The small piece of blue paper Erin had with her tore itself into half while she was spying at a certain tavern from above the surrounding buildings. It was Lyra’s side, Erin instantly knew since it was the blue paper that was torn. If it was the red paper, it would mean Nivia’s side.

Erin rose to her feet in an instant and scooped Aera, who was at her side, into her arms without a word of warning. However, Aera didn’t need any forewarning as she quickly realised the reason for Erin’s act of urgency since they had already discussed their plan of action prior.

Contrary to her seemingly feeble and meek appearance, Aera was heavier than one would expect of her. Of course, Erin kept her mouth shut about that as she streaked across the rooftops, dashing in the direction of Lyra. The buildings and homes were cramped due to the limited space and that worked in Erin’s favour. She could make a beeline to her destination without taking any tedious yet necessary detours.

Erin arrived at Lyra’s side in no time at all. She gently laid Aera to her feet and hopped off the roof. She brandished her spell sword as she fell through the air, raising her blade that she quickly clad in Arcane Edge. She also wanted to use Essence Flare but that would be too conspicuous and ruin the element of surprise. She was silent the whole time as she sprung her surprise attack.

The Demoid took notice of Erin’s presence far too late as his focus was on Lyra and Lilian. He spun around with a swing of his large paw. Erin blocked it with her sword, cleaving through his arm but ultimately failing to deliver the killing blow. The Demoid rolled himself away and sprang to his feet once he was a good distance away.

“Who…” Kelso, the Demoid, asked. He was bleeding profusely from his cut left arm but he did not seem bothered by it.

Erin raised an eyebrow. She did not hide or conceal her appearance. Her ears and tails were in full view. Yet, the Demoid in front of her was asking such a question.

“No… not important,” he said and shifted his gaze to Edmund. His bleeding stump still showed no sign of healing. He took off in a dash towards Edmund’s way.

“Oh, no, you don’t.” Erin was about to intercept when the chopped-off arm flew into her path. “What the fuck?” she blurted out.

The arm burst apart in a splatter of blood and an ape-like monster with red eyes emerged from the bloody explosion. It immediately lunged at Erin.

“The absurdity of Demons…” Erin muttered and threw a ball of cyan flames at the Ape Demon.

It swiftly dodged the all too slow fireball and bared its fangs at Erin. She sighed and cut the Ape Demon in half with her blade coated in Essence Flare.

[Experience gained +5% - Level Progression: 60%]

She felt at ease upon reading that message and also the sight of the Ape Demon getting reduced into nothing but the flames of the Spirits.

While Erin was dealing with the Ape-Demon, Lyra and Lilian were preventing Kelso from getting close to Edmund, who was too frightened to even crawl properly. The pathetic sight of him made Lyra wonder how she was able to fall in love with him before. He had always been a ball of mess but what she found endearing before, she now found it unpleasant. But since he was now her mark, she set aside those past feelings and focused on the present.

Lilian sent vines to hamper the Demoid’s movements but he easily tore himself out of them. However, the short period of him being immobilised was enough for Lyra to shoot arrows at his head. Lyra grinned when she saw how protective he was of his head. A weak spot, she surmised.

Kelso dug out a piece of the ground and flung it at the pair. Lyra rolled under and forward, dodging the rubble but Lilian was far too slow in her movements. Aera appeared right at that moment. She dropped down from above and smashed the rubble into pieces with a straight drop-kick.

Kelso did not care whether he succeeded in harming any of them. He just wanted to stall them. However, Erin had caught up to him after finished dealing with the Ape Demon.

“Annoying…” Kelso muttered as he shot out blood bolts from his bleed stump.

“Oh shite!” Erin exclaimed and quickly conjured Arcane Aegis to block all of those blood bolts. Fortunately, her spell shield only broke at the last wave of the blood bolts. Unfortunately, the Demoid was upon Edmund, aiming his stump at the whimpering man on the ground.

“Fuck it,” Erin muttered in her heart and instantly appeared before Kelso with Edmund behind her. She had traversed that distance with Spatial Magic, Warp. She cast layers of Arcane Aegis in front of her as the barrage of blood bolts began.

“Demons… disgusting…” came a cold voice from behind Kelso and in the next moment, he was sent skidding across the ground from a kick to his head.

“Aera…” Erin breathed in relief and dispelled the Arcane Aegises. “Nice kick…”

“Erin, allow me,” Aera asked but she did not wait for an answer before hurtling towards Kelso.

The Demoid flipped to his feet and swung his paw. Aera dodged low and countered with an uppercut to his jaws. The Demoid staggered but no trace of pain appeared on his face. He recovered fast and lunged with his fangs bared. Aera spun to the side and buried her fist into the side of his head. The air seemed to ripple as her fist collided with his flesh. The Demoid flew off his feet and fell head over heels.

The Demoid bounced to his feet and threw a volley of blood bolts at Aera. Instead of dodging them, she dashed into the volley. Most of the blood bolts scraped and grazed her body but the few that hit her square, left deep bruises. However, it did not slow her dash even by a little.

“Impossible,” Kelso growled. He started looking for an escape path but when his gaze met with Erin’s, he knew that was impossible. He knew the Fox-kin could easily kill him but she didn’t. He was doomed regardless of the outcome of this fight with this seemingly frail girl.

Unlike his peers, Kelso did not take a large dose of the potion that gave him Demonic powers. He had been reserved about it even after seeing the success of his friends. Many would kill for his privilege but he remained reserved as ever. He realised that he shouldn’t have taken it at all. He wasn’t here on his own accord but on the orders of the one who gave him this power. Even if he could escape, his fate was already sealed.

In the midst of the mulling of his regret, Aera drove a haymaker into his belly. He threw up all that he ate for supper. The little girl followed her ferocity with a wide hook to his jaws that turned his world upside down. He went down and he wasn’t able to get back up as quickly as before.

“It’s over for me…” Kelso told himself. He resigned to his fate but persisted in his struggle.

Aera grabbed one of Kelso’s legs and swung him around, before slamming him back to the ground. She pulled him in and kneeled on his torso with his back on the ground. She clenched her fists tightly and started raining down punches after punches on him. Her veins began to glow a dark purple as she pummelled the Demoid.

Kelso tried to defend and pry her off of him but her strength was unmatched by him and he was shocked to learn just how strong she was. He stood no chance against her and coincidentally, he didn’t have many tricks under his sleeves despite being a partial Demon.

The pummelling lasted for a good while and Erin knew the end was near when she received a message from the System.

[Experience gained +10% - Level Progression: 70%]

It wasn’t much since she didn’t deliver the killing blow but she didn’t mind. This wasn’t her concern and priority anyway. When Aera had stopped and got off of the Demoid, half of his body had been turned into a pulp of mangled flesh. Just to be sure, Erin doused the corpse with Essence Flare.

Aera was panting with her blazing gaze fixed on the burning corpse of Kelso. Her fists were still clenched tightly and her veins were still pulsating the dark purplish glow.

“Aera, you can be at ease now,” Erin said. “Well, for the time being, at least.”

Aera let out a sigh and loosened her fists. She nodded as her shoulders slumped.

“T-thank you, Lady Fae. Thank you so much,” said Edmund, who came trotting up to her. “You have my undying gratitude for saving me.”

Erin responded with a smile and also a kick into his abdomen.

He tumbled to the ground, clutching his belly while curling up.

“Pathetic.”

“I beg your p-pardon, Lady Fae, but… what have I ever d-done to cross you?” he asked, struggling to raise his gaze, only to be met with Erin’s cold gaze.

“Truly contemptible,” Lilain said as she walked up beside Erin along with Lyra.

Edmund looked at them with confusion. “W-what are you saying?”

Erin scoffed. “You don’t remember me, do you?”

“R-remember you? I don’t believe we have met before…”

“You might not remember me but surely you remember your friend, Velrin.”

“V-Velrin? I don’t— Ah…” He wanted to hide it but his face had already betrayed him.

“You remember now?”

“Velrin… It’s you… But how could it be… You don’t have five tails. You—” His words were cut off by a kick to his jaws. He moaned agonisingly as he floundered around in pain.

“Shut up.” Erin glared. “From now on, you only speak when spoken to. Understand?”

Edmund nodded with tears coming out of his eyes. He couldn’t even speak if he wanted to. His jaws were dislocated. Even moving his jaws slightly was agonising. He could only weep and nod his head.

“Lilian, can you bind his limbs with your vines?”

“I certainly can, Erin, but why?”

“Because I don’t think he will be very cooperative with us. No doubt he would attempt to slip away given the smallest opportunity.”

“He sure will,” Lyra affirmed. “As someone who wouldn’t bat an eye on profiting off of innocents’ misery, don’t expect anything good from him.”

Lyra’s words drew a glare from Edmund but he kept his silence and looked away.

“Well, things went easier than expected,” Lilian sighed after binding Edmund with her spell vines. “So, we just drop him off at the guild or—” Lilian didn’t get to finish her words as Aera shoved her to the side. Something streaked through the air, missing Lilian, and continued onwards toward Edmund.

Erin simply swatted the projectile out of its flight with her tails. She glanced at the thing she battered to the ground. It was a thin blade, shaped like a toothpick but much larger in size. Erin couldn’t tell what it was made of and before she could, the stake turned into dust.

“What the hell was that?” Lyra asked.

“That Demoid ain’t the only one coming after Edmund,” Erin said, glancing around. Everything looked serene and quiet but she knew better. The residents here were well aware of what was happening but as they didn’t want to lengthen the list of their present crimes, they stayed out of sight and out of mind. For that, Erin was thankful since that meant she didn’t need to worry about them coming after Edmund.

Another stake flew towards them but this time, Lilian was ready and she flicked that stake away with one of her many spells. “Erin, my dear, leave this cowardly sniper to me. You and Aera just bring that boy back to the guild.”

“Are you sure?” Erin asked, slinging Edmund over her shoulder without a care for his physical well-being.

“Perfectly sure,” Lyra answered. “But I must insist on Lyra's company.”

“Lyra, can you?”

Lyra sighed. “I don’t have a choice, do I? Besides, Siv and Nivia are most likely on their way to us. It will be four against one.”

“Very well,” Erin said. “I will leave him to you but please, prioritise your health. Retreat at the first sign of doubt.”

Lilian tittered. “Back at you, Erin.”

They exchanged nods at each other and Erin took off with Edmund and Aera.

Lyra watched until Erin and Aera disappeared down the street before turning her gaze to Lilian. “So, how do you intend to find this stalker of ours? I can’t see him even with my Eagle Eye.”

“You forgot, Lyra. A Fae is sensitive to the presence of Spirits and Demons. Tracking a Demoid down is child’s play.”