It was well into theter stages of the day. The sun has already passed the peak of its arc and has long since begun its slow but steady descent, reaching somewhere around the third quarter of its journey.


    The sounds of a heated, but at the same time, fortunately, one-sided battle filled the vast boring emptiness of the golden desert.


    An army of giant, mutant abominable insectoids swarmed around a small group of fighters forming a circle around the obstinately refusing prey for thest couple hours.


    Around them, a growing pile of mutted carcasses dripped in their own, viscous, dark, and oily blood formed a rampart around the mix of adventurers and mercenaries.


    Suddenly an arrow materialized out of thin air, piercing one of the ck, miniature bead-like eyes of a giant dark brown forest bug with remarkable precision. A fountain of its disgusting juices gushed out from the fatal wound, causing the beast to shiver and cry out in pain for onest time, before joining the growing pile of corpses.


    "Nice shot Lilly!" Aina remarked, shing her short sword at another of the same species.


    "Yeah, incredible aim girl!" Her twin sister fighting a simr opponent next to her, Eina joined in.. "Let me copy that!" She eximed, thrusting her sword forward in the next instant, plunging it deep in one of the little dark beads as well.


    Instantly, the innards of the giant insectoid gushed out from the gaping wound, burying the girl in a thickyer of goo in almost no time. Even her sister standing just a few steps beside her got some of the juices on her.


    "E… The hell?!" Aina yelled out, swiping her sword with increased ferocity. "Just die like the good little monster you are, and stop spewing your disgusting yuck on us!"


    "Yes! We are delicatedies you beasts!" Eina nodded at her sister''s im just as she struck down vertically at an antlike creature. Her strike carried such strength that it once again, slit the head of the creature apart, causing another fountain of the ck smudge to be shot at the duo.


    "Ahahahaha! Stop it you two, I can''t focus on fighting like this!" Standing slightly to the left of Eina, the tall blonde lewdly dressed amazon hollered with a great guffaw. The next moment, the head of her giant ax sailed the air, cleaving not one, but two of these disgusting, vile insectoid monsters in two, ending the life of a Giant Ant and a Forest Bug.


    Strangely though, even though the creatures were ferocious and savage, there were no visible wounds on any of the frontliners. Standing behind them, the blonde Lily, or the gentle angelic beauty Galina stood and supported their friends.


    They had a rtively easy time, protected from all sides by either the brutal trio, or the pair of ck war hounds, or the pair of Crone and the bald Jai who also didn''tg behind the rest. Covered in blood and smudge from head to two, both men were fighting with the desire to prove themselves to the rest of the party.


    Being the one wearing the least amount of protection, Naybeah sneered with an annoyed grunt when the next opponent suddenly ambushed her from below the pile of carcasses, causing a deep, horrid-looking gash at the top inner part of her left thigh.


    Yet in the next moment, golden light wrapped around the horrid injury. Comforting warmth reced the searing, sharp pain, removing all difort in an instant. Like a first-aid bandage but made of intangible golden luminescence, the energy quickly covered up the damage, and began to swiftly heal and regenerate the damage whilst it slowly, gradually dissipated away.


    "Thanks, girl!" Even without turning away from the frontline and looking at the source of the magic, it was obvious who was the one that attended to yet another of her wounds. Galina''s constant, relentless heals made sure that none of the warriors and even the dogs, that protected the frontlines had to suffer anysting injuries and only had to somehow deal with their waning, staggering stamina only.


    Time passed, as the team continued their battle endlessly…


    As they reached closer and closer to the northern edges of the forest and would step through into the sparse vegetation that gradually began to rece its hot golden sands, they suddenly walked into what could only be described as an ambush, a deliberately set trap.


    These monsters, or to be more precise these insectoid beasts were much more organized than what should be normally possible. They fought together, in arge group, working for the same goal in mind. Their joint assault was quite a shock to the team at the start, not to mention the seemingly endless sea they suddenly found themselves in.


    Still, despite them slowly grinding away the enemies fight after fight, they too were suffering. Though they were kept in prime condition by the expert support of Lily and Galina, the seemingly endless numbers, the arduously drawn-out battle did begin to wear them down.


    Their powers began to diminish, their strikes, their swings were slowly losing their edge. What was an effortless, fatal swing an hour ago, now only made a gushing, deep wound on the opponent, if it managed to connect at all.


    To make it worse, Lily was also reaching thest of her arrows, even though she had a magical quiver, it can''t support her endlessly.


    As she reached down, Lily was surprised by what she felt. Giving it a quick nce, she frowned as she eximed loudly.


    "I''m at myst arrow! We need to finish… whatever this is and get back to camp!"


    "Heh…" Aina snickered, hearing Lily exim. "What an incredible suggestion! Finish the fight? Huh… If you haven''t suggested, I would never have guessed that this would be possible!" She sneered, sounding more tired and annoyed rather than truly angered. The constant battles have started to wear her down. After all, just yesterday she was still lying unconsciously with deep, seemingly fatal wounds covering the entirety of her body.


    Her fast recuperation was already more than a miracle, not to mention her incredible stamina thatsted up to this point.


    ''This is getting annoying…'' Naybeah muttered inwardly. Even her, being as battle-crazed as she was, started to show signs of the built-up fatigue. Her limbs slowly began to tire, each swing chipped away from her slowly draining stamina.


    Still, her resolve, her desire to match up to her beloved mate did not allow her to show the wear and tear on her. She couldn''t fail the expectations that she thought Aiden had for her. She had to be the partner he could rely on. Some measly bugs and ants cannot defeat her!


    On top of that, his sister was in her care. She needed to protect her!


    ---


    AN: Hey there Readers!


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