Hugo is running while carrying me on his shoulder like last time. I let him do it since I don't have the confidence to be able to run in my current state.

At the moment we heard a loud roar, Hugo quickly held me by my stomach with his right arm and started to run right next to the river to muffle our sounds with the river's sound.

On his hurry, we left everything behind. I am regretting in not taking some of the poisonous items.

"What kind of beast do you think could roar like that?" Hugo asked with some fear mixed in his voice.

"I am more worried about the reason of the roar," I said calmly.

"The reason? Wasn't the roar caused by a huge beast or something like that?" Hugo asked more confused than afraid this time.

"I am not wondering about the roar’s origin, but why a beast that was so stealthy to the point that it was so near us roared, making its existence and position revealed," I answered a bit irritated due to the fact that I wasn't able to notice this imminent danger earlier.

Hugo got silent after hearing my words, instead of keep asking questions.

The thing that roared is obviously a hunter since it was ridiculously stealthy, then the reasons of that roar that destroyed its hiding position could be reduced to:

1. Successfully hunted something and is roaring due to happiness or some characteristic behavior after a successful hunt.

2. It found something dangerous and it roared as an intimidation tactic.

3. It was a dumb move.

Even an idiot would know that the third answer is wrong, leaving me the first two choices.

Now, between one and two, the less likely answer is number one.

The reason is because I only heard a single roar, which means that the predator is alone. Is easy for a group to steal the prey of a lone animal, meaning that a loner revealing its position is the same as giving its food away without any reason, which is clearly irrational.

Damn it, this only leaves me choice number two and the roar sounding intimidating doesn't help much in lowering its chance.

I don't know the fauna or flora of this forest so I don't know how dangerous the animals here are. I don't even know if we are running away from an animal or something else or if we aren't actually being followed at all. This lack of information is making me seriously mad.

Let's organize what we have right now.

* Hugo is still capable of running with some weight on so he should still be able to fight and from what I saw at the gate, he is quite strong, making him reliable in combat.

* Even if my body is in pain, I can still probably fight against a normal modern soldier while enduring the pain, but not against a group.

* We don't have any weapons currently, but we can probably use whatever we find on this forest as a weapon.

* I am able to use magic, or what I think is magic with my mana. I can make a barrier, a chainsaw and I feel that I can fire a mana bullet with less power than the chainsaw.

Hrm, this isn't our best conditions, should I use a little of my mana to see if I can actually do a ranged attack with my mana?

Hmmmmmm... it's more difficult than I thought. It's like making a sculpture with sand that lacks moisture.

"Hinata-san, are you implying that something more dangerous than the beast we heard roaring is after us?" asked Hugo while I was making a mana bullet, with a voice that denotes that he is expecting to be praised or something.

Is he a kid? Erm... actually, he is a kid. Now that I think about it, even though it was more or less safe, I was wrong in using him as a bait before.

"You are half correct. I do think that another thing as dangerous as a beast that can roar like that is near, but I am not sure if it's chasing after us or not. Keep running just in case," I answered in a tone similar to a teacher to fit the mood while trying to forget my bad actions from a few hours ago.

"Understand teacher!" Hugo said in high spirits and sped up.

If he can run like this, then he is probably in better condition than I thought, but just in case.

"Don't force yourself. I need you to be in good shape in case we need to fight," I warned lightly.

"Don't worry about that Hinata-san, thanks to you my injuries were only to the point of a few cuts and scratches which were closed thanks to the herbs and flowers you recommended, so my body is fine to the point that I can face a bear," Hugo said with a confident voice.

For some reason, my mind is forming the image of Hugo in a fist fight against a bear and actually winning that fight.

In the middle of their fierce fight where punches and quick evasions are occurring in fraction of seconds, Hugo started to mix some kicks to his punches, confusing the bear.

The bear's claw is about to split Hugo's body in two, but he did a body blow to the bear destabilizing it, then he raised his left knee... and I finished shaping mana in an elongated bullet shape so I stopped the fighting show that was airing inside my mind and placed the bullet in front of my forehead, aiming at a random thing. I didn't use my hands since it will be more convenient if I got used to using this magic from any part of my body.

After positioning the bullet, I encased the bulled in a cylindrical barrier with some spiral grooves in the inner side, in other words a rifled barrel. This part was more difficult than the bullet making, but I got accustomed in shaping my mana after making the bullet so it only took me a few seconds.

After finishing the barrel, I made the mana bullet into a barrier and launched it by quickly closing the rear part of the barrel while pushing the bullet from behind at the same time.

Ah crap.

The bullet flew fast and silently in a straight line, until that part was okay, but when the bullet hit a tree similar to an oak, it made a loud impact noise at the same time that a hole as big as my thumb appeared on that tree. I basically revealed our position.

This magic is stronger than I thought, but its consumption is high. I estimate that with my full mana and if I made each bullet powerful to the point that it can tear off an arm, I can shot fifteen rounds, in my current state I can only fire it three more times.

"What was that!?" asked Hugo alarmed.

"Sorry, I didn't thought that it would make such a loud noise," I sincerely apologized.

This was clearly my mistake, we are supposed to be hiding and running away. His idiot disease must be infecting me.

"Eh? It was you who made that sound Hinata-san?" Hugo asked in a surprised voice.

 "That's why I am apologizing," I answered in a regretful voice.

How many stupid mistakes I did today? I am going to die at this rate.

"How did you do that?" Hugo asked excitedly.

"Magic," I curtly replied.

This is not the time to be excited when our lives are in danger.

"Umm. Even if the magic wasn't what you expected, being able to use magic is incredible anyways so cheer up!" Hugo said in a happy tone trying to cheer me up.

"You stupid, that's not the problem! That huge noise I made has a big chance of revealing our position! I said angrily.

Calm down, he is a kid, a brat, a kid. You are the adult here, so remain your cool Eun-Ha.

"Ah, that's bad. I will run quicker..." Hugo was saying something, but.

"Don't do that, didn't I said that I need you in perfect condition?" I said interrupting his words.

"But, isn't it better to run faster to avoid the danger?" Hugo asked.

"If you can't raise your speed significantly, then is better to conserve your energy in case that we are really being chased," I explained to Hugo.

"I see," Hugo said calmly without raising his speed.

Good, he understood. Now I can't do anything more than making mental practices to be able to fire my mana gun as soon as I can see an enemy.

"Hinata-san, even if the enemy catches up to us, I will make sure to protect you this time," Hugo said seriously after we were silent for about one minute.

What is this idiot saying?

"Don't be stupid, it's an adult's duty to protect the children so don't dare to try pull something stupid," I said annoyed.

"Adult? Don't tell me that you weren't joking back then?" Hugo asked with some doubt mixed in his voice.

"That's right, you should believe me before making some weird expectations," I answered annoyed but for another reason this time.

This guy still refuses to believe the truth. I should have glued my ID inside that stupid costume.

"I still don't know if you are being serious or not... Ah, that's right. How was your home?" Hugo asked suddenly after muttering something stupid.

"Hah? What are you asking me so suddenly?" I asked confused.

"I just realized that I barely know anything about you. Even though we are facing this dangerous situation together I don't know anything more than your name," Hugo said embarrassed.

He has a point. I also don't know anything about him besides his apparent name which I hope that it isn't real and that he has a little sister. It would be good to know more about him to have more data to work around.

"I am sorry to say this, but I already told you that this name is a fake one while I revealed my real age and gender which for some reason you refuse to believe," I said irritated.

"So it was true that Hinata Kuroko wasn't your real name, then is there something else you can tell me? Ah, by the way, my real name really is Tanaka Hokuto, not Hugo" Hugo said happily for some reason.

Pah.

I reflexibly smacked his back with a strong slap.

Urg, my right arm hurts, I should have controlled my instincts.

"Ouch! What was that for!?" Hugo complained with a teary voice.

"It's your fault for having such a common family name," I said in a teary voice too.

"Why is that a problem!?" Hugo complained angrily this time.

"I don't know either so is no use asking me," I said 

What kind of stupid comedy show I am doing in this dire situation.

"Forget it, in the few hours that I have met you I already know that it is pointless to argue with you," Hugo said with a voice as if he had given up on something.

"So you know something about me," I said in a mean voice.

"Something that I wished to know sooner or never," Hugo said depressed voice.

It's your fault for believing stuffs without evidence. Not mine.

"Returning to our previous topic, I will talk about my home if you talk about yours first," I said while smiling.

"Eh? Really?" Hugo asked with some joy mixed in his surprise.

"Yes, it won't hurt me to know more about you," I said while trying to remember how was my home before I met Carla.

Yeah, talking about our life on Earth would be a nice way to spend the time in this stressing situation where we don't know if we are going to be attacked or not.

My home hmm. If Carla hadn't picked me up fourteen years ago, my life would have been completely different. It was a real miracle to have met  her.

In the middle of my reminiscence, Hugo started to talk about his life back on Earth.

"Okay, I will talk about me first. My home is nothing too special, just a normal family. My mom is a regular housewife and my dad is a general doctor. I am the eldest child of the house while my little brother Kitao and my little sister Yui are twins three years younger than me. Me and Kitao, were born incredibly healthy, but Yui's body was weak, so in order to lessen the burden of her body, dad decided to move to a village in a mountain with clear air, or at least that was the reason that mom gave me, since I don't remember that time very well.

I do remember that Yui was a kid who constantly gets sick, but once we started to train at the old temple in the village which has a school of Kung Fu, her condition started to get slowly better and before anybody realized it, she was constantly playing with the other kids at the only school of the village. Haha, I remember that dad was against us training at the temple at first, so we trained with the master for a few hours after school in secret since we thought that martial arts were cool and the master was super cool,. Dad gave us a huge scolding when he found out, specially since we dragged Yui on our secret training sessions, but after he saw Yui's abilities with the Bō he decided to let us train and even gave constant donations to the temple.

At school, even though my grades sucked, Kitao and Yui's scores were always almost perfect, making dad and mom to scold me every time after a test. Even though I was being scolded I was feeling proud of having such intelligent siblings. They weren't only intelligent, but good looking too. Kitao was so handsome that many girls were following after him and Yui was so cute to the point that some bad pests were following after her which me and Kitao had to deal with in secret since Yui was so kind that she was willing to defend those pests from us and that was scary since she is dangerous with a weapon on her hands. Ahhh, I still remember that time where she almost killed us when she found us following after her in her date with some stupid guy.

On my part, I felt that it would be impossible to reach the academic skills of Kitao and Yui, so I decided to focus my whole in martial arts to be a cool brother who can be relied upon and before I knew it I was the star of the temple, I was even able to spar with master with weapons. I still remember that the guys at the school called me a modern ninja after they saw my spar against master.

Once I finished middle school, I decided to live and study at the temple, since I was one of the candidates to inherit the temple and join a certain circle of martial artists. Well, I said that I decided, but I had to beg my father to let me live in the temple.

I think that this is a good summary of how my home is," Hugo said finishing that story which was clearly the summary of his life rather than the summary of his home.

What uncommon, but normal life he had. I had to make sure that he survives this ordeal for the ones waiting for him at home.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"You should introduce me to your temple someday. I am really curious about what kind of training do you guys perform there, since is clearly not normal for the child of a normal home to be able to deflect arrows with a shirt," I said with a teasing voice. But I was serious, I really want to know what kind of temple it was. I am definitely going there when Carla is on vacation.

"Hahaha, I wasn't the star of the temple for nothing. Now it's your turn Hinata-san," Hugo said happily as if he was enjoying talking about his past.

His life wasn't common at all, but who am I to judge it considering my life.

"Okay, okay, a deal is a deal. " I said and began to talk about my life on Earth.

"My home wasn't one that was very common. Because of a certain event, my guardians weren't my parents, but my grandma's friends who were so rich that they can change a country's economy if they messed up in managing their money.

My guardian's family consisted of a father, mother and three daughters. The elder daughter is twenty years older than me, the middle one is fifteen years older and the younger one is just two days older than me, making me something like the youngest sibling in that family.

Because my guardians and their two elder daughters weren't usually at home, I used to play with Carla the whole time. One of our inital games were hiding the maids tools, she stole it and then I was forced to hide it. At the end the both of us were scolded by the head maid, but nevertheless, we had fun watching the maids running everywhere looking for their tools. Now that I think about it, that was one of the things that made me remember the joy of playing.

Yeah, I remember that I was a huge emotional wreck to the point that I was almost mute and barely reacted to anything. I couldn't even go to school at that time. However, even when I was in that state, Carla constantly looked for me to play. At first I barely reacted to her actions, making Carla get gloomy whenever it seemed that I was ignoring her and she looked incredibly happy whenever I reacted to one of her actions.

I remember that I started to talk again because I wanted to see a happy Carla instead of a gloomy one and since she always smiled whenever I showed a reaction to her actions, I did my best to try to talk to her and before I knew it, I even started to play and laugh with her.

Ah, I also remember that I started to go to school since I felt lonely when she wasn't around. Well, even though I started school late, I didn't had any problem since my knowledge was already at a high school level when I was seven.

I also didn't had any bullying problem because I started school late or because I was the only non rich there, since Carla stated that she won't forgive anyone who dares to mock me. I guess that she felt that I was her fragile little brother whom she has to protect, even though I was the one who always helped her when in dire situations.

Ah, to avoid misunderstandings, Carla and I weren't avoided or abandoned by the family or something like that, whenever her parents or her sisters were free they came home to play with us. They really cared about us, but they were busy people with their own lives toy, however they always managed to be at home whenever it was some major holiday or somebody's birthday.

Since mine and Carla's birthday were so close, they were usually celebrated together for three consecutive days. I always wondered how they always manage to get those days off when they are so busy. Also, their gifts were usually crazy.

On our sixteenth birthday; Laura, the middle sister, brought two helicopters, one for Carla and the other for me. One of my sixteenth birthday's present was a freaking helicopter, imagine what kind of outrageous stuffs we received each year form each family member. Luckily, since me and Carla started doing part time jobs after our sixteenth birthday, our sense of money was restored to a normal level.

The reason why we did part time jobs, even though it was unnecessary for us who could get everything we wished if we just asked for it, was because we also wanted to give nice presents bought with our own hard work. It goes without saying that monetarily, our presents were vastly inferior than the ones we received, but the intentions are what matters.

The first presents we gave were some mugs that I crafted myself together with Carla. It was her idea to give some handmade mugs for Christmas, but since her works looked too pitiful, I did almost everything. I still remember the surprised faces of everyone when we handed our presents, I think that auntie almost cried hahahaha.

That Christmas was a blast and it made me really understand that they were also my family, even though they never adopted me. Well, I kinda suspect why they didn't adopted me but I will be going off on a tangent if I explain it.

What I want to say is that my home, even though it was ridiculously rich, it was a normal and warm family, not that much different from yours," I told my story smiling the whole time.

Those were nice times, I should have dragged Carla back home on last Christmas instead of spending it in Japan because she wanted to party hard, well I have to admit that I also had lots of fun too, but next time I want to spend it as a family again. Yup, definitely next time.

"Hahaha, your story seems so fake," Hugo said with a little laugh.

"Like your martial art school successor's tale," I said in a teasing tone.

"That's right, my story also seems unbelievable," Hugo said with a relaxed voice.

I also managed to relax after talking like this and a wave of sluggishness assaulted me right away, making me finally realize how tired I was.

No wonder I kept making silly mistakes one after another. At this rate I would have committed a huge irreversible mistake.

"Thanks Hugo, you saved me just now," I said sincerely.

"Hm? Why? I should be the one thanking you for saving me today," Hugo answered confused.

"You don't need to understand," I said with a relaxed tone.

Now that my mind is truly clear, I can also feel everything clearer.

I can hear the rustling of the leaves caused by the cold wind and the crashing sound of the river. Mixed within them I can hear some occasional explosive noises, similar to the rivers, yet slightly different. Those explosive noises are getting closer and closer to us at an alarming speed.

"Hugo, prepare for the worst," I warned Hugo in a calm voice.

"Are we really being pursued?" Hugo asked a little scared.

"That's right. It's something faster than us, I guess that I am better than you in noticing presences," I said calmly again.

Hearing my calm voice, Hugo seemed to calm down too.

If I had to make a guess, our pursuer managed to get this close without us noticing thanks to its speed rather than its stealthiness.

Our pursuer is worse at hiding than Hugo and that beast which made that loud roar before, but not enough to fool me in my top condition.

I noticed it too late to escape, but not late enough to be unable to prepare.

Now, another question is how that thing is able to pinpoint our location.

I feel that it was a blunder when it made the beast roar, so I can discard its skill to sense presences like me and even if it had it, Hugo is too good at hiding so it would be near impossible to find us with a skill like that.

Maybe it has an ability that can track a limited amount of objectives and that's why it couldn't feel that beast. If that is true, then separating could raise our chance of hiding, but then our survival chance will plummet near zero so we can't do that.

"Hinata-san, when our pursuer will catch up to us?" Hugo asked without showing a hint of panic or fear this time.

"If you keep this speed, then in around ten minutes," I answered.

"I see, I guess that we are running out of time" said Hugo casually as if he was talking about the weather.

Well, it's good that he is calm, it's one worry less.

"For now, just pray that our pursuer is not someone or something that wishes us harm," I said and then closed my eyes.

Lets finish the preparations for combat since I doubt that we are being chased just for the sake of playing. Right now, I think that I can do another experiment in this remaining ten minutes.

***

"Hinata-san," Hugo said cautiously.

As soon as he said that I deployed my mana rifle. It takes me three seconds to make it and load it with the bullet

"I know, put me down and stay behind me," I instructed

Our pursuer is close enough for Hugo to be able to feel it. Since Hugo's perception is way better than average, then that thing must be incredibly good at hiding if it managed to hide from him until now.

Just as I expected, our pursuer caught up to us in ten minutes and I prepared to fire my newly made magic, which I managed to reduce it's deployment time to three seconds from mental excercises.

"Sorry," Hugo said and after putting me down, instead of staying behind me, he stepped in front of me.

This idiot. I can deduce from the short time I had spent with him that he won't obey this order of mine.

"Haa, at least don't be in front of me, you are blocking my view," I said tiredly.

Hugo looked at my face and as if he understood something, he moved and stood at my left side.

This is better than nothing, I am planning to fire as soon as I can see that thing so I can't have an obstacle blocking my view. I don't care if it is harmful or not, I am not gonna risk it and fire first and ask later if it's still alive.

Just in case, I prepared two more rifles. The three invisible rifles are floating at a set distance from each other, all aiming at the location where I am sure our pursuer is.

Controlling three at the same time feels similar to using different tools at cooking, but the effor to avoid leaking more mana than necessary is like balancing a pole with a finger.

It seems that Hugo understands that I am immersed in deep concentration so he is doing his best to avoid distracting me.

Come on, come on, come on. Appear!

Damn it, that thing is still hiding while my mana is running out and I am getting more and more exhausted in trying to avoid losing extra mana.

A drop of sweat is flowing down from my forehead.

Maybe is because that thing can feel my mana and is feeling danger from it. I can also feel mana outside of someone's body so is not surprising and even expected it.

Should I just fire one bullet to its probable location to smoke it out? I can still use the remaining two bullets to kill it as long as that thing is not some fantastical monstrous beast that is immune to bullets.

In the middle of my hesitation, Hugo crouched and picked a few stones from the ground.

Ah, don't tell me.

Swoosh. Swoosh. Swoosh.

Just as I feared, Hugo threw those stones to the location that our pursuer is probably hiding at.

Boom.

I heard an explosive noise at the same time that I saw the shadow of a person jumping towards us.

That idiot did something dangerous without asking me, I hope that he gets a good scare from this.

I fired one of the bullets as soon as I saw the shadow without any hesitation.

Clank.

The bullet hit it and the shadow jumped back, but the sound was similar to the one made when a bullet impact steel, making me think that there wasn't any damage done.

However, I know that it had an effect because there is a trail of blood on the ground.

The shadow, no, the person stood still for one second and then jumped towards us at a quick speed again leaving an explosive noise behind.

The person's height was similar to mine, but my arms and legs looks longer, which is normal since my extremities are longer than the average of my height. I couldn't see more of its body since it was covered by a dark robe, including its head.

This time I fired one of the bullet to its head.

Clank.

I heard the same sound as before and I saw a spurt of blood from its head, but unlike last time, that person didn't jumped back and kept rushing towards us.

I fired the remaining bullet towards the exact same point again

Clank.

Damn it! That thing is still rushing towards us and I don't think that it is because of the momentum of his earlier jump.

But I didn't gave up and immediately produced an extremely short Mini-Jason on my left hand

I only managed to make its length as long as a paper knife with the remaining mana.

When that person was near me a pair of daggers appeared from its sleeves, wielding a dagger at each hand.

The one at the left hand had it's blade at 20 [cm] and it was held in a reverse grip style, ready to stab at me.

The one at the right hand had it's blade at 35 [cm], which was more similar to a short sword than a dagger and it was held in a forward grip, ready to slash at Hugo

I don't know if it is understimating us, but the pursuer is wide open having both of its arm aimed to me and Hugo.

Without any fear, I rushed to its center with my tiny body, ready to hit it with my right elbow to its solar plexus, moving Mini-Jason from my left hand towards my right elbow with my mind.

Clank.

"Argh!" I yelled in pain.

That thing may be fast, but my reaction time is abnormal. My elbow hit that person's and the both of us went flying backwards due to the impact, but I managed to fall standing while my opponent didn't.

The moment starting from my second shot until now lasted only one second.

I can see that my opponent is dripping blood from it's body, but in exchange of my last attack, my right elbow is probably broken.

"Hinata-san!" Hugo yelled in panic and started to run.

But instead of running towards me, he went towards my, our opponent.

Our opponent stood up slowly and it wasn't able to react to Hugo's roundhouse kick right kick, which made it fly again.

After the roundhouse kick, Hugo jumped towards it using the same leg that made the kick and made a palm strike with his left hand towards its right hand, making it release its hold to the short sword and followed right after that with a knifehand strike with his right hand while spinning his body towards our opponent's left hand, making it lose its hold of the dagger and finished the attack with a side kick with his left leg towards the center of its body.

The combo released by Hugo made our pursuer fly three meters, but it managed to rotate in mid-air landing on its feet.

Wow, he is a monster, making that flurry of blows in an instant.

I observed my opponent in the middle of that amazing combo and realized that she is a non human female being.

No, she is a human, but at the same time not. What is it, it feels that she is from a different domain of life, but a human at the same time. She is a species that besides food, it also needs mana to survive.

Maybe she is a demon? Is a demon a human that is not a human? So confusing, but I don't have time for this, I need to search for a weakness or something.

"Are you okay Hinata-san!?" Hugo asked worriedly while he picked up the sword and the dagger.

"I am okay. How about you?," I asked back without showing hitns of pain.

My elbow was broken from my earlier attack, so its natural to be worried about him who attacked her steel like body four times.

"No problems," Hugo answered with a smile.

I see, maybe that steel like body was a magic barrier or something and since Hugo touched it, the mana making the barrier stopped moving, effectively stopping the magic.

"Hahahahahaha," suddenly laughed the girl.

What the hell. Is she a hardcore masochist?

"╱╲╳¯– —≡? ჻╔╗ ╬═╓╱╲╳!," The girl said something in a language different than Talkian and she started to release a huge concentration of mana.

This is bad.

I forced my battered body to run towards her ignoring the pain.

Hugo seemed to understand from my reaction that the girl was doing something dangerous so he threw the dagger and sword towards her left and right arm respectively.

The girl didn't react and let the weapons hit her.

Clang.

But it was useless, the weapons just bounced back as if it had hit a piece of steel.

After Hugo's last attack, a tall fire tornado appeared with the girl at the center, a tornado that was growing more and more.

"Step back!" I yelled in a fierce tone.

Hugo jumped backwards with all his might, but that wasn't enough to avoid the flame and he was engulfed in the tornado.

"Aaarrgggh!" Hugo screamed in pain.

"Ahahahahaha!" laughed the girl.

A moment after his cry of pain the flame dissipated.

What I saw was Hugo full of burn injuries, but still standing and the girl in dark robes laughing with her arms spread open and her head revealed, showing an innocent looking face with tanned skin, green eyes and green hair which is dirtied by red blood flowing from her forehead.

"Hugo!" I yelled without stopping my run.

"I am okay Just focus on that," Hugo said looking at the monstrous girl.

It seems that Hugo also understands that the both of us are going to die unless we defeat this monster.

"  ┊╱╲╳¯╩▐▀▄▽⊿◤ ◥▆▇ ██ ╞≡჻╔╗ ╬═╓╩?" said the girl towards me in a mocking tone.

She is just playing with us. But this doesn't mean that we are just some harmless bugs since she is clearly injured by our previous attacks.

The girl looked straight at me and pointed her index finger towards me. At the tip of her finger, an amount of mana similar to the one I used on my earlier mana bullets gathered.

I quickly jumped to the side and a ball of fire passed right through the place I was before.

That attack didn't managed to stop my run and kept approaching her as fast as I could.

Hugo also ran towards her without minding his burned body and made a jumping kick with his right leg.

The girl gathered mana on her right hand and pointed the mana towards Hugo, but once his foot was near the mana gathered on her hand, that mana stopped moving and Hugo's kick landed straight on her chest.

"Kya!" screamed the girl while she was blown off for the fourth time today.

Hugo's soul skill is showing its worth clearly now.

We can win this fight.

In the middle of my run, I started doing the new experiment I thought just before meeting her.

Each strand of my hair gather some amount of mana, but it would be too wasteful to use it only for beautifying itself. Since my hair is technically connected to me, I am sure that I can use it as my own mana too.

And I was right, I can do it. It's a little difficult, but not impossible. It's like scooping water with my hands and running without letting a single droplet to spill out.

From a rough calculation, I estimate that if I suck all the mana from my hair I am going to recover half of my mana amount; however the recovery rate is too slow for my liking.

I saw that my hair was glowing a pale white light when I was sucking its mana, what an useless visual effect.

The girl stood up before Hugo could kick her again and released another huge amount of mana, and before Hugo could stop whatever magic she planned to do, she released a huge explosion separating the two of them.

However, she only used a tiny amount of that mana for the explosion and I realized her plan.

I changed the direction of my run from the girl towards Hugo while shooting Mana Bullet from my feet to move faster.

And just before she releaed the magic she was planning to do, I grabbed Hugo by his collar and pushed him back, using a flat mana bullet to pushin further back.

At that moment, another tall flame tornado appeared and quickly trapped me inside.

"Aaaaargh!" I cried in pain, but  quickly held my breath to avoid damaging my lungs.

This is a huge torture, but I didn't stopped moving and started to move towards where the girl was standing at before clenching my teeth to endure this killing pain.

"Hinata-san!" Hugo yelled.

I couldn't response to him, since opening my mouth now is suicide and kept moving forward and forward making five Mana Bullets around me.

A moment that felt like an eternity for me after, the flames dissipated and I could finally see my objective. My objective with a huge fire arrow in front of her aiming at me.

"▽⊿◤ ◥▆▇ █▀▄▽⊿◤ ◥▆▇ ██ ╞╟▌▐▀█  ██■▓" said the girl with a smile and released that arrow towards me at the same time I fired the Mana Bullets.

But before any magic attacks were used, I felt how all the mana around me unnaturally stopped and I could see that the girl was also confused as why her attacks didn't appear.

Sharpening my senses, I realize that tthe source of the stopped mana is Hugo.

Wait, does this mean that he can increase the range of his soul skill? If that is true, then this girl had a terrible luck in facing us who are her natural counter for her magic ability and her hiding and quick moving skills.

The girl was even more confused than before and I took that chance to punch her right in the guts with my left hand and she fell unconscious.

We won. We actually won!

"Let's run away now Hinata-san!" Hugo said relieved before we could savor our victory.

"Okay," I said and raised my foot to crush this girl's neck.

However, just before I could kill her, Hugo pushed me aside.

"What are you trying to do Hinata-san!?" Hugo asked at me angrily.

Is this guy joking around?

"Don't tell me that you are against killing her?" I coldly asked.

"Isn't that obvious!?" Hugo retorted back to me.

"You are the idiot! If she wakes up, she is going to kill us!" I scolded him and used the remaining mana to make more Mana Bullets.

"We can defeat her again!" Hugo answered in an angry tone.

"That's impossible!" I yelled back.

While we were fighting, I felt a huge swirling of mana leaking from the girl's body.

She is right beneath us and the amount of mana is two times more than the explosion that we barely survived before. This is definitely dangerous. Way too dangerous!

"Run away!" I yelled while running towards the river.

Before Hugo could follow after me, I felt how all the mana released formed a shape that points everywhere and the girl exploded.

That's right, that little girl exploded in several pieces and Hugo and I were sent flying.

Only the impact was enough to make me have a hard time to keep my conscious intact and the accumulated damage wasn't helping the cause at all.

With my dimming consciousness I managed to see that Hugo and I were falling towards the river.

Damn it, I let my guard down, how idiotic of me.

And at the moment I drank some of the water while I was drowning my consciousness completely faded away.