It had been a couple of months since their last hunt in Lyreann. In fact, the last time saw Shouri leaving the forest on a stretcher fighting for his life.

  To say a lot had happened in the intervening time was an understatement. It felt like a lifetime ago since they had even been on a proper hunt.

  As they waited in line to register for tonight’s festivities, one thing remained on his mind: Cheryth’s words from a month ago.

  “Your Resonators’ growth over the last half year has been nothing short of miraculous.”

  Even from the last time they were in Lyreann itself (which was only about three months ago), his trio had grown leaps and bounds.

  Taika had unlocked and mastered her ad-Lib.

  Pacifica was a more confident fighter who leaned into her attribute beautifully.

  Rebecca, while not making the same strides as her fellow Resonators, was still growing stronger as well.

  He was proud of them, smiling at the thought of their continued progress.

  “Next!”

  The Maestro approached the booth, proudly handing over the three tuners attached to him.

  Things never went smoothly for Shouri Tomoshibi, however. “Wait a minute, you’re a guildmaster?” asked the booth registrar.

  Shouri closed his eyes, took in a deep breath, and exhaled through his nose, trying to avoid being overdramatic. (The back rub of assurance from Pacifica helped ease his mind.) “Yeah… uhh PTRS… Pruned Trees Re-Sprout,” he answered.

  “Never heard of you.”

  “We’re new.”

  “Well appreciate a guildmaster’s help.”

  It didn’t seem like a problem, but the trio of tuners was slid back to him without the usual check-in process being completed.

  “Is it really that big a deal?” questioned Shouri, replacing the devices at his side.

  “I mean, you are a guildmaster. They don’t hand those out like candy,” said the attendant. They looked over the three curious Resonators behind their Maestro. “Your three look pretty tough.”

  “You didn’t register us though,” Shouri noted.

  “No, Guilds are outside of MA Office jurisdiction. Your guild liaison will handle any member payments for work you do out here.”

  “Right… we have one of those.” It was taking everything in Taika’s willpower to keep Shouri from complaining too loudly.

  “Either way, you’re a free agent. You can bring your guild members on hunts, join up with the regular hunting parties, or just wander around and take out Scherzando. Whatever you want,” the registrar informed the new guildmaster.

  “Makes sense, I think…” he said the latter part quieter. “Sorry for wasting your time,” he decided before stepping out of line.

  “No worries, it’s pretty rare to see a new guild master, definitely a treat!”

  The fact that Shouri had been addressed as a guild master the entire conversation wasn’t lost on the other Maestros waiting in line. He was in his usual green jacket and black pants combo – normal street clothes. Even so, the muttering and pointing was a bit unnerving.

  Pacifica blushed, huddling closer to their Maestro. “They uhh… they’re in awe of us,” she mumbled quietly. It was one thing when people were staring at Rebecca for being a Renard, or Taika for her lunar element, but this was different. All three Resonators were being appraised as powerful simply because of Shouri’s newly gained title.

  “Hrmph…” Rebecca too huddled close to Shouri, trying to avoid the appraising stares of the public.

  “Maybe we should go?” Taika suggested, otherwise unphased by the attention.

  “Sure, let’s set up a few spells and then I got a call to make.”

  “You could have told me about this shit,” Shouri complained to Cheryth as they walked through the woods.

  A small pack of flame foxes lit the way, alongside water, ice, and lunar foxes for good measure. The sounds of spellcraft in the distance were a decent backing track for their little jaunt through the woods. If nothing else it broke up Shouri’s caviling that most certainly could be heard throughout the woods.

  “You never asked!” was Cheryth’s rebuttal from the other end of the line.

  “I’m a hunter, you would think something that affects my job would be one of the first things you told me!” he countered.

  “No sir, your job is guildmaster of PTRS. You just happen to have a hunter’s license.”

  “Mmrpgh.”

  “Either way, if you want to go hunting, just shoot me a text so I know to get the forms filled out in the morning,” she told him. “I don’t mind. It’s good networking.”

  “Mrrrrgh…”

  “No complaints mister! But I do hope you have fun out there.”

  “Yeah, thanks,” he said.

  “Talk to you tomorrow.”

  “Sure sure.”

  As soon as the line dropped, Shouri let out a dramatic sigh, hanging his shoulders. Taika placed a hand on his back and rubbed it reassuringly.

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  “Thanks, Taika.”

  With that minor disturbance out of the way, the quartet got down to business. The traveling formation was still a work in progress, mostly Taika’s positioning. Rebecca always took the vanguard position with her flame foxes illuminating the path. Pacifica remained by Shouri’s side with the three elemental foxes in a triangular formation around them.

  Taika was trying out covering the rearguard but wasn’t sure how she felt about trailing behind her dear friends. Either way, the formation began to tighten as they approached a group of Scherzando. Per the map, it was a larger group that the other hunters were either ignoring or too intimidated to handle so early in the evening.

  “Sho, can I go first?” Taika requested upon reaching the crowd of Scherzando.

  “Oh, sure.” It wasn’t what Shouri had planned, but it was safe to say they were all curious about the efficacy of Taika’s ad-Lib against Scherzando.

  “Paci, Rebby, can you be ready in case this doesn’t work?” she requested of her teammates.

  “Of course!” Pacifica smiled, prepping some ice needles.

  “Like you needed to ask,” Rebecca said with a chuckle, the trio of elemental rhythm beasts taking their place in the front. The flame foxes covered their backs.

  Shouri couldn’t help the amazement as he watched Taika get into position. The 107 beads slowly floated out from Taika’s clothing and took positions hanging in the air.

  “If they get too close to us don’t hesitate to take them down,” Taika reminded her fellow Resonators.

  “Definitely,” Pacifica nodded.

  Rebecca simply flashed a thumbs up, keeping her eyes on the Scherzando milling about.

  The four waited in silence, observing the pack of beasts that milled about in the clearing. The waxing crescent of the moon made it darker than normal, but Taika didn’t need such trivialities as light to spot her prey.

  She needed to test what kind of damage she could do – that was the point of this exercise after all. As such, one single bead was selected as the first soldier. With a flick of a mental thumb, she fired off the bead like a bullet, nailing its’ target: the closest Scherzando to them, a large elk-shaped shadow adorned with bark.

  It punched clean through the beast but didn’t take it out. The only thing the attack had accomplished was alerting the idling rhythm beast to their presence.

  That wouldn’t be a problem for long as the remaining 106 beads went in for the kill, wrapping around the beast’s neck and slamming it into the ground to dissolve it.

  Unfortunately, such a brutal takedown alerted the rest of the horde to the presence of dinner – Shouri and his Resonators.

  “Rebecca, stay close, you and Pacifica keep them from getting to us – Taika, Loro Formato Lunare Lago, Legato!” Shouri commanded immediately.

  The girls traded places, Pacifica and Rebecca taking Taika’s spot, while Taika backed up to begin creating the Lunar-Water Ossia spell.

  Rebecca kept Pacifica safe by kicking away any Scherzando that got close. Pacifica fired off needles like an otter machine gun, keeping the beasts contained in a small spot. The furious assault continued until-

  BOOOOOM!

  A giant space rock crushed the enemy resistance.

  The elemental foxes rushed out on Rebecca’s mental command to clean up the stragglers.

  “Whew,” Pacifica wiped the sweat from her brow. “That went well I think,” she grinned.

  “We did learn a few things,” Taika noted, her beads rotating around her body. “My beads can interact with Scherzando, despite losing connection when near a Maestro or Resonator,” she stated.

  “One alone isn’t enough to kill ‘em though,” Rebecca observed.

  “So much for operation ‘One Taika Army’.” Shouri shrugged.

  “The choke slam was pretty cool,” added Pacifica.

  “It’s probably better if I send clusters of beads out to channel spells through,” suggested Taika.

  Shouri nodded in agreement. “Also, we can use you as anti-air when dealing with flying Scherzando,” he proposed.

  “Oh yeah, that’s a good idea,” Taika realized.

  With the return of the friendly rhythm beasts, the area was cleared of Scherzando. “Let’s keep going,” Shouri urged the group onward.

  “Good shooting out there,” Rebecca praised Pacifica as they resumed their trek.

  “Thanks,” Pacifica chuckled sheepishly. “I had a good teacher,” added the otter coyly.

  “Grk…” Rebecca’s face reddened, as she jerked her head away from the water element.

  “Che? Maybe I should have Rebby give me some lessons,” Taika teased, taking up the side that Rebecca had tried to turn to to avoid Pacifica’s teasing.

  “Go away!” The fire fox stomped ahead of her two teammates.

  Another smile from Shouri, he was doing that a lot recently.

  “I’m blessed,” he whispered to himself.