01.41 - A Multi-Purpose Operation

Back in the media room of the waterpark’s annex, Vega, Merope, and Kass were watching the delayed broadcast of the second day of the hunter candidates’ field exam.

A clearly bored Cuddles was nestled on the couch next to Vega, barely keeping his eyes open.

Aqua had been away after a sudden summons and was busy with a conference on a secure channel of the Wired in another room.

The other Cuddle-Fish, still tired from last night’s patrol duty, were also slumbering.

Cuddles yawned once again.

Vega gently patted his head. “Wanna take a nap? I’ll wake you if anything…”

Just as she was about to finish her sentence, the broadcast shifted to a distress call from a group participating in the hunter exam on Arcana Maiora.

The group was slowly but surely flanked by a large group of Lesser Sand Elementals, with two large and one gigantic Sandstorm in the far-off distance.

The broadcast shifted to another distress call about five minutes later, then added two more, alternating between them on a second-by-second basis.

The first help to arrive at the second call’s position consisted of Hannah, Sascha, and Rafe.

They were shortly followed by Luc and Electra’s teams assisting the now-surrounded team that sent the first request, then by a few examiners.

Uriah, Rem, and Rogue appeared at the fourth site, with more examiners lending support at the third site.

All four areas were now involved in fierce combat, outnumbered but not outplayed.

“That doesn’t look good,” said Vega.

“I hope they’ll be okay,” added Merope. “I don’t think my sister is a good match for those types of enemies.”

“I’m sure they’ll be fine,” said Kass. “She teamed up with our three candidates. And Luc is there too, right?”

“I think so?” said Merope. “Honestly, it is a bit hard to tell them apart.”

“The broadcast identified that one as Oudeis,” said Vega. “That’s Luc’s alias. The other two are Heison and Dualys, so that’s Gabe and Mirai.”

“I think you are the only one who has memorized all their aliases,” said Kass.

“Really?” asked Vega. “There are only nine names; it’s really not that hard.”

Merope nodded along. “And my sister can tell them apart by appearance.”

“Now that is a scary ability,” said Vega. “They all look the same to me, to be honest. But I guess everyone has their weak and strong points.”

The tension rose along with the anchormen’s excitement as the battles raged on.

The three later distress calls were resolved first, leaving the first site as the center of attention.

The other Cuddle-Fish slowly joined the group in the media room throughout the broadcast, after being woken by the noise.

The tension in the room rose further as Luc’s team and the examiners left the visible part of the broadcast to eliminate the two Greater Sandstorm Elementals, only to be finally broken by Aer taking out the Elder Sandstorm Elemental on his own.

The Cuddle-Fish were stirred as a recap showed Aer luring it away, zoomed in on him.

“Wasn’t that thing the same?” asked Bubbles.

“It did look the same,” confirmed Snuggles.

Wiggles and Puddles agreed in unison.

“Same as what?” asked Vega.

“We found a black sphere like that in the bay on last night’s patrol duty,” said Cuddles. “It was…”

“What did I tell you about last night’s events?” asked Aqua, who had just entered the room after finishing her conference call.

“Foo,” complained Cuddles. “Vega can know about it.”

“No,” said Aqua, “at least not officially.”

“Know about those spheres?” asked Vega. “The way the other teams were ambushed, and the manner in which the Elder Sandstorm Elemental followed Aer…”

Aqua exhaled.

“...was it some type of lure?” asked Vega. “Maybe remote-controlled… or on a timer? Wouldn’t want to be anywhere close to it, judging by what it attracted.”

Aqua sighed. “Officially, I can neither confirm nor deny that.”

“And unofficially?” asked Vega.

“We’ve seen them before,” said Aqua. “Terra reported a similar incident, and we found an inactive one in the bay yesterday. Aer destroyed four of them an hour ago. Guild specialists and the military are currently examining them. The design is similar to the one used in the last great war with the Arachne, but the ones we found were different. Less refined… more like a homebrewed hack. Efficient nonetheless. Not a word to the outside, at least for now. Are we clear?”

Vega, Merope, and Kass nodded in unison.

“So they were placed in the territory of at least three rulers,” Vega said. “What about Ignis?”

“No reports so far,” said Aqua. “But the mountains are dragon territory. I doubt anyone would be stupid enough to place lures there.”

“They are likely not used to inconvenience you,” said Vega. “No one would take that kind of effort just to attempt to hinder an intermediary or one of the rulers. At least if they know about their strength.”

“Right,” said Aqua. “We suspect their goal might be the disruption of everyday life or to lure monsters into the suburbs.”

“Or maybe to test their design?” asked Vega.

“Who would test outlawed technology in the heart of the Arcana Empire?” asked Aqua. “And especially next to the capital? There would be better ways.”

“Maybe you’re right,” said Vega. “Or maybe this is a multi-purpose operation?”

“Well, it is out of my hands now,” said Aqua. “Literally.”

“What do you mean?”

“I handed over the inactive lure we recovered last night. The guild is examining it as we speak.”

“In the city?” asked Vega. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

“The lure was inactive before they began disassembly, as far as we know from the one Terra recovered earlier. We suspect they experimented with a chain of lures in Aer’s territory today, but we are not certain yet. They have concluded the hunter exam and called off all additional field trials for the time being.”