The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

Chapter 166: Shapeshifters

The men that were standing behind Blythe then surged forward, leaving Blythe only surrounded by some guys that seemed to be protecting his position. Aria assumed that Blythe couldn't move around when he was in this position, so she did not really care about him that much.

Instead of watching him, she shifted her attention over to Cha Seol-hyun, who was commanding the rest of the men to rush into the Xagas that were being disturbed by Blythe's long range attack. Aria had to admit that Blythe's power was really significant. To be able to pull this kind of move out would require some serious skill and talent, something that couldn't be achieved with just raw efforts considering the amount of time he had been a Hunter for.

Cha Seol-hyun did not actively partake in the battle, but she did cast some type of enchantment over the soldiers that were actually fighting back against the army of Xagas. There was a dark, shadowy aura that began to dawn over the men that strengthened them.

Although Lichte was also directly contracted below the Association, it did not mean that them and Blythe's entourage were of the same faction. There was a thin line that separated them from being able to be called comrades. Thus, the enchantment that Cha Seol-hyun cast did not stretch out to Lichte's members.

Aria slayed the first Xaga in front of her without a second thought. The monster was in the middle of shapeshifting when Aria cut it down in one clean strike. Unlike slimes, they did not have a core that could be destroyed hidden inside them. However, they did take damage and died easily. They were extremely vulnerable during their shifting process.

However, just like the first monster that died, the others were all beginning to shapeshift at the same time. Aria narrowed her eyes. This meant that she would be able to get a chance of killing a lot of these monsters as they were still vulnerable before they begin to give her a lot of trouble.

And she did exactly that. Running across the fields, slaying all the monsters with her spells. Assisted by Dianthe's water attacks imbued to her strikes, she created a wide area attack that harmed several transforming Xagas at once. Rallaka's power then finished off whatever life still remained inside their bodies.

Aria stopped after her kill toll showed that it passed the number fifty.

After some mental calculations, and paying attention to the other Hunters without moving a single inch or acting against the Xagas, she realized that the others' kill count did affect the death toll. Arai broke into a smile as she realized this. Her eyes floated over towards the pair of Cha siblings one more time, wondering what they were doing.

Unlike her expectations, the two were actually quite passive and let the members do most of the heavy jobs. They stayed in the back, but it could be noticed that each of their actions impacted the members' performances.

"Are you dozing out? That can't be! What are you on? Did you take some.. drugs? Wow, I never thought that you were that kind of person!" Reina chuckled as she tapped Aria on the shoulder.

"...I wasn't dozing out, I was purposely waiting for the perfect time to strike again. Did you not see how much I killed? I think I deserve this much of a break."

"Really? A break? Is it as simple is that.. or is there something else? Aria, oh Aria. I know that your eyes darted over to Cha Seol-hyun and Blythe many times. Even if you are looking to oppose them, you can't be this blatant, you know? Unless you are as strong as the legendary Solo Player, don't even try to think about it!" Reina spoke, casting more magic on other monsters and eradicating them.

"..I know, I know. Go back to fighting. I will go now. Good luck. Godspeed!" Aria encouraged before taking off one more time, slaying lives left and right and increasing the counter. Some of the Xagas that tried to transform into basic creatures were done with their job in this period of time, and Aria was in for a surprise when she found out that the Xagas would inherit the characteristics of the creature they tried to become when they transformed.

However, it wasn't much of a problem for her. It just meant that she would be facing a variety of monsters at once. She quickly started up her gears and began to rampage all over the place.

Around this time, Aria had already gotten used to fighting the Xagas and could freely take her time to grind the experience off of the monsters. They actually gave out quite the good amount of experience, so Aria happily farmed a lot of creatures after she decided to stop her observations on Cha Seol-hyun and Blythe. The moment she fully focused on killing the Xagas, the System's counter began to skyrocket, and most of the work were done by none only by her.

After staying still for some minutes, Blythe finally drew out his sword from the ground and freed his movement. The tremors that the ground constantly experienced for the past few minutes finally stopped, so Aria instinctively took a look towards Blythe's way.

In that moment, Blythe too drew his gaze over towards Aria's way as she swung around her sword like a madwoman, getting drenched in the toxic green liquid but not seeming to be bothered by it.

The normal clothes that she wore here were already destroyed. All that was left was the armor that Alena gave to her. It was customized to her violent tendencies and made to last a lot of serious damage, so naturally the Xagas' attacks were not at all enough to corrode the material Alena used for the armor.

Blythe continued to look at Aria as he approached her figure, slashing some of the creatures in his way along his walk.

"Hello. It's nice to meet you, Miss Schreiner. You were in the dragon subjugation recently, right? I saw that you dealt the last blow to the creature." Blythe spoke, suddenly fighting around Aria as if they were already acquainted with no enmity towards each other.

Aria quickly began to feel uncomfortable because Blythe was fighting behind her back. His intentions were that of trying to create and impenetrable fortress. The Xagas had learned that Aria was the most formidable out of all of the people fighting them and that she rarely stayed around in a crowd of people.

Since Aria wanted to maximize her level grinding, naturally she wanted to reap all of her preys by herself. But this was not exactly the only reason why she felt uncomfortable at the idea of Blythe staying behind her and protecting her backside. It was because she was wary that the man would try to do some funny stuff. She was focused on fighting the Xagas.

If Blythe decided to massacre her right here and now, even she would have some difficulties fighting. This was why she intended to stay away from Blythe and his group as much as possible, but who would've thought that the man would approach her out of his own volition?

Since Cha Seol-hyun was constantly with him, the woman should have relayed on to him that she opposed them and refused to back in after being given pressure at the last encounter. If Blythe did not hold any negative emotions towards Aria, then perhaps Cha Seol-hyun did not poison him with her thoughts, or that he was going to do some underhanded tactics and kill her off.

She was alone, and she doubted that Lichte would dare to oppose all of Blythe's group just to protect her.

She jumped to the side, brandishing her sword not towards the Xagas, but instead against Blythe. She glared at the man who had a peaceful smile plastered on his face.

"Why are you so cautious of me, Miss Schreiner? Do you think that I will do something bad to you?"

"It's not that I think of it. I'm sure that you are here to do something strange, something I won't appreciate." Aria snorted.

From the very start, she made it very clear that she didn't like them. She openly mocked them and their ways, and tried to accuse them on committing indirect theft towards the material procuration that time.

"Oh, please. I am just here to make friends. I know that Miss Schreiner will some day become a great Hunter that will assist us greatly in protecting South Korea. How could I be willing to harm you? It would be the same as shooting myself in the foot, because protecting South Korea and collectively the world is my job as a Hunter." Blythe spouted naturally.

"..That is great and all. But, keep your own thoughts to yourself. We have better things to do here, don't we? Forget talking, can we just focus on fighting the clear enemy right now? Save the fights for later." Aria clicked her tongue, defending against a Xaga that had launched itself towards Aria.

These creatures had been beginning to shapeshift into all sorts of different things. With each shift, their abilities would also be roughly changed, making it harder to fight them all at once.

The element of surprise was clearly present all the time.

Aria frowned in fatigue as she knew that she couldn't waste her energy a lot. She was considering whether or not she should stay back and hide for some time in order to replenish her condition because of the upcoming boss fight that they still needed to clear and the fact that the count to pass this quest was not even filled to a quarter.