Looking around all I saw were the scattered souls of the veiled guards. They were so far apart that it would take days to gather all the fragments that I wanted.

"This is too inefficient" I thought out loud.

"What is?" Beside me Gabriel had decided to speak up.

"The amount that we are killing is too low." I responded simply.

They both nodded, knowing what I was talking about. It was Gabriel that had spoken up, voicing the obvious thought.

"You're right, it is very inefficient, we would have to spend days, maybe even weeks hunting them down to get sufficient fragments."

Nodding at Gabriel's answer I start to think of a solution.

'The veiled guards seemed to be attracted to anything that moved, anything alive. What if I transmitted that there was life here.'

"That might work.."

"What might work?" Naomi asked, finally mustering the nerve to question me.

I ignored her in favor of closing my eyes and trying my idea. Just as when we were attacking the elves when I projected to Darwin that I was ready I did the same. However it seemed that they could not sense my projected emotions. It seemed that the veiled guards, even though they were nothing but broken souls projecting themselves on the physical world, were unable to interpret the signals that I had tried to send.

Frowning at that, I tried another idea.

If I couldn't tell them that I was at this location then I would send a wave of aether at them, something that they could at least interpret. But how to do that, if I tried to just unleash a wave of aether then it would just explode, killing everything in the immediate area except me.

It was that thought that brought me to the answer, the shockwave. An explosion of sufficient force would have a shockwave that would ripple out far beyond the initial explosion. If I could replicate that without an explosion then I could draw the veiled guards to my position.

Looking at my palm I draw out a bit of aether, then start to manipulate it so that it would spread out in all directions.

A small bang resounded in my palm and I could feel my aether being scattered to the treelines.

I smiled, my idea had worked. Now I just needed to replicate that on a higher scale.

I opened my palm again but this time I gathered a significant amount of aether, almost a quarter of my reserves.

Once I had that I formed it into a ball then manipulated it so that the individual particles of aether were separated. It took a lot of focus but after a minute of preparation it was done. The particles that I had separated all slammed into the center. The resulting explosion while not deadly certainly could be felt for miles.

Looking back at Gabriel and Naomi I point to the pulse of aether and say. "That, that was my idea."

..

A silent bang echoed throughout the forest. It could not be heard, only felt.

The animals that had felt it all ran, the power contained within it enough to scare them off, but the veiled guards that had felt it all shrieked in elation.

Not only did the pulse alert them of a living being but the smart ones were able to deduce the origin of the pulse from the direction that it had come in.

..

"Wha-" Naomi went to ask what I had done but was cut off by a cacophony of footsteps banging on the ground, deafening her question.

From the tree line came hundreds upon hundred of veiled guards.

I smiled, this was exactly what I wanted. A large crowd of monsters that I could take my rage out on.

"Good luck"

With that I was off , leaving the duo to survive on their own.

The veiled guards were coming from all sides but it didn't matter. When I dashed into them hundreds of arrows were launched at me but with my speed I was able to weave through them.

They were not fast enough and by the time that they had realized that I was already in their ranks.

My dagger was angled just right so that with a little push it would decapitate the one in front of me.

*BANG*

With a little exertion of force I pierced through the neck of the veiled guard.

It dropped to the ground, dead, the others around me already clamoring to cooperate with the others to attack me.

Though some had gone for Gabriel and Naomi, that was just a minority of them, the majority were focused on me.

..

Aoif was insane, there was no doubt about it.

I had only asked if she had a solution to our inefficient hunting. I was expecting a better pattern, better directions, not for her to call hundreds of them to attack us.

*WOOSH*

*CLANG*

Countless arrows fell off my shield, their tips ruined by the durability of my shield.

Behind me at least ten guards were charging at Gabriel who was casting support frantically.

One of the ones that were shooting arrows at us seemed to get frustrated and dashed into the fray attacking me.

I was able to defend against his attacks but that meant that Gabriel was undefended.

I had to finish this quickly.

The next attack that hit me, I didn't just block it but parried it. Putting some force into my shield, I hit the sword that clanged against my shield pushing the guard back.

The guard was disoriented and pushed back by the attack. I wasn't going to let this opportunity pass me by. I dashed toward the guard and with the sword in my other hand pierced the head of the guard.historical

[You ha-

I immediately dismissed the notification from my vision and fell back to Gabriel's side, all the while blocking the countless attacks that were pounding on my shield.

Behind me Gabriel was fading no better except she had no shield to fend off the countless attacks raining upon her.

Her tail was bloodied, the once flawless skin littered with shallow wounds.

Countless ice fragments were made and quickly shot out but the tide of veiled guards were not stopping at all.