were twelve of them. One could wish for a better bedtime routine.
That vision only lasted for a split second, since the horde was already charging the team.
Venus had already drawn her greatsword this time, and swung it at the first wave. It was a reasonably big weapon, with high enough mass and length to splice them easily. That's why they just stopped before empaling themselves on it.
The right and left side appeared to instantly get the memo and ran past them. Baoba and Urtica now had a couple hidons to themselves.
Baoba was on the right. He summoned his bone sword in his right hand and took advantage of the enemy's range miscalculation to inflict a fatal wound to one's neck. The other had already initiated a claw swipe directed at his left shoulder, and Baoba was too far gone to doge it.
Suddenly, his back emitted the familiar pale blue light, and a huge turtle shell appeared just in time to block the blow. Continuing his motion smoothly, Baoba neatly cut the hidon's arm off, then followed with its head.
On the left, Urtica kept his distances masterfully, just far enough from the targets to be able to poke them with his silver shortsword. His gloves had long come off, and his weapon was glowing a silent, deadly purple. Every beast that had the displeasure of feeling its edge reeled back and fell in no time. He seemed to be doing fine, but his movements were unnaturally fast, and he was sweating profusely.
Under his skin, only visible in the darkness of the night, a slight purple light seemed to course in his veins.
Venus still had it worse. In front of her, four halves of former threats layed, bleeding all they had. Her imposing weapon flew all around, cutting and pushing away the majority of the pack.
She could probably single out and kill one or two, but the rest wouldn't let the chance go. And she wouldn't get away from it with just a scratch.
Fortunately, the hidons did not have a monopoly on teamwork.
From behind her, a flaming arrow and a fast one shot into the opposing ranks. The former hit the leftmost beast's flank, frying its insides as it burst into flames. The latter hit directly between the eyes of its target, killing it on the spot.
Provided with such an opportunity, Venus lunged into the fray, and culled two of her four remaining enemies in one clean swing.
One more was stopped by Baoba before it could retaliate.
Urtica, too, was done with his fight. He shot forwards to the only monster left that was about to cut into Venus's side.
He was at just the right distance to paralyse it before the claws hit.
His sword cut the air... But halted abruptly.
The beast continued its attack, only stopped by a scarily precise arrow that pierced the whole length of its arm.
With this additional time, Venus recovered her balance and cut this one in half, too.
That was the last of them.
Only the team was left in the light of the still dancing central flame. Compared to the previous chaos and danger, the sudden silence was almost palpable. The battle hadn't lasted a minute.
They had won, but no one felt like celebrating at the moment.
'Soo.. what was that ?'
It sure looked like Urtica had let Venus get injured, only somehow saved by Pando's freaky archer skills.
The whole squad was catching their breath, silently interrogating him. But Urtica was just looking down, panting. It was the first time his face didn't look plain, but it was hard to tell exactly if he was just out of breath or distraught for an entirely different reason.
He put his hand in his pocket, fished out his gloves, and put them on. Then he sat down and started cleaning his sword.
Only then did he explain: "..I could've cut her."
He stopped his hands and let out a shaky breath. "I was just being prudent. My bad."
This whole time, he avoided eye contact.
'Ok, come on. This is so weird.'
Boaba started to regret his decision of not suspecting them.
He usually knew how to read people. And now, one thing was clear to him : this was not Urtica standard behaviour.
He knew him to be careful, but also reasonable. Not to mention capable and confident. While it is true that his blade would have come close to his teammate, in reality, Urtica was ten times too good to make such a mistake.
He was supposed to be aware of that. And yet, he says he's 'being prudent' ?
How about the deadly attack that was headed straight for Venus ?
'No, this is definitely weird. I would never have hesitated like this.'
Not long after the end of his explanation, Venus broke the silence with an enthusiastic voice : "Ah, that's true ! I would have been in a pickle if you missed it, wouldn't I ? Good eye !"
She turned and patted the scout on the back. "Thanks, Pando ! Now let's get cleaning, we don't wanna sleep in this mess."
Baoba interrupted : "Don't just dump the corpses in the entrance, the smell will attract predators. Use these to carry them out further."
He made a bunch more giant half turtle shells. Their concave shape could be used as a basic recipient.
"Roger that." Venus started moving, and the team followed, though Urtica stayed sat. Pando lingered for just a second more, silently regarding her companion with a compelete lack of expression, before joining the effort.
Despite Venus's usual cheery intervention, the mood remained heavy. The silence once again descended upon them.
They dumped all the corpses twenty meters from their shelter, and covered the bloody dirt with another layer from outside.
Then they had dinner, without any real conversation. There were only a few discussions here and there, never lasting more than two minutes.
It had to be said that the atmosphere would not have been this awkward if Urtica acted even slightly normal. The whole time, he stayed silent, his face firmly pointed downwards, only moving when he had to. It felt like there was a complete stranger eating with them, and quite an unfriendly one at that.
His right hand had been clenched on his metal thingy ever since he finished cleaning his sword.
It all was almost too weird to suspect him. Everyone could tell something was deeply wrong with him, but no one had had the courage to ask.
Baoba was getting annoyed, though.
"So what's your deal ?"
Dinner was almost over, and no one had been talking. Still, the silence deepened after that sentence.
He continued : "We can all tell you're not being normal. You're not the type to sulk this bad, even after such a mistake. If there's a problem, you need to tell us, so we can alter our strategy accordingly, or resolve it by yourself. Right now, you're not doing either. So, what's up?"
Urtica stayed silent for a moment. He opened his mouth slightly, then closed it, only to open it again. After about ten seconds, he opened his right hand and stared at his trinket. Finally, he sighed, and looked up with a smile.
"It's nothing, really. I was just playing back the fight in my head to see what I could do better. It's a habit of mine, don't pay too much attention to it."
He paused a bit, then added : "Sorry."
Capcsium smiled, too. "Well, you better be ! You had us really worried there ! No to mention it ruined our meal. That's the real issue here."
She tilted her head in thought and continued : "Maybe I could've snuck a few more projectiles in. Venus was moving so fast, I was also afraid to hit her."
"Well excuse me, I had to worry about eight of them at once ! You try it next time, we'll see if you're even moving at all !"
"I would just keep them at bay. Your problem is that you're always too brutal. Ever heard of finesse ?"
"My fist is going to finesse your face if you keep talking like that !"
And just like that, the mood was saved. Baoba stayed relatively out of it like always, only this time he was still staring a hole through Urtica.
'Second option it is, then... Nothing I can do. Alright, it's not my problem anymore.'
He then stopped thinking about it and joined the conversation.
Only Pando remained still pensive. But she usually didn't talk much either, so it didn't really make a big difference.
The night continued like this until they went to bed. Baoba made the beds again, and got to enjoy his time of the day.
He didn't always used to sleep lightly. He remembered vaguely that as a child, nothing could wake him up, he had to be shaken to get anywhere.
Now, though, a single, low-volume sentence was enough to wake him up instantly.
Which is why he heard Pando in the middle of the night : "Come outside. We have to talk."
The voice was not directed at him, and since he was facing away from the others, he could not see who was being summoned.
He had a guess, though.
Urtica's voice answered, in a tone that betrayed a return to his apathic state from before dinner : "..Alright."
Judging by the sounds, he got up, and followed Pando out of the shelter. The following discussion was too far to be heard.
Baoba was left to guess. Two thirds of those guesses were bad news. The remaining third was worrying. But he knew they were all probably incorrect. There were too many possibilities to get it right, and absolutely no way to verify even a single one.
He had already asked, what more could he do ?
'Nothing. I can't do anything, so I have to stop worrying my pretty little head about it.'
But he still spent the rest of the night exploring scenarios in his dreams. After all, that was what they were for, right ?
Everyone worked in their sleep, nothing weird there.
The next day came fast. It always did.