The unconcious bodies of men layed on the floor around me. I suffered a couple of scraches from the knives, but they cleared up quite quickly. 'Man, talk about escalation' I thought.

The carriage still shook from the fight behind the counter. All of a sudden, it lost a footing as it leaned to the side. "Ackr!" The girl came flying out through the curtains. I caught her in my arms and settled her down on the floor. "I'm in so much trouble..." She said before passing out.

"Hey! Wake up!"

I looked up to see the man without his gardening hat revealing two horns on his head and blood gushing out his left eye. His hand held one part of the bleeding face as the other was clenched into a ball. "You damn bitch!" He snarled.

"Look, we don't need to fight..." I said trying to deescalate the situation.

"You're right, I'll kill you."

"For eden's sake."

He ran at me full steam and came in attempting a straight kick to the face. I ducked under the kick and followed up with a punch to the nuts. "OOOOHH!" He exclaimed as he leaned his side to the carriage door, it opened landing him on the hard concrete floor.

I carried Angela out of the carriage and dropped her on the floor close to the horse. I went in to take all I needed for travels. A lot of things had broken in the little scrap but, I could make due. When I came out once more... "Master!!" Owlbiet said in delight.

"Damn it."

"I have been looking everywhere for y- Woah!" He said landing infront of me "What happened here?"

I sighed. "Let's just get going..."

"As you wish."

We turned to walk away from the scene but, as we made our way down the street, I saw it. A large area was burnt to a crisp, people of every clan cried in despair and the old lady's hut... where it stood... It was burnt down along with multiple other houses. "Was that from the explosion I heard earlier?" I asked in shock.

"Yes..."

"And the old lady?"

Owlbiet kept quiet not uttering a word for a few seconds. "At first, I was in the house with her on her lap. All of a sudden, I found myself out here on this very spot. Then the explosion happened..."

"I see..." I looked behind me. A bunch of Phoenix gaurds were walking towards the site. "Let's go."

....

I was getting absolutely decimated, I couldn't keep up at all... I knew it was impossible with only a year, but...

"Oooof!" I yelled after taking another kick to the face. His speed, reflexes, reaction time... It was like fighting a Gaurdian. I landed with my back to the floor. The minutes felt like months, like time didn't move for a second. I turned to the hour glass. 'Seriously?' Only a small portion of the sand was at the bottom. I couldn't stand, my body gave up on me and the grains of sand enjoyed my suffering.

"Get up."Arl said as he waited.

"Can't we get like a five minute break?"

"Shut it and get the fuck up!"

"Ahhhh man..." I got up and took my fighting stance. Arl came again with the heavy sweep, I moved my foot to dodge, he stood on his hands as he transitioned into a flipkick. 'What the hell?' I readied myself to block, but he wasnt going for that. He grabbed my head with his feet and fliped me to the other side of the center. "AKRRK!" I landed on my back again. 'I'm not gonna make it...' I stood up once more.

"After one year, you still cant beat me?"

"im trying my best here!"

"Try harder!" Arl went in for another blow, I evaded, but he caught me round my neck and put me in a lock.

"Damn it!" I went for the side of his ribs with my elbow, he was disoriented long enough for me to throw him over my sholders slamming him on the floor. I went into an armlock. 'Please let this be it.' I thought as I continued to pull even harder. Arl didn't seem to pay any mind and stood up, my armlock still active. With a bit of extra strength, he lifted me and slammed me on the ground."Its gonna take more than tha- WOAH" he repeated the process a second time, then a third and forth I let go.

"That was disappointing." He sat untop of me, about to deliver the pummeling of my life.

"Raziel!" A farmiliar voice echoed as a figure entered the hall.

"Ken..." I said shocked by his appearance. 'Why is he here? How did he...'

Arl got off me. "What the hell are you doing here?" He asked clearly pissed

Raziel stood up as well. "How did you find this place?"

Ken remained calm. "Ladies one at a time. Lets just talk."

"Like with Kiko?" I asked, my blood boiled.

Ken looked at me "Wow! Its you!" He said suprised. "Could've sworn you'd be dead at this point... But ohh well."

I was furious, my fists clenched, my brows furrowed, I shot a pillar of fire from my mouth at him, but it was blocked by multiple people wearing what seemed to be... Red plate armor With a crest in the middle resembeling a Dragon. 'Dragon clan' I thought.

"Arl Ryuu, former Gaurdian of the Dragon clan. You are under arrest for treason, Abandoning post, and attempted murder."

I looked at Arl in shock. "Huh!" I Knew I shouldn't have been suprised but... 'Arl was a gaurdian?'

"Honesty, I couldn't have done this without a friend of yours." Ken said, a gleeful expression on his face.

I looked up at Raziel, Why didn't he say anything, he just stood there.

Arl held my mouth, and I smelt something strange. A gas. I fell unconcious.

....

I woke up to see the entire place empty. Someone was untop of me. It looked like they tried to save me from a projectile. The body was still reletively warm, but there was one problem, the person had no head. "AHHHHH!" I screamed as I pushed the body away. Then I realized "Arl?" I was in shock, It felt just like that time with Kiko... I got goose bumps all over my body. I didnt know what to feel. Was it from Immence shock... Or Sadness? I wasn't sure.

I looked around me, blood splattered everywhere. The bodies of group members scattered all over the place. "So you're alive?" I turned around. Raziel stood there. "Lets get going..."

It was like he didn't care about them. Like they didnt mean anythig to him. 'This guy isn't being serious.' I ran at him full force with a kick, he simply moved out of the way, caught me by the leg, and threw me to the wall no effort what so ever. I Turned my head to see a hilt stuck to the wall and pulled it out before going for another swing. But, he broke it with one strike of his palm.

"What are you doing?"

"Why did you let them die? Dont you care?!"

"This isn't the time to feel sad kid, Ken will be back any minute with rienforcements." Raziel said, his cold expression reminded me of Furoto.

"Fine."