"GGGRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" A large sized Aragami roared as it finally took it's last breath, attempting to stand back up and fight its opposing God Eaters before falling back to the ground, lifeless.

Two Vajra had been spotted in the ruins of old city, dangerously closer to one of the smaller Ports. As such, the crew on the Chysanthemum had been asked to dispatch of the massive Aragami. So Colszar, Zeke, Hugo and Lulu had been sent out by Amy and Hilda to take care of the beasts. Needless to say, the Hounds barely broke a sweat dealing the beasts.

"Phew," Colszar sat down on the ground for a moment to catch his breath. "Looks like we're done here."

"Heh," Zeke grinned, putting his hammer over his shoulders. "Talk about easy!"

"Quite," Lulu replied in her usual, quiet demeanor.

"It was just those two Vajra we needed to take down right, Amy?" Hugo asked for clarification.

"Yep," Amy responded in her usual happy tone. "Both Aragami are silent now. Excellent work everyone! We'll be waiting for back ho-" The operator abruptly stopped talking, concerning everyone making the four Hounds all exchange curious glances.

"Amy?" Lulu asked, concerned for her sudden silence. "What's wrong?"

"Oh no no no no no!" Amy panicked. "All of you get out of there now!"

"Amy, what's wrong!?" Zeke grew suddenly worried about Amy's sudden panic attack.

"An Ashborn suddenly appeared on radar!" Amy shouted. "And it's coming in fast!"

"What!?" Colszar stood straight up.

"An Ashborn!?" Zeke whined. "Aww, you've gotta be kiddin' me!"

"Which type of Ashborn is it, Amy?" Hugo asked, completely calm.

"I can't tell!" The entire group could tell just how stressed Amy was over the sudden Ashborn appearence. "But you all need to get out of there! It'll be there any-"

"GRAWWWWHHHHHHHH!" Even Amy heard that loud roar through her ear piece.

"Damn!" Colszar cursed, looking in the direction the roar came from. "Well, looks like it's too late now!" Colszar and the other Hounds all stood in defensive positions as they heard the loud of the oncoming Ashborn.

"Get ready, guys!" Hugo shouted as the Aragami made it's appearance. Standing on a cliff that was once a road leading to the cathedral plaza, was a giant white lion looking Aragami with large boosters on its back and gleaming blue eyes.

"Let's get this over with!" Zeke grinned, readying his hammer for a boost attack.

Without hesitation, the Balmung leaped off of it's perch and raced toward the AGEs, starting what would likely be a long fight. "Lulu!" Colszar called back his fellow God Eater. "Can you try to poison it and try soften it at bit?"

"I can't promise anything," Lulu replied, running alongside him. "But I'll do what I can!"

"Back us up, Amy?" As he spoke, Amy could hear the smile in his voice. "You're our operator. This team is nothing without you."

"R-Right!" Amy replied in a determined tone. "I'll do what I can!"

Ahead of them was already Zeke smashing away at the Goliath beast. Zeke was clearly doing damage, but Balmung was far from falling yet. With a roar, several balls of light formed before swarming around the plaza, attempting to home in on the God Eaters only for them to easily dodge the coming projectiles.

"Take this you oversized feline!" Zeke shouted, running up the side of a nearby wall, jumping off of it and slam his hammer down on the top its head. The giant lion roared in slight pain, fixing its attention on the former Pennywort AGE. The massive beast swiped at him with it's paws, but Zeke readied his shield making the attack only push him back a few feet.

"Zeke, be careful!" Amy spoke through his earpiece. "Don't just rush in! Fall back and heal for a second, you already took some damage from those Vajra earlier!"

Lulu slashed at it's hind legs with her twin blades, with Colszar doing the same and Hugo shooting at its side with his shotgun. Zeke dashed right back into attack after healing, but beams of electricity erupted from the Aragami's forelegs. Immediately after, the beast slashed its at the God Eaters as if it were swinging swords, batting the AGEs away.

"Be careful of those long ranged attacks!" Amy warned. "Oh no! Everyone, be careful of that dash attack!"

Just as the operator said, the boosters on Balmung's back ignited causing it to charge and rocket through the area, tackling every AGE in the process. All of them were knocked away, but quickly recovered and got back into the action.

Using her nimble movements, Lulu jumped around from wall to wall, avoiding the balls of light that it summoned to home in on the group. She transformed her twin blades into its double glaive form and hacked away at it's back and tail before she touched down on the ground.

"Lulu, look out for it's pounce!" Looking up, Lulu's eyes widened when she saw the giant monster rushing toward her. It nearly hit, before Hugo grabbed her out of the way. The monster smashed down onto the ground making a shock wave of electricity surge where it landed.

Both fighters put up their shields when it swatted at them with it's paws and turned their God Arcs to their gun forms, shooting at the beast. "Time to chow down!" Zeke shouted as his God Arc devoured some of the Balmung's Oracle Cells, allowing him to enter Burst. The other three followed suit, devouring the Aragami as well.

"Oh no!" Amy cried out in worry. "Watch out for the devour attack everyone!"

Black smoke erupted from the Aragami's back boosters for several seconds, before lunging in Colszar's direction, attempting to devour him. But with the predictable movements, the giant beast was unsuccessful in the attempt.

All 4 AGEs used the small window of opportunity they had while it was settling down from the previous attack to unleash a barrage of attacks on the monster. Lulu slashed it heavily, poisoning it in the process, Colszar hacked at the hulking beast with his biting edge in its glaive form while Zeke and Hugo shot at the Ashborn with their shotguns.

The Aragami was getting angry at being attacked by the AGEs and attempted to devour one of them again. "It's another Devour Attack!" Amy warned. "Get out of there quickly!"

The four God Eaters managed to evade the second round of Devour Attacks, managing to not become Aragami food. Being up against an Ashborn, the fight continued on for awhile. But eventually, the four Hounds managed to prevail and fell the large behemoth. Needless to say, all four AGEs needed to catch their breath.

Once they did, the returned to the Ash Crawler Chrysanthemum where the rest of the crew were awaiting them.

Sometime later in the night, several hours after the mission had concluded, Colszar was roaming the ship as he usually did after dinner. He made his way across the bridge and into the lobby where he saw Amy sitting by her lonesome. She was so deep in her own thoughts, she didn't even realize he had entered the room.

Even from a distance, he could hear the sigh she made. "She must still be thinking about the mission earlier," He thought. When he and the others returned after finishing off the Ashborn that had appeared suddenly, she ran to each and every one of them, worry written all over her face and in her voice.

She had apologized profusely for not noticing the Aragami suddenly appearing. "Why am I even still here? I'm such a horrible operator!" Amy berated herself.

"Amy?" Hearing her name called snapped her out of her thoughts. A small, sad smile appeared on her face when she noticed Colszar walking toward her. "Hi there, Colszar."

"You're still thinking about the mission earlier, aren't you?" The pink haired girl nodded.

"It keeps replaying over and over in my mind," She frowned, her thumbs fidgeting together as she held her hands together in her lap. "There's no excuse for missing something like that. You all could have gotten hurt or so much worse."

"Throughout that entire fight, I kept thinking about what I would do if you all had been killed by that Balmung." He could feel her voice starting to break. "If anything had happened to any of you..." Tears started to flow from her light blue eyes. "I'm so so sorry, Colszar..."

She started crying when she felt a light karate chop on the top of her head. "Huh...?" When turned her head up, all she saw was Colszar's warm smile. "Don't blame yourself for that," He said softly, wiping Amy's tears away. "Nobody here blames you for what happened at all."

"But-"

"Stop," He said more sternly. "There's nothing for you to be sorry for, Amy. Aragami suddenly appearing like that is nothing out of the ordinary."

"I think I can speak for all of us on the ship when I say none of us consider you a horrible or failure of an operator." He smiled.

"He's right, you know." Hugo's voice suddenly entered the room along with Lulu, Zeke and Claire. "We know you blame yourself for that Ashborn coming out of nowhere, Amy."

"But know that none of us do," Lulu finished what Hugo was going to say.

"It's because of your guidance during these missions that we're able to come back alive and unscathed." Clair stated, walking forward. "And after our missions, you're always the first one to welcome us back and make sure we're unharmed. You're as far from a horrible operator as one can be."

Hugo nodded, agreeing with her. "You may not be on the front lines fighting the Aragami like us, but you're just as important to this team as Clair, Lulu or anyone else."

"And besides," Colszar started speaking again. "It doesn't matter if you miss one or two Aragami on that radar. You make mistakes. It's only human."

"Those stupid Ashborn were always sneaky bastards anyway," Zeke folded his hands behind his head. "I mean, how many times have they ambushed us before?"

"So don't blame yourself for anything happens out there, Amy." Hugo smiled as he walked toward Colszar and Amy. "Like I said before, you're just as big of a part on this team and family as everyone else on this Ash Crawler. I'm sure Hilda and Phym would agree too."

"And besides," Zeke winked. "There's nobody else we'd rather have as our operator. You're certainly much better than that other douchebag we had at Pennywort."

"Zeke," Hugo sighed with a deadpan look on his face. "Can you please not bring him up?"

"Whaaaaaat?" Zeke complained. "It's a compliment!"

Amy lightly giggled at the pair. "Thank you. All of you." Amy smiled at the room's occupants. "From here on, I'll be the best operator I can be!"

"Just as we'd expect you to." Hugo nodded. "Alright, I think it's time we get to sleep people. I'm sure Amy and Hilda will have plenty of missions for us to tackle tomorrow."

"Aww man," Zeke hung his head in disappointment. "And here I was hopin' to watch the Bugerally movie with Neal and Keith tonight!"

"Not happening," Hugo barked back. "Last time you stayed up, you were up so late we could barely get out of bed, let alone fight."

"Ugh, okay fine." Zeke groaned. "Whatever you say, 'dad'."

Amy giggled to herself as she watched Hugo and Zeke playfully argue. They were right. She shouldn't blame herself for anything that happened out in the field. All she could do was look forward and be the best operator she could be for her Hounds.