Chapter 12 - Arashi Activity

"A living storm?" Kuria asked.

"I learned a bit about them from Elder Aira." Mai stated. "They usually appear in the Autumn season, but I thought they spawned closer to the border between the water and air continent. How is it this close?"

"What do we do about it?"

I want to fight it. Mai thought to herself. If I could defeat an Arashi on my own then that'll prove that I've gotten stronger. I can deal with it before it becomes a problem.

"...Miss Mai?"

"Be my support Ria. We can deal with this before anyone else has to."

.....

"If I'm not mistaken, I believe there's an Arashi directly outside of Aestus." Elder Faye informed the others.

"Wait, did you detect the kids going back in this morning?" Elder Treya asked.

"No I haven't. They're still outside somewhere."

"We're about a days journey away from Aestus." Damien stated. "Even if we hurry, we probably wouldn't make it back before nightfall."

Aaron looked over to Via in confusion of what was happening. She then gave him a look back which told him to stay quiet. Both of their hands were locked in a special ice that Damien applied to them. It wasn't frozen because of a low temperature, but instead was being held together by Damien's essence.

"Mai wouldn't engage in combat with an Arashi if she has a child like Kuria with her." Treya stated. "She even has someone who can't even use essence yet."

"If it's only in stage 1 then they should easily be able to avoid it." Faye added.

"In any case let's hurry back to Aestus." Damien said. "If the Arashi is in stage 3 then it will pose a threat to the village."

"Your right Damien, let's move quickly."

.....

"It's pretty far out in the water so I'm counting on you to do your part Ria." Mai said.

"What about Kaden?" Ria asked looking over to him as he was still sleeping heavily under the tree.

"He'll be fine, we're dealing with it before it gets close to the shore. Let's go Ria."

"Yes ma'am."

"..."

The Arashi aimlessly hovered across the lake, paying zero attention to its surroundings. The vortex of wind which it was at the center of, extended outwards several yards in every direction. With no distinguishable physical features on its partially transparent body, the best way to describe it would be 'an expressionless ghost'.

"Now Ria."

On signal, Ria created an upward funnel of water which surrounded the Arashi. It stopped moving forward as the water slowly began to close in around it, and in seconds it was completely engulfed.

"It should easily be able to escape." Kuria stated.

The surface of the water began to bubble and release the Arashi piece by piece.

"Like I thought, it doesn't have a physical body." Mai said. "Since air is less dense than water, then it's just going to rise to the surface whenever we submerge it. Let's move on to step two."

After the Arashi fully reassembled itself, it hovered in place over the water for a few seconds. The vortex of wind which was surrounding it then suddenly dissipated.

"Is it, getting weaker?" Kuria asked.

"Let's not take any chances." Mai replied. "Do it now."

"Yes ma'am."

Mai and Kuria then simultaneously raised a column of water and dropped it on the Arashi. It was engulfed again inside of a cube shaped water prison.

"Quickly Ria, freeze it!" Mai exclaimed.

Kuria stretched her hand towards the Arashi and clinched her fist. The corners of the water prison then began to freeze over and soon after the entire cube was frozen, capturing the Arashi inside.

"Was that enough?" Kuria asked as she dropped her arms.

"Bring it closer Ria. I can only think of one way in which we can kill it."

Life essence then started to appear entering Mai's left hand.

"I don't think we can damage it's body, so that means we have to attack its spirit." Mai stated as a spectral bow and arrow appeared in her hand.

Kuria raised her arms again and began to pull the ice block towards them.

Bringing it closer to us is a huge risk. Mai thought to herself. I need to ensure that I hit this first shot. If I miss then it would be in range to attack me, Ria and Kaden.

As the block came closer, Mai aimed her bow and readied herself to take a quick but accurate first shot. The block was about fifty meters away when Mai signaled Kuria to stop.

"Alright. On three release it." Mai said. "One... two... three."

Kuria restored the ice back into water which began to immediately pour back into the lake. There was a fraction of a second between when the Arashi became exposed from the falling water and when Mai's arrow released from her hand. A precisely fired shot aimed directly for its body, seemingly pierced straight through its target. The body made of air itself dispersed in a whirlwind fashion as the arrow flew through it. There was a brief state of relief and excitement from the girls as they thought they had just defeated a powerful creature on their own. However that moment of relief quickly vanished as the Arashi reappeared directly in front of Mai, staring directly into her face.

"Wha-"

She was barely able to form a single word before she was blasted by an intense gust of wind which lifted her several feet off of the ground, and launched her backwards over fifteen meters.

"Miss Mai?" Kuria said in a shaky voice as she just witnessed what happened.

The gust of wind also managed to finally wake Kaden as it blew leaves and branches off of the tree he was sleeping under. His eyes opened with a jolt and his body sprung up from the ground it was laying on.

"What was... that?" He asked as he immediately found the answer to his question.

Kuria was paralyzed in fear as she stood next to the Arashi. An eerie whistling started to come from the creature as it started floating over to Mai, who was slowly getting back to her feet. Kaden didn't understand the situation but could tell that this thing was an enemy. He jumped between it and Mai which made the Arashi stop moving forward.

"She's not the one buddy." Kaden said with a stern look on his face.

Why did I jump in front of it? Kaden thought. I can't fight this thing can I? What even is it? I can see straight through its body and it doesn't have a face. Mai looks hurt, and Kuria is terrified.

"Ka- den." Mai called out as she got back to her feet. "Take Kuria and go back to Aestus."

"What!?"

"Find Kenzo, he should be waiting for me to return at the edge of the underground lake."

"You're out of your mind if you think I'm leaving you here." Kaden replied turning to face Mai.

As he faced her, the wind that made up the Arashi's body dispersed again. This time it flowed around Kaden's body and reassembled itself in front of Mai.

"I'll distract it, go!" Mai shouted as a new spectral bow and arrow appeared in her hand.

Simultaneously the Arashi once again blasted Mai directly with a strong gust of wind.

"Mai!" Kaden yelled as she flew back several more meters.

Kaden rushed the creature and attempted to throw a punch at it, which led to him passing through the Arashi. Before he could react properly, Kaden was also blasted by a gust of wind that sent him rocketing into the air.

"WHOOOOAAAAA!!!!" Kaden yelled as he shot at least twenty meters into the sky.

Not good. Kaden thought to himself. A fall from this height is gonna do a lot more than just hurt. Do something. Quick, you have to do something Kaden.

As he frantically watched the approaching ground beneath him, an idea suddenly crept into his head. Kaden pointed both of his arms toward the ground, closed his eyes and focused on discharging a gust of wind of his own. There was only second before he came into contact with the ground, when the sudden burst of wind released from his palms. The force of the wind acted as a brake and slowed him down enough that he was uninjured from the fall.

Cough. Cough. "I actually am pretty good." Kaden muttered to himself as he picked himself up.

Mai ran over to him out of concern, but found him smiling because of the maneuver he just pulled off.

"Are you okay?" Mai asked.

"...Where's that thing?!"

"Miss Mai! Kaden! It's watching you!" Kuria yelled out pointing towards the Arashi.

Mai and Kaden quickly changed their focus to the Arashi and found that it was actually injured.

"Its arm..." Mai acknowledged.

The body that was made up completely of moving air was now missing an arm.

"...but how?"

"It had to have been my wind from earlier." Kaden suggested. "It was right next to me when it sent me flying before. Now it's over there, which means it must've moved to avoid my wind but its arm got caught. Which means we can probably forcibly disperse it with air essence."

He pieced all of that together in a matter of seconds. Mai thought to herself.

"We can kill it. Come on Mai."

"R-Right, let's do it."

The question is how much air essence can I release before collapsing? Kaden thought. It'll probably be a small amount still. I have to be cautious.

Suddenly the whistling from earlier began again and it was noticeably louder from before. Without warning the Arashi vanished again.

"...Where are you?" Kaden asked softly as his eyes tracked everything moving around him.

Kaden then noticed a patch of grass waving like they were being blown by a breeze. Kaden didn't react, and a second later the Arashi appeared in that very spot and blasted both of them with its strongest gust of wind yet. They both went flying over to where Kuria was as she was just starting to get over her fear of the Arashi.

"Miss Mai..."

In that moment Kuria recalled what Mai told her at the start of all this. "Be my support Ria." She gathered herself and created a large wave of water from the lake behind her. She directed the wave around herself and guided it in position to catch both Mai and Kaden from there fall. She then brought both of them inside of her circle that was amidst the large wave she was controlling.

Cough "I wanna try something." Kaden said quickly rising to his feet. "I need you two to make it disappear again."

"I'm starting to feel fatigued." Kuria said as she began to breathe more heavily.

"Ria... Kaden I'll make it disappear for you, I don't want Ria to push herself anymore."

"You asked me... to be your support Miss Mai. So I'll do just that." Kuria said as she directed a surge of water towards the Arashi.

Instead of disappearing however, the Arashi flew over the approaching torrent and charged for Kaden and the others. It released an intense burst of wind, stronger than all the others it had fired off previously. Kuria defended the three of them with a wall of water which canceled out the attack. The Arashi immediately flew around the water and attacked again, but was again denied by Kuria. This pattern continued four more times with Kuria's water receding into the lake with every passing second. Kuria channeled the last of the water she was controlling and shot it upwards at the Arashi.

"I'm... sorry... Miss Mai." Kuria said as she dropped to her knees.

"You did great Ria, I'm proud of you." Mai replied to her with a smile.

The Arashi dodged the attack and flew towards them again. Kuria managed to erect one last wall of water between them and the Arashi before she fell over into the wet grass. As the Arashi came around the wall of water, it was greeted by another spectral arrow flying towards it. It was as if time slowed down as the arrow and the Arashi flew towards each other heads on. Just like before, the Arashi disappeared just before the arrow came into contact with it.

"Let's go Kaden!" Mai exclaimed as she held her spectral bow and stood over Kuria's body.

The surroundings became quiet as Kaden's eyes bounced around in an attempt to locate the Arashi. He took in a large breath of air and held it in as he looked around. Finally he noticed a patch of grass that seemed to be dancing in spiraling wind.

Got ya. Kaden thought as he released a humongous gust of wind.

The Arashi's body formed as the blast of air traveled towards it. In less than a second, it was completely eviscerated by the gust.

"...Did you get it?" Mai asked as she kneeled down to pick up Kuria.

Without a word being said, Mai watched as Kaden panted heavily before collapsing to the ground.

"Kaden? Kaden?!"