The group was walking briskly, Hang trailing behind them. Not too far, yet not too close.
"You know," the pink girl said, sparing a glance over her shoulder towards Hang. "You could introduce yourself to us."
"Hang," he replied, his tone bland, his gaze everywhere but to the group in front of him.
"He reminds me of Dan Heng," the silver haired girl said. "Just replace Heng with Hang."
The pink girl nodded. "His personality is also similar!"
The older man shook his head. "March, you asked Mr. Hang to introduce himself, shouldn't you do the same?"
"Oh!"
"Don't call me Mister," Hang muttered.
The pink girl turned around fully to look at Hang. "I'm March 7th, but you can call me March!"
March gestured to the silver haired girl. "This is Stelle!"
Stelle nodded and waved.
March then gestured to the older man. "And this is Mr. Yang!"
"Welt Yang," he corrected. "You can just call me Welt if you'd like."
Hang nodded at the introduction. "You all are here for?"
"We heard there was a Stellaron burst here 45 system hours ago," March replied. "So we just arrived here. Did you know of it?"
Hang nodded. "Yes."
"Are you a native here, Hang?" Welt asked, his tone inquisitive but warm.
"No," Hang said. "Tourist."
Hang paused for a second, organizing the information he was just given.
"You arrived at a closed place," Hang spoke bluntly, referencing the closed state of Cloudford. "How did you enter?"
"The gate was open," Stelle responded. "So we assumed we were let in."
Hang nodded. "Starskiff?"
"Not a Starskiff," Welt replied. "We're the Nameless from the Astral Express."
"Hm," Hang hummed. "Never heard of it."
"I'll have to ask the native later."
"What do you mean you've never heard of it?" March asked, her curiosity peaked. "I thought the Nameless were well known. Mr. Yang?"
Before Welt could respond, a growl was heard in front of the group. The same plants with the Cloud Knight armor appeared.
"The same lifeforms," Welt warned, gripping his cane tighter. "Stay alert."
"I got this!" March exclaimed cheerfully, drawing her bow back, letting arrows made of ice fly.
The arrows pierced the head of the plant soldier, the organism falling limp onto the floor.
Then, the soldier started to rise again, the arrow disappearing from its head.
Before it could do anything else, Stelle had leaped in, a bat in her hand, slamming it into the head of the soldier, knocking it down for good.
"They revive," Hang thought. "These are definitely Cloud Knights. Infected with a killer plant, most likely."
"We dealt with that," Stelle said, turning towards Hang. "You said these were chasing a Foxian?"
Hang nodded, his brown eye brightening up again to glimpse the echoes around.
"This way," Hang said, pointing towards a path in front of them. "Follow. The corpses litter the floors."
The group followed the trail of Cloud Knights on the floor, barely conscious, unconscious, or dead, eventually starting to come across an open gate.
"Miss Tingyun! Fall back!" A voice is heard from the other side of the open gate. "They're mara-struck—we've already lost them..."
The group walked through the gate. A Foxian stands behind two Cloud Knights, their glaives brandished at the plant soldiers, called mara-stuck.
"Mara-struck," Hang repeated in his head, trying to decrypt what it meant. "The way they said it... an illness, perhaps."
"Hey, you there! We need your help~!"
The Foxian had called out to the group as she stood behind the Cloud Knights protected.
At her ask, March, Stelle, and Welt ran towards the group to assist. Hang followed, albeit slower than the others.
"March and Stelle," Welt said, gesturing towards two of the four mara-struck. "You each handle one. Hang and I will handle the other two."
Hang wasn't planning on helping—but it seemed he was roped into helping.
With an expression of distaste, Hang targeted his opponent. Unraveling the rope from his clothing again, he readies it like a whip.
The mara-struck charged at Hang, it's blades outstretched to slash at him.
Hang swiftly moved to the side of the attack, whipping the head of the solider, stunning it for a second.
He promptly followed his stun up, whipping the feet of the mara-struck to send it tumbling to the ground.
Before he could deal anything else, another mara-struck soldier landed on top of it, before both of their heads were crushed by Stelle, who had leapt up and slammed her bat into the both of them.
Hang looked around. Cloud Knights littered the floor, most of them having large wounds on their bodies.
Along with the Cloud Knights were those 'mara-struck' beings, also down on the floor.
It seemed that a large battle had ensued here, just a few moments prior, and Hang didn't need his eye to tell him whether the outcome was pleasant.
"Thanks for saving beauty from the beast~" The Foxian said after the mara-struck were dealt with.
"Pleasure!" March responded. "But are you thanking us or giving yourself a compliment?"
"Miss Tingyun," one of the Cloud Knights beside the Foxian spoke. "The mara-struck have been repelled, but there could be other dangers nearby."
"The situation is serious," the other Cloud Knight added. "Allow us to escort you back to the Sky-Faring Commission, immediately."
"Calm down, I heard you," Tingyun replied, a bit of sass in her tone. "It'd be rude of me to depart without thanking our benefactors."
Tingyun turned to face the group. "My name is Tingyun. I'm the Amicassador for the Luofu Sky-Faring Commission merchant guild. may I venture to know the illustrious names of my heroes?"
"Illustrious names?" March questioned, a bit of confusion written on her face. "... sure. I'm March 7th, this is Mr. Yang — oh — Mr. Welt Yang, and this is..."
"The Galactic Baseballer," Stelle said.
"Why are you saying this now?" March questioned, looking at Stelle. "I already told Hang your name."
"You told him, not me," Stelle replied. "If it's my choice, I'm keeping my name hidden. Can't have Belebog happening again."
"Hang," Hang said bluntly, before becoming quiet again.
"I see, well, thank you for coming to our aid," Tingyun said. "Although, there is one thing I don't understand. This place is supposed to be under lockdown. Since none of you are Xianzhou residents, may I ask how you came to be here?"
"Oh," Hang thought. "They have an excuse. I just snuck here."
"If you can't offer an explanation, I'm afraid these Cloud Knights will have to escort you out." Tingyun said, with a bit of a threat in her words.
Hang looked towards the Cloud Knights. They were tired.
If needed, escape would be easy.
But he wouldn't cut all his options out yet—if he could lie his way out, he will.