A faint trace of mana surge, grabbing the attention of 10 [Light Bats] that are scouting the area.
The [Light Bats] look at each other before flying towards the source of the mana surge.
With their keen detection and sensitivity to their surroundings and the energy that surrounds them, they easily locate the source of where the surge of mana originated.
But, upon arriving, they see nothing but a desolate street with no one or any beings that left the surge of mana just now.
Confused, they look around, before suddenly...
A blade decapitates two [Light Bats] as they fall to the ground with a thud.
Thea had appeared, decapitating them with lightning coursing through her body as she dodges a light beam that fired at her.
Thea moves like a stealthy assassin, dodging and weaving through the light beams and the bats' sharp wings they slowly retreat.
But, Thea doesn't let them.
Thea moves fast, while she would appear as a slight blur for a Seed, for the [Light Bats] that specializes in speed, they could see Thea but only slightly able to follow her.
Her sword crackle with lightning, and she stabs a [Light Bat] on the head before bursting the lightning as a spiderweb of lightning burns some of the bats.
Slowly, corpses of the bats starts to build up on the ground.
The remaining three bats tries to flee, only for Thea to propel herself towards the closest bat.
Lightning crackles on her flexed fingers like a claw that descends onto the bat as she burns the head with electricity before throwing the bat's body that is still crackling with electricity to the other one.
It dies shortly after.
Thea, aleeady building up a sphere of lightning on the tip points it at the last retreating one.
ZAP
The lightning shot forward, catching onto the unfortunate bat as it burns slowly before leaving a black orb that floats on the air.
Thea falls back down to the ground on her feet as she glance around before grabbing each Soul and purifying them instantly before absorbing them.
It was a massacre by the hands of an Evoker at the peak of its class.
Thea looked at Sirius who reappeared as she nods at him before they go back stealthily.
Thea and Sirius meets up with Luna and Adam as he informs thrm that there are no nearby Calamities.
"Should we take the corpse and cut it up for the meat?"
Thea and Adam stops on their track, looking at him with a complicated look while Luna pictures herself eating a bat as her face frowns.
Sirius raise one of his brows as he look at them before crossing his arms.
"Don't look at me like that, from what I remember, the supplies you guys brought are starting to thin out, and partially due to the fact that we escaped the Abyss in a hurry."
Sirius begin scolding them and teaching them of the importance of scavenging whatever there is.
He rubs the back of his nape before sighing.
"While I know it disgusts you all, you have to get used to it. For now, I'll try and cut up the flesh so that it doesn't look disgusting and cook them."
He was planning on just cleaning the bats before cooking them and eating them outright without cutting them up.
But he guess he has to cut them up first now before cooking it.
Thea and Adam hesitantly nod as Sirius smiles satisfactorily. He then walk back to the pile of corpses before grabbing them.
Seeing that there's too many, Sirius conjures a simple plastic bag through [Stellar Force], allowing him to drop the corpses inside the bag.
It had been exactly a day since they started hunting the bats, he still vividly remember how fun it was the day before.
Both fun and life-threatening.
Defeating a Usurper, well not exactly defeat, more like... a stalemate? He was sure that the bat could recover or shoot him with either a light beam or a heat wave and burning him to a crisp.
Especially those bullets.
If he was having internal injuries from tanking those bullets with his Fallen class armor, then what if he takes them without his armor?
Anyways, after that and resting up before playing with Sol on the pool and talking with her was refreshing.
He always enjoy deep talks with a person he's connected with, or became friends with. His two friends back on the Post was too much of a low-attention span type of person that they get bored when getting into deep talks.
They, after all, prefer doing some crazy stuff.
Anyways... after he was finished with Sol, Thea suddenly asked him to go to the pool with her. Only this time, the deep talks were short and most of the time taken was for them to swim or play with each other.
He was confident to say it had been one of the best day throughout his life, a fulfilling day.
Going back to the base, they could see the others that stayed simply sitting or resting idly.
"We're back."
Sirius announced as the group opens the door to the rooftop.
Sol, upon noticing him walks up to him with a smile.
"Welcome back, how was the operation?"
"It went well, we didn't alert the group and didn't leave any trace of the corpses, in fact, we brought the corpses! Here, for today's meal."
Sirius smiles before showing her the plastic bag as she stops smiling and look at the plastic bag with confusion before horror.
Her face twitch, as she smiles nervously with a bead of sweat running down her forehead.
"Um... thank you for the hunt Sirius..."
Sol mutter, clearly disturbed by the concept of eating Calamity bats.
It was surprisingly doable to eat Calamity flesh, but one needs to cook it and clean it like how one eats any other animal.
Thea meanwhile look at Sol hurtly.
"Ah... this must be hell... my dearest sister didn't even greet me first..."
Thea speaks loudly enough for Sol to hear as she giggles upon hearing her sister.
Sol walks up to her before hugging her.
"Welcome back sis."
Thea's face instantly brighten up as she hugs her back before squealing happily.
With power, she easily swing her body around while hugging her as Thea laughs happily.
Sirius could only watch with amusement at the antics of the two sisters.
"She was the one that did all the work anyway, killed them all. So technically she hunted them for everyone's meals, she even selflessly thought of it and ordered me to collect the corpses."
Thea's face abruptly change to a questioning look as she looks at Sirius. But she could see the way the corner of his lip tug upward.
"The heck! No! It was him!"
Sirius merely smile before putting on a surprised face.
"Huh? But weren't you the one that suggested it? What do you mean it was me? You looked so eager to try bat meat though..."
The others gasp, looking at Thea with surprise, Luna, a bit slow was about to question Sirius why he lied, only for Yuki to look at her before shaking his head with a smile and a wave.
Luna, though dubious and was still confused stay silent instead, seeing that Sol too is giggling to Sirius' words with a smug smile.
Thea could only look at them hurtly.
Afterwards, Yuki explained to Luna that it was a joke and it wasn't meant to attack Thea.
It was something called sarcasm apparently.
Afterwards, Sirius began on first skinning the bat before butchering them up by the limbs.
Summoning a kitchen knife using stellar force, Sirius keeps the shape and the sharpness of it as sharp as a kitchen knife as he imagines it.
Then, upon cutting them up, as Sirius ordered, Chad brought back a bucket of water from the pool which is not hygienic but it does its job of cleaning up the flesh.
Sol, watching from nearby watch in curiosity from behind his shoulder.
Looking back at her, he smiles.
"Wanna try butchering the meat?"
She looks at him before tilting her head.
"Can I?"
"Sure, I'll guide you properly."
Sol's eyes brighten as she nods, willing to learn.
In her mind, being able to learn how to cut up meat and clean up meat from an animal is a treasure. Since if one doesn't know how to properly prepare a meat from a wild animal or Calamity, it would just poison them instead.
Sirius moves over for a bit before letting Sol watch next to him.
"If we had flour and oil this would be a feast."
Sol chuckles upon hearing his words before looking at him with a roll of his eyes.
"Not everything needs to be fried Sirius."
"... I like fried foods."
Sol notes it in her head as she smiles.
Back to what he was doing, Sirius begin on teaching Sol properly as he guides her through it. Cutting the limbs, and the head if there was one.
Almost all of them are headless due to Thea or burnt, so there actually wasn't a lot of meat to be distributed.
After he finished cutting up the limbs and taking out the bone, Sirius also collects some wood that he had ordered the others to bring.
With that, a simple pile of woods are stacked on top of each other, and Sirius stabs the meat with a blue stick from [Stellar Force].
"Thea, fire up the pile of woods."
Thea upon hearing her name called walks over before burning the pile of woods with a small intensity fire as she touch it.
Sirius looks at her before asking.
"I've been meaning to ask... why have you rarely used your fire Rune? You've only been using it whenever you directly touch something or just shoot something small with that fire, and even then it was easly put out."
"Ah... well, it's because I can't actually control the fire. I can't really shape it or even guide it, and when I really wanted to, only then would I be able to at least shoot a fire in a general direction I want to."
Sirius slowly nods before looking at Sol.
"Ah right, when you're cooking it, think of it like cooking a marshmallow if you've ever had one. Basically, due to the intensity of the fire, you don't place the food that's on the stick directly in the fire, just place it above the fire or near it."
"That much I know..."
Sirius smiles upon hearing Sol before nudging her arm with his elbow.
"Just reminding you, in case you suddenly place it in the fire."
Sirius put on a smirk as Sol rolls her eyes before smiling.
Thea, looking at them simply smile before turning her head away and walking back to Adam.
Adam looks at her in pity, and she noticed the look.
"... What?"
Adam shakes his head.
"Nothing, just don't fight."
Thea froze, before letting out a sigh.
"... It's up to him."
Adam raise one of his brows.
"Whoa, a confirmation? This fast too? The hell, you two just met though? You don't even allow Yuki to get too close to Luna back in the day and only allowed it after a few months."
"...F*ck off, it's... ah! I don't know. I don't want to think about it."
Adam smiles before looking away with a bitter look.
"I don't know if he's the dense type of guy or if he realized, but it seems he doesn't, considering that guy is still all up with your sister... But trust me. It's better to do what you want to do now and not later or even miss the chance..."
Thea looks at Adam who seem to be reminded of a certain past as she lets out a sigh before rubbing the back of her neck.
"... Yeah."
Adam smiles at her before sighing and reaching into his bag before taking out a necklace.
His heart tugs, a pain that burns him not physically, but emotionally.
He grasp the necklace tightly as he looks at the sky.
Thea pats his back as they silently lean on the edge.