“Cold layer of death! Frigid Moon!”

A blonde young man swung his sword in a vicious, freezing arc through the body of a wolf. The poor creature didn’t even realize it had been stabbed until it flopped uselessly to its side, drawing in its last breath.

“Jeez, do these guys ever stop coming?” he asked, breathing heavily as he swung at another wolf. The animal caught his blade and attempted to wrench it away.

“Need any help, Guy?” called a redhead as he dispatched a small but vicious bird.

“If this wolf takes my sword, I will,” Guy hissed, giving the animal a clout over the head with the sheath of his sword. “Let’s tag team him, Luke!”

“Got it.”

The two swordsmen bore down on the wolf, relieved when they heard the start of a fonic hymn.

“Va Neu Va Rei Va Neu Va Zue Rei...”

Huge fire pillars rained down randomly, incinerating a few wolves, birds, and other animals.

“Aah!” came a sharp cry; a young girl with pigtails had been cut across the arm by a bat, and her body shook as poison spread down the wound. She almost slid down her doll mount when…

“Hold on tight, Anise. You wouldn’t want to fall now, would you?” came a voice which was much lighter than the situation dictated. One arm supported Anise on the doll, while the other swung out at the wolves with a long, dark-colored spear.

“Colonel…”

The man smirked.

“Come now, must I do all the fighting?” he teased. Anise then realized that she needn’t move from her position to attack. Instead, she ordered her doll.

“Tokunaga, smash ‘em up!” she cried. The ever leering doll swung one arm out, sending a Cawcaw flying across the plains. But although her doll could fight for her, Anise still needed medicine.

“Natalia, Lemon gel!” the brown-haired Necromancer called. A young woman dressed in the clothes of a noble turned at the sound of her name, then nodded, reaching for the item bag she was closest to. Withdrawing a small yellow gummy from the pack, she passed it on to her comrade. Jade caught it easily despite the chaos around him and gave it to Anise.

“Thank you,” he said, his voice carrying over the din of battle. “Now if you would please cast Recover…”

The princess was already on it, having seen Anise’s state by now. Within moments, it was done, and Anise found herself in good shape once again.

“Thanks,” she said with a cute grin to both Jade and Natalia.

“Next time, keep a better eye on your surroundings? I wouldn’t want to waste my time and risk myself to help you again.”

“Boo, Colonel!!”

Booing done with, Anise took her annoyance out on the monsters before her. She was the first of the group to falter, and with good reason. Luke, Guy, Anise, Tear, Jade, and Natalia hadn’t expected this ambush of monsters on the way to the nearest city after the Albiore had begun to malfunction. And these monsters were not only powerful, but attacking in groups. Silver Wolves were the only ones that traveled as such, and they often traveled with Chirpees. Both monsters were fairly rare, thus the gang could be considered lucky, in a way.

Except for the fact that they’d been fighting for nearly two hours.

Jade crossed his arm over his body and began to cast. It had to be a brief spell, since the Silver Wolves, Chirpees, and Thunder Bats didn’t allow him the luxury of using his more powerful artes.

“Grant mine enemies a final rest…Flame Burst!”

Fire coalesced upon one of the more injured wolves, blowing it away and rendering it out for the count. He didn’t allow himself the pleasure of gloating as he turned to the next wolf and began to clash steel with fangs.

“Thou who wouldst take revenge, carve here thy holy seal. Eclair de Larmes!”

Tear’s attack did little to the wolves, unfortunately, and so she decided it would be best to sing another hymn. But she didn’t have the time to, just as Jade hadn’t the time to cast his own artes. It came to her then that perhaps it would be easier if she were to bolster their speed.

“Luke, guard me while I’m casting!” she ordered, crossing her staff across her body horizontally.

“Alright, leave it to me!” Luke said, “As for you, wolves, why don’t you bring it on?!”

Fonons exploded outwards from his body, sending at least three wolves flying. Guy smirked.

“Nice work,” he commented.

“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” the redhead said confidently, slashing at one of the wolves. The animal charged forward at him, but it was only a feint on Luke’s part. His target was the back of the beast, and he instantly sent it up into the air with a mighty swing of his sword.

“Swallow Fury!” he cried, kicking at the animal with dynamic grace. When it landed to the ground, he held his hands out and let out a loud yell, blasting it with the power of partial hyperresonance.

“Now, die!”

A final blast finished the wolf, but another jumped through the ebbing energy and tackled him down.

“Blessed Drops!”

The swordsman had done his job, enabling Tear to use Enhance Cast on him and allow him to cast a high level arte. The wolf was repelled from Luke, at a fair price.

“Y-you…YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO GET ME ALL WET!!” the redhead snapped, rising from the ground in his heavy, sopping wet clothes.

“My apologies,” Jade said, holding his spear up laterally and stopping a wolf from clawing off his face. “Next time, you can be supper for the monster.♥”

By the time the wolves no longer came in droves, the group was showing obvious signs of fatigue. Even the almighty Necromancer had gotten a quick save thanks to Tear’s Healing Circle, and he was breathing hard to boot. Anise leaned forward on Tokunaga, looking pretty spent herself from continual usage of her own fonic artes. The rest of the group was in a similar state, and their luck had run out; the remaining wolves and Chirpees had surrounded them.

“Anise…do you suppose you could manage one more arte?” Jade asked heavily. “I think now’s the time to try out that new Mystic Arte we’ve been working on…

“Huh? What are you guys talking about?” Luke panted, though he didn’t dare take his eyes off the slowly circling wolf pack.

“Just a little trick we’ve been working on,” Anise said with a devilish smirk. “You know how normally you use a Mystic Arte on your own?”

“Yeah…?” Guy responded, not quite comprehending.

“Let’s just take this upon ourselves, hmm?” Jade said, his grin widening. “Stay back, all of you. Allow me and Anise to finish this. Though Tear, if you would…as soon as we lapse into our overlimit, please raise a wind-based Field of Fonons?”

“Uhm…alright…”

The hymnist instantly began to cast as per Jade’s request, as soon as a great release of fonons was emitted by both the fonist and the puppeteer.

“O fon verse…Invoke Gale!”

Fortunately, once was the key and a fully active field appeared.

“Now, while I cast with it, do another for Anise!” the Colonel ordered. “This is going to be tricky.”

He instantly began to cast, hoping that the move would work. By the time he began to speak the fon verse, Tear had already brought up a field for Anise as well, so all was well.

“O sacred will, strike down those who would be mine enemy. Divine Saber!”

“Grant luck to all! Happy Light!!”

Just as the Divine Saber encompassed the wolves and the dice pummeled them, Anise leapt off of Tokunaga. Jade caught her easily, then hefted her up onto his shoulders. Holding her entirely silly weapon—a lollipop—up, Anise seemed quite happy with her position.

“Ready?”

“Let’s go, Colonel!”

Jade ran among the monsters with ease as he held the young girl up, allowing her to continue throwing dice. In addition, Tokunaga seemed to multiply and smash up the wolves that weren’t—or were—hit by his master’s attack, or the wildly splayed thunderbolts from Jade’s Divine Saber which had been unleashed from the glyph punished them.

“Divine spear, annihilate!”

“Tokunaga, obliterate!”

“…And with just a little luck and the roll of the dice, let’s finish this!” they both proclaimed. “SUPER HAPPY LUCKY FUN TIME!”

All the Tokunagas instantly ripped the remaining monsters a new one, so to speak, in a flash of thunder-based light. The synchronized words that came next were punctuated with the blows by the doll army and the yelps from the losing wolves.

“♥Super happy! ♥”

Whack. Yelp.

“Happy!”

Smack. Howl.

“Happy!”

Pummel. Yelp.

“Happy!”

Uppercut. Mournful howl/yelp.

“Whatever you’re doing…STOP AND BE HAPPY!♥” the two proclaimed, striking a pose. Anise’s final addition was barely heard. (“dammit!”)

As a coup de grace, Jade and Anise pointed straight up to the sky.

“Thought it was over?” they both asked devilishly. “Not yet. FEVERED INDIGNATION!”

The wolves stood no chance at all against the final onslaught, and as the thunder struck and a star shaped pattern of Tokunaga’s head appeared, everyone was momentarily blinded.

When the light finally receded, all the wolves, birds, and bats were vanquished. Anise and Jade were nowhere in sight either, or so the others thought. Upon further inspection, however, they found their companions.

The arte, while powerful, had certainly taken it out of them. Jade was lying comfortably on his back with Anise lying across his chest, both appearing to have fallen asleep out of sheer fatigue.

“Well, isn’t that a sight?” Guy chuckled. “So…Super Happy Lucky Fun Time, huh?”

“Are you certain? It could be Fevered Indignation,” Natalia added.

“Well whatever it was,” Luke said with his eyes widened at the carnage, “It’s definitely powerful…”

And pretty cute, Tear thought to herself. Shaking the thought before she could blush at it, she glanced at the Colonel and the Fon Master Guardian.

“Let’s get them back to the Albiore. They’ve done enough, we can head to the city ourselves,” she said with a smile.

“W…who’s carrying them?” Luke had to ask.