The creature that stood before them was apparently called a horned silvermane. It looked like a cross between a bear and a lion, with a shaggy silvery mane that was most likely it's namesake.

It also sported two brutal looking spiral horns pointed forwards, large enough to easily gore a grown male and reduce him to a bloody pulp.

Its eyes were bloodshot and saliva dripped from its gaping maw rimmed with dagger like fangs. It looked poised to attack at any moment.

The crimson haired young woman was the one who reacted first and got in between the monster and her companion. She readied her weapon and aimed it directly at the creature.

"Stay behind me Sakuya! I'll finish this sluggard off right away."    

The monster swung its powerful looking fore claws at her without warning. She dodged the attack by a hair's breadth and immediately prepared to retaliate.

She aimed her weapon at the creature once more and pulled the trigger.

Contrary to what the young man was expecting, the weapon didn't work like your typical antique firearm that used gun powder.  

A bright bluish light shot forth from the barrel of her weapon and hit the monster head on. It was hit directly on its chest and staggered briefly but quickly regained its balance.

The woman wasn't fazed and continued to fire her strange weapon at the creature.

Though it failed to deal significant damage in one hit, being peppered with rapid fire shots seemed to be having an effect. It was like the creature was being repeatedly hit by a heavy blunt weapon and it was getting increasingly disoriented.

It continued to swing its large fore claws at the young woman despite this, attacking with reckless abandon. It also lunged at her several times, intent on impaling her with its horns.

But she continued to dodge its attacks by a narrow margin and pelted it with those strange bluish white "energy" bullets.

Finally, after enduring a few moments of getting hit with continuous weapons fire, the creature collapsed with a heavy thud. It was frothing in the mouth and its bloodshot eyes lost the glimmer of consciousness.

The crimson haired young woman was panting furiously. Looks like it wasn't an easy victory after all.

Just as she relaxed her guard, another bestial roar resounded; this time right behind the three of them.

Before she could collect herself, another horned silvermane appeared from within the shadows of the trees. It was charging right at the maid girl who was petrified in fear.

"Sakuya!" she screamed desperately.

She wasn't going to make it in time.

As the raven haired girl screamed in horror, the suspicious young man suddenly sprang into action.

He immediately grabbed the maid girl and dashed away with astonishing speed while cradling her in a princess carry, effectively avoiding the monster's charge.

"Hey Miss! Stop gawking and fire at the damn thing will you!"

Coming to her senses, the crimson haired girl aimed at the newly arrived monster and started another barrage. She continuously fired at the center of the creature's forehead and hit it with pinpoint accuracy. It didn't take long for the creature to suffer the same fate as its kin, collapsing belly first onto the ground.

***

"Damn! These things are tough. I didn't think subduing horned silvermanes would be this much trouble."

The crimson haired girl sat on the ground, utterly spent. The young man looked upon her with increasing interest. He was also curious about her weapon. Its projectiles resembled a pulse guns somewhat. To think that a Category 5 planet had things that resembled energy weapons. It was certainly an unexpected surprise.

"Ah... Um... Uuuh..."

A hesitant voice suddenly entered his ears. He then remembered that he was still carrying the maid girl within his arms. He set her down gently beside him; his eyes scanning her appearance to check if she was hurt.

Thankfully, it seems she was fine. She just looked a little distraught. Her cheeks revealed a faint blush as she caught his eyes and she looked away, seemingly from embarrassment.

It was such an adorable gesture. The young man suddenly found himself fighting the urge to hug her out of impulse. Thankfully, he managed to reign in the desire before he made a fool of himself.

"U-um... T-thank you sir. For s-saving me."

She bowed towards him in a gesture of gratitude. He shrugged lightly and told her it was nothing worth any thanks. His body just moved without thinking.

"Y-you still saved me though. I'm truly grateful for that. Um..."

She looked at him with moist eyes. Somehow, he wasn't able to turn away and stared back at her. She slowly drew closer. He couldn't pull away and stood rooted at the spot...

"EHEM!"

The sudden interruption snapped them out of the weird atmosphere. The maid girl shrunk back and covered her blushing face in embarrassment. The young man scratched his cheek while sporting an awkward smile.

"What is this? The rumored suspension bridge effect or something? Anyway, you have my gratitude for saving my attendant uh..."

"Slay. Slay Cassidy."

"Hm. Thank you Slay. I still find you suspicious but I guess I'll trust you for now."

"What brought about this sudden change of heart? It's not just because I saved your attendant is it?"

"No. Well, not just that anyway. You could have left us and ran away after getting confronted with those monsters but you stayed behind and even saved Sakuya. I, at least think you're not just some simple rogue or criminal."

"I could have done that to get in your good books you know. All of that may have been calculated on my part."

"I believe I'm a good enough judge of character to discern whether or not a person is fond of petty schemes like that. You don't really seem to be the type from what I can tell."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Eh... A woman's intuition?"

"Kuh... Ahahahaha!"

"Ehehehe!"

Boisterous laughter resounded from the two. The maid looked at each of them in turn revealing a puzzled expression.

"Ahaha. You sure are interesting milady."

"I could say the same for you. In any case, let's just move out of the forest for now. It'd be bad if we encountered more of these damn things."

"What're we going to do with these things anyway? We can't just leave them here." Slay asked.

The young woman sighed and drew what looked to be a pistol from her belt holster and fired it right at the two creature's heads. This time, its bullets were the kind propelled by gunpowder.

"Less flashy than the magius rifle but it does its job just fine." she exclaimed and winked charmingly at the young man.

He was taken aback by the cute gesture but was even more surprised by what happened to the two unconscious monsters. They had disintegrated into fine particles and scattered in the air shortly after.

"What? Never seen a fell beast get done in before? Those things are abominations that destroy the natural ecosystem of whatever area they appear in so it's best to get rid of them."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"No, that's not it. If those things could have been done in with a simple shot to the head with a gun, then why'd you go to all that trouble to render them unconscious?" he asked with a confused expression.

"Oh, that. Yeah. Those things die instantly when you destroy their ether core. That's what I did earlier by the way.

But there's a catch. Large fell beasts like those silvermanes have the ability to move their cores around their bodies. Finding and destroying them would be too troublesome without proper equipment.

The cores move to their default location when the beast is rendered unconscious. In the case of large mammalian beasts like those, it's usually in the forehead. So I did just that and finished them off afterwards."

She finished with a small huff, looking slightly smug.

"So that's why." he muttered and nodded in understanding.

"Yep. So let's get out of here already. I wasn't able to bathe in the stream thanks to a certain someone so I guess I'll just have to settle for the showers."

She grinned mischievously towards him, prompting him to grin back.

"Like I said, that was unintentional on my part. Anyway, I take it that you want me to come with you milady?"

"Of course. I still find you suspicious after all. We'll proceed with the interrogation after we get back. And it's Charlotte by the way. Charlotte Harvey Rayline. And this young lady is..."

"Um... Sakuya. Sakuya Kagemitsu Lockelear. I thank you for saving me once again Mr. Cassidy."

Sakuya very politely bowed towards Slay, to which he reacted by scratching his cheek with an awkward looking expression.

"Uh... No problem Miss Lockelear. I'm just glad you're safe. And please stop it with the Mr. Cassidy thing. It's kind of awkward for me. Just call me Slay."

"Oh. If so, then I must ask you to call me Sakuya as well. It won't be any trouble I hope."

"No. Of course not Sakuya."

"Ehehe..."

Sakuya smiled bashfully at Slay and her cheeks took on a faint blush. Slay smiled back at her, prompting her to blush even more.

"Ahem! We really should be moving along now you two. Come on guys. Chop chop."

Charlotte pushed the both of them forwards, prompting them to start walking back towards the Rayline Aeronautics facility at the foot of the mountains.

***

They arrived at the facility late in the afternoon. Charlotte picked up her pace as soon as they entered the gate, signaling for Slay and Sakuya to hurry it up as well.

As they approached the hangar, they found Chief Mathers still busy with fine tuning the newly developed bi-plane. He saw the group come near and waved cheerily.

Charlotte waved back, sporting a warm smile.

"We’re back chief. Still going at it I see."”

"Welcome back milady. I gotta get this baby ready for the formal presentation to the board after all. Once it gets officially approved, we’re gonna go straight to production. The client this time is in a bit of a hurry after all."

The chief then noticed Slay, standing nonchalantly near the two young ladies. His eyebrow lifted up slightly and gave him a questioning look.

"Oh. Might I ask who might this be milady? A local from Terine? No, it doesn’t look like it. That silver hair...…"

Charlotte grinned mischievously and replied.

"A peeping tom. We caught him in Largus forest when we went to take a quick bath in the stream."

"Hey!..."

Slay made a troubled expression and attempted to intervene but he heard the familiar sound of someone cracking their knuckles nearby. Needless to say, it was Chief Mathers.

"Ohoh! Boy’s got some guts. What do you want us to do with him milady? The special course or the EXTRA special course?"”

Both Charlotte and the chief wore really dark expressions on their faces.

"___These two are S’ for sure!”" Slay thought as he struggled to find a way to get out of this situation. Luckily, a raven haired angel threw him a lifeline.

"Milady! Please, enough with the jokes! Slay saved my life."

Sakuya admonished Charlotte as she moved in front of Slay, as if to protect him.

"Heh… You’re surprisingly easy to please aren’t you Sakuya. He just carried you like a princess and now you’re all over him."

"Wha-? M-Milady!"

Sakuya blushed to the roots of her hair at Charlotte’s comment. Unable to keep her poker face, Charlotte laughed unsparingly at the two of them.

"Ahahaha! Alright, I get it. I’ll stop now. You’re really fun to tease Sakuya."”

"Milady…..."

Sakuya let out an exasperated sigh. She was used to being an outlet for her mistress’s worries. She was already on the receiving end of her teasing even before she became her personal attendant. But she truly did care for her young mistress and childhood friend.

Even though she doesn’t show it in her usual cheerful demeanor, the young woman named Charlotte was burdened by a lot of things. Some of it, Sakuya doubted she could bear herself. So if teasing her eased her friend’s worries even by just a bit then Sakuya was alright with it.

Though it seems her mistress has found a new person to play around with. Sakuya smiled at the thought and threw a glance at the gentleman behind him.

Slay sported a troubled grin and shrugged his shoulders when he noticed her gaze. Sakuya made a grateful expression and smiled warmly at him.

"So… In the end, who is this guy?" Chief Mathers suddenly quipped while scratching the back of his head.

The three of them burst into cheerful laughter as the chief continued to make a confused expression. After laughing her heart out, Charlotte explained the matters to the chief.

***  

"Horned silvermanes! And two of them… My word...…"

Chief Mathers held a troubled expression after hearing of the events that happened in the forest.

"It seems we need to make a customary sweep of the area. To think such large beasts have already made it this far out... When people reported sightings, I expected small to medium types like fanged hares or redeyes...  

I’ll have my men check Largus forest tomorrow. In the mean time, please refrain from going out of the facility milady."

"Of course chief. We need to return to the capital after tomorrow anyway. We’ll be good little girls and behave till then."

"Mm. And as for this young man?...…"

"I’ll be hearing out his story later. It won’t be too late to decide what to do with him afterwards. Come Sakuya. Let’s return to the lodge."

"Yes milady."”

Charlotte and Sakuya walked towards the back of the hangar with slightly weary steps.

"Um… What about me?" Slay asked.

"You’re coming along mister. I told you I still have some questions." Charlotte replied sporting a radiant smile.

Slay followed the two ladies towards the wooden lodge. Prickly gazes from the rest of the workers in the facility sent chills down his spine as he did so. He smiled bitterly as he thought of how troublesome things are going to get.