Near End

The creature that approached them looked towards them like mere food. It was standing still after it got within its lunging state, trying to anticipate what its enemies might do.

“Mio attack already. What are you waiting for?” Toki shouts towards her, sitting on the rock in a daze.

“I'm sorry…” She struck her drum major stick onto the dirt floor twice.

A beautiful yellow golden ripple effect travels across the ground, painting it almost shiny. Four golden threads come out from the bottom of the drum major stick; following that pulse of the ripple, the threads surround the creature in four ways before starting to spiral themselves into form.

The threads multiply out of each other; they were writing more threads from existence threads, causing an infinite, recurring effect to take place.

They manifest into four drummers, each having their own podium forming a square around the beast; they had no faces. Just a human-like resemblance in their figure; other than that, they were just pure twisted threads.

“Begin your playing!” For the first time, Mio shouted over the lengthy distance towards her threads, the command instantly being received by her threads' forces, hands down upon the drum sets.

A strong, thick sound envelopes the atmosphere. The loud atmosphere, even causing the dirt below to shake, was clearly an intimidation tactic. Ayuri also started to feel the heavy beats of the drums, her very core being frozen in place.

She couldn't move even if she wanted to; her entire existence was being overwhelmed. Luckily, Toki rushed over to her, took out the headphones from her pocket, and applied them to her ears to soothe her down.

“You seem to be immune, haha,” Mio laughs out loud towards Toki, clearly in amusement.

Did she completely switch personae once her ability activated? She became rather loud and obnoxious.

“Yes, I'm immune now instead of just scaring it. Go actually kill it. Toki clearly wasn’t in the mood to just deal with any games currently; he just wanted to get back to camp.

Mio laughs louder. “We may continue our travel. Let’s go, my bandmates. March away!”

Before even having a chance to reply, she was already marching away; her injured leg seemed to have gotten better.

Tapping at Ayuri's shoulder to make her follow, they continue walking towards the camp.

“So how much does that last anyway? We aren’t going to be chased, right? Toki's tone was rather suspicious of the ease with which she portrayed her ability.

Mio, turning around instantly, smiles widely. “It should wear off once we're at least two hundred metres away!”

A deep sigh left his mouth.

“Can you keep using your drummers?”

Mio smirks, “A bandmate should know that rest is important. I have other tools at my disposal the next time it comes. It will die!”

Her cocky tone sent a rather comforting feeling towards Toki; if she was this confident, then it must be good news for them. That begs the question: how did she get bitten in the first place?

While walking behind her, Toki keeps looking forward. His grey eyes widened at the sight before him. The purple poison within her body started to spread around her neck at this very moment.

“Mio, can I ask if we're at two hundred metres yet?”

Her usual timid voice answered back, “We are…”

The movements of her body slowed down back to what they normally were, the effects of her power starting to lose their grip on her. The range limitation was a huge concern in a running situation.

Sensing her slow down, Toki comes over and lets her grab onto his shoulder if necessary. Ayuri, seeing the scene in front of her, takes off her headphones.

“If you need to switch, Toki, don't be afraid to ask!” Her energetic voice beamed with an urgency to help if needed.

The group walked for another thirty minutes, and there were eyes from every side watching their movements, yet none attacked.

This is around the tenth creature that has spotted us, but it isn’t even trying to attack us. I should try to figure out why.

Toki instinctively nods to himself.

They know that our camp will have more people; they know by our different clothing that there were two separate groups, so they want to feast upon eight of us in their view.

The forest started to shed more light in, and the end was starting to be visible. After an hour of the interval, they managed to make it out onto the open field.

Hiwo instantly rushed over to us, scanning our state. “I was starting to get worried, so this is the only one you managed to find?”

Toki nods. “The rest are dead; Kazu will need to know. Also, we were being watched by around ten of those creatures. They are going to attack any minute.”

“Shina is at camp; she decided not to go hunt, worrying over Ayuri not seeing her upon returning.”

Shina was worried about Ayuri – I wasn't expecting that. Their history doesn't support it either. Maybe something happened.

Toki lets out a smile. “That's good to hear.”

Without wasting any more time, Toki heads over with Mio back to their camp; a peaceful feeling washes over her as the familiar sights leave her with a tear coming out, reminding her of yesterday when they were all still huddled together.

Ayuri clears her throat before taking on a soft tone. “Kazu, Mio is here to see you.”

Kazu instantly opened his tent, leaping out with immense speed and embracing her in a deep, tight hug. It startled Mio slightly, but she was happy that he was still alive.

“I'm back, Kazu,” she returns the hug.

Kazu lets out a couple of tears down his face. This sight was something that even Ayuri hadn't seen before; it was pure happiness.

“I was so worried that I would never see any of you again. Are the others alright?” He looks up towards her face. She couldn't bear to look back at him.

“Let's talk in the tent.”

As Kazu gets in the tent ready to assist her, she taps her drum major stick onto the ground, tapping it four times. The golden threads appeared once more, manifesting around the ripple effect into humanlike beings again.

This time, they had trombones in their hands; there were eight summoned. It was a high number considering her condition. They all surrounded the tent in an octagon-like formation.

She turns to Toki. “Think of them as sentries; our impenetrable base shall never fall!”

He gives an awkward nod before seeing her enter the tent with Kazu and closing it behind them.

She's back, acting all confident again.

“Ayuri…” He scanned around the campfire, noticing Ayuri was nowhere to be seen. He walks around the campfire, seeing Shina and Ayuri sitting down together.

Figured Shina seemed to be worried, like Hiwo said. Her worry for Ayuri cut off the hunting urge she got, it seems.

“Hiwo!” At the shout of his voice, he walks over with the spear still firmly grasped, analysing the new manifestation around the camp.

“What are these?” His voice was confused at what this could be.

“Stand around here; we will let these arches deal with the initial onslaught, and then you and Shina can clean up.”

As he nods, they know from the sound coming from the forest that all ten of these creatures are currently looking at them. The first one came out, finally announcing the last eclipseion battle.