Eliza ran towards the nearest bridge while Demitrus split off towards the left side of the bridge. The Rakna stirred and started scrambling to defend the nest, but it was too late. As Eliza passed by the bridge, she tossed a torch into the nest-like structure blocking the way across and then continued running. Behind her, loud screeching filled the air as several nests simultaneously caught fire. Coming to the canal's edge, Eliza looked down to see the Rakna swarming toward her.

She had maybe enough time to throw the last torch before they made it to her; several of them were already rearing back to launch spit at her.

Drawing her arm back and aiming, Eliza threw the torch. It arced beautifully before landing in the middle of the nest. Job done; Eliza started taking a few steps back as several of the Rakna began to crest the side of the canal. A few wads of Rakna spit landed where she had just been standing and splattered across the cobbled stone ground. Pivoting on her heel, Eliza booked it for the foot of the bridge, where several groups of Rakna were already swarming Demitrus.

Demitrus danced around the Rakna, his sword swinging through the air and cutting down any Rakna that got close to him; his form inelegant but sufficient enough for dealing with the Rakna.

Eliza neared the outskirts of the swarm surrounding Demitrus and drew her sword. A couple of the Rakna that were about to spit at Demitrus turned towards her at her approach, but it was too late. She swung her sword, the blade cleanly cutting through the air and separating the heads of the two young Rakna from their body.

Before their bodies even had time to fall to the ground, Eliza stepped past the falling bodies and swung her sword downwards, easily cutting one of the Rakna in half. Eliza cut through the swarm of panicking Rakna until she stood near where Demitrus was.

Without the adult Rakna, the younger Rakna were nothing more than a panicking, uncoordinated mob of insects throwing themselves at Eliza and Demitrus in the hopes that it would do something. Now that Eliza was closer, she could tell that these Rakna were about the size of the youngest Rakna she had faced up to this point.

Momentarily distracted by the thought, at the last moment, Eliza noticed one of the Rakna on the outskirts aiming for her; at the same time, three of the nearby Rakna suddenly surged towards her from three different sides.

Gritting her teeth and with not much else she could do, Eliza immediately lunged towards the nearest one, stabbing forward with her blade and impaling it through its middle abdomen. Then the Rakna immediately behind her lunged, the small blades cutting towards where she stood; she sidestepped the attack and, in the same movement, tore her sword from the abdomen of the previous Rakna and swung it backward. The unfortunate Rakna fell onto her blade and was cleanly cut in half. Both halves of its body fell unceremoniously onto the ground.

Then turning towards the last of the three Rakna and swinging her sword to kill it, she quickly spun to see the wad of spit arcing towards her. At the last moment, she angled her body so that it splattered against the side of her bicep, where it began to burn. She rapidly closed the distance and dispatched the offending Rakna in one clean slash.

She returned her attention toward the next nearest Rakna and steeled herself. Young or not, they were trying to kill her, and she couldn't afford not to fight; others were counting on her. Then she began to charge but stopped when she heard Demitrus yell.

"Eliza! Hold out for Leah and Leah, and then let's go!" Demitrus's voice cut through the screeches of the dying Rakna.

Eliza glanced to see that the nest-like structure blocking the bridge was indeed almost done burning. Without a second thought, Eliza charged back into the fray as she saw Leah and Leo beginning to make their way through the horde of young Rakna. "Got it," Eliza yelled back as she swung her sword and took out another Rakna

Loud cries echoed in the air as other squads charged into battle with nests further down the side of the river. They crashed into the sidelines of the Rakna and started to cut them down left and right.

Eliza felt relief flood through her when many of the Rakna surrounding her turned and charged toward the new threat. She sidestepped another wad of Rakna spit that flew her way. In the same movement, she stabbed her sword into a nearby Rakna, impaling it, and she swung her sword into the air, taking the Rakna with it. The now-dead, Rakna was dislodged by the movement, and it flew through the air to land on a Rakna that was about to spit.

Immediately she charged forward, and her sword lashed out, piercing through the next Rakna. She quickly jumped to the side, pulling her sword out in the process, and another few wads of Rakna spit by where she was. At the same time, as she landed, she pulled a rock out of the sack that was tied around her waist and threw it away from her. It skidded across the stone pavement, drawing the attention of several of the nearby Rakna, affording her a split second to spare a glance to see how Leah and Leo were doing as she changed direction.

They were slowly making their way through the frenzied horde of Rakna, completely ignored for the most part.

Eliza quickly looked behind her to see how far they had to cover. If she had to guess, they were about three-quarters of the way there.

She heard more chittering, and almost instinctively, at this point, she sidestepped the wad of spit that was shot toward her. Dashing forward, she pierced the offending Rakna with her sword. As quickly as it had gone in, it was out, and she was moving again. The Rakna became more frenzied, and they began attacking her with abandon. Adapting to the change, Eliza constantly switched directions and started throwing rocks every time it became dicey, barely allowing her to keep up with the growing onslaught.

Eliza felt a hint of exhaustion begin to seep in, and she fought it back, Just a few more moments, she just needed to get through a few more moments, and they'll be free of this mess.

Finally, Leo and Leah made it through the horde, and they began running down the bridge.

"Eliza!" Demitrus yelled out as he started to run towards the open bridge.

"Already on it!" She yelled back as she quickly took down another three Rakna, opening a small path through the swarm around her. She started running towards the bridge, cutting down any Rakna that was unfortunate enough to get in her way. Eventually, Eliza managed to break through, and Demitrus was waiting for her at the foot of the bridge. Once she got there, they booked it down the bridge after Leah and Leo.

It didn't take long for them to catch up to Leah and Leo.

"I can't believe that worked! Leah said as she looked behind at the Rakna who had followed them. They were falling behind despite the group's slow speed.

"Of course, it worked; you had Eliza and I," Demitrus said, smiling at Leah.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves; we're not done yet," Eliza said, cutting in, looking forward towards the end of the bridge. It seemed their actions on their side of the bridge hadn't gone unnoticed by the Rakna on the other.

Ahead of them, a group of Older Rakna were making their way over to assist the other side. Among the group was an adult Rakna, not as big as the Warrior Rakna she had faced before but big compared to everything else she'd fought so far.

The group slowed down to a stop to catch their breaths as the new threat approached. Behind them, Eliza watched as the Rakna amassed and began to stream down the canal into the water. Then they began to quickly swim across the water using the tentacles in their heads to propel themselves forward.

Well, that wasn't something she had been expecting. Going into the water was not an option. Eliza returned her attention to the approaching threat.

"I'll attack the adult from the front; Demitrus, you get behind it and take out its legs. Leah, shoot the smaller ones if they try anything. Leo, be ready to move and tell us if you hear anything from behind us. Let's go," Eliza quickly commanded, and then she ran forward to meet the adult Rakna head-on.

An arrow flew by Eliza's right side and embedded itself into the head of one of the smaller Rakna, and to her left, Eliza could hear Demitrus running behind her. It only took a couple of seconds for both groups to meet.

The adult Rakna began by rearing and slamming its scythe-like arms toward Eliza. Immediately Eliza slid to a stop and jumped backward, narrowly avoiding the arms as they passed by in front of her face by less than an inch of distance and embedded themselves into the stone of the bridge.

The Rakna then struggled to pull its arms out of the stone, and Eliza wasn't one to let this advantage slip by. She lunged forward and swung her sword at the joints of one of its scythe-like legs. The Rakna barely managed to dislodge itself from the stone bridge, but not before Eliza's sword cut through the joint of the leg. The adult Rakna recoiled backward, leaving one of its scythe arms behind.

The pain from being disarmed elicited a shriek of anger from the Rakna, and it expelled a large wad of spit directly toward Eliza. Eliza half ran, half jumped to the right, barely avoiding the brunt of the spit attack. However, a few drops splattered off the bridge's stone and landed on her arms' exposed skin. The spit quickly hardened and began to burn, but it didn't limit Eliza's movement in any noticeable way.

Eliza landed on the stone side railing of the bridge and struggled to keep her momentum from carrying her over and into the water teeming with Rakna below.

The adult Rakna let out another screech as Eliza managed to find her balance. Looking, she saw it turning to attack Demitrus, who had done something to it that she couldn't see. However, in dealing with Demitrus, it had exposed its back to Eliza, and it would turn out to be the Rakna's fatal mistake.

Eliza kicked off of the stone railing and launched herself into the air towards the Rakna. With her free hand, she latched onto the edge of its chitin armor, separating its head from the body. Once her footing was secure, she reversed her grip on her sword and then plunged it into the gap in the armor.

Almost immediately, the adult Rakna began to buckle, but it managed to stop itself from outright collapsing. Using the last of its strength, it propelled itself toward the edge of the bridge and jumped off, Taking Eliza with it.

Eliza quickly tried to pull out her sword, but the Rakna bent its head back, trapping the sword between its head and its armor. After giving it one last tug, Eliza determined that her sword was a lost cause and kicked back towards the bridge.

Twisting in the air, Eliza saw how far away the bridge was and began to panic. How had they gotten that far away from the bridge that quickly? She didn't know if she was going to make it. Stretching her hand forward, she reached for the edge of the bridge's stone railing as her body began to fall beneath it. Eliza watched in horror as her fingers barely missed the rim of the stone side wall and slammed against the side uselessly,

Just then, someone reached down and grabbed her hand. Her fall came to a sudden halt, and she was left hanging in the air. She looked up to see Demitrus leaning far over the side of the bridge, her hand clasped in his.

"That was a little much for just some sword, don't you think?" He said his typical smile on his face.

"Enough of your jokes; pull me up already." Eliza snarled.

"Well, I would love to do so, Eliza, my dear, but, dare I say it, you are quite heavy, and lifting heavy things isn't exactly my forte."

Eliza's cheeks flushed red.

It was then that Eliza noticed that Demitrus's smile was actually strained and that his arm was trembling from the exertion.

"If you can't pull her up, just say so, Demitrus; no need to leave her hanging," Leo said, backhanding a Rakna that had leaped towards Demitrus. Coming up beside Demitrus, He reached down and, grabbing the collar of Demitrus's shirt, pulled her and Demitrus up easily. Eliza and Demitrus spilled over the side of the bridge and onto the ground. Around them, the rest of the smaller Rakna were dead.

"Ah, thanks for save, Leo. It looks like I'm not as strong as I thought." Demitrus said, scratching the back of his head, seemingly embarrassed, before turning to look at Eliza, "Thankfully Leo was there, huh?" he said with a carefree smile coming back to his face.

Eliza glared at Demitrus and ripped her hand out of his. She climbed to her feet and started to storm off but stopped after a couple of steps. She slightly turned back to look at him, "Thanks for catching me." She said before walking down the bridge. Pulling out her spear, she stopped several steps later and planted the butt onto the bridge as she waited for them to catch up.

"You may be smart, Demitrus, but it looks like you can be an idiot. Try to keep up with Leo." Leah said before walking up beside her and giving her a concerned look.

Eliza met her gaze and slightly shook her head. Then continued waiting for the idiot and Leo. She may be angry, but she wasn't stupid enough to charge off alone. She shot the idiot a look, urging him to hurry up.

"... She's not going to let that go, is she?" Demitrus said with a bit of concern in his voice to Leo, looking towards him.

Leo pulled Demitrus to his feet, "Probably not?" Leo smiled at him and clapped him on the shoulder, "I'll make sure you get a funeral; no other promises, though. Lead the way.

Seeing that they were finally moving, Eliza started walking again, observing the other side of the bridge as they neared the end. She could see markedly less Rakna infesting the shore, most already engaged in battle by this point. Curious to see how the battle was going, she looked back.

Simply put, It was a massacre. While the young Rakna were being cut down left and right, with the arrival of some of the older Rakna from across the river, the younger became much more coordinated. By the looks of it, several squads had already been taken out by the swarm.

Whoever had come up with this strategy was incompetent. Either that or he cared little for the lives of the prisoners and wanted them dead. Whichever it was, the prisoner squads were killing enough Rakna that it would be easy for the guards to clean up once they got here.

It seems all the prisoners were no more than cannon fodder in the eyes of the officers.

"We have incoming," Leah said from her side.

Behind her, Eliza heard the scurrying of Rakna coming onto the bridge; she looked towards the swarm and took a deep breath to calm herself. She didn't have enough time to worry about the prisoners and pushed her annoyance with Demitrus aside. There were more pressing concerns, so she readied her spear.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Several Rakna stopped and reared up, preparing to spit as the rest kept charging toward them. Their chittering seal in the air as Eliza stepped forwards to meet the first of the swarm.

And then they stopped.

The front of the swarm froze just out of reach of Eliza's spear, and the chittering of the Rakna from behind died down. And then, in a fluid movement, the swarm parted, opening a path through them.

Slowly Eliza stood up, getting a feeling of deja vu. She looked towards the back of the swarm, and her suspicions were confirmed. Out of one of the nests confidently strode a large Rakna. Eliza looked towards one of its back left legs, which was markedly smaller than the rest of its legs.

But that didn't bother it as it sat up on its hind legs confidently and turned its head to look directly toward Eliza. There was no mistaking it; This was the Warrior Rakna.

"What's going on?" Leo asked with a bit of concern in his voice.

"The Rakna have lined both sides of the bridge and have opened a path towards the Big Rakna that challenged Eliza earlier," Leah answered his question.

"What, does it want another duel? So much for our plan of fighting through and then running." Leo said.

"Yeah, who'd expect a demon to be this infatuated with you, Eliza," Demitrus said.

Eliza noticed a hint of annoyance in his voice. A slight smirk came to her face. She walked in front of Demitrus and clearly showed him her small smile.

"What? Did your grand plan not consider my charm? I must say I'm disappointed." Eliza said as she started to walk down the small path formed by the Rakna.

Demitrus glowered at her for a moment before he replaced his frown with a smile. "... I'll consider it adequately from now on." He said, following behind her. Leah and Leo followed behind him.

When Eliza passed by the first of the Rakna, they began to move, and Eliza froze, tensing up. Had they just walked into a trap?

Her fears turned out to be unfounded as the Rakna scurried past them, streaming to either side of the group as they ran to join the fight with the prisoners. The Warrior Rakna sat unmoving in the small plaza at the head of the bridge. Around it stood a couple of adult Rakna.

It didn't take Eliza and co. Long to traverse their way through the swarm and come to stand in front of the large Warrior Rakna. Both groups stood staring at each other in silence for a few moments. Then Eliza spoke.

"Are you smart enough to understand human speech?" Eliza asked.

The Warrior Rakna looked at her and tilted its head.

"Umm, Eliza, why are you trying to talk to it? How could one be smar-" Leah began to say, but the Warrior Rakna spat at her feet. Some of it splattered onto one of her legs, causing her to emit a yelp of pain.

“Nevermind, point taken.” She said as she quickly took out her water sack and poured water onto her leg. She sighed in relief as the pain went away.

"... I'll take that as an affirmation of my question." Eliza said, "I take it you want another duel?"

The Warrior Rakna slightly tilted its head to the side and looked at her intently, the tentacles in its mouth squirming in a seemingly deliberate pattern. Eliza felt it was saying something to her, but that couldn't be right.

"...Could you tap one of your front legs? one time for yes, two times for no? I'd rather you not spit at my friends to answer questions."

It froze for a moment a shudder ran through its body. Finally, it raised its front left leg and tapped it once on the ground.

"Fascinating. I've only heard stories of Demons who can understand humans." Demitrus said, looking at the Warrior Rakna with an excited glint.

"It happens when they get powerful enough; now quiet," Eliza said.

"Now, back to the first question; you wanted another duel, right?"

One tap.

"Do you want my friends in the fight?"

Two taps

"As I thought, I have a couple of conditions then."

It tilted its head.

"If I win the duel, we're allowed to go free without being harmed by the rest of the Rakna here. Is that acceptable?"

One tap.

"Is there a way outside of the mountain from here?"

One tap.

"Will some of your friends here show us the way out if I win?"

One tap.

"And if I lose, will you let them go as well?

"What? As if we would leave you behind!?" Leah exclaimed in shock.

"It's alright; I'm not going to lose," Eliza said, giving Leah a comforting smile.

"But-" Leah said weakly, but Eliza turned back to look at the Rakna.

"Are these terms agreeable?" Eliza asked the Rakna

It looked down at her for a few moments; its head tilted to the side as it thought.

Then finally, One tap.

Eliza sighed in relief.

"Alright, are we going to fight here?"

Two taps.

With that, it turned around and started walking towards the street that led through the seals. The Rakna around it made a path for it as it passed by. Eliza followed behind it, the others following behind her as well.

They walked by several seals that seemed to be full of eggs. The Rakna spit coated the walls of the seal, giving them a soft blue glow. Rakna scurried back and forth in a hurry around the nests.

"Hey, uh, Eliza? Why does it want to duel you so much? Isn't its home being attacked right now?" Leah asked tentatively from the side.

"It'll likely evolve to its next stage if it beats me. If it does that, it'll probably be strong enough to take on the strongest warriors in the camp. In that way, fighting me is one of the most important things it could do now." Eliza said, watching as a couple of young Rakna scurried across her path.

"Is beating a forsaken that valuable to a demon?" Leo asked,

"it is, depending on the strength of the contract broken," Eliza said, her lips tightening as they walked out from the last of the Rakna's nest. They stepped onto a large platform extending out over the giant pit they had seen from a distance earlier. The platform was probably an elevator hub to load and unload supplies. Or at least, that was what all the cranes and pulleys around the platform were suggesting to her.

Many machines had large water wheels attached to them, presumably to power them with the water. They were connected to dry canals connected to the pipes and machines that pumped water from the river.

Eliza walked to the platform's edge and looked down into the pit, The bottom of which was entirely hidden by the darkness, and Eliza had no inkling as to how deep it actually was.

"How strong was your contract?" Demitrus asked from the side of the platform.

She turned her gaze to look at the Warrior Rakna, calmly waiting in the center of the platform.

"I'm the child of two people who had a strong contract with Shavmir, God of the Silverian Empire, but more importantly, I had a contract with him. As a result of these two things, my body has been changed by Shavmir's power, making me valuable to the Demons. But enough of this, I have a fight to win."

Eliza readied her spear and gave the Warrior Rakna a nod.

And then it charged.

Lunging forward, the Warrior Rakna slashed diagonally with its right leg toward Eliza's head.

In response, Eliza stepped into the attack, ducking under it simultaneously. Eliza felt the leg cut through the air above her hair, a mere hairbreadth from hitting her head. She pivoted on her heel and stabbed her spear as hard as possible into one of the crevices in its armor.

The spear struck true, sinking into the armor. It wasn't deep enough to cause any wounds, but that wasn't what Eliza aimed for. Eliza tightened her grip on the spear.

As she suspected, the Warrior Rakna swung its other leg at her, rotating its body in the process. When it turned, She jumped. Due to being stuck in its side, the spear rotated with it, and with the spear, Eliza.

Eliza was flung into the air for a brief moment before she latched onto the rim of a segment of the Rakna's armor. It took her a couple of attempts, but she was able to dislodge her spear from the Rakna's armor. And then she started to climb towards its head.

The Warrior Rakna attempted to throw her off in any way it could, but Eliza managed to keep her hold despite its attempts.

It only took a few moments for her to climb up its back, and changing her grip on the spear from an overhand to an underhand grip; she prepared to stab the spear into the Rakna's neck segment.

Knowing what she was trying to do, the Warrior Rakna stopped trying to throw her off and instead rotated its head to face Eliza, The tentacles extending out of its mouth and extending toward her.

But they weren't fast enough to stop her as Eliza plunged the spear deep into the Rakna's neck, and then she let go. She wouldn't make the same mistake again.

She fell a few feet before latching onto a lower segment of the armor out of the reach of the Warrior Rakna's tentacles.

Despite landing a clean hit, Eliza knew the fight wasn't over. Despite its injury, The Warrior Rakna suddenly sped up, almost causing Eliza to lose her grip. Quickly regaining her grip, Eliza looked up to see that they were rapidly approaching one of the cranes.

She then realized what it was planning to do. It was attempting to crush her between the crane and its body!

Desperately looking around for a solution, Eliza's eyes latched onto the ropes that supported the crane's load; in particular, her eyes focused on one of the ropes, the lowest rope, that traveled the length of the cross beam. It was stretched taut and looked to be in jumping distance. A plan made, she readied herself to jump as they neared the crane.

As the Rakna swung its backside towards the crane, Eliza leaped, arms outstretched towards the rope. She barely managed to reach and latch onto the rope. Her momentum swung her body forward at the of the swing. Eliza heard a loud pop from her shoulder as her body suddenly stopped. An intense, searing pain shot through Eliza's arm. At the same time, The Rakna's backside slammed into the main support beam of the crane.

The crane trembled under the force of the impact, sending waves of vibrations throughout the structure, accompanied by the sound of splintering wood. Eliza clenched her teeth, bearing the pain as waves of pain lanced through her arm in tandem with the shaking of the crane.

She quickly reached up and latched onto the rope with her other hand, taking the pressure off her most likely dislocated arm. Then swinging back and forth, she swung her legs up and wrapped them around the rope.

Then, a loud echoing boom echoed out into the cavern as something large and heavy slammed down. Drawn by the sound, Eliza looked towards where it had come from. Out in the distance, she saw the large gate, now closed, that had let the river water run freely out of the mountain. Soon after, accompanied by rushing water, Eliza's surroundings came to life as machines began to move.

Eliza's crane shuddered again, and her attention was drawn back to the Rakna below her. Unable to reach her, it backed up and slammed itself into the support pillar of the crane once again. Upon doing so, it staggered a couple of steps back before some of its legs almost gave out. From where Eliza was, she could see that it was struggling to keep itself standing. But still, it stood, and after a few moments, it came forward and began cutting into the reinforced supports of the crane with its arms.

Feeling a hint of fatigue beginning to settle into her arms, Eliza went into action and started shimmying up the length of the rope toward where it converged with the wooden beam. Once she was close enough to the wooden cross beam, she held her body onto the rope using her legs and reached around the wooden beam with her good arm. Exerting all her upper body strength, she somehow managed to pull herself up and around the beam, and she sat up on top of the beam, gasping for breath.

Now in a somewhat more secure position, Eliza looked down to see how much progress the Rakna had made on the support beam. From where she was, the wood was heavily splintered, and the whole reason the crane was still standing was due to the significant metal reinforcements that lined the wood throughout the structure. But even that wouldn't last long under the onslaught of the Warrior Rakna. While it was getting weaker and weaker, the Warrior Rakna wasn't dying nearly quickly enough with a spear in its neck. She needed to do something, and soon.

She looked around, searching desperately for something that she could do. Then, another shudder went through the crane, but this time it wasn't due to the warrior Rakna hitting it. Instead, it was because a burst of water came out of the pipes and into the Canals surrounding the platform, and with it, the crane whirled to life as it began to move. Seemingly unaware of what was happening, The Rakna continued attacking the crane's base.

Eliza almost lost her balance as the crane began to rotate beneath her. Looking down, she saw the load the crane was carrying on a square platform beginning to move. It carried a pile of heavy-looking boxes, and the crane was moving so that the platform would soon be directly above her quarry. She knew what she needed to do, but her window of opportunity was rapidly closing.

Moving as quickly as she could, She dragged herself across the top of the crane to where all the ropes converged. Nearing the end of the beam, In her haste, her leg caught on something that cut through it and sent a sharp burning pain coursing through her leg. Cursing her bad luck, she looked down at the offending sharp splinter of wood, and after a few tugs, she managed to pull it out of the beam.

She paused, about to throw it aside, and continued as a thought crossed her mind. She needed something to cut the rope with, and without anything else, a piece of wood with an edge sharp enough to cut through the skin would suffice. A small smile came to her face as she made double time to the end of the beam.

Once there, she began sawing away at the rope that held the platform up in the air. And just in time, too, as the platform was beginning to overshadow her opponent. She felt a tremor move through the crane, and she knew she didn't have much time left before the crane started to fall.

She sawed at the rope desperately. It didn't take long for the old rope to begin to fray under the assault of the sharp wooden splinter, and a few moments later, it finally snapped. A rush of excitement filled Eliza upon seeing her success, but that quickly disappeared when the Warrior Rakna gave one last swing at the crane's base. Eliza felt the crane shudder, accompanied by the sound of splintering wood, and then the crane began to tilt over.

Her gut dropped as she fell along with it, the ground quickly approached, and all she could do was brace herself for impact. She heard Leah yell out her name, and then her vision went black a moment later.

—

Eliza came too sometime later; at first, everything was hazy, as if a fog had settled over her mind. She attempted to move but then immediately regretted it. All of a sudden, pain flooded her body, agony filling up every recess of her being. Doing her best to bear the pain, she tried to move again only to find that she could not, not because the pain was too great, but because something was holding her down, something heavy.

Cracking her eyes open, she could see what it was, and she vaguely understood what had happened. Somehow in the fall, she had ended up beneath the crane, and it had landed on top of her. She could feel a lot of the weight resting on the calf of the right leg. she hoped it wasn't broken.

Grunting in pain, she weakly tried to move the crane with her good arm and, failing at that, fell back, gasping in pain and sucking in a lungful of dust in the process. She immediately began coughing, each cough sending racking pain throughout her body. It took a few moments for the coughs to subside, leaving her wheezing on the ground in pain.

She briefly wondered what could be taking the rest of the group so long. It didn't take long for her to find the answer to that question.

Above her, she heard the sound of heavy, clanking footsteps approaching her. A creeping dread began to crawl in her stomach as she recognized them as the footsteps of someone wearing heavy armor.

Her fears were confirmed a moment later as Gary's smiling face came into view.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? Could that be you, Eliza?" He said in a bright and cheery voice.

"Well, lads, what are you waiting for? Get her out of there." he continued without giving Eliza a chance to respond.

Immediately some people jumped into action, and the crane was lifted off her. As soon as the crane moved, her leg began to scream in pain, eliciting a gasp from Eliza. An uncaring pair's of rough hands grabbed her by the shoulders and dragged her out, paying no heed to her dislocated shoulder as they lifted her into the air.

Gritting her teeth, she immediately scanned her surroundings. Around the platform, a large group of soldiers, wearing the same armor as Gary, were dragging the bodies of dead prisoners and throwing them off the side of the platform into the large pit. Among them, she saw Kolgit carefully watching everything happening and couldn't see her teammates anywhere. Finally, her gaze returned to Gary, who had a disturbing smile.

"I must say, it's impressive that you took down an Alpha Rakna all by yourself. You truly are a little bundle of big surprises." He said

"What did you do to them?" She managed to croak out, looking around the platform once again.

"Hmm, The prisoners? Or are you perhaps talking about the rest of your squad?"

"My squad." Eliza hissed out, still searching desperately.

"What if I told you they abandoned you and left when they saw me coming?" He said cheerfully as his eyes scrutinized her expression.

Eliza turned her gaze toward him and glared at him, "I'd call you on your bullcrap." she hissed.

Gary sighed, "No need to be so hostile, my dear; I'm only fulfilling what I promised you and Leah earlier. I granted them 'citizenship' and sent them on their merry way. Soon it will be your turn." He said with an enthusiastic voice.

Eliza's voice went cold, "by 'citizenship,' do you mean that?" she said, inclining her head towards the soldiers who threw another dead body into the pit.

"Quite the observation; you would be correct." He said, his attention focused solely on her.

"Killing your soldiers and throwing them in a pit? What could you possibly get from this?" Eliza snarled loudly, a new hatred for the elf burning in her gut. Behind Gary, Eliza saw Kolgit perk up and slowly make his way over.

"What do I get out of this, you ask?" He said incredulously. "Why, power, of course. You see, the Demon leader and I have this little agreement. I help him with two things. First, I provide fresh human corpses for him and his army," he indicated towards the dead bodies, "as you can see. Second, I eliminate whichever groups of Demons are getting too uppity for his tastes, like these Rakna, for instance. When the Alpha Rakna failed to capture you on your first mission because it dueled you against orders, that combined with them getting hard to control. He needed someone to take care of them. And so I did. As for what I get? Military achievement, prestige, political power, you name it. I simply only need to pit trash humans against trash demons. How wonderful is that!?" His eyes glinted in a fervor boarding on insanity. "Not only that, he has granted me power, and soon he will grant me powers beyond human comprehension, and then, then, nobody will dare mess with my men or me here ever again." He declared emphatically.

"You're insane." Eliza snarled, "Nothing good ever comes out of dealing with Demons; you'll only ruin yourself and those you care about." anger filled her voice.

They were interrupted by a loud screech of rage and… agony? Both immediately turned to its source, The Warrior, or Alpha Rakna.

Still alive and with a sudden burst of strength, it threw off the rest of the platform holding it down. It staggered to its feet. Its attention focused solely on Gary and then, emitting the same screech full of rage and agony, charged directly for him.

Gary only sighed, his figure blurred as he sidestepped the enraged Alpha Rakna. In the same movement, he back-punched the Rakna as it ran by. His fist impacted, and Eliza watched in shock as the Alpha Rakna's body folded in on the fist before being launched into the air. The Alpha Rakna was airborne for a second before crashing back down on the platform, rolling over several times, and then sliding off the platform into the pit below.

"Tenacious bugs never seem to know when to give up." He scrunched up his face in disgust as he pulled out a cloth and wiped what little of the Rakna's blood that had landed on his armored fist off. Now, as for you, I think it's about time you received your citizenship. Bring her to the edge, lads." He said, an excited glint in his eyes.

"You won't get away with this. Mark my words; I will make you pay." Eliza declared as she was dragged towards the edge.

Gary chuckled, "You should be more worried about how you're going to survive, little missy. It is quite the long fall." he said as Eliza was pushed to her knees with her back facing the abyss. Gary walked to stand in front of her, looking down at her with a smirk. That's when he caught sight of her pendant that hung around her neck.

"Ah, so that's where that went; I was wondering which of the rats in the camp had figured out how to get into my office," he said as he reached down and grabbed ahold of Eliza's pendant. With a quick jerk, he snapped the chain, stealing it again. Eliza struggled but couldn't do anything against the superior strength of the two soldiers holding her down.

Gary continued speaking as he raised the pendent to eye level, "It looks like I won't need to investigate that matter further. A parting gift, if you will, for your service; our acquaintance was short, but I must say I feel indebted to you, and I hate that, so If you don't mind, I'll pay you back right now." He said as he grabbed Eliza by the head.

The next thing Eliza saw was his metal-clad knee coming for her face. It impacted; she heard bone crumbling as the knee sunk into her nose before her vision went white, and then she fell. A moment later, her vision faded to black.