The two groups charged.

Upon seeing the other side, they recognised they would have to fight. The monsters and hunters attempted to break through the wall of warriors.

Zach tried to push through, being attacked by the enemy. Zappy followed behind him, defending himself as he moved.

They were horribly outnumbered, but had no choice but to press onwards.

Callum and Sanchez struggled to keep all of them away.

Alexandra and Zino charged directly through, attempting to pierce through the group.

Josh was the best suited for dealing with them. While their abilities were unknown, he had the most experience dealing with the aura in general, so he led and Frost followed.

Natasha and Aki were comparatively struggling more against them, quickly getting overwhelmed.

Sean knew that Azure taking to the sky would just make the both of them get more attention, so he rode atop his back as the flying wyvern charged through, keeping the enemies at a distance.

As Zach attacked, he heard something to his side. He barely dodged as the ground shattered from the impact of someone landing.

He turned, seeing a man crouched down in the crater. The enemy jumped again, once again barely missing as he crashed into the ground.

"Keheheh. You're pretty good at dodging. But you can't keep it up forever! The second one of my attacks connect, it'll be over!"

"Are ya a frog or something!?"

"Kehehehehe. I guess that's not too far off."

Zach paused, thinking.

"I… love frogs! That's awesome! Yer cool as hell!"

"...Well, uh, um, thanks… keheh… not that that makes me happy or anything… you're still gonna die, even if you compliment me!"

Zappy hit Zach on the back, trying to get him to focus again.

"Right, gotta keep going. Sorry, frog-guy. I'm gonna be getting ya out of the way now."

Another laugh, as the man leapt into the air once more. He quickly crashed back down. Zach attempted to attack, but he jumped away too quickly.

Some shells were fired at the opponent, a few connecting, but not managing to land any serious damage.

This repeated, Zach gradually getting worse at dodging the attacks. He had an idea, explaining it to Zappy.

As the enemy landed, Zappy shot mucus at him. He wasn't quick enough to dodge.

"Hey, what are you doing!? Keheh, this won't slow me down at all! It just feels weird."

True to his word, the mucus barely affected the man's speed. He continued to slam into the ground.

The second part of the plan began.

As he slammed into the ground and began jumping again, Zappy slid into his way. Unable to break through the thick sponge, he found himself stuck. The mucus took effect, he was too tired to escape as quickly as he should've.

This was more than enough time.

Zach jumped towards him, bashing him with his shield. He then slammed his gunlance down on his opponent's head.

The enemy tried to struggle out of his grip, so Zach frantically attacked, hurriedly trying to knock him out.

Another strike. It finally worked. His enemy collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.

Not even having time for a line to end things with, Zach got on Zappy's back and they took off, heading for one of the entrances to the castle.

Josh turned as another enemy drew near. A sword slashed through where his head was a few seconds before.

"My blade can cut through anything, just to let you know!" The girl attacking yelled, before going for another.

"Is that really such a common ability?" Josh thought back, barely dodging another strike.

Josh struck back at her. Since she'd only had the aura for a short while, she hadn't yet worked out that using her ability left her unable to dodge, so this was what something he could take advantage of.

They continued to fight. Some of the girl's attacks were successful against either Josh or Frost, but none were fatal.

"This is what I used to be like, isn't it? Swinging my weapon around without a care, harming others as I pleased, all cause I couldn't get over things."

He made a plan with Frost.

As the enemy attacked once more, Frost created a blizzard, trapping her in the snow.

"All the more reason that I can't lose here."

Josh then went on the attack, hurling his opponent to the ground with the blade of his scythe, before knocking her out with a strike from the other end of it.

"Gotta reach the rest of them. Gotta keep moving."

Josh and Frost ran into another one of the entrances.

Sean continued firing.

One of the warriors snuck up behind him. Her companions blocked her way, but refused to move.

"Idiots. Very well then. If you're so insistent, I'll send you to a place of your own worst nightmares."

She activated her ability. The two in front of her collapsed to the ground, shaking. They were completely silent, but their mouths moved as though they were trying to scream.

"You shouldn't have messed with me. By now, you're already in a vision of your most feared method of death, repeating over and over again. Though, it's not going to last forever. It should only be about five minutes before you wake up."

She turned her attention to the one atop the flying wyvern's back.

"Unfortunately for you, you're not gonna be getting that chance to wake up."

Sean continued firing. Silently, a figure approached him. By the time he noticed her it was too late, she'd already slipped into range.

"Now! Experience your own fear of death!"

There wasn't enough space to dodge, nor enough time to fire back. Azure couldn't get rid of her quickly enough.

The aura reached him, wrapping around him, attempting to reach into his mind and cloud it.

Nothing happened. Not a single thing.

The warrior waited, getting impatient. She tried again. And again.

Azure's tail knocked her away, confusing her.

She rushed back towards him, trying again.

"You! What's not working!? Why don't you have any fear of death!? That's just impossible, right!?"

"Huh? I don't have time for something that inconvenient right now."

With those words, he swung his rifle at her head, knocking her out, before going back to keeping the other aura users away.

They eventually managed to deal with the ones near them and took off, heading further into the castle.

Alexandra and Zino fought another one off, as she noticed a presence behind her.

Raf flung himself through the air, before spotting her. He dove to the ground. Zino dodged out of the way of his attack.

The boy rose into the air once more, with the same uninterested look on his face.

More dives. Following every attack, he would take off, out of their reach.

Alexandra blocked one his strikes and tried to counter, but before she could reach the boy changed directions and flew straight upwards.

"He doesn't fly in a normal way. It's more like pushing himself around. Meaning that we probably won't be able to catch him off guard while we're down here."

She turned around to face her partner.

"Zino."

The fanged wyvern looked to her.

"We're going up."

No response.

"Hey, don't be like that. I'm serious."

Zino seemed to sigh, before grunting to show that she was going with the plan.

"You there. On the ground." Raf finally spoke "Why are you still struggling? It's always like this. Beings still stuck on the ground can't hope to catch me. So just give up already."

Alexandra was surprised that he could speak for a second, before she responded.

"I already know that. It's obvious. But that doesn't mean that I can afford to give in. And… even if I can't reach the sky, we sure can!"

Zino flipped, launching Alexandra into the air.

Raf couldn't process what was happening at first, but quickly tried to move out of the way when he snapped back into reality.

"You're not quick enough." He thought, moving to the side. Alexandra's expression didn't change.

She pulled out her lance and clotheslined the boy with it.

A hit finally connected.

The boy was flung into the ground. Alexandra crashed nearby and rolled over.

"Go, quick, before he gets back up!"

Zino understood and pounced, crushing the boy until he was knocked unconscious.

They quickly recovered and took off, going further before any more enemies could challenge them.

Natasha slashed at the warriors around her, trying to break through.

A bald man stood before her, before stomping on the ground, changing the shape of the earth.

She dodged around it and swung towards him. A wall rose up between them, blocking her attack.

Aki stepped in behind her, covering the wall in slime, which detonated a second later. Natasha closed the distance.

The man attacked at the same time. They crossed each other. Both took damage, but Natasha managed to stay standing.

The scene changed for her. She was unable to see anything clearly.

"Where am I? Is this caused by another one of them?"

The one who'd cut off her vision stabbed through her shoulder. She felt the pain.

"So that's where you were hiding."

Natasha stabbed backwards, catching the enemy in the stomach.

"Gah… I can barely even think anymore. But…"

A figure stepped before her.

"It's certainly impressive that you're still standing. However, you will be stopped here."

Natasha's eyes focused. It was one of those aura users from before, Fa. She charged at her.

A swing for the chest. It was deflected. Natasha stumbled backwards, before being knocked to the ground with a kick.

Her mind was scrambled.

"What's up with that? She's like iron? Why is that? These powers are seriously too unfair. I don't know how to win. How do I break through that?"

Aki threw a punch at the opponent. The woman knew to dodge.

"Right… we can break through it with the slime."

Fa counterattacked. Aki was unable to fight back.

She continued to switch between her normal and armoured states, weaving between the punches and landing strikes with the force of a hammer.

"No… this isn't good enough. She's gonna lose if it's just her. It can't just be her fighting."

She tried to stand back up, but her entire body protested.

"Can I even help? Would I be able to do anything? Can we even win here?"

Her thoughts continued to swarm, until something clicked.

"No. Cut it out with all this."

Ignoring her pain to the best of her ability, Natasha stood up once more.

"It's not about whether we can win. I just have to. Falling here isn't anything resembling an option. That's all there is to it. So let's take a page from his book and go wild."

She charged towards Fa. The woman hardened part of her body once more, deflecting the attack.

More attacks followed, each ineffective, only pushing her back slightly.

Fa struck back, punching Natasha in the side with an iron fist.

Her main focus was still on dodging Aki's attacks. Natasha was more like a fly. But the girl didn't care what was thought of her, continuing her assault regardless.

"What are you even continuing this for?" Fa thought towards the minor annoyance. She kept pushing her away, but to no effect.

The attacks seemed meaningless. The hunter was unable to damage her, and the monster unable to hit her.

A shift in the air. She noticed that she was up against the wall of the castle.

Natasha pulled her weapon back, switching into axe mode and attacking once more.

It was still ineffective. More swings, followed by an elemental burst.

Fa crashed into the wall of the castle.

"Now, Aki!"

She understood instantly. Aki coated the walls around the fallen giant in slime, a second later it detonated.

Fa wasn't given enough time to move as part of the castle collapsed onto her. Even her iron skin was unable to block the damage.

Natasha and Aki made their way further in, injured but refusing to stop.

TO BE CONTINUED