Fiery knives rained upon the snakes, courtesy of Dan and his skillful throws from the distance.
Laura joined in, dicing up the the foes with her blade that glowed from fiery aura.
"Their halo…, when did it get to two thorns." Leo thought as he noticed Laura's and Dan's halos.
"It was already like this when they released it.
Then this would mean that it was from that night…so that substance is like a catalyst for growth of aether." Leo concluded as he ran with his staff in hand, entering into the battlefield.
Caesar ran alongside him with his sword in hand as well.
They approached the snakes, some snakes broke off from the group and attacked them.
[Slice!] Caesar cut them down with his great sword.
"Look at how he swings that large thing effortlessly." Leo was amused by Caesar's use of the sword.
Something caught his attention within the battlefield, Ricia was in a pinch as they - the serpents - surrounded her.
"I'll have to leave you behi-" Leo was about to say, but Caesar was already one step ahead as he dashed to her in a burst of speed, assisting her.
He used his blade as a bat, hitting the snakes into the air, but that was pointless.
"How unexpected…" he thought as the snakes slithered around on the air and came back to attack him, but he didn't lose an inch of composure.
They went straight for his eyes which were glowing yellow by the aether which dawned him.
He parried them away with his blade's width, subsequently cutting them down, along with the ones gnawing at Ricia's horse's leg.
"Thanks a lo!t" Ricia thanked with a thumbs up whilst she began moving again.
Stopping within these creatures was fatal for those without aether, for Ricia who was at a weapon's disadvantage it would be worse if she got into a mobility disadvantage as well.
At that point her fate might as well be sealed.
[Leo grunted]
He ran around the outer edge and encased his staff in aether setting the snakes ablaze as he cut them whilst still running.
When he was done, they were now enclosed in a circle of flames with the only exit being the path to the wagons.
"How much more…" Leo thought as snakes surrounded him, wrapping themselves around him.
"I don't like this…stomach hurts." He chopped them all up without as much as an issue, his struggles were more of mental ones.
The ones his blade couldn't reach were burnt up by his aura.
One glid through the air aiming for his eye.
[Thud] It fell flat with a knife through its head.
"I owe you one Dan" Leo thought as he began violently spinning his spear in one hand, and all his aether redirected to his other palm.
–
Heimer was in the midst of them as lots climbed his body, he just stood there.
"How tiresome…" He muttered.
He dismissed his axes from his arm, opting for a more primal approach.
He grabbed multiple at once, then stretched them from opposite sides.
[Splash] Tearing their bodies apart and splattering their blood.
The next one that was foolish enough to attack him was held by the neck and its head severed from its spine.
At this point the snakes began voluntarily avoiding him.
"Come on, there's a reason I'm not emitting any bloodlust.
If you're going to avoid me anyway then what's the point." Heimer thought.
He turned around and looked at the short wall of flames Leo had conjured.
"Good boy" He said as he continued barbarically slaughtering the snakes.
–
"Are you not coming?" Fiona asked Zefroth, they were still at the wagons.
Heimlich and Ren had just arrived.
She shivered, rubbing her shoulders with her arms.
"No- No way, just looking at them gives me the ick.
I can't stand those things, how do they without legs, everything about snakes is weird." Zefroth replied again as she got goosebumps.
Fiona looked disappointed in her reply.
"Alright then, I won't force you." Fiona turned around and started walking to the wall of flames slowly.
She blinked, and as she opened her eyes her pupils turned grey, her eyes looked colder than ever before, with the halo that dawned her.
"Focus…." Fiona thought as she walked a bit faster.
She drew out her blade from the belt on her waist, then stood still.
–
[Voom] She covered the distance in a near instant, entering the domain of flames and carcasses.
At her arrival she slaid more than thirty in a minute, not stopping at all, from the moment she first swung her blade; each swing built upon the last forming a serene movement.
Gustev's horse was in her way; she leaped high up into the air — over Gustev with her front facing upwards.
"This battlefield was never meant for us." Gustev thought as he looked up at her in awe.
She twisted through the air, and stoned her sword into the soil, planting it there.
As she landed she grabbed it, taking a circular sweeping slash while still moving forward.
"Scary…" Herra thought as she glanced at Fiona.
She and Clarence were leaning into each other back to back as they covered the other's blind spot.
"How many have you killed?" Clarence asked.
"Thirty eight." Herra counted internally at her previous kill.
"Fifty two" Herra responded to Clarence ungenuinely.
"Tch…
That's three more than me." Clarence thought, foolishly believing Herra.
Clarence gazed a bit at Karius next.
He was in a frenzy, laying waste to the ones in his path, with his weapon, he had both reach and speed as his advantage.
The latter didn't do much since the entire area was clustered, yet he could cut through many in one slash.
"Stupid fuc-" As he opened his mouth to utter this a snake slithered into his mouth.[1]
[Buogh!] He immediately dropped his halbred and forcefully dragged it out while it passed through his throat.
[Huff huff!] He finally pulled it out against its resistance.
With its narrow head now outside his mouth it sprund for his eyes next with its body attempting to wrap around him; it got burnt from the heat his aura emitted.
He dodged, but it kept going at it.
He poured aether into his palms, burning the body and cutting its head from its other end.
He stuck his hand into the pile of carcasses, digging through the pile and grabbing his halbred.
"What a close call, almost died from that fuc-
What is that?" Karius was taken away by Leo's performance.
[Splash!]
A ball of fire befell the serpents; Leo conjured balls of fire and threw at them, at contact with the snakes or the ground the ball splashed.
He ran backwards as he did this, then gradually turned around whilst he sliced down the ones that came for him.
"All I have to do is reduce the size by a lot and I can muster up almost twenty before I run out of aether.
Of course I'm not going to make that many here." Leo thought as he focused on the ones around him.
The ones he couldn't reach were taken care off by Caesar who covered him.
–
Tme went on, Ricia retreated mid battle, Lana did the same.
And surely with anything but slowly, the snakes had been bested with only less than twenty left, Leo's flame walls had been extinguished.
"I had a stupid thought earlier trying to compare the two." Caesar thought as he looked at Heimer who was drenched in green blood.
"Out of the total number of serpents…
Uncle took down more than a third, and even more, he didn't doesn't look tired a bit." Caesar thought to himself.
Heimer just stood there with his helmet in hand, all but tired.
Leo looked intensely at Heimer, most of the dark energy from the slaughter were being sucked into him.
"What the…
The rest is flowing into everyone else but the unawakened.
But he is taking the bread and we are left with the crumbs." Leo thought to himself.
No one else could see this, not even Heimer himself who was a walking magnet for the energy.
[Tap Tap] There were two taps on Leo's shoulder.
He turned around; it was Fiona, she was barely stained by blood of any kind.
"It's you, I thought you were killing the ones that scurried away." Leo asked her.
"I already did." She said to him as she rolled her eyes down to look at her blade.
"Her eyes, would I say they're uncaring or cold, she's different from her usual self, but even now…
You seem tired." He said to her.
She looked up at her halo; it was still there.
"Weird, he shouldn't be seeing anything different than anyone else.
He has gotten it right again" Fiona thought to herself.
"The energy is flowing into her as well.
And also, thanks for yesterday, I owe you one." Leo said with gratitude.
Fiona dismissed her halo and her eyes became bit calmer.
"Wasn't a big deal, but I don't believe in doing things for a reward so I'll pass.
And you wouldn't go through with it either way." Fiona said to him.
"Surely you don't believe I would worm my way out of it.
I have a self rule about not running away." Leo said with confidence.
"Even a spar against me?" Fiona looked down at her sword as she raised the hilt from the sheath a little.
By the time she looked up Leo was nowhere to be found.
[1] ugh