Hollow Hunting (Stella/Daniel)

"Fine, but I doubt he will reply to my text. Probably will just go unread."

He felt his forehead with his hand and shot a look at Stella. This had been the second time that she had bonked him on the head and knowing his behavior it probably wouldn't be the last, but he was happy to have her along. She was more experienced than he was at this sort of thing and grabbed his phone to begin typing a message to his dad as the engines of the plane began to stir awake. He turned the phone to her, pressed send, and nodded.

"Better? Now lets talk about strategy. Clearly you are physically stronger than me, so I would like you to front line if you wouldn't mind. I can cast spells, but my bow is...a work in progress?"

He said, putting on his seat belt, and remembering the lessons Liltotto had taught him not too long ago. He had been working on the mechanics of what he felt his spiritual weapon was capable of, but it still was a bit underdeveloped. He knew it was close, but he needed to work on fine tuning the accuracy and fully understanding it. He still had his magic and he was quite capable in that regard, so he knew he wouldn't be a liability.

"You've had more lessons with your mentor, I take it? Hopefully those lessons pay off against these particular Hollows."

"I can form my bow and fire perfectly fine, but the shots have a tendency to ricochet. I've taken classes to improve my aim and even read a handful of manuals, and still it is a little wobbly at best. Kind of sad that a Quincy can't even use their bow right, right?"

He said with a little bit of a chuckle as he summoned his bow, a faintly glowing teal hand crossbow that covered his non-gauntlet covered hand. To any Quincy it would look fine, in fact it looked perfect and stable, but to Daniel several problems seemed to always pop up when he fired it. The trajectory of his shot was always off by a bit when the shots did hit and when they didn't they always bounced like a ball only to impale a different non-target nearby. It was humiliating for him, but he was not beaten yet, and he would keep working on it.

"I will be fine because I have spells, but I trust someone with your experience more than my inexperience."

When she asked about what type of Hollows they were dealing with, he would look out the window of the plane, and out at the ocean below as they flew out to where these particular Hollows were terrorizing a village.

"A pack of wolf-like Hollows have been raiding a village. They have been capable of keeping it safe most of the time, but they are getting worn down as their defenders aren't necessarily trained to deal with threats like this like we are. The number of the Hollows is unknown, but the two of us should be fine."

Daniel felt confident that with a more natural Hollow Killer like Stella he would be safe at the least and could gain a bit of experience. He would watch her back and she would watch his so to speak.

"I'm going to be leaning on your experience, so thanks again for the help."

A bit of panic spread across his face as he realized that he had not thought an iota on the idea that he could hurt Stella with his shooting. To be honest, he had hoped that he could avoid using his bow in this confrontation with the Hollows, and had that Stella would not encourage him to shoot, but things couldn't be more of the opposite. She was encouraging him to take shots with his bow and risk potential injury to herself just so he could get a little practice in. He shook his head a bit and looked at her.

"I will use my spiritual weapon as a last resort. I am not risking killing a friend with a stray shot over something like practice. I have to be mindful of my limitations and about your safety as much as killing these Hollows."

He said honestly as he conceded that he might need to use his spiritual weapon if things got dicey, but only if things got dicey. He didn't want to hurt her, not only because she was helping him, but because she was probably the only true friend that he had ever had. A fact he probably wouldn't admit out loud, but definitely that was definitely the truth.

"But I appreciate the thought in terms of helping me practice."

"I'm not trying to be insulting, but there is always a chance something goes wrong, and I would rather not be responsible for that. That's all I'm saying."

She was stronger than him, he didn't want to make her angry, or anything, but he was being careful for her sake and his own. He had no idea how truly strong his spiritual weapon was or just what it was capable of as most spiritual weapons had some kind of ability that correlated with them. He had no idea on what his was or if he could fully control it once he found out what it was. So, he leaned more heavily on his magic, something he could control more readily.

"All it takes is one arrow in the right spot, Stella. I don't want to hurt you...as I have said you are my only friend and I don't want to see you hurt if I can avoid it. I don't think I could deal with it if I hurt you, I would hope it would be the same if the role was reversed."

He sent his spiritual weapon away, putting his non-gauntlet covered hand in his pocket as he once again looked out the window.

"An hour tops, it would have taken longer for us to go by boat, and I want to get their as quickly as possible."

"I didn't buy the plane...I rented it. My dad owns his own jet, but there was no way I was going to... oh, you are making a joke."

Daniel gave her a grin, a bit of truth slipping out, and then quickly being buried underneath a fit of laughter. He felt a bit awkward at the admittance that his dad had his own jet, but he wanted to be honest with her. When she began to bring up things about how he should be more outgoing, he gave her a funny look, and then began to laugh some more.

"Jeeze, I must sound kind of pathetic admitting that out loud, eh? Your the only friend that I have met who isn't interested in using me for my namesake or money. You don't care about that crap and to be honest, its a lot harder than you would think to find people like that. Though, I do appreciate the advice, and will definitely keep it in mind."

For a while, Daniel was quiet until finally the pilot announced they were going to land on the island soon, and Daniel nodded his head at Stella as he put his satchel back on.

"Ready?"