Night came quickly and it was time for work.

  “And that’s tonight’s assignments,” Shouri concluded.

  The front office had become quite packed with the full guild’s attendance crammed in there.

  “Also in the future, let’s just have these meetings with the Maestros and Miro,” Shouri told the group.

  “No complaints here,” said Mila. “Just tell beansprout where we’re scraping and we got this.”

  Both Zino and Albarich nodded in agreement with the fire cat’s appraisal of the situation. None of the other Resonators in the room voiced a complaint about the future arrangements and most of the room vacated. Once the door shut, all that was left were Shouri, Rebecca, Elijah, Zino, and Miro as the group leaving the premises for the evening.

  “Tomorrow I’ll see about renting us a van or something so we can take more people out on hunts,” Shouri told the remaining four.

  “It wouldn’t be a terrible idea. However, I’d like to start sorting out the issues of our finances tomorrow morning. We’re at quite the equipment deficit I noticed,” Elijah spoke up.

  “Yeah, we’re gonna need to grind out hunts for a hot minute to get everything we need. Once we get situated on that front, we can start considering construction projects,” Shouri mused.

  “Oh! What will be built?” Miro asked.

  “I’d like a pool, a battlefield with chain link shielding, spruce up the rooms more, and long-term more buildings so we can have more guild members as well as being able to take in stray Resonators,” Shouri told the group.

  “You have big ambitions Mister Tomoshibi,” Elijah commented.

  “Look, I checked the guild registry, we’re like the only guild out there doing something like this. We gotta think big,” Shouri snipped at his financial officer.

  “Oh, I never said that was a problem. Understanding your long-term financial goals will help me allocate our funds appropriately,” said the Klein heir with a knowing smirk.

  “This is a riveting conversation and all, but instead of talking about money, let’s go make it,” Zino grumbled.

  “For once, I agree with the fossil – we can talk when we’re out in the field anyways,” Rebecca chimed in.

  The earth Resonator glared at his fiery counterpart, who was more than happy to return the glower with a confident sneer of her own.

  “Alright, let’s get going.” Shouri stood from his desk and their night began in earnest.

  The car rolled to a stop at the hunting grounds for the evening. Rebecca threw the car into park and the vehicle went silent.

  No one said anything for a moment, no one made a move.

  “I’ve come to a realization,” Shouri began.

  “Oh?” Elijah chimed from the back seat.

  “We got: a Renard, the Klein heir, a dinosaurian, and a Natural in our group tonight,” Shouri said as he watched the other Maestros and Resonators head out into the fields toward registration.

  “Ah,” three voices of similar realization rose.

  “Okay so?” came the one voice of dissent.

  Of course, it was Zino.

  “No, you’re not killing anyone,” Shouri said sternly.

  “I never said that,” retorted the dinosaur.

  “You’re also not maiming, injuring, or otherwise harming anyone being annoying,” the guild master further stipulated.

  “Well then, I’m going to sleep, wake me up when something interesting happens.”

  “So now that the useless lizard is out of the equation-” Rebecca started (and earning an indignant snort from the “lizard” in question). “-what the heck do we do?” she asked.

  Shouri rested a hand on his fox’s shoulder and imparted as much serenity as he could, feeling her dread rise at the prospect of being the total center of attention. “We don’t need to check in since we’re a guild. We can literally just walk in wherever we want,” the guildmaster told the group.

  “Right, our liaison covers that in lieu of the Hunter’s Union.” Elijah nodded in agreement. “With that in mind, where should we go? We don’t have any way to track Scherzando on our own,” he pointed out.

  There was a moment of silence while the group considered that point.

  “Fuck it, let’s just get out there. Trouble will find us,” Shouri decided, kicking his door open.

  “Good enough for me,” Zino agreed to the plan (or lack thereof) and took his exit.

  “If that’s what we’re doing,” Rebecca trailed off as she took her leave of the car.

  Elijah and Miro remained, though their stay in the vehicle was short as they shared a shrug and joined the rest of the party.

  “This is one of the plans of all time, guildmaster,” Elijah said.

  “Don’t complain about results mister Klein,” Shouri retorted.

  The forest was dark. Emphasis on was. A couple dozen flame foxes played around Rebecca who sat cross-legged in the grass. The ambient light radiating from the horde of rhythm beasts was enough to slice through the darkness of the Dallivian forest and afford them plenty of light.

  Making a ton of light wasn’t the actual plan, however. The playful rhythm beasts departed from their summoner and began patrolling the woods. Rebecca herself remained quiet, eyes closed, ears folded back, her tail sat in her lap. It was hard to tell she was even breathing without intense scrutiny.

  “That spell is interesting,” Miro noted as he watched the statuesque Resonator work her magic. “She can see through them?” he inquired of Shouri.

  “No, but she said she has a sense of what the rhythm foxes are doing, so if one of them finds a big pack of Scherzando, we should be able to track them,” replied the Maestro.

  “Boring,” Zino complained.

  “In order to maximize profit, one must strike at the right time dear Zino,” Elijah chided.

  “Eh?” the Dinosaurian raised a brow.

  “Be patient and you’ll be able to fight much more,” the Maestro clarified for his Resonator.

  “Mmrpgh.” Zino folded his arms across his chest and turned away with a huff.

  “It’s too quiet,” Rebecca spoke up, drawing attention to herself.

  “What’s that?” Shouri asked, kneeling next to her.

  “They’re not finding anything, it’s kinda weirdly quiet,” she folded her arms across her chest and furrowed her brow while turning that thought over in her head.

  Zino scoffed. “So this was all a waste of time?” the Dinosaur growled.

  Rebecca ignored him and looked to her Maestro. “I got a really bad feeling about this bossman,” she said uneasily.

  “Keep focusing on your foxes, I got an idea,” Shouri advised. She nodded and got back to work.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  The guildmaster stepped away from his Resonator and pulled the red tuner from his side.

  “What are you doing?” inquired Miro as Shouri navigated through his tuner. The Maestro replied with a single outstretched finger as he held the tuner up to his head.

  “Yes, I’m in the western Dalliva hunting ground – I wanted to check in on the forecast for Scherzando for the area,” Shouri spoke into the receiver of his tuner.

  Miro focused on listening to what the person on the other end of the line was saying. “It’s forecasted to be above average due to lower culling for that area the night before. We put up an advisory for a rougher night this afternoon. Is that not the case?”

  Shouri hummed in thought, his idle gaze fell on Rebecca who was still trying her darndest to find anything. “I don’t have a way to check right now, but it seems too quiet,” he said after a moment.

  “We’ll reach out to the base camp,” said the operator on the other end. “Additionally, we’ll have emergency services ready.”

  The Natural jolted at those words. He definitely picked up on the implication.

  “That’s what I thought. We’ll keep looking, thank you.”

  No sooner than Shouri had released the call, Rebecca shot up. “SHO!” she screamed.

  “I fucking knew it.”

  “What is happening?!” Miro shouted as the five-strong group ran through the woods.

  As they went Rebecca’s scattered rhythm foxes joined them, slowly illuminating their mad dash.

  “We cull Scherzando because the longer they’re allowed to stay active the stronger and smarter they get. Even leaving them be one night is disastrous if there’s enough of them,” Shouri explained, keeping his breathing even as they ran.

  “The main group must have been quite appealing to the Scherzando then,” Elijah commented.

  “There are less people here this evening than they forecast for also,” Shouri added.

  “How do you know?” Miro asked.

  “Gut feeling, if they’re sending emergency services here preemptively, I bet they’re expecting it to be bad,” said the guildmaster.

  “Good, should be fun then!” Zino growled behind his toothy grin.

  Fun was relative, people were getting hurt or worse. Both Shouri and Rebecca pushed themselves but they were still so far away and they knew that. If only they could get there just a little bit faster. Even one second could mean the difference between an innocent life being lost.

  BEEP BEEP BEEP!

  Shouri’s hand snapped to his side and dismissed whatever notification his tuner was bugging him about – now wasn’t the time. However, it didn’t take a genius or even strong staved knowledge to figure out what the alert was about.

  “Woah!” Rebecca yelped. Running by their side was no longer the pack of tiny rhythm foxes, but one large Scherzando-sized fire fox.

  “What the fuck?!” Zino shouted.

  Rebecca, however, wasn’t looking this gift fox in the mouth and jumped onto her rhythm beast’s back. She turned and held out a hand for her Maestro. He grabbed her hand and hopped up onto the beast, holding his Resonator from behind.

  Even with the load of a Resonator and Maestro, the summon increased its pace, leaving the pair of earth elements and other Maestro behind with ease.

  With the increased speed of their trusty new steed Shouri and Rebecca were first at the scene.

  As suspected, it wasn’t pretty. The Scherzando around were far more numerous than the night before, and while their numbers were being thinned by the hunters present, it was clear without backup there would be casualties.

  “Magifiamma, Legato!” Shouri’s call cut through the chaos as Rebecca jumped from their ride. Seven balls of purple flames surrounded the fox as she focused her efforts on the Scherzando immediately in front of them.

  Shouri took over the metaphorical reins from Rebecca and guided the large fire summon around, urging it to run distraction against the Scherzando in their immediate vicinity. The Maestro didn’t care about the logistics of how he was able to control it – he knew he was armed and dangerous, so he would capitalize on that.

  “Bolide, Rubato! Focus on spellcasting, use your ad-Lib for mobility!” Shouri commanded of his sole Resonator.

  “Got it!” Rebecca confirmed, depositing great fireballs on packs of Scherzando and breaking up their ranks.

  With the timely interference both Shouri and Rebecca were running, this opened up the opportunity for the previously pinned-down hunters to go on the offensive.

  Things truly took a turn in favor of the hunters when a practical hailstorm of gems cut through the shrubbery, Zino rushing in mere seconds later. The Dinosaur cackled in delight as his new clay claws rend and tore apart any Scherzando he could get a grip of.

  Miro and Elijah finally joined the festivities, though the poor Maestro who didn’t have a ride of his own hunched over taking a moment to catch his breath.

  Shouri sat back on the rhythm fox, wiping the sweat from his brow. “God damn, we never know how to do anything in half measures, do we?”

  The Scherzando were handily mopped up thanks to the efforts of Rebecca and Zino. Everyone else present helped, but eventually took a back seat as the two Resonators turned the hunt into their own personal grudge match.

  “You had a head start!” Zino argued.

  “And? Get good, you should have got here faster!” Rebecca shouted back.

  It was only natural for those unfamiliar with the group to just stare in awe. Thankfully Rebecca was too caught up in her spat with Zino to pay the looky-loos any mind.

  “Thanks for the help, it would have been far worse without your help,” the hunt leader extended a hand for Shouri.

  Shouri accepted the offered hand. “It’s not a problem, I’m just glad we found you all.”

  “I don’t remember seeing you all at registration though, did you come late?” asked the hunt leader.

  “Oh no, I guess this is the part where I introduce us?” Shouri cleared his throat. “We’re Pruned Trees Re-Sprout, a guild.”

  That inspired much muttering between the various hunters gathered.

  “And those two also?” the hunt leader pointed between Miro and Elijah.

  “Yeah, they’re also part of PTRS,” Shouri confirmed.

  “Wait! That’s Elijah Klein!”

  “Really?!”

  “That’s his dinosaur arguing with the fire fox, it’s gotta be him!”

  “They have a Natural in their guild?”

  “Hey, I think that fox is a Renard!”

  “Crap.” Shouri pinched the bridge of his nose – he had no reason not to have expected this. Scherzando were easy. But unlike the beasts, they couldn’t brute force their way through the throes of the adoring public.

  The night was young.

  When was bedtime?