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It wasn’t long before Nariko, Mana and Varen reached the outer grounds of the arena, due to the sudden appearance of a Forsaken beast the adrenaline had kicked in making their breathing and heart rate spike in intensity.

“You two alright?” Varen asked as he tried to slow his heart rate.

Both Nariko and Mana nodded as they did the same. Around them were hundreds of spectators dispersing in various directions trying to get as far away from the arena as possible before they were caught by the Forsaken beast.

Without realizing it the Forsaken beast had been clawing its way upward in order to escape the arena grounds. It burst through the stonewalling as shards of broken stone ricocheted off into various directions. Landing upon its four legs the beast snapped its head around sniffing after a few seconds its eyes laid upon both Nariko and Mana.

Even though up close the beast was roughly the size of two adult tigers put together, its threatening presence and appearance sent chills down their spines as they laid their eyes upon the beast.

The Forsaken beast slowly moved towards the trio a mixture of dark purple saliva and demon blood dripping from its mouth, it licked around its razor-sharp teeth. As it drew nearer to them it stopped for a moment.

With one of its clawed paws, it scratched the hard concrete ground beneath sharpening its claws as sparks flew into the air. The beast was ready to pounce upon them when its attention was suddenly drawn towards the main road as multiple vehicles converged upon the arena.

From what Nariko and Mana could make out from hindsight was that the vehicles were some form of military vehicles a few of them packing mounted machine gun turrets.

Suddenly the vehicles stopped a few hundred metres from the Forsaken beast was positioned what followed would be a surge of Demon soldiers armed with firearms and explosive ordnance.

“Get out of the way!” the commander of the small detachment of Demon soldiers shouted towards Nariko, Mana and Varen as the soldiers loaded their rifles aiming at the beast. The mounted machine guns upon the miliary vehicles opened fire upon the beast. Bullets whizzed by as they chipped away at the stone walls of the arena while also impacting the beast itself.

The trio attempted to make their escape from the ensuing chaos that was currently happening around them.

Without warning, the Forsaken beast started to turn erratic after taking fire from the Demon soldiers the spikes protruding from the tip of its tail started to vibrate. Not anticipating it, the spikes shot off the tail of the Forsaken beast into multiple directions. Some of them into the direction of the Demon soldiers exploding some of the vehicles upon impact and killing a dozen soldiers.

Nariko, on the other hand, didn’t realize what the beast had done so she was ill-prepared when one of the stray spikes impaled her.

Feeling a sudden sharp pain well up in her thigh Nariko fell to the floor, she turned her head around as far as she could to see a spike from the Forsaken beast’s tail impaled into her thigh.

Once the gunfire had ceased the beast returned its attention to Nariko as it slowly prowled towards her. Nariko realizing that she had to move tried her most damn to stand up only to fall to the floor, the pain was excruciating making her almost want to burst out crying.

Mana and Varen having noticed that Nariko had been injured ran back in an attempt to help her. However, the Forsaken beast fired another set of sharpened purple spikes at the two of them stopping both of them short of reaching Nariko.

The beast moving closer at this point almost on top of her, it reared its spine readying itself for the final kill.

Nariko unable to move fast enough hated the fact that she had to accept her fate. Can’t believe I’m going to go out like this and I was starting to like this new world! Yuuma’s subconscious berated himself for letting something so stupid happen to him. Having come to terms with her fate Nariko waited for the inevitable.

Out of nowhere, an arrow engraved with demonic glyphs sailed through the air, its target being the Forsaken beast. When the arrow made an impact upon the beast’s eye it exploded making the latter screech out in agony as its body jerked around. The force of the explosion sent Nariko sliding across the floor leaving a sandpaper mark on part of her injured leg.

Seeing the beast had lost interest in her, Nariko attempted to crawl towards Mana and Varen while she could as the latter two urge her to keep going while also making their way to her. However, due to the chaos that had been happened and the beast slamming its hind and rear legs repeatedly upon the floor started to weaken the floor the two of them were on, eventually making it cave in upon itself.

As the flooring caved in like a domino effect both Nariko and the beast began falling into the black abyss beneath them. Varen being the first to reach Nariko’s side attempted to grab the latter’s hand only to miss her by a few inches. Both he and Mana could only watch as Nariko fell into blackness.

“Nariko!” Mana shouted. Varen didn’t he just stayed there unable to move from his position. Out of the blue, a group of students arrived at the scene holding weapons like that of before the age of rifles that looked to have the similar demonic glyph engravings that Mana had seen on so many other appliances that Demon folk used in their everyday lives, however, these seemed more flamboyant and fancy compared to the typical ones she was used to seeing.

One of the students turned to his comrade clearly pissed, “Damn it, Carlisle, what did I say about engaging the Forsaken!”

Carlisle standing there in the same outfit that is worn by Nariko, Mana and Varen with his unkempt brown hair tied up in a short ponytail looked back at his squad Captain, Gideon with equal anger and frustration. “What the hell! If I hadn’t of fired that arrow the girl would have been nothing more than a snack for that thing!”

Gideon wasn’t having it, “That doesn’t mean you kill the civilian yourself, you imbecile!” the squad Captain’s short black hair brought the pure green colour of his eyes, even more, expressed his anger.

“Cut it out you two!” a girl with two holstered pistols at her side, the shade of her cardinal red hair tied in a long ponytail down her back was more noticeable against the uniform her two-way parted fringe added a bit more character to her.

Gideon decided to ignore Carlisle’s blunder, for the time being, he turned to the other members of his squad, “Okay I need half of you to assist her in evacuation while the rest of you come with me to hunt down the Forsaken!”. Upon giving orders the squad did as he ordered to the letter.

Varen having been in partial shock to realize what was happening around had been surprised to have seen Gideon here, “G-Gideon?” he muttered.

Upon hearing his name being called Gideon turned around to see both Varen and Mana kneeling near the edge of the hole where Nariko and the beast had descended into just moments ago. “Varen? What are you doing here?” he asked incredulously, Gideon went over to the two of them and noticed that they too had injuries.

“The two of you are injured, I’ll get our healer over here to patch you up…” before Gideon could call out he was stopped by Varen.

“Forget about us! You’ve got to get down there now!…” he demanded, Varen touched the flesh wound around his arm as a sharp pain went through his arm “…Nariko is down there and she’s badly injured!”

Just seeing the look upon Varen’s face surprised Gideon he had never seen him this serious about anyone before knowing this, he knew that Varen wasn’t reacting out of common consideration as he did for every passer-by, but instead out of genuine concern for this girl. “Don’t worry…” Gideon places a hand on Varen’s shoulder an expression of determination on his face appeared “…we’ll find her, I promise you”

Eventually, Nariko stirred awake only to be welcomed by the pain in her thigh once again. Drying her tears from her eyes she attempted to look around trying to get a bearing for her surroundings. In the distance, she could make out a dozen or so lights dotted across the surface of the wall. When she saw the paw of the Forsaken beast twitch next to her, she jumped back in fear as she let out a yelp after feeling another sharp stabbing sensation go through her thigh.

Nariko knew that she couldn’t stay here and that she had to find help quickly before anything else happened so she attempted to try and move again. As she tried to stand back up she once again instantly fell to the floor unable to support her own weight due to her severe injury tears once again threatened to appear.

She suddenly hears footsteps in the distance and the sound of a forced cackle. After a few moments, a humanoid figure emerged from the darkness dressed in a black cloak, the hood covering his face except for the sickly green tore effect eyes similar to that of the Forsaken beasts.

As he neared to Nariko, the latter couldn’t help but feel more fearful of this person than the beast that had been trying to kill her just moments ago. Once he was a few metres away he planted himself on the rubble floor looking like a typical ruffian.

He giggles for a moment, “I love it when a plan comes together…” he gazes at the Forsaken beast trapped under the rubble “…unfortunate I had to lose such a good specimen but can’t have everything”. Nariko didn’t say anything.

As for the mysterious figure, he continued to take in Nariko’s features letting out a laugh, “I have to say, you’re quite the beauty considering you were a boy in your previous life then again you were the looker back then so…” he sat there thinking for a moment “…what is it you humans said on earth, that’s the result of having good genes? Ahh who gives a ****”

“W-Who are you?” Nariko muttered.

The mysterious figure stood to his feet, “Now, now no need to rush soon we’ll have all the time in the world…” he giggles once again “…but for now you’re coming with me”. He started to reach for Nariko with his hand out in front of him.

Nariko covering herself shouted, “Leave me alone!”. Just before the mysterious figure was about to grab her he was suddenly hit with a lance of Astral Light knocking him back a dozen or so metres. Hearing the commotion Nariko looks behind her to another mysterious figure floating through the air, however, this one wore a bright blue cloak and hood their eyes were white as small plumes of vapour expended from under the hood.

The black-cloaked figure cackles as he digs himself out of the rubble, “Well, well look who Chronarus sent…” he laughs out loud “…his ******* son Libertus”

Libertus landing upon the rubble on top of the Forsaken beast impaled it with Astral Light spear killing it instantly, this angered the black-hooded figure, “You’ve had your fun Drelion…” Libertus continues to walk towards Nariko “…now leave before you regret your actions”

If at all possible you would be able to see Drelion’s smirk under the hood, “I get it now…” he laughs at the prospect “…you’re interested in her too, how quaint”

Suddenly a sickly green coloured claw emerged around Drelion’s left hand, “Tough luck, she’s coming with me!”. Readying himself to attack Drelion stopped when he heard a dozen or so voices in the tunnel behind him. Realizing he was no match in the first place for Libertus in his current condition he decided to back off for now.

“Consider yourself lucky Libertus” Drelion laughs as he dissipates into a cloud of dust.

Libertus sighing with relief looked at Nariko who had passed out due to blood loss unable to stay not wanting to risk anyone seeing him, he quickly decided to use an ancient technique in order to stop the bleeding on Nariko’s thigh for a short time. Luckily for him, this technique left very little trace of magic upon use making it ideal for this situation. Once he had attended to Nariko he made himself scarce by too dissipating into a cloud of white dust.

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