It's been two months since we began our journey from Euler. There are only trees around us, we're in the middle of the forest. I don't know if we're walking towards the right place or not, but we're completely lost. There are a lot of monsters around us in the forest and attacking us from many directions. Though, I can somehow cooperate with Lunette while defending ourselves.
"Luna, they're at you! Be careful!" She shouts at me with a warning tone while blocking the attack from a wolf.
I quickly look away towards the other wolf's direction and block its attack to bounce it into the air. In the meantime, Lunette uses her magic to shoot a fireball towards the wolf that I bounced before. Once the other wolf comes to attack her back, I use my magic to freeze the wolf and cut it into two. I think we have great teamwork, thanks for those years of training. We cleared our surroundings so there are no more monsters around us. We raised our hands and clapped our hands together.
"Should we rest for now?" I asked Lunette with a slightly tired tone as I turned my gaze at her. I think we've been walking pretty far from Euler.
Lunette answers me with a small, tired yawn before speaking in a little exhaustion, "Maybe you're right, let's have a rest over there." She points at the small waterfall with a beautiful view.
I'm really dumbfounded by her suggestion. I never thought she would choose such a beautiful place. Normally, she will choose a place carelessly as long as it is safe. She doesn't care if it was beautiful or relaxing or not, she only cares about no monsters around. Maybe I need to stop asking for more.
Without wasting time, Lunette grabs my hand and pulls me towards the direction. I just let her do what she wants without resisting, I'm already used to it. Both of us walk towards the waterfall to get some rest. Lunette sits beside the waterfall while I'm laying beside her. I never thought our next destination would be this far. Though, I think two months is quite a short adventure compared to others.
Lunette stretches her limbs and says in a relaxing tone, "It's so comfortable, after somewhat a long journey."
I sigh a bit and smile a bit at her before saying, "Lunette, I don't think two months is a long journey. I mean, there are many people out there traveling for more than years."
Lunette speaks again and lays down on the ground, "I know, but for us it's quite a huge step, don't you agree?" She looks at me with a curious gaze as if she wants to know about my opinion.
"Maybe you're right. I never thought I could continue as a hunter after that chimera accident. Leo and Loir aren't here with us anymore."
Lunette chuckles and nods a bit then looks at the sky. The sky is so blue and clear, almost like I can see the space through the sky. It's a perfect place for being lazy and not doing anything. The grass is so warm and comfortable as well, I don't think I want to stand up and continue our journey for a while. The sound of the waterfall suits too with the view, what a relaxing place we found. I want to invite Big Sister Wave to this place once we finish our journey.
I look towards Lunette and say with a neutral tone, "By the way, Lunette. Aren't we lost?" I asked her with a slight curious tone as if I tried to gauge her reaction.
Lunette smiles as her eyes still closed then speaks in a confident tone, "Who do you think I am?" Then she looks at me and her face becomes pale a bit, "I think we're lost."
I know that we are, maybe I got a new learning to not let Lunette take the lead. She's such a trouble, I can't believe she put us into the middle of nowhere. There's only forest around us without a slight hint of a path to Nexus. Uhh… Only if we can go back to the Euler then start everything from zero again, but it's too late since we don't know which way to go back.
"Ahhh!!" Someone screams in the forest and the voice reaches our ears.
We quickly stood up and ran towards the source of the voice without thinking twice. What is that? Sounds like a woman's voice. I wonder if anything happened to her. I hope it wasn't a monster that attacked the woman.
We arrived at the source of the voice, but there was no one around us. That's what I think before there is a woman jumps above us then falls far away pretty hard into the bushes.
"What is that?" I say in a curious and surprised tone, wondering who it is.
Lunette speaks in a wary tone and pulls out her sword, "Luna, there is a group of bandits. Like six people in the group, get ready."
I quickly look towards the group of bandits and prepare myself for a fight. Maybe the woman is trying to run away from the bandits and find a safe place. I pull my sword as well and stand beside Lunette. Really? We only have about five minutes to rest and we're already into a problem again?
The bandits come after us and try to attack us separately, using their quantity to win against us. One of the bandits uses their knife towards Lunette, and right after Lunette parries it, another bandit attacks her with their magic at the same time. Their movements and teamwork are like pros. I quickly use my sword and launch an attack to destroy the magic that is after Lunette, but the bandits are waiting for that moment to attack me as if she's waiting for this moment. Lunette bounces the bandit who is in front of her then uses her magic to shoot the ground with her fire to make sand dust and cover our figures.
I put my back on her back then speak in a wary tone, "Their teamwork is so good, I don't think we can win easily this time. It's not like fighting against students or monsters."
Lunette nods in agreement with me, "I think you're right. This is the first time we're fighting against real people that want to kill us."
The dust almost disappears, and we're in danger again. The smoke is becoming thinner and thinner each second, maybe this one will be hard. As the smoke disappears, we're preparing ourselves for the second round as well as the bandits.
Before we start again, there is something that comes from the sky that falls in front of us. The rocks are flying everywhere and crack the ground, leaving everything in a mess. Me and Lunette cover our eyes, preventing the sand from entering our eyes.
The view becomes clear and clear each second, beginning to show the figure who just fell from above the sky a few seconds ago. I can see a tall person who is standing in the middle using armor, but what kind of armor is that?
Lunette speaks with excitement and sparkling eyes, "What is that armor?! So cool!! It's so futuristic!!"
The unknown figure looks at us with his masked face, then he looks at the bandits again with an intimidating look. He points his right hand at the bandits as if he's challenging them for a fight. Maybe he's on our side.
I walk next to him and ask him, "Who are you? Are you saving us?" I say in a confused tone.
But the figure remains silent then ready his stance. His right hand turns into a sword and the armor in his back opens to make some boosters then dashes towards the group of bandits with a high speed. I never saw that kind of armor before. Or is it magic? Lunette continues to see the figure with excitement and sparkling eyes like admiring him from behind. Her mouth dropped and never closed like a kid who was distracted by a toy. I think she forgot that we're in a battle. That girl…
The figure swings his hand like a sword, well it's a sword too after all. His movement is so quick and light, almost like he can defeat them easily without any effort. The bandit grabs his sword beside his head to guard it and the other bandit tries to attack him from his side, but the figure uses his left hand to parry it and bounces them into the air at the same time. He twirls his body and swings his leg effortlessly while spinning in place then kicks them into the air. In the meantime, the figure uses his sword to slash the bandits in a single blink. Shing! Shing! The figure cut everything on his way.
"What the hell?" They said as they reached the ground. They screamed in pain as well after the hit landed on their body, "ARGHHH!!"
Lunette looks at the figure's battle while holding an attack from one of the bandits' attacks, "SO COOL!! WHAT IS THAT?! WHERE I CAN FIND ONE?!" She spoke with excitement, even more excited than before. Her eyes gleamed brighter like stars in the sky.
On the other hand, I'm still struggling with my own fight. It's hard to handle two bandits at the same time who want to kill us. Now I understand that fighting against monsters is much easier than fighting against humans.
The figure's legs turned as well a bit and made him able to float. He charges towards the bandits and flies here and there like nothing can stop him. His fighting style is really free like there is no bound in his fight. He kicks one of the bandits with his right leg and uses the boosters to spin his body like a drill in the middle of air. The bandit seems unable to hold it any longer as the figure breaks the sword and gets through to the bandit's body. The booster makes the flame spread everywhere as if creating a tornado made of flame.
The bandit is surprised by the figure's action and says, "How can you do that?! It's not fair!!" Then the figure pushes the bandit until he gets pushed to the wall very hard, making him lose his consciousness. The bandit coughs some blood before he loses consciousness, and it seems like a bruise appears on his back.
The other bandit is scared and speaks with a fear in his tone, "D-Don't underestimate me, you moron!! Do you think you're better than me?!"
The bandit activates his magic and attacks the figure, but the figure dodges the attacks effortlessly to the right. He keeps floating and flying above the ground while dodging all the attacks with a high speed. Swoosh! He flies and turns sharply as he dodges every attack. The bandit seems to have difficulty seeing the figure's movements, he is too fast to see for the bandit.
One of the attacks almost hit him miraculously and the bandit says with a cruel and sinister laugh, "That's it!! Now die, you pieces of metal!!"
But the figure puts his hand on the ground then does somersault to avoid the attack and turn into an upside down position. His legs are now on the top of the bandit's head as he floats in the air. The bandit is surprised and unable to react to the figure, but he's trying to attack randomly anyway. The bandit's fear becomes stronger and stronger each time and he keeps screaming, "GO AWAY," to the figure in a scared and panic tone. The bandit shoots his magic randomly on the ground around the figure and completely destroys the terrain.
The figure speaks for the first time with a flat and neutral tone, "Nexerious Style, Alpha Sweep." His tone is emotionless and almost cold like there is no human's heart inside.
Once the figure is in front of the bandit, he swings his left leg to the bandit's face. The bandit puts his arms on the side of his face to guard himself, but the figure seems like predicted it and spins his body again into the different direction then lands a kick to the bandit's face from the other side using his left leg. The bandit who's surprised by the action was unable to guard himself and blew far away by the kick from the figure until hit a tree. His head landed on the tree trunk and Crack! His skull is fractured as a result.
It's almost like no one can stop him. He's way too strong, not even a slight touch on his armor. The futuristic design with red and white colors, a masked face and full body black armor. His hand can turn into a sword and provide boosters on his back and legs. Am I dreaming? Or is that related to Nexus, the city we're going to? The figure wiped out the bandits without any difficulties like he handles a group of ants.
Lunette uses her magic to clear her enemies with a barrage of fireballs. Her method is fierce as usual. All of the bandits have big injuries on their bodies and barely can move. When I was looking at Lunette, it always felt like there was a rain of fireballs from the sky due to her magic. Her fight always burnt the terrain and turned everything into ashes while the battlefield changed into a sea of blue colored flame.
On the other hand, I'm still having difficulty with my enemies. Their teamwork is very good, almost like I'm fighting against high rank hunters. They use their magic against me in succession, not letting me attack them back.
I moved right and left to dodge all the attacks as much as I could, but some of those attacks landed on me and gave me some injuries on my body. I parry some of their attacks with my sword, but when I do it, the other bandit runs towards the other direction to attack my blind spot. It's almost like they will attack me for eternity in every single second. Gladly, I can use my magic to create an ice wall behind me so his magic can't reach me. I quickly run towards the bandit who's right in front of me and dodge the attacks.
"Are you underestimating me, little girl? Sure, I'll kill you now!" The bandit smirks with a sinister and cruel face.
I'm finally right in front of him, but he's smiling while casting the magic in front of my face. The bandit laughs like a true evil and shoots his magic towards me. I quickly jump a little aside and spin my body so the magic won't hit me. The bandit seems surprised by my sudden action and about to attack me again, but magic won't have time at this range. I turn my sword and strike the bandit using the handle at his stomach to make him unconscious.
The other bandit shoots some arrows towards me while saying, "Damn you, little girl!! How dare you?!" He shoots a barrage of arrows with a magic that increases the speed of the arrows.
I cover my left hand with my magic and make a claw from ice to guard myself from the attacks. The arrows aren't that strong, but the speed is quite troublesome. Maybe if it was three years ago, he would definitely beat me easily in a minute. I ran towards the last bandit who was standing while aiming a bow towards me in a ready position, continuing to attack me with a rain of arrows. I tried to avoid the arrows efficiently and block some of it with my ice claw, but some of those arrows scratched my body.
"Die you, little girl!!" The bandit puts all of his mana to the arrow and about to shoot it.
To be honest I'm not sure if I can dodge it, but I can guard it with my magic if I need to. I keep running towards him with the same pace so I can finish him, but the figure charges towards the bandit and kicks his body without any mercy. The figure pushes the bandit using his boosters on his back and legs until the bandit hits a tree very hard and makes him unconscious. The figure pulls off his leg and kicks the bandit far away into the forest then turns his gaze towards us. His gaze is so cold and unwelcoming.
I was surprised by the figure's action, but then let out a soft sigh of relief and said, "I thought I would die here."
Lunette pats my back with a comforting gesture and says, "You won't die so easily, but we need to become stronger than this." Then she glances towards the figure with armor all over his body. She clears her throat to catch the figure's attention and regain her composure before speaking, "Hey, uhh… Are you helping us?"
The mysterious figure turns his masked face towards us but doesn't say anything. He doesn't show any slight movement, even a muscle almost intimidating in other ways.
Lunette speaks again with a confused tone, but her face shows backwards, "Hello? Can you speak? Mister?" She began to walk towards the figure slowly and carefully.
The figure walks towards us as well with an intimidating aura. The atmosphere is thick and the tension is heavy. Lunette stops her way to the figure, making the only voice around here is the figure's steps. Each step is scary and merciless, and the figure stares almost crush our spirit. I don't understand why he is so scary right now.
The figure stops in the middle and speaks with a cold, low tone and mechanical voice, "Intruders. Kill them all." Then the figure starts running towards us at full speed then flies towards us without any hesitation with a sword formed on his right arm. I could feel an upset tone in his voice before, but I couldn't understand why.
I was surprised by the figure's sudden run and tried to explain about ourselves to him, "Wait, what?! Wait! We are no-" My voice is full of panic as the figure continues after us.
The figure doesn't stop and spins his body then performs a kick to my body. Of course, I don't just let him do that easily, I reflexively use my hand that is covered by an ice claw from my magic to block the attack. The figure stopped once his attack was blocked by me, and I think I'm safe for now, but the figure's leg provides a booster and uses a high voltage fire to boost his attack at me then pushes me with the sword. Fwum!
Lunette quickly pulls her sword out from the sheath in panic and charges towards the figure without saying anything. The figure turns his face to Lunette and avoids the attack as if he knows Lunette will attack him at that angle. He jumps to the sky and does a backflip behind Lunette. Once the figure was behind her, he punched Lunette with all of his strength and knocked back Lunette.
"What?!" Lunette speaks in a confused and panicked tone when her guard is broken by the figure's attack.
The figure strikes a second attack on Lunette right on her stomach and blows her far away with his leg like kicking a bug. Lunette was unable to react or block it at all as the kick landed on her stomach. The figure doesn't stop just like that, he chases Lunette at full speed with his boosters to land another hit again. He ready his sword to strike Lunette, but I shoot a few bullets from far away at his body. Boom! Boom! But my attacks don't even give him any single scratch even if my attack hits his back. The figure looks at me and blocks the rest of my attack with his sword then stops from chasing Lunette. He's staring at me with a cold and scary glare.
I grit my teeth and mutter a bit with a low and soft voice, "Who is this guy?! Didn't he just help us a few minutes ago?! Why is he attacking us right now?!"
In a short time, the figure is now in front of me with just a blink. I don't understand, how is he doing that?! He spins his in the place then raises his left leg and swings right to my face. I guard my face with my hands without thinking anymore, but his attack breaks my guard since I have no time to use all of my strength to block it. My hands feel so numb, the bruises appear on my hands and my hands are now blue. I barely can grab anything at the moment.
"ARGGHH!!" I scream in pain as the kick blows me away onto the ground.
That's so painful! I can feel the pain all over my body! My body loses its strength as I try to regain my composure, but the figure doesn't give me some time and he's now about to stab my head. I roll aside to avoid the stab as I try to regain my composure and prepare myself again. I aim my gun at him and fire a few bullets at him to take him down. Bang! Bang! Though, it seems useless since the armor is too thick.
A few fireballs are heading towards the figure, but the figure blocks one of it with his bare hand. The second one, the figure turns around to catch the fireball and changes the attack's direction to destroy the third one. For the fourth one, the figure slashes it into two and blows it around him, making his presence hidden with the smoke for the result of the explosion.
Lunette seems dumbfounded as well as me by the figure's action and blocks all of her attacks completely without any injuries. Even for Lunette, it's the first time someone completely blocks from her attacks. She coughs in pain as she tries to get up from the ground, her body is completely injured from the previous impact. Her legs are trembling due to the pain on her body, but she stood up eventually while resisting the pain.
I stand up as well as I think I won't let Lunette fight him alone. I tighten my grip on my gun on the left hand and my sword on my right hand, not planning to release it in the middle of the fight at all. The figure turns his gaze at me as I tighten the grip as if ready to hunt me anytime.
Lunette charges towards the figure as well as me with the different direction. The figure moves his feet on the ground and creates sand dust flying around him to cover his figure.
Me and Lunette's heads hit each other as she says, "Hey! What are you doing?!" She rubs her head where my head hit hers and coughs due to the dust from the sand.
"It's not my fault!! And where are you touching?!" I cough as well as I speak. I feel someone touching my body, but I can't see who it is.
Lunette speaks again with a slight shouting tone, "It's not me!! And stop shouting!!" She says as she tries to clear the smoke.
As the dust faded, we couldn't find the figure anywhere. I speak with a curious and wary tone, "Where is he?" The view is becoming clearer and clearer each passing second.
"Here." I heard someone speak from above, and it's the figure who spoke in the sky.
The figure plunges onto the ground where we're at and destroys the ground around us. BOOM! The figure destroys the ground and creates a hole with some big cracks spreading everywhere. Lunette is blown away from the place, unable to stand in place while the rocks are flying to her as well. I was somehow able to minimize the damage and only knocked back a bit as I stabbed my sword into the ground to help me standing in place.
"UAGHHH!!" Lunette says as she's flying away before she hits the tree.
The figure suddenly appears in front of me and swings his sword at me from my right, leaving me no choice except guard it with my sword. After I guard it, I quickly aim my gun at him, but he disappears from my sight in no time. I'm searching for his presence, but then I feel the unpleasant, cold aura appear behind me so I aim my gun to behind. His left hand turned into a small cannon and he's aiming it at my head while I'm aiming my gun at his neck. It's the first time that my attack is able to reach him, but whether it works or not is a different story.
We both stand one by one as we're aiming our weapon at each other. We're frozen in place, not moving even a muscle. To be honest, I don't think I can draw against him like this, I mean… We can draw against him.
The figure speaks to me with a cold and low mechanical tone, "You're not one of them. You're not even from the city."
What? After all of this, he just wants to say it was misunderstood?! Hell no, I can't just easily accept this like nothing has happened. But it's not like I can do something in this condition. Should I try to act tough?
I raised my voice as I couldn't hold back my own anger anymore, "Is that how you behave towards someone after attacking them suddenly?!"
The figure just stays silent for a second then speaks again with the same cold, low mechanical tone, "Stay out from the city. Do not enter Nexus." The figure drops his left arm and turns his weapon on each arm into hands again.
Did I manage to bluff him? Or is he just underestimating me for being weaker than him? Though, his response is confusing me now. What does he mean by "stay out from the city"?
He began to walk away after he turned his arms into hands again from me like a careless person, so I shouted at him, "Where do you think you're going?! Stop right there and explain what you just said!!"
The figure stops and looks at me again then speaks with a careless tone, "Or what, kiddo? Do you think you can scare me with that toy? Besides, it's not like you can pull the trigger as well." Then, the figure continues to walk away from my sight.
I bite my lip as the figure notices my trembling hand, I shake my head and shout at him again, "Do you think I can't?!"
He knows that I can't kill a person. Maybe he reads through my eyes and notices my slight trembling eyes.
The figure speaks to me again with a nonchalant attitude, "Just pull the trigger if you can. I know you can't kill a person."
My hand is shaking like crazy, and the figure guesses me right only by looking at my eyes. Right, Liric and Eirys aren't the same guns as three years ago, they've been modified and much stronger since the chimera incident. Though, Lunette's Drayvorn is still dangerous even before the incident so she didn't modify it. The figure just uses the boosters and flies into the forest, leaving us in silence.
Lunette walks towards me and speaks with a soft, exhausted voice, "What is that person? I don't know what he's thinking."
I nod in agreement with a solemn face, not knowing what to do as I lower my weapons. We both stand in silence for a while as we're relaxing our body a bit after a fierce fight. Really, I thought we would be in Nexus without any trouble.
We fell in silence and then we realized something, "THE WOMAN!!" Both of us said at the same time in panic as we remembered the woman's voice that jumped above us before the battle.
We're running into the forest quickly and searching for the woman figure. We're shouting here and there, and searching through the bushes, but unable to find her. After some time, I finally found a woman leaning against a tree unconsciously.
I pat her cheek with a gentle and soft touch as if someone who's trying to wake people up, "Hello, are you alright?" I said with a soft and worried tone.
She is slowly opening her eyes and turning back her consciousness, "Huh? Where am I?" She said while delirious.
The woman's face is half asleep, still not entirely in the present. Lunette tries so hard to hold back her laugh after looking at her face, but she couldn't hold it back anymore. The woman figure is finally fully awake, then she looks at Lunette who is laughing.
The woman frowns at her and speaks, "What are you laughing for?" Her tone sounds like she's annoyed.
I agree with the woman, how could anyone not be mad after getting laughed at by someone who you don't know? If I was in the woman's position I would be mad as well.
Lunette coughs a bit to bring back her composure and says, "Nothing, really. Just found something funny about your appearance."
She points at the woman's clothes and hairstyle, it's really kind of interesting for us, but not something really to laugh at. Her clothes and appearance are truly weird for us, but not that weird. A short sleeved grey vest with turquoise green skirt that is attached with the shirt. She's wearing a black stocking and a pair of white shoes. She has long dark grey hair with something that I don't know on her ear, with a clockwork hair tie.
Lunette speaks with a curious tone, "Are you wearing something like headphones on your ear?" She pointed at an object that the woman was wearing on the ear.
I nudge her arm before she finishes her sentence then I speak, "Lunette, let's stop right there and we should continue our journey right now."
Lunette lets out a soft sigh then nods, "Fine, let's continue our journey to Nexus now."
The woman chuckles and speaks with a bright tone, "Well, you're lucky then. We're near Nexus, just a few metres left." She points towards the direction, but we see nothing but a forest in that direction.
"What do you mea-" I said but then the woman's figure grabbed my and Lunette's hands as she cut in the middle of the sentence.
I look at Lunette in confusion, and so is Lunette. She just nods and lets herself be led by the woman's figure. Guess I'll do the same and let her lead me through the city.
After a few minutes, we finally escaped the forest and we saw a big entrance gate in front of us. The gate is so big and surrounds the city completely. But there is one thing that I don't quite understand. We've been in the middle of the forest before, but why when we see the city inside there is so much sand like we're in a desert?
The woman's figure releases our hands and speaks to us with an excited tone and a bright smile, "Welcome, to the Future City, Nexus!! The most modern city in the world with many high technology things!! By the way, my name is Selene Rotzgel, nice to meet you." She says as she introduces herself with a bright smile and a bright tone in her voice.
The gate is so futuristic and made of metal, there are even several points that are glowing. I don't know what to say, it's so different from Euler. Lunette's eyes sparkling even more as she's staring at the gate with the gleams in her eyes. I hope she won't cause any trouble again.