Alinea

ROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!

Mavara's voice thundered as he hovered excitedly over the scuttling giant insects. His elongated body slithering in the air like a snake as his body became more and more lucid. His former self made of only flames, solidified continuously until he landed on one fleeing arachnid, his clawed feet squishing the giant insect underneath.

SLAM SLAM SLAM

The blue dragon, tapped his feet as if in tempo with the music, crushing the already flattened spider, his scaly body glinted under the moonlight.

SLAM SLAM SLAM

The twenty-meter beast continued on, his huge body moving in undulating motions. His long, scaly tail swung side by side, slamming on the ground in staccato, swatting the other creepy arachnids flat then burning them on the spot, creating tremors and indentation on the earth. The fire elemental totally looked like he was enjoying himself – happy to have fully materialized for the first time in a long while.

"Mavara stop swinging, "Ryuu scolded the dragon who turned to him abruptly just to give him a sulky look as if his master was a party pooper, but obeyed nonetheless.

It was because he was hitting the ground continuously that people might be alerted, thinking it was an earthquake with the thunderstorm, and die of shock upon seeing a fully grown blue dragon dancing. He still swung his tail in the air but refrained from hitting the ground.

Homura Ryuu, seeing that the insects were already exterminated, counted the carcasses.

Nine…

The report said there were thirty of these giant, aggressive creatures.

"Ask them," Kazehaya suggested from his seat, and Ryuu fumbled in his pocket for his phone to dial Aoi.

"Young Master."

"Are you done?" Ryuu asked; his blue gaze scanned the area as he talked.

"Yes, Young Master. We have killed them all but…"

At the other's hesitation, Ryuu looked grim. He already had an idea what the other would say. "How many casualties?"

"We lost six of our men and some residents. But the area's still covered with web so we still have no idea of the final count until now."

The appearance of thirty giant beasts that were extremely aggressive and swift took the people by surprise, unable to defend themselves. Most of them must have suffocated when the spiders trapped them within the web, and some more unfortunate probably got eaten on the spot.

Ryuu sighed. His sudden solemnity told Kazehaya what the conversation was about, and he extended his hand asking for the phone which Koutaishidenka gave.

"Ao, how many did you kill?"Kazehaya barked his question using Aoi's nickname, and Ryuu's head whipped to look at Gin in alarm.

He had totally forgotten to ask that. His hands balled into fists on his sides as he waited for Aoi to answer.

"Got it, "Kazehaya quickly closed the phone and threw it at Ryuu, his eyes frantic. "We have to go. It's not yet over."

Kazehaya ran as he dragged Ryuu by the arm.

"How many?"

"Sixteen. We're missing five. We need to find them."

The longer they took to finding the spiders, the more the chance of having more dead bodies in their wake.

"Mavara!"

Ryuu called his elemental, and the blue dragon lowered his head, letting them step on him before standing up again. Perched on this height, they'd have a good view of the surrounding areas.

"Do you see anything?"

"No."Ryuu tried to scan the area but couldn't find traces of the giant spiders.

The trepidation he felt earlier when he found out that those insects ran towards Hakone returned with a vengeance. He didn't know why. Fear was supposed to be an unfamiliar feeling for him who was at the top. He was a returner to ancestry. But, since he saw that sliver of the past - the one he saw with Ara in it, he had learned how to be afraid.

Summoning his wind, Kazehaya's grip tightened on Ryuu before they shot up to the sky. Mavara who watched his master fly returned to his flame form and followed suit.

However, they hadn't been flying for long when they spotted something on the horizon, and they stopped.

"What's that?"

Even at night, they could see the buildup of dark, ominous clouds at the distance, followed by the rolling of thunder. Flashes of light danced and the surrounding atmosphere turned viscous.

RAAAAAAAAAARGH

Ryuu and Kazehaya turned to see Mavara had stopped as he whimpered in anxiety.

RAAAAAAAAAARGH

The dragon called and he whipped his fiery tail to grab hold of both his master and his friend into the safety of his claws.

"Mavara!"Ryuu scolded the elemental but Mavara didn't listen. The elemental flew downwards towards the ground carrying the two protesting men.

"Mavara! Let go! We need to find Ara!" Ryuu was incensed.

Still, their protests fell on deaf ears as Mavara put them down on the ground where he became lucid once more and covered the two with its wings like a cocoon.

As soon as it did, the rumblings of the heaven grew stronger and louder, and soon enough lightning danced and struck a multitude of times on the ground. The two men watched in surprise from the crevice of Mavara's wings, as the sky threw a c.o.c.ktail of lightning, angrily striking the earth.

Normally, there were four types of lightning that hit the ground from the sky. These are the staccato, forked, ribbon, and bead lightning. Staccato was a strike that's a short-duration stroke that often appeared as a single very bright flash with extensive branching. Forked was a term for cloud-to-ground lightning that revealed branching of its path. Ribbon lightning occurred in thunderstorms with high crosswinds and multiple strokes. Last but not least, the bead lightning that appeared to break up into a string of fleeting, dazzling sections.

The three first ones were common. But the last one was an extremely rare phenomenon. So, seeing all four types of lightning in this unusual, sudden lightning storm was just unheard of.

"What's going on?" Gin asked.

Both he and Ryuu watched in awe as heavens raged out of the blue – and then halted just as suddenly, the thunder clouds gradually dispersing into the night sky.

"How would I know?" Ryuu countered as he watched the now starry sky.

Mavara returned to his flame form as he deliberately decreased in size and rested within Ryuu's body, appearing like a tattoo on his skin once more. It meant the dangers were over, although their task was far from it.

"Let's go!"Koutaishidenka barked and Gin grabbed him again as they flew towards the direction of the earlier chaos.

While they traveled, they hoped against hope, that they were not too late. They needed to find the last three arachnids before they could wreak more havoc, and possibly harm Ara, since they were now approaching a place very near where she was staying with her class.

"Kaze-nii, look at that, "Ryuu yelled out as he pointed at the ground below where several burnt areas were, and five, huge, irregular black spots were very visible under the moonlight.

They were already in the area where the lightning storm, ravaged earlier – several meters away from the ryokan where Ara was staying.

Gin and Ryuu descended to inspect the objects, and they were surprised to learn that the five black things were the remaining giant arachnids they were after, burnt into crisps by the lightning storm.

"What's the meaning of this?" Never in their life would they imagine that at some crazy sort of luck, heaven had intervened and gave them a hand to stop the otherwise devastating catastrophe.