‘Damn! How can she be so fast!?’

Twenty minutes after leaving, Aleen was already sweating bullets.

Normally, twenty minutes of walking wouldn’t mean anything to Aleen; after all, though not a top athlete, he was at least confident in his physique. However, when you have to walk carrying a breastplate weighting ten pounds plus a spear weighing another ten, it makes it a bit harder.

Aleen is able to endure it, however. The bigger problem though is the speed of the woman. Aleen could not help but wonder how someone can be so fast just by walking. It was without looking to the heavy-looking armor and sword she was carrying.

The woman was so fast that Aleen was practically running to catch with her. Fortunately, his body seemed to be in top condition. Aleen wasn’t sure about being able to endure for so long normally.

Despite it, however, Aleen body was completely exhausted after twenty minutes. If it was not because he was afraid of offending the ice-cold woman, he would have already asked for a second to catch his breath.

“H-Hey, how long are we going to run?”

The woman ignored him, again. Aleen was not sure if it was the woman’s normal personality or if she was especially cold towards him. It was already the sixth time he asked something without receiving an answer. Resigned, he simply sighed and continue trying to keep the woman’s pace.

Looking around, he observed the surroundings. What kind of place is it?

Twenty minutes of observing were enough for Aleen to do a few guesses about the place. First, this place was apparently a city, though abandoned. Aleen seemed to remember someone saying something about it, but he wasn’t sure if it was his imagination or not. He was not even sure if this place was part of his imagination.

Second, the place was definitively not constructed by humans. After all, not human edification has doors with five meters of height; or gigantic windows. The shape of the houses was strangely large, and the style of the city seemed foreigner. Aleen was sure that such a place doesn't exist on earth.

Lastly, the place was strange, in the bad sense of the word. If Aleen had to describe it, he would call it grim. Either the dried blood on the ground or the claw marks on the walls, everything about the place was terribly wrong. Aleen had the sensation that something was observing him from someplace, but no matter how he looked, he could not find anything.

The truth was, if it was not because the ice-cold woman was with him, he would have been too terrified to take another step in this place.

“H-Hey, are we not there yet?” With another failed intent to establish a conversation, Aleen took another look to the woman, only to see something strange at a corner of his sight.

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A strange 'thing' was looking towards them from a house.

“H-Hey! S-Something is there!”

Shouting, Aleen signaled towards the place where the thing was, but the woman continued ignoring him.

“H-Hey!” He called again before stopping to look the monster, but he only received a cold shoulder from the woman. When he looked again at the place where he saw the thing, it wasn’t there.

… Damn! Am I imagining things!?

Looking around, he was unable to detect something outside buildings and strange plants. Aleen could not help but feel terrified for a moment.

It was definitively a monster!!

Looking vigilantly to his surroundings, Aleen resumed running towards the woman. Because he stopped, the woman was already relatively far from him.

But when he just began to run, something jumped towards him from one of the houses at great speed.

Instinctively, Aleen moved the spear on his hand to try defending himself; but it wasn’t very useful.

The monster weight impacted his body, throwing him with such strength that the spear on his hand deformed visibly. His body left briefly the ground, before flying two meters from the place where he was due to the impact.

Only then was Aleen able to observe the attacker.

The monster was some kind of quadrupedal deformity of frightening appearance. With a height of 1.8 meters and a length of 2 meters, it seemed like a hyena without fur nor eyes, an oversized human head and skin completely wrinkled.

The deformity-like beast looked towards the place where Aleen fell (Though it doesn’t have eyes) And expanded its mouth menacingly. Immediately, it pounced again.

With strength that he didn’t know he had, Aleen moved the spear again to try to stop the monster. He didn’t have time to think how the last attack didn’t cause a fracture, or from where came the strength to move his body. At that moment, the only thought in his mind was to survive.

“Help!!” Giving a cry trying to attract the woman’s attention, Aleen positioned his body to endure the attack of the beast. It, however, was smarter than he thought. Instead of charging towards Aleen like before, it used its claw to hit the spear, trying to take it out from his hands. Luckily, Aleen was able to hold it, but because of the strength of the blow, he flew for another meter.

With his mind fuzzy, Aleen waved his spear crazily in a try to hit the monster, but he was unable to touch it. Instead, he felt something hitting his chest heavily. His entire body hit the ground creating a crater around him and deforming the breastplate on his chest. A sweet flavor filled his mouth, and the heavy smell of iron invaded his nose.

Opening his eyes with the last bit of strength in his body, Aleen saw the jaws of the beast closing on his head furiously.

At that moment, only the revolting smell of death filled his head.

The surroundings seemed to move slowly and the fast-moving jaws of the beast felt like the slow-moving scenes of a terror movie.

Aleen tried to react, to move his body, to search for a solution; but his body was unable to answer to the orders of his accelerated brain.

His only hope, the beautiful ice-cold woman, was too far from him to reach in time.

‘I’m going to die!!’ Was the only thought that appeared in his mind.

However, an incredible scene happened next.

The beast’s jaws, closing to Aleen’s head, stopped a few centimeters from him, unable to advance anymore.

And the beast’s body, filled with imposing strength–

–was pierced for the blade of a sword.

A woman, dressed in beautiful silver armor, and holding the greatsword with only a hand, was standing there calmly as if the beast were no more than an insect not worth of mentioning.

At that moment, despite the body of the beast falling on him and the sweet taste of blood filling his mouth, only a thought appeared in Aleen’s mind.

… So beautiful…

In all his life, this scene would never fade from his memories.