Chapter 1720: Retreating
Chapter 1720: Retreating
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The sky trembled, as the remaining ants were quickly taken down by Quetzalcoatl’s new technique, a powerful ability that fired hundreds of explosive wind projectiles. It was such a vast technique that it felt like something that only heroes could conjure.
“Oh damn, that’s… strong.”
Aquarina was left speechless as she glanced the scene, quickly stopping her fighting, as her shadows began spreading around, collecting the magic cores out of the ants and a few dozen of their corpses.
“Aquarina! The ants are gone!”
Silvia ran to her side, within her giant mechanical golem form, fused with Khepri’s ornaments and her own physique, which seemed almost like a metallic goddess.
“Yeah I know… I like the new look, haha.”
“A-Ah?! This? Aahaha…! It’s huge, right?”
“You’ve sure become big, yeah…”
Aquarina quickly glanced down as she noticed Justicio rushing to her side.
“I’m done on my area as well! Looks like the ants stopped bothering us for the moment… Everything is way too calm.”
She also noticed how his abilities had evolved and changed, as he had become a giant made of insectoid armor, with golden and red metal.
“You’ve evolved your abilities as well, Justicio, that’s amazing.”
“E-Eh?! Oh! Yeah I guess? I’ve grown stronger… I figured out some things, that’s all.”
“Hmph, don’t be so humble, you’re stronger than before. Well done.”
Aquarina praised them, seeing her friends as more than just friends, but like her disciples in a way. As it was her who had pushed them this far, that helped them train, that gave them physiques and the opportunity to reach this point.
In a way, it also helped Aquarina change, she had become more mature and had learned a lot more about what a sense of responsibility truly was. Of course, although her parents could easily notice how she had changed, she couldn’t quite tell that well.
“Aquarinaaaa!”
“We’re done.”
Quetzalcoatl and Agua quickly reached her after they regrouped and chatted on their way to her side. The two had clicked way too well and way too quickly… Aquarina knew there was something going on, although it might be too fast, she was imagining that something between the two could happen one day.
“Alright, that was amazing, Agua, your abilities have truly evolved even further, and you’ve become a good mixed fighter, you’re no longer just a backside magician, I can tell!”
Aquarina smiled, quite proud of the girl and how she had changed for the better in these last few days.
“Y-Yeah… But I would still rather prefer that role… I am not quite good yet; I need to improve a lot more before being confident that I could act in the frontlines on my own… After all, Quetz here has been taking care of my back.”
Agua, however, wasn’t too confident in her own strength yet… This made Aquarina slightly irritated, but she didn’t say anything for the moment.
“And Quetz that was… well, insane! You sure got the power of someone of your Tier, or perhaps even higher, your Soul is definitely unique,” Aquarina said. “If only Lara or Sylphy were here, they would be able to tell more accurately what has happened to your soul… unfortunately I have little idea myself.”
“Ah, it’s fine,” Quetz said. “We should retreat for now though, I am… quite tired. I don’t think I could do that again as I am right now. It feels like my body needs some time to get used to this level of power coming from my soul.”
“Hm, alright, makes sense to me,” Aquarina nodded. “Let’s go, before those things get here.”
Retreating was their only option right now, staying and trying to invade the ant nest would be suicide with how tired they were, and how strong the monster they were going to face might truly be.
Aquarina hated to admit it, but she wasn’t enough this time, not when the life of her friends was in her hands, she was now a leader, someone that had to take responsibility for her friends and their lives.
They quickly flew down the cliff, making sure nothing followed them, as they descended into the jungle beneath, and the area below the cliff, which was filled with huge blazing stones.
“Ah dammit some of these things fell here…” Aquarina groaned in frustration. “Tch, okay, let’s clean this quickly!”
She quickly used her water with Agua’s magic and began turning off all the dangerous fire, while crushing the stones until they turned into tiny pieces.
“Wow…”
As they were done and made their way back to the village, through the whole ordeal, Quetz wouldn’t stop making aweing sounds while looking around, constantly amazed of the jungles, and how vast, green and lush they were.
“T-This is… these are the jungles, right?” He wondered.
“Yeah, you’ve never seen something like this before?” Agua asked him.
“No… I only knew of small patches of trees and plants around some oasis I visited but nothing like this, there’s so much vegetation everywhere…!” Quetz said. “I-I don’t know what to say, it’s… it’s really beautiful.”
As they made their way through, he touched the trees, caressed the leaves and even stopped to smell the many, colorful flowers he found along the way.
“Oh, these smell so sweet and aromatic…”
“Agua, I bought some fruits I found along the way… Are they edible?”
“The water of these ponds is so fresh, it’s almost sweet.”
“Huh? The oasis is salty now? But there’s so many fish and… colorful things, and plants inside?”
“I wonder if these nuts and roots I picked up are edible, there’s also these mushroom that smelled fine to me.”
He couldn’t stop going everywhere! Aquarina and her group had to stop just to wait for him to return to them, bringing something new every time.
Despite how mature he acted before, Quetz was now showing them his inner child, and how even someone like him could experience new things with the same childish wonder that someone that was very young.
“Indeed, it is a wonderful place, right? And yes, everything you picked up is edible, Quetz. Well done, you’re very good at gathering.”
“I-I suppose we can have this for dinner…”
“Hm, let’s eat it once we get back home.”
Their friends couldn’t stop thinking that they looked like a married couple already, despite having only met like a few hours ago.
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