I slowly climbed the stairs followed by Michel, we were both vigilant, at the very least I was, and he seemed to be out of it. I could not pinpoint why but I guess seeing fictional characters in real life or the corpses of people who were just alive a few hours ago or... Well, I guess there are lots of reasons for him to be out of it.

I climbed the stairs cautiously trying to make much noise when I heard a noise, "Kiee kiee kik chii" I went on my toes trying to find what was making this noise from the floor above when I spotted a group of gobline standing facing each other. 

I quickly squatted down to avoid being spotted startling Michel. 

"Get down!" I whispered as I dragged his arm down prompting him to squat too. 

"What happened?" he asked having learnt something was off, "goblins! " 

"What do we do?" I asked as I bit my lip.

"How many are there" he asked as lifted his head to get a peak only to fail.

"Around five," I said in a hushed tone, he gave me a 'You gotta be kidding me' face before following it up with, "You killed more than a bunch of goblins right before while, you laughed like a maniac and now you are scared 5 mere goblins?"

"What?" I asked followed by a "Hush it down they might hear you!" by Michel. 

We both went silent and looked up the staircase, a few minutes passed before we let out a sigh of relief, "Seems they didn't hear that" said Michel placing his palm on his chest.

"let us kill them before they take notice of us" prompting me to stare at him baffled "We should not kill it is a crime," I said, Michel licked his lips and let out a sigh of frustration. 

"You being serious?" he asked as he stared me down. "maybe" I said as I looked away. 

"You can if you want, I am going to climb up to the second floor when they are not looking", I said I took out my dagger. 

"What about being together cause you know, safety and survival?"

I paused at that sentence, he was right but I didn't want to spend any more time not looking for Bella.

"Okay let's jump em" I said, prompting Michel to nod. I took out the arrows, from my backpack and got into a stance. 

I slowly moved up a little, and aimed at the one of the goblins that had just come in sight. 

I prayed to God to let the arrows land where I was aiming and let go of the arrow.

The arrow pierced the ear of one of the goblins, it shrieked as it fell to the ground in pain. The other goblins were startled.

"Kiek kik kee!" They said as I aimed the second arrow at the one right next to the one screaming in pain. 

I arrow that I shot pierced the goblin in its abdomen. 

Now the four goblins that were left rushed with their daggers towards us through the bloody hallway.

Michel pounced on one of them piercing its neck then falling and rolling to a stop. 

I quickly took out my dagger as one of the goblins tried to jump on me, I was startled but I dodged leaving it to fall down the stairs. 

I stabbed one of the other goblins that came at me but missed it by a hair's width and cut off its pointy ear.  

It shrieked as blood splattered on the walls, Michel dealt with the other goblin when I stabbed this one in the gut. 

The goblin that had fallen down the stairs tried to make its way back up but I threw my dagger at it piercing its leg as it rolled down the stairs once again with a shriek. 

I fell to my knees in exhaustion, I could feel the adrenaline rushing through my veins, and my heart was racing, I looked at Michel lowkey surprised that he had just managed to kill a goblin, unlike his past self who shivered behind Ryan like a fool. 

"What changed in you all of a sudden? You managed to kill without shaking in fear like a fool"

"I just feel like this is a game, I don't feel like all this is happening in real life," he said as he looked out the window.

"I can guarantee you this is happening in reality," I said as I held his wrist to drag myself up.

I looked down at my body covered in blood and swallowed hard, this was really happening.

"Let's get going", I said as I patted him on the shoulder.

We both made our way to the next floor, and to our relief there were no goblins there. 

I rushed to Bella's class which was two classes after the staircase only to find the whole class in a mess. The benches were toppled over and one of the windows was covered in blood. 

I slowly walked to the window as I touched it, there was a storm raging inside me, I tried hard to control my tears, I hoped they were not Bella's.

I turned around and walked to the second bench from the window, there was a pink backpack under the bench I picked it up, it was Bella's.

I paused looking at it, when Michel quickly ran inside the class and closed the door shut trying to make as little noise as possible.

"What happened?" I asked when he ran to me and closed my mouth with his palm. 

"I heard some noise shh" he said, I scrunched my eyes, we both tiptoed to the door, and peeked through the glass which made up a part of the door. 

And through where we had just come in came a pretty big red giant of sorts holding another metal baseball bat with spikes. I gasped at the monster's appearance.

"What is that?" I asked Michel who shrugged.

My eyes went wide, "it could be an oni" he whispered back, "the what?"

We both peeked as it crossed the corridor, I gulped I was worried about Bella, I hoped she would be ok, or at least not dead. 

As the oni passed I saw it drag something on the floor, I took a closer to find Jiwoo being dragged. 

He was one of my few friends whom I was close with. 

"Jiwoo!" I gasped looking at him, Michel swiftly shut me up but the oni had come to a stop. 

It looked in our direction, and we were quick to hide. 

It had been a few minutes and I peeked from the glass again only to be met face to face with the oni looking at me from the other side of the door.