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((The Mon/Wen/Fri Double -- page 1 of 2))
Hector could sense the winged ones approaching again from above the trees, and this time, they had even more help. Half the swarm turned its attention to him and him alone.

But Hector was ready for them. Without a giant, hovering platform weighing down his concentration, he could sense them all quite clearly and was perfectly content to pull them away from the other servants. Hopefully, that would give everyone some breathing room.

He was still keeping track of Chort, too, in a thought process all its own. The Beast of Lorent was keeping its distance for the moment but not actually trying to flee, which told Hector that it was cooking up something else.

Roman was still up in the sky, seemingly in better condition than the Rainlords had been. Hector wondered if that was because the Beast's aura wasn't reaching him up there or if Roman had a strong enough aura of his own.

Hector bounded from tree to tree, relying on his iron to assist with each jump. Even in the moonlight, this area was a bit too dark and dense with foliage for him to rely on just his eyes, but that wasn't a problem for him, of course.

As he'd hoped, half the swarm was indeed following him, and once he had enough space to work with, he turned to face them.

He intended to add all of them to his collection this time.

But he knew that they were agile little buggers and that they had grown wise to his tactic of trying to capture them. Whenever they noticed him resorting to that strategy, they countered by scurrying underground again, which made them almost impossible to keep track of.

He had to disrupt their movement, prevent them from digging. And he had an idea in mind.

He could just send them all flying, first.