A large group of us dashed along the rugged path on the outskirts of Aero city. Around 15-20 guards.

This is serious. Thought Shay. Looking around at everyone’s faces they all had a worried look to them, all apart from Zane and Diablo. They seemed rather confident. I mean considering that there was a demon sighting I would have expected at least Zane to sweat a little, i guess he really is just extremely confident in his abilities.

"You nervous again?" Zane asked Shay.

"No, I'm actually feeling pretty confident right now." Replied Shay.

"Oh yeah?" Said Zane sarcastically. So, he is confident in his fighting capabilities, huh? Zane thought to himself.

"Do you think that demon will still be there?" Asked a nervous voice from behind us.

"Hm?" Replied the two. "There is a good chance it is." Uttered Zane. "The sighting for the demon came in not too long ago. So, there is a good chance it wandered into the Village and is still there now, demons take their time eating."

"Please don't say things like that. Man, I'm scared, today is my first day being a guard and I am not ready for a demon." Said the unknown guard.

"It’s alright, I'm sure Diablo can take care of it easily. He is the strongest in the entire city you know." Said Shay confidently.

"You think so?" Asked the unknown guard.

"I know so. I've heard countless stories about him from my brother." Replied Shay. "That's Zane and I'm Shay, it’s a pleasure to meet you, you have nothing to worry about, this will be a piece of cake."

"Ah, nice to meet you. I'm Paul." He replied. Paul seemed to be in his mid-twenties, He was wearing the usual guard’s uniform like everyone else, he had a fancy watch on his left wrist, he must come from a good background to be walking around, especially into battle, with that.

“Stick with us Paul, you’ll be good.” Said Shay trying to be welcoming to him.

"It’s just over this hill! Be ready!" Yelled Diablo.

Paul tightened up and fixated his vision forward looking towards the peak of the hill. Zane looked forward too but wasn’t tense at all, in comparison to Paul.

As we reached the top the sky began to cry, the atmosphere became a dark and gloomy wasteland. We all ran forward to the top with anticipation of what we would see. The world around us darkened, despite it being daytime the jet-black clouds really set the tone of what was to come.

We quickly immersed upon the peak of the hill. We all starred across the muddy fields and drew our attention to the remains of a what used to be bustling village, to my shock and horror it was completely ablaze, the roaring red of the flames were overwhelming, burnt bodies scattered the muddy grounds of the village like the common flower. The buildings were toasted and falling apart as if they were decaying. The smoke from the attack ferociously danced in the sky like lions fighting one another. The wind blew dust and debris along the floor giving off a fog like effect. It was a horror filled sight.

"Tch, we were too late." Muttered Diablo. "Alright, we will split up into 3 groups. Each group will scout a different part of the village, group 1 cover this front entrance, group 2 cover the middle area and group 3 cover the back entrance."

I couldn’t help but commend him for getting straight to the point in a scenario like this, he seems to be extremely level-headed.

Diablo split us into groups, me, Zane and Paul were together in group 3 checking the back entrance. Diablo stayed at the front entrance in group 1.

Being this far away from him was a little worrying but I’m sure if that demon were still here, he would of shown himself by now. Thought Shay.

As we walked towards the back entrance, Paul asked why we joined the guard’s guild.

“Huh, well I joined to get stronger and protect my friends, there is also a specific someone I’m searching for though and I felt in a dream that if I joined the guards, I would find him. What about you Paul, what did you join for?”

Paul made a slight disappointing face and looked down. “Well, right now me and my wife just got married and had our second child. So, we are a bit short of money.” He laughed off. “I also want to be able to protect what I love, my kids and my wife, the neighbourhood and my friends. I find you wanting to protect the ones you care for respectable Shay.”

“Thanks Paul, congratulations on your marriage and second child.” Replied Shay.

Paul smiled back. “What about you Zane, what did you join the guard’s guild for? Asked Paul.

“Me? Hmmmm…” Uttered Zane. “Well I suppose I joined for many reasons.” He chuckled.

Talked about mysterious. Shay thought to himself.

“Hey, here we are. We are at the back entrance.” Exclaimed Zane, changing the subject smoothly.

There was way more damage done over this side, large potholes covered the ground, the buildings were as black as the rain clouds, covered top to bottom with soot. It seems the heavy rain has put out the fire in this area. We continued forward and looked around the outsides of the houses.

“Hey, did you see that.” Said Paul with a sense of urgency in his voice. “Something moved, at the entrance to that house.”

“Really?” I exclaimed.

“A Survivor?” Asked Zane.

The three of us ran over, we peered in through the dilapidated window frame on the left side of the house. We could see a woman, no older than 23. She was lying on the floor, huddled against the wall; seemingly holding something up to her chest.

“Hey, quick help her up.” Said Paul. Paul went in and started to help her sit her up right. The woman was badly injured. She had burns and scratches across her body, she was covered in dirt and dust from lying on the floor. Her clothes were ripped in places revealing nasty looking slashes.

The woman turned and was able to sit up more thanks to the help from Paul which revealed that she was protecting a baby in her arms.

“The baby.” She said. “Is the baby safe?” She asked completely dazed from blood loss.

“They’re fine.” Replied Shay. “You protected them and shielded them from all the damage.”

“The, baby?” Asked Zane confused. “You said the instead of my, is this your child?”

“No.” replied the woman. “I picked him up from outside when all the chaos was happening.”

“You risked your life, for a baby which isn’t even yours.” Said Paul sympathetically.

“When I was little.” The woman began. “The war broke out and my little sister who was just a child at that time, unable to protect herself, was left for dead by my parents. They left her to be slaughtered by the invading soldiers. I remember her cries as I was dragged by my father out of house.” Said the woman, now struggling to catch her breath.

“That set a mindset for me. I never wanted to hear those cries again, no matter who it was. A family member, a friend or even a stranger. That’s just the type of person I am. Sacrificing myself to protect others is something I believe is an important trait and I don’t think I could of lived any other way.”

We were speechless, as the woman uttered her final words a tear fell from her eye and her body relaxed itself. The unknown woman had died, in a way she was happy with, if there is nothing more fulfilling than dying as you are completely satisfied with your life, then I don’t know what else is.

“How commendable.” Said Zane.

“We should notify Diablo of her actions. She might get an award for her bravery and sacrifice.” Said Paul.

“I’m happy she died satisfied and glad that she had done something meaningful to benefit the life of another person.” Shay added.

After a moment of grief and tears from Paul. We all agreed to head back to the others in our group. After putting the child in a safe space, we went back to searching the area for more survivors.

The three of us walked down the street, the other guards were putting white paint across the doors of the houses that they had checked so that no time was wasted getting the survivors to safety.

“The faster we check all the houses the better.” I said. “Yeah, we should try speed things up.” Replied Paul, it was obvious that the events that had taken place had taken a toll on Paul. Paul seemed to of joined the guards to stop local kids from robbing stores in his neighbourhood, or at least that is the impression he was giving off to me. I thought maybe this was too much for him, but he was pulling along stronger than most people would which made me smile inside.

"Hey Shay, go check that house over there. I'll check the one next to it. If you find a survivor call for me. Paul, come with me, I saw another house down the street that hadn’t been checked yet." Said Zane.

"Sure thing." Replied Shay.

I walked over into the house, it was medium sized, no lights, the smoke from outside made it feel like night-time, only a little light shone in. I looked around, I could see claw marks scattered along the dark walls, the ground had obviously suffered fire damage and the stairs and banister were all scratched and destroyed.

"It looks like a fight happened here." Shay thought aloud.

I walked up the rugged stairs and into one of the upper rooms. It was dark. I couldn't quite see anything. But I could hear, heard a slight groaning sound coming from the corner.

"Hey are you okay?" I asked, trying to seem somewhat welcoming. "I'm a guard, it’s okay now. Can you walk to me"?

There was no response, in fact the groaning had stopped now too.

"Hello?" I said one more time awaiting some sort of response. I walked closer and reached out my hand to try grab their shoulder. But then they stood up. It was slowly, as if they were tired but it was confidently too, they towered over me. I'd say they were 7 foot almost. I couldn't quite see their face, only an outline of their muscular build. Then it hit me...

"THIS IS A DEMON!" I yelled, it went in to attack me and I barely dodged. I unscathed my sword I had attained from the guard’s station before leaving.

"You're fast." Said the demon.

He talked?! Thought Shay. I had only ever heard of demons being powerful creatures that have a low intelligence, them communicating was unheard of.

The demon lunged at me with great force, going for a heavy right-handed slash. I managed to dodge again by jumping back out the room. The demon had already recovered from missing and was already in the middle of another attack. Caught off guard with his speed i could only manage to block with my sword. The demons attack sent me flying into the main foyer of that building, through the wooden banister and straight onto the floor.

This power is insane. Thought Shay, I need to get myself together. I stood up firm and gripped my sword.

The demon came in for another attack. This time I felt more prepared and I braced myself for our clash. The demon came in with the same slash from before that I had blocked, this time I managed to slide to the left away from his blow. I picked up my sword and filled it with electricity, I slashed down onto the demons left arm with all my might. "I hit!" Exclaimed Shay.

I jumped back after that to get myself together and assess what had happened. It seemed I had done some damage to the demon. Although getting a better look at him I could see that he had suffered damage in places that I hadn't attacked. He must have been fighting with someone before I came in here. Thought Shay.

The clash of our attacks had opened a hole in the front of the building, Zane and 3 other guards were standing out front watching. I filled my iron blade with electricity again and prepared to go offensive.

He can use elemental magic?! Thought Zane. And it seems his attribute is electricity; man talk about rare. What i usually see is fire or plasma attributes; those are the most common. But seeing an electric user, to think someone like that was at that guard station.

I soared towards the demon and went in for another strike for his neck. The demon managed to dodge a fatal blow barely, I only made a small cut on the right of his neck. The demon staggered back. He appears injured Thought Shay. It appears as if he was in a major battle before I came across him and whoever he fought gave him fatal injuries. That may be the reason I’m able to keep up with this human tonged demon at all.

"You're tough huh?" Exclaimed the demon while exhaling profusely. "I guess I'll end up in deep shit at this rate. I suppose I'll have to use the last of my strength to retreat." Said the demon smiling confidently.

"Enough. You're wounded, it’s over." Proclaimed Shay.

"You sure? Take a look around you..." Uttered the demon.

I looked down to see that I had been trapped by the demon’s movement seal. He had taken the first blow from me on purpose and set a seal on the floor while he pretended to be hurt from my attack.

I was trapped.

"Shay!" Called out Zane. As he ran towards me. I looked over to where the demon was to see an empty space, he had already escaped.

"Are you okay?" Asked Zane.

"Yeah surprisingly." I replied. "Somehow I didn't take any damage."

"That's good, come on we should report what happened to Diablo." Ushered Zane.

"But, the seal-" I looked down to realise it was gone already.

"The range for a seal like that is only around 20 meters" Replied Zane. "At least we know the demon isn't around anymore."

"Oh right, of course." Muttered Shay.

We made our way to Diablo who was already on his way to us after hearing the noises.

"What happened?" Asked Diablo.

We explained everything that had happened to him, from encountering the demon, how it spoke and how it escaped.

"I take the blame for letting it get away." Said Shay disappointingly.

“It’s alright.” Replied Diablo. “This is your first mission. Nothing to be ashamed of, its my fault for not noticing and coming over sooner.”

“What is interesting is how it was a talking demon and used a seal on you to trap your movements. It must be some sort of advanced demon we haven’t come across before. Most demons have a forward and basic attacking style which make them easy to counter. It’s surprising how it faked an injury to bide time and get away with marking a seal on the floor then tricking you into stepping on it. It fights like one of the 8 Roses.”

“Interesting.” Said Diablo. “I’ll have to investigate that, thanks for the information.”

We were informed by Diablo that the east side of the village was more or less unscathed and that we should help move survivors over there. By the time we were done helping move the injured into the east of the village, it was starting to get late.

I lay down on a bed in one of the rooms I was sitting in with Paul and Zane to take a second to relax.

I noticed a clock in the corner of my eye, I instinctively looked over at it to get an idea of the time, we had been working all day on moving survivors, equipment and food, I sat up to get a better look at it.

“Oh Crap!” I said.

“huh?” Zane looked over with a muddled look on his face.

“I’m Going To Be Late For My Date!!!”