Saika stared down on the heavily bleeding Hina.

Around 15 minutes ago, the two of them started their battle.

The magic Hina used caught him completely off guard. He was left at the mercy of her throwing knives for a long time.

Hina was merciless. She aimed only at Saika’s vital points. It was clear that she was trying to kill him from the start.

Saika retaliated with beast-like reflexes.

He would always move into the safe zones when dozens of knives flew towards him.

He would even move so agile that his movements could easily confuse the opponent, and make them subconsciously leave an opening in their defenses. That was supposed to happen, but Hina was different.

Her golden eyes easily kept track of Saika's movements, and she was even able to predict some of his moves beforehand.

Hina was also very agile herself. She move around the trees like it was her natural habitat.

There were a lot of times when Saika lost sight of her, and suffered knife attacks because of that.

But Saika had unnaturally sharp reflexes. He grabbed a few of the knifes and threw them back where they came.

This caused the knives he threw, and the ones Hina threw, to collided.

When he thought that he was getting tired of Hina's hit and run tactic, Hina shot towards him from behind the trees.

He thought that she must've been an idiot to challenge him in a fist fight, but he was wrong.

The moment Hina was before him, there were dozens of paper floating above him.

He didn't know why but his senses told him that the papers were dangerous. He quickly tried to move away from them, but the moment he tried to dodge them the unexpected happened.

His clothes and skin were sliced like he ran into a forest of razors.

Saika stepped back and noticed what cut him up so badly.

The entire forest was covered with extremely sharp garrote wires.

He looked around and realized that at some point Hina covered the entire forest with these wires.

She must've done it when she was moving up around the through the trees like a squirrel.

Considering what he was, Saika could easily escape these wires if he got serious; but his pride didn't let him get serious against a girl who isn't even half his age.

So he had no choice but accept Hina's brilliant attack.

Hina threw three knives in Saika’s chest and leaped back.

Saika watched as dozens of iron orbs fell out of the papers and exploded.

What came from the irons orbs wasn't fire, but thousands of tiny needles flying at an incredible speed.

In an instant, everything in a 30m radius was filled with holes caused by the needles.

This included Saika who laid on the ground bleeding.

Hina cautiously approached him.

The moment she was a few feet from him, she pulled several knives and threw them aiming for his neck.

However, knives weren't able to reach his neck.

Saika’s hand swat them away like flies.

No, what swat them away was his claw.

Hina watched as Saika's body doubled in size, and became covered with golden fur. His hand turned into paws. His legs changed shape and turned into hind legs. His entire facial structure change and became hairy.

Not matter how you look at it, these weren't the features of a human.

“A Beastman?!”

“A Lion Based Beastman to be exact.”

Saika sprung to his feet and stared at Hina.

“From your expression, I can see that this is your first time seeing a Beastman.”

Of course it was her first time.

Beastmen were uncommon in this part of the Silver Continent. It's not that Beastmen were rare on the Silver Continent itself, but the southern tip of the continent solely belonged to humans. So other races like Beastmen stayed clear of it.

But here was a Beastman, right in front of her eyes.

It was at that moment that Hina realized the gravity of her situation.

Beastmen were the dominant race when it came to physical strength; they also possessed naturally hard bodies, and high healing abilities.

Considering all this Hina, who lacked physical strength and destructive magic power, was the worst match against Saika.

“Originally, I didn't plan on get serious when fighting you, but that last attack was more dangerous than I expected. If I didn't transform, I would've probably died.”

When Beastman transform all of his previous injuries quickly heal. Because of this, all of the needles fell out of his body without leaving a mark.

Saika slowly approached Hina. She leaped back to distance herself from him.

“I'm tired of playing cat and mouse.”

However, before her feet even touch the ground, Saika was already in front of her.

He swung his claw in order to tear Hina apart. However, white wings appeared on her back, and she escaped in the air.

Saika’s claw then broke a tree in two.

He looked at Hina who was in the sky, and put some power in his legs and jumped.

His body was caught by the wires Hina set up earlier, but in his beast form these wires weren't a threat to him. They popped like strings, and weren't even able to restraint him for a second.

This was the superior physical abilities of a Beastman. An ordinary human couldn’t hope to compete.

Saika caught up to Hina and swat her back down to the earth.

Her body broke down several trees and her wings disappeared.

When she came to a stop, there was a large claw wound on her chest.

She was bleeding heavily and leaned on a broken tree stump.

Which brings us back to present time.

Saika used one hand to lift Hina up in the air. His grip was tight around her neck.

“But I gotta say. You used some really odd magic. I've never seen anything like it in all my years alive.”

Hina gripped his hand and tried to free herself of his grasp. But it was pointless, she was too weak.

“You can summon weapons from paper, possesses Beastman level kinetic vision, and spurt wings even though you're a human.”

Hina started kicking Saika with all her might. But it didn't seem to faze him.

“These talents would be beneficial to Luka. However, I don't see you as the type that would easily betray a friend.”

He swung his arm down and slammed her down on the ground.

“Guah?!”

The impact made all of Hina's bones rattled, and forced her to cough up even more blood.

“Then I’ll have to kill you right here.”

Saika lifted her up and slammed her on a tree.

*Crack!*

Hina's heard her bones cracking, along with the sound of the tree breaking.

Saika tossed her in the air, and waited for the moment she was directly in front of him.

*Bam!*

He punched Hina in the stomach with so much strength that most of her organs burst, and caused massive internal bleeding.

Her body cut through the air like a bullet, and didn't stop until she broke through numerous tree and slammed into boulder.

She had flown several hundred meters from where she was.

Her bones were shattered. Her organs were destroyed. She no longer felt pain, just pure numbness.

She immediately knew that she was dying, this caused her mind to go blank.

It wasn't long before she could the figure of Saika approaching her, through her bloodied vision.

“It's a shame that such a rare talent is going to die so young. A real shame.”

Even though he said that, there was no sadness in his voice or on his face.

Black Claw Saika. A Rank A criminal wanted for murdering over 30 Royal Guards, most of which were killed in one night.

A year ago when Darius was killed by Hina, Saika who was a hired gun for him, disappeared and was never seen again. That's until today.

He was known all through the kingdom as a coldhearted killer with no regard for human life of any kind. That coldheartedness towards humans stemmed from the fact that he wasn't human himself.

So naturally he felt nothing from killing Hina.

“I should hurry and put you out of your misery, so that I can go join Luka and kill that brat.”

Saika spoke such words casually. However for Hina, those words were something she couldn't allow to be a reality.

But her body was broken and she was at death’s door. There was nothing she could do.

‘I'm going to die. I'm going to die here alone without being of any use to Mikky and the others….’

Despair begun to take root in her heart.

‘I…I don’t wanna die. Too many lives were sacrifice for me stay alive. If I die here, their lives would be wasted.’

Even though she told herself that, there was nothing she could do to prevent her death. And knowing that made her sink deeper in despair.

Hina suddenly started to review her life.

It was a short 12 years with half of it filled with happiness, while the other half was filled with pain and solitude.

Hina didn't know when, but somewhere along the line her personality changed.

She changed from the pure innocent little girl, to a corrupted and lonely girl who was desperate for acceptance. Because of that, Hina wore a mask all the time, and acted in a way that everyone would accept her.

She was always cheerful, outgoing, and a bit mischievous; the complete opposite of her true self that easily gets lonely, and is always wondering when she'll be casted aside. This was a side of her that she truly hated.

But now facing the deaths of she and her love ones, Hina came to realization.

She didn't mind dying if everyone else died along with her.

This thought made her sick to her stomach.

She was surprised that she was this much of a monster. That she was so heartless that she would wished for her friend’s death; even for a second.

However, Hina quickly accepted that was the type of person she was. A demon in human skin.

She had the powers of a god, and the heart of demon; but the body of a human.

Hina then realized that her body didn't fit what she was. It was then she had a thought.

A monster should have a monster’s body.

As Saika approached Hina to finish her off, he saw her lift her head and stared at him with a blank expression.

Her golden eyes started glowing a red hue, and tears of blood leaked from her eyes.

Saika paused and heard Hina spoke softly like she was in a trance.

“….This body is too small.”

At that moment white wings reappeared on Hina's back. However, these wings were twice as large as before.

The wings flopped once and Hina shot up into the sky. She immediately reach a distance that was outside of Saika's jumping range. But he was still able to see her clearly.

While floating in the air, Hina's body started undergoing sudden changes.

*Crack*

Cracking sounds came from her body as her disfigured limbs repaired themselves, her wounds healed.

Her skin then rapidly darken, and her hair returned back to its natural white color; she even grew fangs.

Seeing this Saika-

“....Well, this is surprising. If I didn't know any better, I would think you're an dark elf.”

He remained calmed after seeing Hina's transformation. He figured that it had something to do with her ability to grow wings, so decided not to think about it.

After all, it's not like she jumped [Classes]. So he's still stronger.

“…This body is more fitting of someone like me.”

Hina spoke softly. She turned her attention to Saika and landed in front of him.

“I don't know what happened to me. But with this I should be able to act out my role.”

She flew down and took a fighting stance.

“If I'm a monster, then I'll act like one and brutally slaughter you.”

Saika burst out laughing and then directed a savage glare at Hina.

“Let's see you try little girl.”

Saika slashed his claws down at Hina's face. Hina leisurely swung her hand to side and swat away his arm.

“Wha?!”

This shocked Saika, and that shocked created an opening for Hina to attack.

She thrust her hand forward with a blinding speed.

*Bam!*

“Guh?!”

Saika was pushed a few meters backwards by the hit. It even made blood leak from his mouth.

He quickly wiped the blood from his mouth and reexamined Hina's body.

‘What's with that strength? Could it be that she used her power to remake her body? If so, why didn't she do it earlier? Was it unintentional? If so then it must be something like a self defense mechanism that only activates in a life threatening situation. Either way, I can't afford to treat her like normal girl. I must treat like I'm fighting Luka again!’

Thinking that, Saika became serious and rushed towards Hina, she did the same thing.

Saika slashed at her with his claw. Hina ducked under it, and pulled a knife from a page and slashed at his neck.

Saika noticed the knife, and kick her to distance the two of them.

Hina stepped back and drew a spear from a page and threw it.

Saika swung his arm and swat it away.

He then charged at with an incredible speed.

He punched her in the stomach, Hina stepped back, flopped her wings and used the momentum from shooting upwards to kick him under the chin.

Saika stepped back and then jumped and grabbed one the wings and pulled back to the ground.

Hina lodged a knife in his shoulder and forced him to let go.

She then planned to retreat into the sky, but Saika used his tail and entangled her leg.

“No running away!”

Saika then began pounding Hina with his heavy fists.

*Bam!* *Bam!* *Bam!* *Bam!* *Bam!*

Hina body vigorously jerked with every punch.

“D-Don't underestimate me!”

Hina then started throwing back punches.

*Bam!* *Bam!* *Bam!* *Bam!* *Bam!*

The two started an exchange of deafening blows.

Saika released his tail grip around Hina’s ankle, and punched her in the stomach.

Even though she was freed, Hina didn't retreat back and punch Saika in the face.

Saika took a step back and slash Hina across the chest.

“Ugh!”

Hina uppercut him, and followed up with a punched to the jaw.

“B-Brat!”

Saika slammed his knee in Hina's stomach, and then slammed his hands into her back.

Hina slammed onto the ground, but quickly got to up and replied with a headbutt.

Saika stepped back again, and slammed his leg in Hina's side.

She was sent flying; Saika immediately chased after her, and slashed her with his claws.

“Bastard!”

Hina angrily manifested a club and slammed it in the side of Saika's head.

Blood gushed out and he was forced to stop.

Hina then manifested a spear and lodged it in his shoulder.

“Guah?!”

She lifted the spear with Saika still attached to it, and slammed him into a tree.

Saika grabbed the spear and broke it.

He then pulled the pointed end from his shoulder and glared at Hina.

He grabbed a broken tree and threw it at her.

Hina flopped her wings and flew over it. She then manifested a large axe and flew towards Saika.

She swung the axe at him, and Saika used a broken tree to block it.

The tree was cut in two, but the swinging motion created an opening in Hina's defenses.

Saika used the chance to hit her with the remainder of the tree.

“Guh?!”

Hina groaned and flopped her wings to stabilized herself in the air.

“I'm really fed up of you old man.”

“I feel the same about you.”

Saika threw away the tree, planted his feet firmly on the ground, and took a fighting stance.

With a grunt, all of them muscles in his body grew bigger and was filled with power.

“I'm going to put all of my strength in this final exchange.”

The ground under his feet cracked as if it was feeling an immense pressure.

Seeing how serious Saika was, Hina landed back on the ground.

“I wanted to test the full extent of this body anyway.”

She took a fight stance as well, and drew out as all of the strength in her body. This caused the ground crack.

A tense atmosphere formed between two. They stay motionless for a while and glared at each other. And then-

“Die!”

They moved at the same time.

The ground broke with every step they took, even the air trembled.

Saika thrusted his left fist forward, and Hina thrust her right.

*BOOOM!*

The moment the two fists collided, a blindly light swept across the entire forest, accompanied by a deafening explosive sound.

When the light disappeared, there was a huge crater that stretch for around 50m, in the middle of the forest.

There were no trees left standing. They all either burst or was blown away by the shockwave.

“…….”

“…….”

In the center of the crater Hina and Saika had their backs turned to each other, with their arms still extended out in front of them.

They stood in silence for a while, until Hina brought her hands to her side and spoke.

“Yup. This body is really strong.”

“….Yeah. Super strong.”

Saika spoke while looking at what was left of his left arm.

Every thing from the elbow down was gone. Only a bloody stump of an arm remained.

“….Really strong.”

His eyepatch faltered in the wind as he fell backwards. When he fell, the full extent of the damage he received was in full display.

The entire left side of his body was a bloody mess. It was a miracle that his body was still in one piece, except for his arm.

With this, anyone could see that the fight ended in Hina's favor.

Hina looked down on this kind of Saika with a cold expression.

Not too far away from there.

There was fight that could only be described as dreaded, going on.

There was a lot withered trees and animal carcasses everywhere. The ground also looked dried up and all plant life was dead. There was only two form of life in 2 mile radius.

Sasha stood in a pool of blood glaring at Remi, who was floating in the air.

He had a pair of giant bat wings on his back, and a sword made of blood in his hands.

He was covered with bruises, and looked exhausted.

Sasha on the other hand was claded in a black and purple aura, that gave off the feeling of death.

She was also covered in cuts and bruises, but they weren't anything serious.

“You're pretty tough, vampire. I've been fighting all out for a while and you're actually still alive.”

Said Sasha.

“…Monster.”

“How rude! You're the vampire here!”

Remi glared at Sasha after hearing her words. His face wasn't as blank as it was before.

“I'm surprised that you can still say that after what you did to this area.”

At the beginning of the fight, this place didn't look nothing like the wasteland of death it was now.

It was filled with greenery and wildlife. But all of that changed the moment Sasha started fighting Remi.

When they arrived, Remi revealed his vampire wings, which was proof that he wasn't human but a Beastman, to Sasha.

Sasha showed no reaction to this reveal. That's because she knew what he was from the start.

Unlike miko and the rest, Sasha had met races other than humans. In fact, she's practically met almost all of the races in the world.

She met some when out of country with her mother, and others when they came to visit the Dragna Clan’s home.

Because of these encounters, she was able to differentiate between races from their aura.

Of course she knew that Saika was a Lionman, and Ana was Elf.

She also knew about Luka.

But out of all these races, Sasha considered vampires the most dangerous. There was a reason why they're one of the five dominant Beast races, after all.

So she didn't held nothing back from the start and attack Remi with everything she had.

And the result was this wasteland of death.

“I never expected one of the famous Maidens of Death to be here.”

Remi spoke with tone filled with fear and disgust.

“Why are you allowed outside Niflheim? Isn't it against the rules for one of you to roam alone for so long?”

“I'm a daughter of the Dragna Clan, not the Mors Clan. So those rules have nothing to do with me. Besides, my father and brother are notorious [Tyrants]. Who is stupid enough to try and take me from them?.....Well, if my mother wanted to she could beat them to submission and take me away.”

Sasha said, nonchalantly.

Remi remained silent.

He remembered when that terrifying power first showed itself.

He who wanted to hurry up and return to Luka, decided to end the fight quickly and used one of his powers as vampire; [Blood Magic].

He created a sword out of his own blood and vitality. This sword was able to through even thickest metals like butter.

He rushed towards Sasha and slashed the sword. She clumsily dodged it. Remi’s [Blood Sword] was apart of him; which meant he could bend it to his will.

The sword chased Sasha and slashed her several times. Sasha clumsily retreated, but Remi blocked her escape with a wall made of blood.

Cornered between [Blood Wall] and [Blood Sword], Sasha was forced to activate [Dragon Rage] and coated herself in purple and black aura.

She used the aura to create hands, that stopped the [Blood Sword] and destroyed [Blood Wall].

Seeing how clumsy Sasha fought, Remi immediately knew that she didn't have any martial training.

He saw this as an opportunity and decided to hit Sasha with an attack she couldn’t hope to defend against.

He summon a sea of blood and covered the entire area with it. Sasha who didn't know what was going on, got flustered and released [Dragon Rage] at its maximum capacity, and blew away the blood directly surrounding her.

However, that didn't stop what Remi was doing.

The sea of blood to started swirl around Sasha like a whirlpool. It then began floating in the air while still swirling around Sasha.

The whirlpool turned into a blood tornado with Sasha at the center.

The circumference of the tornado then began decreasing little by little, enclosing Sasha.

Sasha knew about [Blood Magic]; so she knew that if she came in contact with the blood circling her, it will most likely drain her of her blood and life force.

She tried to use [Dragon Rage] to blow away the blood, but it didn't work. She then decided to fly out with wings made of aura, but the moment was going to do it, the opening at the top closed and spikes made of blood were coming from the sides.

It was like she was trapped in a blender.

Sasha was trapped in an attack named [Blood Trap]. Once caught inside, it wasn't easy to escape.

Remi was assured of his victory the moment he trapped her.

However, pushing Sasha into a corner instead of killing her immediately, was a fatal mistake.

While inside the blood tornado, Sasha didn't panic. In fact, she was unusually calm.

‘If I don't get out of here, I'm going to die.’

That thought alone ran through her mind.

But it was enough.

Her aura changed from a violent nature, to a still and cold feeling.

“[For I am the descendant of the world of mist, I command death to rampage upon the world].”

She spoke those words with a trance like tone.

Remi immediately saw the world around him be deprived of all color; and every living thing immediately froze.

And then it happened.

Death swept the land.

The blood tornado instantly turned in dust.

The greenery immediately withered and died.

The animals, whether on land or in the air, all released agonizing screeches bore falling stiff on the ground; never to move again.

Even the earth dried up and became infertile.

Remi who witnessed this scene was scared stiff, and this gave Sasha the chance to thrash him with [Dragon Rage].

Remi gritted his teeth, because he only knew one magic power that could do all of this.

“[Death Magic] is as disgusting as ever.”

He said.

“I agree, but this is something I inherit from my mother, so I can't get rid of it. That's why I refused to learn how fight. But as you can see it's no use. Whether I like it or not, I was born with an unusual amount of compatibility with it. If I'm pushed into a life and death situation, it takes over and turn me into a killing machine. Well, as long as my magic isn't seal that is."

Sasha sighed and continue.

“That's why I wanted to take you down as soon as possible; but in the end I lacked the training and experience, and had to rely on my blood trait.”

“….Only female members of the Mors Clan are able to use [Death Magic]; since Gamiko is male he's unable to use it, which made us unable to predict that you were a one of them….This is a severe miscalculation.”

Remi’s face was painted with regret and frustration.

“So what are you going to do, Nightwalker? Do you still want to fight?”

“No. I surrender.”

“Huh?”

Sasha didn't expect him to surrender so easily.

“It's not that surprising if you think about. Vampires uses magic that needs to use life as fuel; whether it's our own or your opponents’. Because of that, [Death Magic] that destroys all life, is our natural enemy. If we continued to fight, I would definitely die. I can't afford to die here, so surrendering is my only option.”

“Y-You got a point there. But what if I decided to kill you anyway.”

“Someone who hated [Death Magic] so much that they preferred to not receive any martial training at all, wouldn't do something like killing a child.”

“……”

Remi released all of his magic and landed in front of Sasha.

“It's your win.”

He said, while walking pass her.

“Where are you going?”

“To Luka. Don't you want to go to your son’s side as well?”

“….Well,Yeah.”

“Then we'll just go together. It's not like I can beat you and escape anyway.”

Remi said nothing more and continued walking away.

Watching his back, Sasha began to wonder who actually beat who?