Growl
The creature threatened as it looked Warily at Astra.
The ground beneath its claws cracked as it lowered itself, its muscles tightening as it prepared to attack at any moment.
"Ah, that's right," Astra murmured, her expression completely neutral. "you're still alive."
The creature let out another snarl, threatening her to stay back.
"Mm. Impressive regeneration for a tier 2 Eclipsed," she added with a faint tilt of her head, sounding genuinely impressed, "You'd make a fine study sample for my students—if you weren't so damn ugly."
Well, it wasn't like it looks mattered if it was just going to be a study sample, but it'd be too much work to bring it back alive.
Besides, there was a more important specimen laying in the crater behind her.
Her hand lazily reached toward her belt, where a faintly glowing sphere was clipped.
"Let me introduce you," she said as she tapped the belt and the sphere floated beside her, "this is my Solar tech, Aur—"
BOOM!
Before she could complete her words, the Bound attack, kicking up a dust cloud that covered up both the Hound and Astra.
For a while, there was no movement from within before a subtle golden glow was seen from within.
The next instant, the dust was swept away as if by a gale, revealing Astra standing exactly where she had been and the hound right in front of her with its paws outstretched and its massive claws aiming for her head.
Between them was what looked like a golden barrier, with hexagon-like patterns on it, stopping the Hound's attack.
"Y'know, it's pretty rude to interrupt someone in the middle of a sentence, don't you think?" She said with a sigh as her eyes locked with the hound's red orbs.
It quickly jumped back as its instincts screamed at it to. Those pale violet eyes that held a subtle glow seemed a lot scary than its glowing red orbs right now.
"Don't give me that look," she sighed. "You attacked first."
The hound took an attack stance again, its growl getting louder. At this point it was clear enough that it held a loud bark but couldn't bite, especially against the monster in front of it right now.
"Now then," she said as the sphere transformed from a glowing barrier back into its original form, "let's end this, I've got a vacation to return to."
The hound lunged again, this time, darkness coating its claws as it moved faster than anyone could track.
Getting close enough, it extended its paw and slashed down again, this time with a force capable of cleanly cutting through metal.
"Solar Construct: Phase Barrier — Expand."
A wave of golden hexagons burst outward, forming a radiant field. The creature's claws struck it and disintegrated instantly.
The Hound howled in pain as its front limbs turned to glowing dust before it hastily pulled back, half its claws missing.
Astra exhaled lazily, brushing imaginary dust off her sleeve. "You see? That was a consequence of your actions."
She lifted one hand, and the barrier transformed into three rotating rings of light that aligned themselves around her.
"Now sit, doggie."
FWOOOM!
A beam of condensed Solar Energy erupted downward from the rings, heading towards the hound.
The attack shook the earth and the ground beneath the Hound melted away due to the pillar of golden light, vaporizing everything within a twenty-meter radius.
The shockwave blasted dust and debris into the air, but none of it reached Astra. When the light finally died, nothing of the Eclipsed remained except a slowly evaporating silhouette and the earth that had completely turned into lava.
"That takes care of that," she muttered and then turned back toward the crater, brushing off her gloves, the glowing sphere slowly folding itself back into a compact orb before floating down to clip onto her belt again.
The body still lay there, but instead of a burnt one, she was met with one that had not a single scratch on it.
If it wasn't for his burnt jacket, Astra would've doubted that it was the same body.
But the strangeness wasn't done yet. Her eyes took a slightly golden glow again as she observed the surrounding and sure enough, the solar energy lingering in the air was converging towards him.
Crouching, she poked it a couple of times only for her finger to get burnt by the head coming from the kid's body.
But she didn't even flinch as she continued observing the boy, "how interesting."
Reaching into her jacket's pocket, she took out what looked like a transparent panel, with an interface that popped up when she tapped the circular area.
Astra pointed it at the passed out Nox and a couple of numbers started scrolling through before it finally resting at zero.
"Interesting indeed."
She reached out, brushing aside the dust clinging to his burnt jacket, and her eyes caught the faint glint of a necklace around his neck, a small pendant carved with a sun partially covered by shadow.
She froze for a while , recognition flashing for a split second before it vanished. "Huh. Now that's a symbol I haven't seen in a long time."
Standing upright again, Astra slung him effortlessly over her shoulder.
"Congratulations, mystery boy," she said, turning back, "you now belong to me, let's get you out of here."
"What do you mean I can't just take him?" She asked, "aren't you also curious about how he's just absorbing Solar Energy?"
There was a short pause.
"Of course, I know that" she grumbled, "but he's currently unconscious and I'm not waiting until he wakes up to ask him if he wants to come with me."
It seemed the voices had finally agreed with her logic as they went silent, letting her do as she wanted.
With that, she tapped her boots lightly on the floor and they released a subtle golden glow.
In the next instant, she vanished, leaving behind a scorched mark in the shape of her boots on the ground.
With that, the story of Nox officially began.... What would happen from this moment on? Well, we'll just have to wait and find out.