"You think they will survive?" A girl asked with a soft voice, still panting from running. She walked up to the tree and leaned on it.

  A blond woman next to her sat down on the grass across from her. "Absolutely. They will kick that bastard's ass."

  "Kikiki." Eira almost lost the little air in her lungs she had left. "Yeah, they might. But those sons of bitches should've let us fight with them."

  "No." The saddening voice arrived from Aveline's mouth. "We would've just gotten in their way. They were right to do it…" She paused for a moment. "I'm still going to beat him up when he comes back." She huffed, crossing her arms.

  "Yeah, they need to be scolded." Eira agreed, looking at the mountain. "I really don't want to lose anyone after…"

  "Marry?… Yeah…" Aveline y on the grass and looked at the sky.

  ***

  Five Years ago. Marry, one of their friends, and comrades, died. They went to the city without telling Bran or any of the squad members. It was Garret, Tristan, Aveline, Eira, and Marry. They got in trouble with some thugs and ter got ambushed. They managed to repel them. However, they abducted Marry. They ran to the rest of the crew and, with their help, quickly found her, but she was on the verge of death. They tortured her for hours before they came. She was in enormous pain. Bran simply walked up to her, pced his hand on her shoulder, and looked her in her eyes. They nodded to each other before he stuck his bde into her heart.

  Later, the group promised not to do anything so stupid ever again. And swore that if by some chance something like that does happen again, they will summon the strength to do what Bran did.

  ***

  Garret coughed out some blood. "To hell!"

  "Something definitely just got broken." He barely got the word out while trying to get up. He looked at what he was holding in his hands. "More than one thing, as it seems," he said when he saw his broken spear.

  He stared the beast down while it growled at him. It clearly wanted to leap at him, but the ck of the ck made it far more conservative in its actions. Pain matters little if it means survival.

  Despite his body's protest, Garret used one half of the spear as a support and got up. He spewed out more blood, the red substance hardly visible on the muddy ground.

  How much longer do I need to keep fighting this dude?

  He gnced at Tristan, who was standing still; his eyes closed, slowly gathering mana.

  By the looks of it, I still have a minute to go. I can keep the mana field up for around forty more seconds.

  He spped himself.

  Calm down! How will I go about this?

  He touched one of the daggers which rested above his hind, but he let it go as he looked up.

  No, no. Let's start with this…

  The spearhead flew toward the beast's head, which it dodged. The spear went right past it and struck the wall, getting stuck in it. A second after that, the other half of the spear aimed for the creature's face as well, but it caught it between its jaws.

  Garret's eyes opened wide. "Oh… I didn't expect that."

  The beast returned the fire. It flicked its head, throwing the spear at him.

  Garret only leaned a half-dira to the side. The butt of the spear grazed his cheek as he ran forward.

  Garret dashed at the beast and slid between its legs. Without stopping, he continued moving. He jumped on the rod stuck in the mountain and then leaped off it, pulling his daggers at the same time.

  [Fshing Chains]

  A thin, rope-like structure made completely out of lightning tied his hand around the handle of a dagger.

  He started rotating it as his back started feeling the air pressure before he threw it into the ledge on the wall. The dagger dug into it, and Garret used the spell to swing himself to the other side. His legs hit the mountain; he hung above the beast, making sure to not let go of the lightning chain before he gripped it tighter, causing a sudden surge of energy to flow through it. The spark went into the dagger and then the stone before the ledge separated itself from the wall with an explosion.

  A huge rock fell down along with a man as lighting sparks burst all around, getting all the way to the dens.

  The beast tried to jump out of the way, but it was too te. The boulder shattered on its back and knocked it down.

  Garret nded on his back but quickly got up. He dashed forward at the beast and sshed its head with both of the daggers, but it did nothing. The beast jerked its head, sending him away.

  The cws dug into the ground while it stared at its opponent. Garret crossed his arms and held both of the daggers in a reverse grip. Both of them unched at each other at the same time.

  Garret's daggers cshed with the creature's cws. The beast's advance sent him a few steps back. It sshed at him with one hand and then tried to punch him with the other. And soon enough, Garret was up against the wall.

  The beast went for one final attack, but then something fell down. A massive branch on fire. The creature jumped back right away, growling whilst slowly retreating.

  The man's eyes light up. "Of course!" He excimed. "I read some books on the undead when I was a kid. Now that I think about it, it did say they hate fire. I never really thought much about it, didn't think I would ever encounter one. To think it's true." He put on a smirk as he ripped off two thin branches that were yet to catch fire before lighting their top on it. He held one in each hand, along with a dagger.

  Let's see how this works.

  He used the wall as leverage to get over the fmes and attack the beast. He used its terrified state to deal some blows. They didn't seem to do much, but the creature was hardly fighting back. The daggers slowly heated from the torches they were up against and, with that, started doing some damage.

  There we go! Garret was getting excited. Now I just need to be careful not to hold them for too long.

  The beast kept defending itself before it finally had enough and swung at Garret, but such a panicked attack was easy to dodge now.

  "You are just a panicked little pup, aren't you?" He yelled as he sshed down, drawing some marks on it. "Die!" He pushed the beast into the raging fmes of the fallen branch.

  It howled with pain as it started to fil around and roll on the ground. It slowly extinguished the fire. Steam visibly twirled from its body. The creature's skin looked melted, even more so than before.

  The lightning magician inched forward and peeked at the beast lying down in front of him.

  The beast was seemingly dead.

  Garret took one more step forward and his leg was suddenly separated from his body. The beast tore it off with a single swing of its cws before it hit him with its other arm, sending him flying and crashing into the wall.

  Even when an entire pack of blood came from his mouth, the man still refused to accept what had just happened while the beast slowly crept toward him.

  And then, a dagger fell on its head. The man gnced up excitedly. "Just sizzle away, will you?" A magic circle lit up on the dagger and the lightning came from the sky, striking the beast.

  Another howl came from it, but it remained standing, looking furious.

  "You survived that, ha?" He chuckled to himself, "But two minutes are up so, bye, you rotting bastard."

  [Tidal God's Ballista]

  Tristan fired his attack, a continuous high pressure of water that almost sent him flying. It hit the beast and didn't stop coming. Lasting only a few seconds, it was sent back to the pile of stones blocking the path. It flew right in and got crushed by the stones before Tristan's attack finally stopped.

  The white-haired man instantly colpsed.

  Garret pulled himself forward, using his elbows to drag his body through the mud. He got to Tristan, seeing him gurgling his blood, slowly choking on it.

  "I think you did it, buddy." He pced his palm on his chest. "We've won!"

  Tristan closed his eyes and tried to chuckle, but it didn't come out right. "P… Plea… Please, Garret."

  "Yeah?"

  "Marry…"

  With tears running down his face, Garret closed Tristan's pain-filled eyes. "Okay, okay friend." He raised his dagger, taking in a deep breath, and as he exhaled, the bde was already stuck in Tristan's chest. He was dead.

  Tears slowly filled the man's eyes.

  But before he could cry, a loud sound came from behind him. Rocks flew into the air and from the dust came a wolf-like deformed creature.

  'RAWR!'

  Garret looked at it in disbelief. It survived?! He quickly pulled the dagger out and threw it at the beast. It hit its head and once again soon enough; the lightning came down on it, but it marched forward.

  The mercenary looked left and right, before finally sticking his arms into the ground. Tristan's attack created a massive puddle in which the beast was now standing. Garret pced his hands in the water before releasing lightning from his arms. It quickly traveled to the creature, momentarily stopping it in its tracks. Garret put even more in his attack, his arms slowly burned. They became bck all the way to his elbows.

  Yes, I need to do this. Tristan lost his life for this victory. I have to at the very least risk mine.

  The lightning filling the water became even stronger and raged around fiercely.

  Garret's entire arms became bck.

  It then spread to his neck.

  But he continued till he used all the mana he had, and then he colpsed.

  Did I get him? He thought to himself, but as if his words jinxed him, growling came from the direction of the beast. Fuck. Garret forced himself up and got into a fighting position, though it looked fragile, weak. He barely remained on his feet. There were no more sparks around him. He gave it all he had. "Come at me you…"

  Before he could finish his sentence, his torso burst, turning into nothing but flying organs and blood. There was nothing left of him but his legs.

  The beast took a few steps forward before looking into the sky and spreading his arms.

  'RAAAWR!'

  'RAAAAAAAAAAAWR!!!'

  The loud victory cry echoed through the whole canyon, and the field outside it.