"My name is Lian Garen! and I'm here to destroy the ruler that brought you to this world!"

The girl inside of the black armor barely paid attention to a word that the man in a black robe said as she couldn't stop looking at Thomas on the ground after getting stabbed by his hand.

"Why...?" she mumbled while tightening the grip on her claymore.

"Mmm? I just told you... I'm here to get rid of you and I assumed that this one would get in the way, so I disposed of him..." the man replied.

"Why...?" she asked again.

"Young lady, are you not hearing what I'm saying?"

"Why? Why?"

"Ugh... Could it be that... This is the first time you see someone die in front of you?" he wondered.

"Why? Why? Why? Why?" she began to repeat at a faster pace.

"Good grief... That's why I hate dealing with children..." he commented while shaking his head.

"WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY?" her voice became louder and she raised her weapon before leaping out from the top of the dragon's body and dashed towards him "WHY DID YOU DO IT!!!!??"

She swung her blade with all the power of her arms in a wide horizontal arc and crashed it into the man.

The impact made the wind blow up the hood that was covering his face, revealing a young-looking man who seemed to be in his early twenties with a strong tone of red drenching his hair.

She assumed that attack was going to be enough to take him down, but the man managed to stop her blade by holding it with his palms.

"You seem upset... That's understandable..." he commented.

"I'M GOING TO F**KING MURDER YOU!!!!"

"Okay, really upset... Also understandable..."

She then leaned backwards and proceeded to swing her helmet at him in order to headbutt his skull with all the power she had.

"Kuaahhh!!" the man in robes shouted as he was pushed by the black helmet being shoved into his face.

The girl used this chance while he was distracted to swing her sword one more time, but the man reacted faster and jumped over her to avoid it.

He then proceeded to grab her by the head and shoved her into the ground, creating a small crater and raising a pile of smoke.

"What a particularly curious metal you are wearing... There isn't a single scratch on its surface!" he commented while holding his chin and analyzing her armor.

As he talked, the girl noticed a strange flame appearing on his forehead and erasing the wound she caused.

"What the..." she gasped.

"I think I changed my mind..." he commented, "What else can you do?"

"Wrraaghhhh!!!" she shouted while shoving her blade through his stomach and slashing it into pieces.

The man began to spit a lot of blood but in a matter of seconds, the same flame from before appeared and fixed his lower half.

"Well then... That was unpleasant..."

The girl gave a few steps back while staring to shiver, "Wha- What are you???"

"No, no, no! The real question is... What are YOU? I just shoved you into the ground with my full strength and yet it seems like you didn't even feel it! Does this armor nullify pain or something?"

"Tch!!" she grabbed her sword with both hands and started to deliver a series of swings at a great speed while dashing towards him.

His right arm, his left leg, his fingers, his shoulder, she would keep cutting and slashing every part of his body that she could reach, but any time she would, he would just regenerate as if nothing happened.

"How is this possible!?" she gasped.

The man finished putting himself literally back together and began to clear the dust on his clothes, "You know, I'm not showing but these do hurt a lot."

"Are you some kind of zombie!!?? Why won't you die??"

The man began to smirk and raised his hand that was still in pieces and showed her the same flame from before as it started to fix his fingers as well, "Healing flame! One of the most powerful talents for a dragon!"

"Healing...?"

"Unless you can finish me off in a single move, if you give me a single second awake, I can recover any kind of wound, no matter how bad it might be!"

The flames disappeared, and just like before, his body was back in one piece, good as new.

"How can such a power exist??"

The man closed his hand into a fist, "Those destined for greatness... Are always gifted with the best gifts!"

"Ugh!!!" the more she looked at his face, the more she hated him.

At first, she was hesitating since she struggled with the concept of taking someone's life, but it was clear now that this man wasn't someone...

He was a monster.

The girl tried to rush at him one more time and craved her blade into his chest, lifted his entire body, slammed him into the ground, and began to run while dragging him with her as if she was a hockey player.

She knew he would just regenerate from that again, be she didn't care. He killed Thomas, and she could never forgive him for that.

But the man seemed to have gotten tired of being carried and began to grab onto her sword while shoving his hand into the soil, killing her momentum.

"My turn!" he stated, before lifting her up the same way she did and sending her flying.

The girl landed safely but before she could attack again, she noticed the man acting strange as his form began to tremble.

"What's this now?"

Suddenly, he began to grow four times his size, bat-like wings appeared on his back, massive black horns sprung from his head, scales started to cover his entire body, his neck began to stretch like that of a snake, and an even longer tail appeared behind him.

"A dragon..."

The creature looked like a giant red bat covered in black spikes with the head of a serpent, and simply looking at him was enough to make the girl feel like she should be fearing for her life. For some reason, this creature scared her even more than the dragon from before.

"I- I- I'm not afraid of you!! I defeated the dragon from before! And I'll defeat you as well!!"

The red behemoth approached her with its claw raised and proceeded to drop it on top of her like a meteor without giving her a single second to react.

"Too fas- Aaarrrggghh!!!"

She was buried deep into the earth from the impact and for the first time, she felt a wave of pain crawling over her body.

The dragon caved her out and began to study her state once again, only to drop her on the grass like a sack of trash.

"Uuuugh..." she mumbled.

The image of the great beast dissipated, and the red-haired man from before revealed himself once again.

"Unfortunately for you, your attacks are way too crude and predictable for you to kill me. You seem like you're just swinging this thing like a madwoman without any idea on how to really use it" he explained while grabbing onto her claymore that was almost his own size without any struggle.

"I... Am going... To kill you!!!" she stated while trying to stand up.

"Interesting... Did my last attack manage to hurt you? But your armor is still intact... Could it be..."

He then changed his hand into a dragon claw and began to slide his talons over the surface of the blade, making a terrible sound.

"GAAAAAAHHHH!!! STOOOP!!! STOOOP!!!!" she screamed as if the talons were being carved into her brain and soul.

"Ah!" he muttered with a soft smile while pulling his hand away, "So I was right! This weapon is your ruler! It seems I can't harm you... But I can harm it! And it can harm you!"

He then pressed his talons one more time.

"GAAAAAHHHH!!!" she screamed before falling on the ground and twitching.

"Ah... I could do this all day..."

The girl grabbed into the grass while trying to get rid of the memory of the pain. The sensation of agony was so strong that she wondered if she would ever e able to forget it.

"I could destroy you right now... But it would be such a waste..." he commented.

"W- What...?"

"An armor that can protect you from any damage, negates any pain, and it even has enough strength to harm a dragon's body? I would be crazy to just let you go like this!"

"You... You think I'll work with you? After what you did?"

"Oh, please... I don't need you..." he commented while raising the claymore, "I just need the armor!"

The dragon in human form then lowered the tip of the blade and shoved it into the spaces between her armor, stabbing her torso.

"I'll make great use of this metal, don't you wo- Huh??"

The man suddenly found himself lost as he saw no traces of blood being spilled over the grass.

"What is the meaning of this?"

He then grabbed onto her helmet and opened her visor to see that there was nothing inside of it.

"Empty??" he whispered, "But then... Who's moving the armor??"

The girl then grabbed onto his head while he was distracted, "I AM the armor, asshole!" and pulled it off from above his neck as if his body was made of paper.

She then kicked the decapitated body away and removed the sword from her belly.

"Don't you know that it's rude to touch a girl's face without her consent?" she stated while holding him by the hair.

After saying that, she dropped the head onto the ground, raised her foot, and stomped his skull into pieces like a watermelon.

"You piece of garbage... Why? Why did you have to kill Thomas!! Why? Why? Why?"

But even though she had managed to kill him, the image of Thomas being pierced was still burned into her mind, causing her to want to stomp the remains a few more times.

She had died, she saw her friend getting killed, and now she even took someone's life. The girl could sense she was close to reaching her breaking point.

Once she was done venting her feelings, all she wanted to do was shrink into a corner and cry for the rest of the day. But thanks to her new body, she couldn't even shed tears for someone she lost anymore.

"Why is this happening to me... Why me!!??" she shouted while dropping on her knees and staring into the sky.

But her moment of mourning was suddenly interrupted by the sudden noise of something crawling under the grass.

"NO..." she gasped.

She instantly stood up and analyzed what was the cause of it.

"No, no, no, no!!!"

It was the bits and pieces of the redhaired man, moving through the leaves and joining together as a small flame began to surround his remains and forming a new body out of it.

The girl didn't know what to do. She couldn't kill him, she couldn't hurt him, and she couldn't outpower him. On the other hand, should he managed to take her claymore again, her life would be over.

With no other choice, she simply began to run as far as she could before his regeneration was complete while feeling the shadow of the man in black robe becoming a nightmare that would haunt her for as long as she lived.

"Someone!! Please!! Save me!! Please!! Someone!!"