Neither Dan nor Joan had seen their prey up close at this point. Well, the legend they had a rather detailled picture, but for the supposed reincarnated Aster, only an old drawing half-destroyed by time and water. So when the Dan was able to finally lay eyes on the man, his first reaction was wonder. Where did he get his armor? Who made such a masterpiece of forging? And why wear two layers of armor on his legs and one arm?

  Then Joan had struck him from behind, and he had witnessed something that made wonder turn into dread. The eyes of the man as he faced the oncoming axe strike had gained an cold edge. One that had been absent to this point.

  His face had suddenly lost its humanity. As if the man had suddenly turned into an hyper-realistic mannequin. And then the sound had come.

  Right as Joan had been about to split the man's helmet and head opened, harsh electronic music had erupted seemingly from the man himself. And with impossible swiftness, he had managed to roll barely out of the way of the strike.

  With one swift motion, Aster is back on his legs. No, what did the Lord Hunter call him? Astra!

  As the music fills his ears and head, Dan dart forward, attempting to strike Astra with his sword. Astra parries him with a sword of his own, the weapon to this point absent.

  Dan's eyes bulge at the sudden apparition. Where did that sword come from? What material is it made of? Again another moment of wonder, replaced by duty as Joan forces Astra to disengage from him.

  Burying his questions for later, he moves to attack along Joan. Both men strike at Astra, and with each impossible parries tha man manages, they realize that what they are fighting might not be human.No human should be able to bend their back ninety degrees backward without breaking their spine. And yet like a spring, it comes back up.

  Realizing they will not overwhelm the being without using abilities, both men give each over a signal.

  Joan's axe begins to emit a foul dark smoke, its crimson metal turning a darker shade. Even a graze of the blade would cripple any medium sized pokemons, and even some of the crimson cult madmen. It is one of their weapons after all.

  For Dan, he start channeling his small mana pool into his armor, feeling its weight lessen. That should give him the edge he needs to overwhelm the man-like thing.

  As they are both ready, they launch themselves forward, Joan attempts his strike first, swinging his axe with the intent to split Astra in twain. Astra steps aside, avoiding the strike completely, and letting himself wide open for Dan to skewer him.

  With swiftness granted by his armor, he dashes forward, and buries his sword deep into his prey's stomach.

  Yet, Astra only looks right into his eyes, not a single sign of pain on his face, and simply strike down at Dan. The doubly armored fist crashes into Dan's face, shattering a tooth and breaking his nose with its force, and send the man rocketing backward. Dan's flight only stops when his back connects with a tree. The shock leaves him breathless, but Joan is quick to join his side, helping him up.

  "You good?" The bearded man asks loudly, trying to be heard above the music.

  Dan spits out pieces of his broken tooth along with blood from his mouth. "Been better." He grunts.

  They both look back at Astra, as the man casually removes the sword embedded in his stomach like one takes a knife out of hot butter. Not a single drop of blood mar the blade.

  Once it is out, he observes it for a second, before making it vanish in what Dan can only describe as a shower of cubic blue pixels. Once that is done, Astra takes out a cooked potato, and devours it in ungodly time. The most deranged part of the scene to the duo was that smoke could be seen emanating from the vegetable for a few seconds. It was still hot, as if it had been cooked recently.

  "What is he?" Joan shouts.

  "No idea, but whatever it is, it's not human, or pokemon." Dan screams back, unsheathing his second sword. Never go under-equipped. He thinks to himself.

  As the music continues, harsh and stressful, Astra moves first. He rushes the pair, his sword ready to strike. His emotionless face leaves both men shuddering, but they meet the being's charge together.

  This time, Dan stops Astra's sword, daring to even catch onto the man's arm. This allows Joan to finally land a strike. but it also allows Astra to tear apart Dan's left tibia in one devastating kick.

  Crying under the pain of the sudden amputation, Dan falls backward, while Astra stumbles sideway, Joan's axe half embedded in his neck. The man does not make the same mistake as Dan, and pries his weapon out swiftly, striking again right after.

  Astra manages to parry the second strike, but its force sends him flying back a few meters.

  Once more, both men look in horror as the wound seems to barely stop the creature. And as dark glossy liquid bubbles from the wound, both men come to a conclusion. "He's... a machine. That was oil right?" Joan screams.

  Dan barely hears his companion, too focused on his pouch, trying to find a healing vial. Once he finds it, he downs it quickly and then downs a regenerative potion along with it. The consequences will be dire, but to hell with them. He can deal with them if he survive.

  "Dan! We're fighting a terminator!" Joan exclaims, pointing at Astra's neck wound.

  Joan weapon's curse has taken hold, and the Astra's skin is slowly melting, revealing gleaming bones of steel beneath.

  "Fuck that was not in the briefing!" Dan curses.

  Astra takes out more food from thin air and devour them in quick succession. This somehow seems to stymie the curse of withering, making both men even less sure of their success here. They will need to hold out until Rosie and Achilles can join them. With the four of them, they might be able to overwhelm and finally kill the android.

  But Astra seems unwilling to give them the opportunity. He shift his sword for a bow, the motion impossibly fast, making it look like the sword transformed into a bow, and fire a couple arrows their way. The simple flint arrows bounce off their armor, but the sudden range attack take them by surprise. Astra rushes them, firing more arrows as he approaches.

  Joan rushes forward as well, ignoring the arrows, even when one finds a way into his belly. The moment he reaches Astra, The bow disappear and the sword returns, slashing at Joan's neck. As the axeman was midswing, he has no way of defending, and still attempts to strike Astra.

  The axe buries itself into Astra's armor and flesh-like shoulder beneath, and his sword pierce Joan's armor. The man stumbles backward, his hands letting go of his axe and trying to stop blood from flowing from both his neck and chest. He looks back Dan, and gurgle a barely audible 'sorry', before collapsing.

  Dan's mind freezes. This should not be happening, this should not have happened. This human machine has barely been here for less than three months, and he has just taken down a man who has fought for two decades along Dan. They should have won, there was no way they could lose. Yet here they are. Joan lay dead on the forest floor, while Dan tries to make sense of the situation.

  He could try to flee, but the arrows were too precise, and he does not know how many Astra has. His only way to survive is to hope Rosie and Achilles manage to overcome the legend and local guardian mon, and then join him.

  As grim resolution takes hold. Dan prepares himself. "Want to end me? I'll make you work for it machine." He taunts.

  Astra offers no reaction beyond storing Joan's axe, and taking a stance, sword at the ready.

  The music drills into Dan's head, filling him with rage, and he run forward, screaming his hate.

  Their sword clash. Dan strikes with rage-fueled strength, while Astra parries each strike mechanically. Again and again, their blades meet, manasteel blue against steel gray. Yet, Dan becomes the first to run out of stamina. Sweat is rolling from his brow and into his eyes, making his sight waver at time. In the end, a bead lands into his eyes, causing a reflexive blink and spasm at the sudden burning sensation. Astra capitalizes in it, and disarms his opponent. His blade swiftly cuts open Dan's neck, and the second hunter falls on the ground clutching his neck.

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  The final sight of the hunter are of blue outlines all over the android's equipment, repairing and fixing every bits of damage. We never had a chance. Is the final though to go through the dying man's mind.

  Everything went too fast for Mewtwo.

  The sylveon sudden appearance messed with his aura sensing. Being unable to sense its presence before it appeared out of nowhere shattered his concentration. And when he realized the four new presence closing on them, it was already too late.

  Now, even after warning Astra, he is left alone with the sylveon and the two new humans. The wisps of dark aura slowly dissipating from them helps him understand why he was unable to sense their approach before it was too late, and what is revealed beneath has him repulsed.

  The two newcomers are a man and a woman. The man stand before Mewtwo and the sylveon. His garbs makes Mewtwo sick. His pants are made of the yellow arms of a magmortar, with tissue radiating ghost type energy underneath. His upper body armor pulses with draconic aura, the gray multi-part torso armor fashioned from salamence belly plates. His arms are covered by lairon segments, with the shoulders clearly taken from an aggron's owns. The helmet on his head confirms it, being fashioned from the very skull of the aforementioned pokemon.

  The man is holding a spear, ready to bounce at them. The weapon looks closer to a fauchard with its blade being the tail blade of a seviper. The red and black blade oozes poison aura. And right behind it, a small red bead emits powerful ghost aura.

  The woman is atop a tree, already aiming a bow made of a familiar wood. Trevenant bark. She already has arrows with brown tips notched. The ground aura surrounding them tells Mewtwo many a sandslash has died to fill the woman's quiver. Her own garbs radiate psychic, steel, dark and fire type aura. The pants are clearly ripped from a delphox lower body, the flame-looking marking unmistakable, while her top is a mix of yellow fur, radiating a fiery aura slightly different from the pants, with red and white metallic parts sewn into it, protecting her torso, elbows and wrists. A garment made from a nintale pelt, and a bisharp body.

  Disgust fills Mewtwo along with anger and sudden understanding. To this point, hunters had always been a mystery to him. He could understand the humans hunting pokemon for food, but how much would one find to eat some steel types? Or even some rather skinny pokemons? But now he understands. Eziakophael has made it possible to extract parts of a pokemon powers along their parts. Killing pokemons is no longer only for food, now it is also for gears and equipment.

  Angered by the sudden realization, Mewtwo ignites both his hands with psychic blades, ready to cut his opponent into ribbons.

  The sylveon eyes move from his previous prey, Mewtwo, and the two newly arrived intruders. All three smell of danger and power, of a threat she has to remove if she wishes to protect her progeny.

  As Mewtwo's face contorts into a snarl, music, harsh and electronic explodes from where Astra has been taken. The sudden wave of sound affects all present differently. The humans recoil at the sudden noise, while the sylveon hatred becomes exacerbated beyond what it already was. Mewtwo however, suddenly feels sudden clarity, and reflexively calms himself further.

  As the music fills his senses, he dispel his blades. And instead, he continues to focus on calming himself. He feels his strength grow, and finally, when the sylveon takes the first move, her scream barely phases him.

  Both humans seems to barely be phased either, as the man jumps forward, rushing Mewtwo, while the woman sends her arrows the sylveon's way. As the projectiles strike the earth, they send spears of condensed dirt straight into the sylveon.

  The fairy type daintily avoid them, and sends her ribbons at the woman, clearly surprising her. She retreats backward, batting away the probing ribbons away with a wicked looking purple and pink blade radiating poisonn and fighting energy. The sylveon presses her, and both disappear into the trees.

  Mewtwo has little time to notice that however, as the man attempts to skewer Mewtwo with his spear. The psychic type stops the first strike with a quick protective barrier, before conjuring a layer of intangible screens around him. He then lay a thin barrier upon his body as the poison aura upon the spear worries him. With his defenses ready, and his mind as calm as still water. He prepares his counterattack.

  Aura spheres burst to life behind him and are launched at Achilles. The man takes a step back, and quickly cut through them with his spear, the ghost charged bead hanging from his spear shining with each sphere struck.

  He mixes in shadow balls, energy balls and even experimental spheres of electricity, sensing an affinity. Apart from the last one the man is able to deflect most, although both energy and shadow balls seems to drain the poison type energy from his spear.

  Infusing himself with grass energy, Mewtwo suddenly dashes forward, accompanying his last barrage of attack. Either the man strikes him, or he deflects his balls of energy. As the man decides to risk a strike from Mewtwo himself, he falls into the psychic type trap.

  Mewtwo freezes the man's spear into a psychic grip. With his weapon frozen, and his hands glued to the pole, he is forced to let the balls of energy strike him along with a fiery punch straight into his mask from Mewtwo.

  His own strike shatter his psychic hold, and the man is sent into the ground. Yet his grip on his spear remains true, and the man manages to plant it into the psychic mon's thigh. Mewtwo cries out in pain, and jumps backward. The man still holds onto his spear, and Mewtwo's retreat ends with the spear out of his wound.

  Blood gushes out, and Mewtwo winces as he feels cold fire spread from the wound. As much as his safeguard should have protected him, the wound was too deep for it to be truly effective. He has been poisoned.

  Already the man is getting back up. Beneath his half melted mask, Mewtwo beholds heavily scarred skin. And a smirk.

  Bruises are already appearing all other his exposed flesh, but it seems to not deter the man. Retaking his previous hold on his weapon, he once more charges at Mewtwo, sending a flurry of jabs the psychic mon's way.

  Mewtwo is forced to dodge, lest he takes another debilitating wound, but each move he makes sends the poison deeper into his body. Already he can see his vision swim slightly. In a quick burst of grass infused speed, he moves up, away from the spearman's reach and quickly recovers. His wound closes, and the effect of the poison lessens, but it does not purges it.

  A quick analysis tells him a direct confrontation might end in another poisoning, worsening his condition. Yet his long range attacks appear only partially effective. He needs to take the weapon away from the man.

  Achilles does not let Mewtwo think for too long however. The man he crouches, and then jumps toward the floating psychic type. His spear barely misses Mewtwo, and the man starts to fall back down on the ground. Mewtwo can hear him click his tongue as he passes him, and a sudden epiphany has him act on the passing man. Gathering the fiery feeling of poison onto his fist, he sends a purple tinted jab into the man's stomach.

  Achilles lands back on the ground and groans. Purple veins start to spread around the impact point, and he goes for a vial hidden in his belt.

  Before he can however, pink tipped ribbons made of white furred flesh pierce him. He stumble forward with a cry, and the returning sylveon pounces on him. She opens her maw and bite on the man's neck. And pink energy flows from Achilles to the sylveon.

  Mewtwo looks in fascination as the sylveon many wounds close, and the two arrows recently embedded in her flank fall off from her. Once she let go of Achilles, he is nothing but a desiccated husk.

  The sylveon then lands before Mewtwo, and eye him warily. She growl at him, surprisingly in annoyance rather than anger, and the faint chime of a bell echo around them both. Mewtwo eyes open wide as the poison coursing through his veins disappear, as do the multiple purple veins beneath the sylveon's fur.

  Mewtwo sends the fairy type a thanks, and the sylveon barely acknowledges it, turning back to the way she returned from. Rosie falls from a close by tree, and groans at the sight of the desiccated Achilles. She quickly throws a vial onto the man's supposed corpse, and then fires another volley of ground type arrows. Both Mewtwo and the sylveon avoid the following ground spears, and the dark-tipped arrows that follow take them both by surprise.

  Mewtwo barely raises a protect in time, while the sylveon simply dashes forward, letting the arrows fly over her head. She sends ribbons at the woman, but they get stopped by the sudden return of the spearman. In a swift motion, he cut them apart, earning a cry of pain from the sylveon.

  Mewtwo makes the ground beneath both humans suddenly explode with ground type energy, and the spearman is sent flying, while the woman jumps away.

  The sylveon sends pink star shaped projectiles after the spearman, each aimed to at his chest. Every ones that strike him has him writhe in pain.

  Mewtwo decides to leave the speaman to the sylveon, and start chasing after the woman.

  Rosie is trying to get to higher ground. And once she notices Mewtwo flying after her, she goes even faster trying to make more distance between them.

  Mewtwo notices and uses grass type energy to speed up even more. The woman attempts to throw him off by firing another wolly dark-tipped arrows, but Mewtwo's speed lets him easily avoid them. Once he is almost on her, he changes focus, from grass to fighting type energy.

  Rosie lands atop a branch, and ready herself to jump away. Instinct honed from two and a half decade of hunting has her turn around, and dread fills her at the sight confronting her. Mewtwo towers above her, his right fist shining with baleful orange glow. She has no time to disturb the psychic type, and Mewtwo strikes.

  She attempts to parry him with her bow, but his fist punches straight through it, and then caves her face in. For a second, Mewtwo's fist remains buried into the woman's face, before a sudden sonic-boom pulverizes her head and upper torso. Her arms fly away to the forest floor, and gore showers Mewtwo.

  The psychic type blinks in surprise. He has just killed a human. Then he catches the armor covering the woman's lower body, and his worry vanishes. He killed a killer, and possibly avanged dozens of pokemons.

  Turning around from the bottom half of the human, he rushes back for the spearman.

  Achilles hears the loud bang above the music, and once he sees the blood covered legend flying toward him, he realizes he can no longer win alone. He needs Joan and Dan's help. Parrying another assault from the aggravating fairy pest. he turns and run toward the source of the music. With the three of them, they should be able to take care of the three preys. He might even be able to finish the reincarnated Aster, for if he is the source of the sound, clearly they are still fighting it.

  As he burst into the small space between trees where the music is the loudest, he comes to an abrupt halt. The legend companion stands alone, the body of the two hunters at his feet. Both are clearly dead.

  Before he can even think of running, two psychic blades and three bleeding ribbons pierces him from behind. With a primal cry Mewtwo and the sylveon tear the last hunter to pieces.

  Astra observes the happening, and simply dismisses his sword as the pieces of the man falls to the ground, and multiple blue screens appear before him and Mewtwo.