I gazed into the eyes of a beast. Irapesha Bloodtalon saw me as another enemy. Her tightening grip around my throat was proof of that. If I didn't somehow get through to her, I was as good as dead.

Cresta said she used to spar with her all the time and lost.

What hope did I, a mere human being, have of escaping Irapesha? All I could do now was try.

"Ira...pesha… I know you're… in there… Cresta… will be really sad… if you kill me…" I choked out.

The dragonewt's eyes twitched. Her nostrils flared, then brought me closer to her face to sniff me like a dog.

"Cres...ta…?" she repeated after me through parched lips.

"Do you… remember her?" I asked.

Irapesha gave no answer, but I was suddenly put down. What the hell just happened? Cresta's lingering scent on me must have stoked some memories in her.

Now that I got a good look at Irapesha, everything about her was stacked. The statue at the Terrace of Heroes wasn't exaggerating her height. She had to be a foot taller than Ange.

The clothing on her was about as tattered as her remaining wing. Defined muscles on her arm, legs, and body suggested she had been eating well. However, every visible surface of her skin was stained with old wounds like poorly done patchwork stitchings of scar tissues and burn marks.

A fresh gash on her left thigh was still bleeding.

"That's not good! We have to stem the bleeding," I warned her.

Irapesha cocked her head sideways, then at her own wound. She took a seat on the ground and blew a thin flame to cauterize her injury.

"Wha— Stop, stop!" I screamed, startling her before she could finish the job. "Hold on, I'll do it for you!"

Fortunately, my caretaker training had taught me basic first aid. Definitely not for a situation like this, but at least it came in handy. The flesh around the thigh was toasty, but I washed off excess blood with water from my canteen. Tearing off my shirt into two pieces of fabric, we managed to get a tourniquet above the wound and the other wrapped around it.

"That should do it," I said, nodding at my shitty first aid job.

Irapesha stared at the wound, at me, and then put a large scaly hand on my head.

"If that's your way of telling me 'good job', I feel more demeaned than anything."

She retracted her hand and grunted in what sounded like approval.

For now, I've gained her trust. We just needed to find our way back to the others, but I had no idea where we were or how far from the others here was.

My new companion got to her feet and started walking away, but quickly fell down from exhaustion. Her face was drenched in sweat. She wheezed with every breath.

"You're probably dehydrated." I went over to help her into a seated position, but it was like lifting one of Cresta's enchanted dumbbells. "Drink this—"

Irapesha snatched the canteen from my hands and was about to chug it down until she realized who she took it from. The former commander growled quietly to herself, then handed it back to me. Old habits from her leading days were probably resurfacing. She wasn't as mindless as I thought.

"Look, I'll drink a little. Then you drink the rest. See?" I tipped the canteen into my mouth, but only enough to wet my lips.

When I tried to hand it to her, she shoved it back to me.

"No, Irapesha— come on. Now's not the time to be selfless. Drink the water! Stop handing it back, god damn it!"

This back and forth continued with no success and only sloshed the water inside. She finally stiffened her arm, preventing me from resisting against her strength.

Heavy footfalls alerted us to the other end of the stone bridge. Two demon giants with metal plates fused to their body slammed the ground with their clubs. They saw the weakened Irapesha on the ground, who was in no condition to fight, and approached with renewed courage.

This was the worst possible situation. Were we really going to die here? My heart was racing so fast, it might jump out of my chest.

I wanted to be in Ange's arms and grow old with her. I wanted to see my tenants off one day as they become independent members of society on Earth. I really wanted to reunite Cresta and Irapesha.

My brain played out a number of scenarios, but only one came to mind.

Damn. It would have been great to see Ange in a swimsuit. A black two-piece. Maybe even a slingshot bikini to show off her maximum sexiness.

"Stay behind me," I told Irapesha, pulling out the enchanted dagger Tarcosa had given me.

The least I could do was ensure Irapesha's survival. The others had a good scout and should be able to find her eventually.

"Smash puny human!"

"Make human into sandwich meat…"

"You're going to be sorely disappointed… I don't have a lot of meat on my bones…" I said, shaking so much the dagger might fall out of my hand.

Whatever about this was enchanted, hopefully it would be enough to kill them.

The weapon began to glow. It fought against my grip until it slipped away from my hand, flying straight at my foes and cutting into them like they were butter. I gawked in both horror and disgust as it made mincemeat of them, then returned to my hand all bloodied and disgusting.

"Aww… Gross…" I held it pinched between two fingers so as to avoid staining my hand.

Irapesha came up to me and put another heavy hand atop my head.

"Like I said… that doesn't make me happy at all." I sighed.

Our reprieve didn't last long. A much larger group of demons emerged from the other side of the bridge, all looking just as bloodthirsty as the giants. My dagger, however, was no longer coming to life no matter what I did.

"Shit. Don't tell me it needs to recharge or something? Tarcosa, damn you!" I shouted.

As the horde charged across the bridge, I was picked off the ground. Irapesha had me in her arm and pressed to her chest. Some of the demons peeked over the edge, quickly getting smaller the further away we got.

Both of us were in free fall.

I came to consciousness still in Irapesha's arm. We were inside a cave, sitting upright against the side of a boulder. No part of me was immediately in pain, but Irapesha was passed out. Dried blood caked the side of her head. She must have taken the brunt of that fall.

"Just how selfless are you?" I asked quietly.

Irapesha held me tighter, burying her nose into the back of my hair.

"Never have I met a human willing to face down a horde of demons," a deep yet feminine voice croaked.

"Y-You're awake?!"

"The fall… must have knocked my senses back into me. I remember everything, like a spectator behind my body's eyes. You have… my… thanks…" Irapesha fell unconscious again as soon as she expressed her gratitude.

After enough struggling, I managed to pry myself away from her. That she only had one arm made it a lot easier to escape.

Half a day had probably passed. I could only tell because I was getting hungry. Walking outside of the cave, there was no indication of night or day. The scene remained the same bleary and red world. Without my shirt, it was quickly getting cold despite the fiery hellscape I was in.

The walls of tall and jagged canyons rose into the sky. We had fallen a long way. Neither the bridge nor fortress was anywhere to be seen, so Irapesha had to have dragged us away from danger after the fall.

I returned inside and noticed my satchel on the opposite wall of where the dragonewt was resting against. The canteen was perfectly fine, though a bit dented on the side, water still sloshed around within.

Lifting Irapesha's head onto my lap and trying not to stare too much at her almost naked body, I began to feed her water by dripping small droplets— small enough that she wouldn't choke— into her mouth with my finger. A long and tedious task that had to be done, or she would die of dehydration long before we're found.

"I don't know what it's going to take, but I promised Cresta to bring you two back together." I brushed the deep red hair from her face. While I continued to feed her water, I found myself talking to her about the dorm back on Earth, and how much Cresta loved burgers that it became her daily diet.

But soon, my own exhaustion became too much to bear.