The Only Son Amongst The Daughters Of Eros

Celestia looked up, and quickly raised only one hand, creating a smaller [Light Shield] that deflected the manbat's attack. The creature hissed and recoiled, only for Nyx's shadowed halberd to pierce through its chest. Stay connected via empire

"Nice call, Phoebe!" Aeric praised, looking at Celestia with the hope that nothing had happened to her. "Keep your focus," he said when she caught his worried gaze.

"They've penetrated, so we're going to have to fight in close range for the ones that make it through."

Aeric clenched his palm around the sword's hilt. "Nyx, prepare yourself."

Nyx smirked. "I don't know about you, Son of Starlight. But I was born prepared."

Misty, positioned at the rear, stayed nervous and quiet as another wave of manbats surged forward. They spat out venoms that only managed to burn through the higher parts of the shield as well.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Some of them breached through and attacked them. Misty's free palm clenched to a fist, and as one of the creatures that broke through sped towards her, she panicked and unleashed a burst of flame.

The fireball shot forward, engulfing the manbat and three others in its radius. The smell of charred flesh filled the air.

When she looked in his direction, she saw that Aeric had not seen what she had done and so didn't compliment her. He was too busy fighting off the manbats that were attacking him.

Her cheeks flushed.

The battle raged on, and it became clearer that Aeric needed more training in fighting. He barely attacked but depended on darting between the front and the flanks, swiping his sword left and right to dispatch any stragglers.

His main aim was to maintain the formation as he had told the girls, to make sure it remained imprinted in their heads until it was the default way to approach Lobbies.

"Nyx, pressure the left harder!" he shouted, seeing a cluster of manbats attempting to regroup. "Keep most of them off me."

"Fancy way of saying you need my help, dear Leader," Nyx replied, her tone smug. Her shadow minions had already been slayed into smoke by this new wave of manbats, but she was already saving up some Divinity for a big move.

She attacked more ferociously though, as Aeric had ordered. One particularly large manbat screeched and lunged at her, but Nyx spun on her heel, held the halberd with both arms and did a beautiful ballet spin, switching from heels to tiptoes and slashing the manbat's throat open.

"Too easy," she muttered, stepping back, spinning her staff and stomping it on the ground.

Misty gasped as she saw a manbat dive bombing straight for Phoebe, who was focused on keeping Celestia vitalized. Without thinking, she thrust her fists forward, releasing a pulse of fiery energy that knocked the creature off course.

Phoebe turned, noticing the manbat fall in front of her. She saw Misty's flames disperse from her hands and the smoke billowing out of the beast's chest. She blinked in surprise, then gave Misty a warm smile. "Thanks for the save."

Misty's eyes widened. "Oh, yeah sure. You're welcome."

Now, the tide began to turn. The manbats' numbers dwindled, their screeches growing desperate as the team's coordination overwhelmed them.

"Last wave incoming!" Aeric called. "Celestia, hold firm. Nyx, sweep left. Misty, get ready to lend a hand when needed. Phoebe, keep Celestia fueled with Divinity."

The final wave descended in a frenzy, but it was no match for Aeric's strategy. Celestia's shield was much stronger now as Phoebe used [Soul Buff Apex], literally turning Celestia's Divine Body into a black hole that constantly sucked almost all the Divinity in the room, leaving very little for the rest.

Because of this, the [Light Shield] deflected the brunt of the venom assault, while Nyx decided to keep her big move for later, she used her tendrils of shadows to tear through the enemy ranks instead.

Misty unleashed another torrent of fire, cutting down the stragglers. Aeric himself finished off the last few with weak but good enough strikes, and in the end the final manbat collapsed to the ground.

Splat!

Finally, the chamber fell silent, save for the sound of heavy breathing.

Celestia dematerialized the shield and rested on her knees panting. Nyx rested by the wall, a smile on her face as she watched Aeric walk to Celestia to check if she was okay.

The floor was littered with the bodies of fallen manbats, their leathery wings crumpled and broken.

[First Lobby Cleared successfully]

[Progress to the second Quest Lobby]

...

Phoebe was the first to break the silence. She threw her arms in the air, her face alight with joy that she barely ever shown in the Institution. "We won! We won! That was so cool! We wonnnn!"

Aeric looked at her and a smile stretched on his face. Even Nyx chuckled at how happy the girl was, given that she was usually either melancholic or crying.

Still smiling, Aeric walked to her and held her on the shoulder to calm her. "Yeah, it was cool. We all did a great job, including you. But don't celebrate too much. Save that energy for the other Lobbies."

Phoebe immediately straightened, her expression turning patriotic and obedient as she saluted him with a nod. "Okay, Master Aeric!"

Nyx burst out laughing, leaning against her halberd for support. "Master Aeric? Oh, I love that. She's already your loyal little soldier."

"Knock it off, Nyx," Aeric muttered, shaking his head as he sheathed his sword. "Let's move. The next Lobby isn't going to wait for us."

Celestia fell into step beside him, inspecting her hands as she let out a relieved sigh. She then turned to him, catching him staring. Aeric quickly looked away and she smiled. "You did a good job back there. Never knew you were this good at getting people to work together."

Aeric scratched the back of his neck and chuckled nervously. "It's nothing. I just organized them like I would when playing Dungeon Leveling™ on my PlayStation."

Celestia frowned. "PlayStation? What's that?"

Aeric grinned knowingly, hands in pocket. "Don't worry about it."

He turned to the rest of the team. "Alright now, time for harvest. Phoebe, Misty, use a blade and harvest the beast cores. Add them to the bag of supplies and we can move on to the next Lobby."

"Harvest?" Nyx laughed. "They're not real beast cores, you know that? What's the point in harvesting? We can't use them."

Aeric glanced at her. "This Dungeon also isn't a real Dungeon, and yet we're clearing it. If the test is to train us for how to clear Dungeons, then it's obvious that beast core harvesting is a very important part of Dungeon Clearing."

Nyx shrugged, then retreated back to her wall.

"Place your hand on their chests, find a pulsing sensation," Aeric directed Phoebe who had knelt beside a manbat. "It's different from a heart beat, it's more of a pulse. Find it, then open around the pulse and retrieve the core."

Misty seemed to know what she was doing as she successfully took out one. Phoebe pulled one out and raised it to the air. "Got it!" she exclaimed, sampling the green glowing crystal.

Aeric smiled. "Good job, Phoebe. You only have a few hundred more to go."

Everyone laughed.