“Mom!” Esmeralda yelled out.

"Shh! They might hear us, nothing we can do right now." Rina immediately covered Esmeralda's mouth. "Let's be quiet, I'll get us out, I promise."

Rina then slowly peaked her head over the edge of the trapdoor again, curiously blinked a bit as her eyes reached over to see if anyone noticed.

Not many people noticed and were looking in their direction, only seven people — Barack, Alize, Nea, Don, Marc, Mei, Pearl. Wait, that's literally everyone.

“Can you do another flying arrow thingy again?” Barack looked over at Alize, who was sitting next to him on a big boulder, suggesting she take care of Rina.

“If you can pay for my healing bills and let me have one week off.” She dangled her feet and put both her hands behind her back on the boulder to relax.

“No deal.”

“So no Bird’s Eyes then.”

“...” Barack quietly glared at her.

“You can’t threaten me, my rank is the same as yours.” Alize looked away.

“Adventure rank, not SSS rank.”

“Wow look, Mister B-Rank Duelist Sorcerer is so high and mighty, he got time to argue with a girl and not actually stand up to confront the enemy.”

“Oh so you’re just lazy and didn’t want to stand up?”

While they were exchanging, no one denied that Barack’s team had won completely, with Pearl under Don’s feet, Marc unable to fight and Mei still trying to hold her own against Nea. They need not to worry about Rina and a smol teenage dragon.

“Archery Spell: Hail of Arrows.”

Rina charged her bow and shot one arrow really high up in the air — Esmeralda tried to follow the thing with her eyes but it went out of sight so fast, disappearing and almost faded into air. Then, she looked over at where Barack, Alize and Nea were resting: a storm of arrows was raining from the sky on top of them.

The three looked upwards to the sky, emotionless.

“See, that’s your fault.” Alize quietly sat still and complained as Barack was creating a barrier on top of their head, using it like an umbrella, blocking and parrying the arrows of.

“Fine, I’ll get you five days off if you get her.”

“No deal. I said seven”

“Can you two love birds take this somewhere else?” Nea shook her head while dancing, tilting her head, punching and kicking just to avoid or destroy the arrows.

...

“Hey fancy suits!” Mei called out for the three.

boom

“ah!”

No one noticed it, but thanks to Rina’s distraction; Mei got enough time to prepare herself and cast a spell. From her palm she threw out a ball. When Barack, Alize and Nea looked towards that direction, a bright light covered their eyes.

Fire Flash: A flying sphere of bright fire that can be controlled mid-air for three seconds. After the duration, it will explode, dealing no damage but temporarily blind everyone looking in its direction.

With one hand covering his eyes, Barack struggled still trying to keep his barrier up, Rina’s hail of arrows doesn’t seem to be ending soon. But what’s worrying is Nea, who had to dodge the arrows while being blind, her eyes were very stinged.

“Nea, come over here!” Barack yelled out. 

Immediately after that, an arrow pierced into Nea’s shoulder and another one almost hit her ear, leaving a small cut. She orientated where Barack was calling her from and headed towards that direction.

Rina charged her bow again, counting Nea’s movement and taking in consideration the air around, lining for a perfect shot to disable her legs. But she then sighed and gave it up, Rina’s not risking killing someone today.

Before Nea can reach Barack’s safety zone, the hail of arrows stop.

“All that for a drop of blood?” Nea turned around and looked at Mei.

Mei smirked while shaking her head. She then turned around and used all the stamina she had left, sprinting towards Don and Pearl.

"Don, she's coming!" Barack yelled.

“I won’t mind breaking this guy’s head.” Don said, arming his fist with a rock shell, threatening Mei to not come any closer. In which Mei pretended like she didn't hear that and kept on going.

Alize charged her bow and got a shot out towards Mei. There's no way she could dodge that when it's coming from behind, Alize thought.

"Arrow coming, your left shoulder, Mei!" Out of nowhere, Rina gave direction for Mei to safely dodge the arrow.

“Don, one more contact on your left!” Nea called out, trying to catch up to Mei.

“Elves’s Vision: Wind Dance.”

Carrying the teenage Esmeralda on her hand princess style, Rina was also sprinting full speed towards Don. She carefully does not cast Wind Dance on her hands, to avoid unconsciously hurting Esmeralda.

Wind Dance: A signature among elves, the children of nature. Allow the user to manipulate wind elements around their hands and feets to decrease wind resistance, overall improving the user’s stamina and agility. Drain mana every second used.

“Tch.” Don expressed his annoyance. He then formed rocks on his hand, creating a big fist and slammed it towards Pearl who was underneath.

crash

“Huh?” He looked at where the fist landed.

“What? Thought you’re the only one with high level earth-transforming abilities?.” Pearl smiled, the fist landed on his forehead, which was covered by some small rocks and boulders nearby, effectively stopping the impact Don’s created.

Before Don could figure out what to do next, he is met with a kick on his rib delivered by Rina and an elbow strike to the jaw delivered by Mei.

“I’d guess no rock can save you from that.” Pearl had goosebumps imagining that happening to himself, Rina and Mei probably had more melee fighting potential than him.

Nea thought about helping Don, but seeing how they’re all organized now and took Don down. She immediately dashed backwards towards her own team. Now’s the situation.

Out of the fight: Don Leoniluos (Semi Unconscious)
Also
Marc Omal (Exhausted/Melee Bruises/Armor Breaking)

“So uh, are we doing this the soft way? Exchanging hostages and they’ll let us on our way?” Rina whispered.

“Of course not! We’re here for the dragon, and you must pay for this building you destroyed, you know?” Alize shouted out.

“Hey, how can you hear us? No eavesdropping!” Mei shouted back at her.

“It’s this guy, he used sound magic.” Pearl pointed at the quiet Don who’s resting on a cobble nearby.

The three then make sure Don is fully “sleeping”, the hard way.

“By the way, Blue Hair With Glasses Guy! Are you a mage or a suicidal bomber? You blew up a building and decided to go one on one with a muscular dude.” Alize continued on, not concerned about Don.

“God save me...” Pearl facepalmed himself.

“Oh, by the way, maybe we should grab coffee sometime, Miss Elf! I’m working as a restocker at the building right... behind you. Wanted to say sorry about the wound on your forehead!” Alize confidently said.

Rina then looked behind her back for a moment.

“Restocker? That’s an orphanag- What”

“You’re messed up.” Barack tapped on Alize’s head.

“Anyways, yes we’re exchanging hostages!” Nea called out to the other side.

…

The exchange began, with the two sides dragging the prisoner towards closer and closer, until they’re only fifteen meters away. Pearl from The Freedom Group and Barack from the SSS walked up, escorting Don who was quite “sleeping” and Marc who was still able to walk.

“Marc, you good?” Pearl pushed Don over for Barack to catch. He then catched Marc himself, checking all around his armor and wounds before leading him back to the team.

“Where’s Vel? cough” With a slightly raucous voice, he ignored Pearl’s question and asked for Esmeralda.

“Come on kid, you’re not five years old aren’t you?” Rina said, trying to get Esmeralda out from hiding behind her. “What’s wrong? Are you mad at Marc?”

“No, it’s not like that!...” Slow and soft voice, Esmeralda defended herself and paused for a second.

With eyes staring at her, Esmeralda blushed and began to get nervous. After five seconds of awkward silence, she stepped out in front of Marc, whose legs hurt like hell.

“I’m… sorry for all that happened, las… last night and, and tonight. I’m… I’m” Esmeralda got super nervous and actually talked incoherently like a five years old, unable to express her feelings and form sentences. She’s not very talkative in her past life either.

clank...

“Eik?” Esmeralda squeaked a bit, noticing how Marc is quietly walking towards her, his armor iron boots made a loud sound on the rubbles underneath.

Marc, wasted no time to explain, immediately leaned towards and hugged Esmeralda tight around her neck.

“Don’t you dare… I’m asking you Vel, don’t make me worry again. Please…” Marc quietly rubbed his face onto Esmeralda's cheeks. She didn't respond but instead hiccuped and hugged Marc back.

"I'm sorry… I love you mom…" 

That quick moment felt like centuries. Stars have rearranged and fates have switched. Yet in reality it was only a minute or so. 

“Is he… alive?” Alize squinted looking at Don when Barack brought him back.

“I’m asking and ordering you not to make any jokes or even say anything you think is remotely funny in fights from now on, please.” Barack sighed and began pinching his forehead in disappointment.

“I’m not saying I agreed, but I agree. One day your head will be big enough to fit your messed up mind.” Nea put her hands on her hips and smiled. 

… 

"Can't believe we almost lost to four unknowns." Alize scratched her head. 

"It's our win now, for wasting our own time." Barack crossed his arms and took a deep breath. 

It was at that moment, The Freedom Group realized that they're in the predator's territory, and the preys are none other than themselves. 

"Cough…arg…"

"Mom? Are you okay? Hey!" Esmeralda panicked and began rapidly shaking Marc's shoulders when he coughed out some blood, noticeably feeling pain and aching inside his chest. 

clank

Marc dropped down to his knees, with blood still slowly pouring out of his mouth and sheer exhaustion filling up his body. He closed his eyes, seemingly fainted away.

"People, drop your weapons."

Before anyone could understand what’s happening — a hooded figure appeared behind them; it seemed to be an average built man with a claymore resting on his shoulder, his face was covered by a black mask leaving only the black eyes to be seen, alongside some white hair shaft. 

Pearl, Mei and Rina turned their heads around and quickly took their chances to throw shots at him — staff swing, elbow jab, roundhouse kick. Yet the only thing they noticed is all that got blocked by just one hand holding his big shiny iron claymore.

“Don’t be stupid, we are authorized to kill criminals and troublemakers."

“Criminals?” Mei charged up a fire dot, almost like a bullet from her index finger and aimed it towards the man’s head. “Guess who started all of this by kidnapping our girl.”

The man tilted his head a bit, then pushed everyone backwards with his claymore and parried off the shot from Mei’s hand to aim towards the sky above. After that he is met with a punch from Rina’s hand, using Wind Dance to turn air into a see-through blade. With one hand holding Mei’s wrist, one hand holding the claymore, he easily uses the non-sharp part of the blade to block Rina’s hand.

But now Pearl is in, levitating a big boulder underneath, shaping it into a sharp arrow and flung it towards the man’s chest with no hesitation.

He knew that two hands isn’t enough to block three people, he could always kill them but that won’t be good for further questioning. So what he did is held Mei’s wrist tight and pulled her in front of him, using Mei as a human shield. Pearl, seeing that, quickly stopped the flying boulder.

“Fight like a man, can’t you?”

The man looked over Pearl’s shoulder.

“Well we’re about to.”

slam

crack

splash

Apart from Don who is resting, the rest of the SSS came storming in quickly and one by one taking care of The Freedom Group.

Game over.

Out of the fight:
Marc Omal (Exhaustion, blood lost)
Mei Magmal (Apprehended by Nea)
Pearl Magmal (Apprehended by Barack)
Rina Wenswood (Being sat on by Alize)
Don Leoniluos (Semi unconscious, recovering)

“Thanks for coming, Captain Lloyd.” Alize bowed down a bit in front of the mysterious man.

“Lloyd? Is that… Lloyd Avery? Hey get off me weirdo!” Rina tried to force her way out of Alize’s awkward apprehending pose, who is sitting on her chest and holding her wrists, making Rina unable to move. When she heard the name Lloyd she immediately recognized who that is.

Full Name: Lloyd Avery
SSS Rank: Lead Captain of Combat Training
Adventure Rank: A-Rank Combat Analyst

With all three members of The Freedom Group defeated. Esmeralda desperately tried to get Marc to wake up, but then what next? Run? Fight back? She didn’t have the time to think this through.

"Say, Novendex…" Lloyd looked at the frightened teenager Esmeralda, then looked over at Barack. "You kidnap a teenage demihuman, reptile to be exact. Which caused all this? And you called me for reinforcement? Against four randoms?"

"Master…" Nea tried to have a word, which was cut short. 

"Vitones.” Lloyd said. “What did I tell you about not answering for other people? I know who I’m asking.”

“She’s not a demihuman sir, she’s a shapeshifting dragon.” Barack answered.

“So… based on that, you decided you had the authority to kidnap it? And I heard quote unquote, kidnapping, not confiscating or anything”

“Uh…”

“... Assholes,” Pearl shook his head.

“Sigh might as well...” Lloyd took off the hood of his coat, letting his shoulder-length chalky silver hair to be seen, he then walked over towards Marc.

“Do not… come any closer!” Esmeralda; a little frightened, still tried to keep calm, began hugging and pulling Marc away from the approaching scary man with a big sword. "Back off, please…"

"That's touching and desperate, kid." With no hesitation, Lloyd grabbed Marc by his hair from Esmeralda's hands, easily like taking candy from a child.

"Marc!" Mei yelled out, which was stopped by 

"Please! Leave him alone!" Esmeralda still tried to hold onto Marc, pulling him away from Lloyd. But it's like pushing an immovable object, nothing works.

"Is this man important to you, Esmeralda?" He asked, kneeling down a bit to reach Esmeralda's height.

"I'm not answering that! Let go of my Marc now!" Esmeralda grabbed Marc's sword on the ground and furiously tried to swing it towards Lloyd. The thing was weighty and lanky. She eventually hit Lloyd in front of his disappointing eyes.

“Well, if not then I think this is fine, right?”

shank

“ah! arg…”

Grabbing Esmeralda’s fist, Lloyd forced her to stab Marc’s leg.

“Marc!” Pearl, furioused, tried to stand up, but he couldn’t force himself out of Barack’s grasp. 

“Which one of you… isn’t an asshole?” Mei clenched her teeth and began using all her strength to struggle against Nea, who was pressuring her on the ground.

With her eyes gone completely emotionless, her jaws can’t even drop down in shock, and her hands trembled alongside her heartbeats. Esmeralda began to break down, mentally.

Esmeralda felt as if something was brewing inside her, something dark and insidious. As her senses — vision, tactile, hearing, smell, taste and the almighty sixth sense all getting more and more sensitive as time gently ticks. The air was blowing her away, her body temperature was heating up her mind, every breath she took felt like she’s inhaling and exhaling the quintessence of humanity.

Rage (Weak): A passive skill, once active will increase the dragon’s overall stats except Luck 2 ranks (example: from F > D-Rank) while also decreasing Intelligence to the lowest rank possible. Ways to activate the skill is unknown, but it has something to do with family.

Transformation beginning…

A bright light covered Esmeralda’s body, everyone around raised their eyebrows in shock and surprisement.

Transformation (Dragon): When in Human form, the skill will display “Dragon” and vice versa, activate the ability to switch to the displayed form. Two hours cooldown since last use. 

Rage (Weak) has upgraded to Rage (Low Average)
Rage (Low Average) has upgraded to Rage (Average)
Rage (Average) has upgraded to Rage (Low Great)
Rage has activated successfully.

Rage (Low Great): A passive skill, once active will increase the dragon’s overall stats except Luck 3 ranks (example: from F > C-Rank) while also decreasing Intelligence to the second-lowest rank possible. Ways to activate the skill is unknown, but it has something to do with family.

A 3 meters tall dragon stood there, with greenish scales appeared on her body, which was never seen before, since Esmeralda hadn't grown enough for scales or flyable wings yet.

Name: Esmeralda
Race: Emerald Dragon
Sex: Female
Title: [Empty]

Skills:
+Rage (Low Great)
+Fly
+Dragon’s Agony (Very Weak)
+Hardened Scales

Rage (Low Great): A passive skill, once active will increase the dragon’s overall stats except Luck 2 ranks (example: from F > D-Rank) while also decreasing Intelligence to the lowest rank possible. Ways to activate the skill is unknown, but it has something to do with family.

Fly: A treat for all winged creatures, only available when the creature’s wings have grown enough. Use this ability to support the wings to fly higher and faster while also easier to maneuver and control, relying heavily on Stamina.

Dragon’s Agony (Very Weak): “There is only one way to know.” Nameless Warrior.

Hardened Scales: Only available on creatures with at least one naturally grown scale. Use this ability to harden the creature’s scales, relying on the creature’s Defense.

“ROARR” Esmeralda, now a tall young dragon, let out a huge battle cry, signifying her losing control.

Unconsciously, she activated Hardened Scales, which was not available before she was enraged. She didn’t notice that both it and Fly are now available.

“Do any of you have a free hand?” Not being bulky, Lloyd kept an eye on Esmeralda while asking his team.

“Uh, mind taking a guess? Quit struggling, don't make this hard!” Alize answered, trying to keep Rina from moving and do dumb things while Lloyd’s taking care of the beast.

"Don't expect us to comply…" Mei whispered.

"When you just broke our unwritten rule, that is..." Pearl took a moment, then aggressively bashed his back head against Barack's forehead — freeing himself from Barack’s.

"Don't touch my daughter!" Marc vaguely opened his eyes, grabbed the sword stuck on his leg to swing it towards Lloyd; caught the guy off guard, but Lloyd didn’t take too long to react and dodged the slash by a simple backstep outside of Marc’s reach.

“Sorry to disappoint you then.” With a quick dash towards Esmeralda and a leap upwards towards her giant body.

Lloyd was already reaching Esmeralda’s neck, underneath her chin — where there’s an ingrown scale, also known as the dragon’s shame. He knew this and was aiming at that vulnerable spot.

“REIK!” Esmeralda wildly swung her claw towards the floating Lloyd, yet in midair the man seems to be able to control his movements pretty well — by simply ducking down a bit; he dodged Esmeralda’s strike, now there is no stopping him from finishing this, he’s not mere decimeters away. That is when a flying fire light rushed towards him. 

"Elemental Spell: Breeze Torch!" Pearl's voice could be heard from inside the fire.

After escaping Barack's control, he immediately used a mana-consuming spell called Breeze Torch to help Esmeralda.

The spell itself is a combination between Air and Fire magic: the two elements he isn't the best at.  By covering the user's body with very weak fire, then use the air to lighten your weight and control the fire as fuel to help with that process: you can fly and your body won't burn, just your feet.

Lloyd's jump can't compare to Pearl's air and fire combined magic. So he had to deal with Pearl first before stabbing Esmeralda, but Lloyd couldn't fly so he had to think of a better idea.

Reaching Lloyd, Pearl distinguished all fire on his body, only on his right fist remained. Serving a boiling punch directly at Lloyd's jaw. 

To his surprise, Lloyd did a skillful backflip mid air, Pearl didn't get time to react when Lloyd stooped on his back and used it like a pedal to get another jump upwards.

"That's humanly impossible!" Pearl expressed his anger as he's falling down.

"Indeed!"

In one quick strong thrust, Lloyd's claymore hit Esmeralda's neck, right where the ingrown scale would be, after that, Esmeralda yelled in anger and slapped Lloyd down with his sword.

Thud

"Tch." Lloyd landed safely on the ground. Proceeded with an annoyed glare at Esmeralda. Kick in after that was realization.

On the other side, Marc got up and caught Pearl from the fall. Barack who was onto Pearl, saw and took this opportunity to defeat both of them at once.

"Magic Spell: Surrounding Crush."

From Barack’s palms, two steel rods flew out and more rods grew from underneath those two rods, creating a nest of sorts. Barack then swung his hands towards the direction of Marc and Pearl, intentions were to slam them from two sides.

Pearl quickly jumped over the incoming steel rods, since it’s only height-tall. But he seems to have forgotten about Marc, who is usually more athletic and can definitely jump over the rods, except right now he got a wound on his leg. Both of Marc's hands are now used to fight against Barack's spell.

“Novendex! Is this one an emerald dragon?” Lloyd asked from the other side.

"Correct, sir!" Barack answered. He thought Lloyd would've guessed based on Esmeralda's skin/scale color.

"Should've told me earlier" Lloyd mumbled.

Emerald dragons are unique, they don't have the ingrown scale underneath their chin. They don’t have any weakness on their skins. don't have a visible weakness, especially during Rage.

On the other side…

"You're not going to hurt me like they did, are you?" Alize giggled. In her current position on top of Rina; Rina couldn't break free easily. Her choice was Wind Dance but her wrists were being held and she's being exhausted.

"What are you…" Mei is completely powerless, she layed on her stomach while Nea controlled her on her back.

Very strangely though, Mei didn’t feel any pressure on her back, as if Nea wasn’t physical and she didn’t weigh anything. But the more Mei struggled against her, the more powerless she felt.

“Nea Vitones, D-Rank Combat Analyst.” Nea answered, not even batting an eye on Mei, her attention fully focused on Esmeralda and Lloyd. “Stop struggling, or do if you will, the search for faith and hope is not over, turn to burn.”

“I used to have a classmate who was an asshole and a complete weirdo, maybe they will fit right in with you SSS people.” Mei let out her frustration by mocking Nea.

Though fragile, a piece of history has been formed.

"Roar!"

Esmeralda versus Lloyd is an imbalance match, with Lloyd dodging every mindless claw swing that Esmeralda threw out. While that, he had no problem keeping an eye on Pearl and sent threats every time he tried to intervene.

'Emerald dragon isn't a fighter race, with Rage activated and draining its energy seconds by seconds. After a minute it will faint.' Lloyd thought.

Just as Lloyd suggested, Esmeralda's attacks were getting slower and with less force, to the point where Lloyd can just block her swings with his sword. But he's on the fence about whether he should actually cut her or not, leaning towards no.

"Captain! We don't have an escape route!" Mei yelled out for Marc, who’s already escaped the rods and is now dueling Barack.

He knew, he knew very well that this is a one-way ticket, either they defeat these five highly-trained combat officers right now and run away, or they’ll be god-knows-what, but even if they run, where could they go? The SSS already knew the town where they live.

“Marc!” Rina called out for him this time, she raised her so she could see him upside-down while Alize was still on her.

Feeling something sincerely important in her voice, Marc stopped his fight to look over towards her direction.

The two eyes met like destiny clashed, something’s telling them, they know exactly what the other person’s thinking.

“No! Rina, A no is a no. I’m not repeating that!” Marc suddenly got defensive and tried to ignore her.

At this point, Esmeralda was on the verge of fainting, this will be a total defeat for her. Even with Rage, she knew she couldn’t and didn’t help anyone.

There's only one thing left the mindless and defeated emerald dragon wanted to do.

"Roar!" 

She let out an incredibly loud battle cry, enough to shake the ground and filled the air with anger.

From deep within the core of her physical and spiritual existence. The mind and soul quintessence from this parallel dimension harmonized perfectly inside one's body, creating a powerful energy source used to harness the unthinkable power known as magic. The thing was called mana.

Dragon’s Agony (Very Weak): “There is only one way to know.” Nameless Warrior.

After the loud roar, mana from Esmeralda's body began escalating towards her mouth, little by little forming into a big bright energy ball.

Mana as strings can be seen forming and dangling around  the ball, as if it's excited for a bloodfest.

"That's Dragon's Agony!" Said Nea.

"Captain Avery!" Barack rushed towards Lloyd with his mana ready to create a Quartet Guardian shield.

But it seemed to be too late. Lloyd enchanted his claymore and braced himself in a guard stance.

The mana ball from Esmeralda's mouth turned into a ray, a destructing beam that traveled at blink speed. Decinerating and removing everything on its path from existence, a ray that was known to cause total destruction. Dragon's Agony, and it's aiming towards Lloyd.

Voot

From the mist of the night, a beacon of hope, a light of trust and a glimpse of will revealed herself.

Lloyd's completely dumbfounded when a bright figure flew in front of him. A feminine body, long floaty blonde hair, pointy ears and a pair of white wings, hiding underneath was her bright green armor.

"Elves's Vision…" sweating and turning red on her face, Rina Wenswood whispered. "Daylight Protector!"

Using her wings as a shield to withstand the Dragon's Agony, she stood right in front of Lloyd Avery, ensuring he didn't get hurt.

"Wha… When did..? How?" Alize wide opened her mouth and eyes in shock, just a second ago Rina was under her control, now she's over there. All she saw was a bright figure in the night flying at light speed towards that direction.

"RINA!"

Everyone got surprised and flinched when they heard a loud male voice yelling towards Rina's direction.

"I told you not to! You're going to die!" Marc said, trying to stand up.

"Sorry Captain." Smiled Rina. "But I'm sure no one in the Freedom Group want you to live with the fact that our dumb leader's daughter killed someone."

Everyone heard that. Mei and Pearl didn't form any opinion, they agreed about what Rina said, but not what she did.

Lloyd looked over to Nea, his pupil and simply nodded.

The Dragon's Agony stopped, the 3 meters tall dragon disappeared, on the ground that direction was a small arm-sized baby dragon.

Name: Esmeralda
Race: Emerald Dragon
Sex: Female
Title: [Empty]

Skills:
+Rage (Low Great)
+Fly (Unavailable)
+Dragon’s Agony (Weak)
+Hardened Scales (Unavailable)

With smoke coming out from her wings, Rina immediately flew over to Esmeralda, picked her up and let her rest on Rina's shoulder.

She then flew towards Nea, who was onto Mei. Without any words, Rina did a speed kick towards Nea, who backed off to dodge it and gave Mei up without any resistance. Rina picked her up on her left arm, picked Pearl up on her right arm and the two mages picked Marc up.

Carrying three adults and a child at once, Rina's speed decreased significantly as her mana drained every second passed. She flew towards the town's direction, where the team's house was.

"Rina! We can walk, I order you to turn off the Daylight Protector now!" Protested Marc.

"Sorry, can't hear you all the way down there."

While they were still in view, Barack ordered Alize to take a shot towards the flying Rina. In which Lloyd and Nea stopped them.

"What is this, Captain Avery? You had the chances to take down the elf, Nea had chances to keep the elf busy, and now we're not able to end this? What about this whole building?" Barack frowned.

"I'll pay for the building, and you all will have to answer some questions."

…

The team stopped at a  dark cave on a mountain, they couldn't risk going back to town to find the SSS waiting there.

"thud"

"Rina? Hey!"

Right after Rina's detransformation. She fell face flat on the ground, unconscious, with sweats pouring down little by little and internal temperature rising sky high.

"Kiek?"

"She's sick, we have to do something." Pearl channeled some water on his hand to rub it on Rina's forehead, as well as cleaning visible wounds.

"Don't you dare die on me, Rina Wenswood!" Marc panicked and began to rush and did everything he could to help, feed her some water, finding her a soft place to lie down, etc.

"Krik…" Esmeralda pulled Marc's armor, trying to calm him down.

"I'm not letting someone die because of me! I could've done a lot more, I should've stop the Dragon's Agony before it started, I could've fight back more…"

"Slap"

A straight hit of reality flew towards Marc, in which he fully felt it.

"Calm down for a second." Mei said, combing Rina's hair "Let her rest."

Marc took a moment to breathe, he then stood up and took off his armor and boots, and threw it all aside with his sword. Inside he's wearing a leather top and trousers, sweating ridiculously. Esmeralda followed as he went outside for some fresh air.

Mei took off her hat and Pearl folded his glasses, both making their magic staff hidden. 

That was a really long night for them.

They're fugitives now, running away from the Adventure Guild and the State Security of Sulkos (SSS), and they won't question nor blame anyone for it.

They trusted each other, to the death and to the end of their adventure, with no doubts or betrayal in mind.