An outlandish THUNG, bleeds into the air as a radiant flash of light engulfs Arjun’s view.

The creature makes contact with the light, but is repelled with extraordinary force, as a silhouette gradually takes shape whilst the light fades.

Standing before him, with her arms held out in front of her, deflecting the creatures attack, is Seri.

Inches in front of her hands, is a strange barrier of sorts. It has a translucent blue hue and is made up of several hexagonal shapes. Almost like the kind of thing you’d find in a video game or some other fantastical work of fiction.

“Are you alright?” Seri asks, as she turns to Arjun.

The moonlight loosely hugs her figure, creating an image that Arjun couldn’t help but compare to an angel, as she stretches one hand out toward him.

Muddled, the woman asks herself. “Who the hell is that?” She continues. “Another witch?”

The monster scrambles back onto its feet, bellowing deeply as it lunges towards Seri and Arjun.

While still in mid action, a booming SCREECH can be heard echoing from the sky, as Boston swoops in, attacking the monster, knocking it from its path.

“Wha—How’d you get here?” Arjun questions Seri in bewilderment.

“I sensed that...you were in...danger...” Seri’s words begin to trail, as she slowly lowers her eyes to Arjun’s glaring wound. “...Your arm…?”

Arjun glances down at his missing arm. “It—It’s not that bad see—” He lifts his limb, and begins to wave it in the air. “There’s no pain at all anymore.” He gives voice to this, speaking in a reassured tone.

“That girl really helped me out somehow, so try not to worry too much.”

He forces a smile across his face, directing it to Seri as he finally grabs hold of her hand—

BA BUMP. His heart suddenly begins to throb painfully, as he desperately grasps at his chest.

COUGH, KHAK. An object begins to protrude from the area that Arjun hopelessly continues to claw, while violently coughing; struggling for breath. When suddenly a brilliant varicolored flame, begins to glow from his chest.

Seri’s eyes widen as she identifies the gadget that is now sticking from his sternum. “This is it; this is our—”

Out of the blue, a large shroud of earth and debris scattered around them with a sounding BOOM, after the beast violently catapults the woman towards the twos location.

She coughs up a substantial amount of blood as she lumbers to her feet.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING!?” She agitatedly shouts, whipping away the trail of blood from her chin. “GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!”

She looks to Arjun and Seri, and notices the item now in his hand.

It is a long silver object, embroidered with unfamiliar characters, with a filthy red cloth tightly wrapped around the area Arjun is gripping. One could easily mistake it for a dagger although, it is missing several qualities to wholly compare it to such a weapon.

However, with her trained eye, the girl knows exactly what it is. “That...can’t be...what the hell is going on here?”

“...Master…” Seri continues to hold Arjun's hand in an attempt to comfort him.

Master? He thinks to himself. Why on earth would she call me that? This girl gets weirder and weirder by the second.

While Arjun is lost in thought, Seri takes his hands and points the object in the direction of the monster.

“Magika Nigri: Exitium.”

[Black Magic of Destruction]

After speaking these eerie words, a black beacon of light darts toward the monster, piercing its thick exoskeleton. In a matter of seconds, the threat that stood before them moments ago was no more, disintegrating into a black mist that is swiftly swept away by the morning breeze.

“What the hell just happened?” Confused, Arjun continues to mumble to himself. “She repeated something similar to that lady over there.”

“I thought it was strange before, but I think I get it now.” The woman directs this statement to Arjun, as she places her hand on her chin while making a curious face, as if analyzing him.

“See what exactly?” Arjun retorts. “I don’t understand anything.”

“When I stopped you earlier it was because I smelled something—” She pauses for a moment and continues. “…Or rather I smelled something coming FROM YOU…I guess.”

Compared to the confident and demeaning way she typically speaks; it doesn’t sound like she is too positive of what she just said. But still, hearing this causes Arjun to quickly sniff his underarms. “GEH. It’s true, I reek.”

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“N-Not that kind of smell you moron!” She declares disgustedly.

“I smelled IT.” She takes a breath, and the air around her becomes heavy. “The scent of a witch.”

“At first I figured you might have had contact with a witch but, apparently—”

She glances at Seri and the item that is now in her hands.

“You think Seri is a witch—?” Arjun halts his words and thinks for a moment. Wait, actually, that doesn’t sound too far fetched. She has been saying strange things since I’ve met her and even now she appears out of thin air.

He continues. “Although from what I’ve seen of witches on TV, aren’t they usually old hags? She doesn’t fit that image at all.”

“Hmmm, not exactly.” She points at the object in Seri’s hand. “That there is a Magical Conduit. Also known to you normies, as a wand.”

“And if my guess is right, then even though she was the one that cast the spell YOU were the one holding it at the time therefore—”

She then points the same incriminating finger at Arjun, who in turn points back at himself, clearly confused.

“YOU are the witch I sensed earlier.”

Unable to hold back his emotions from this perplexing statement, Arjun wails out—“EHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

“That can’t be, aren’t witches only WOMEN? No matter how you look at it, I’m a bona fide man.”

He frantically points at Seri. “In that case, she fits the mold much better, right?”

“She?”

“Her. Her. Seri.” He says while jabbing his pointer finger in Seri’s direction.

HAH. The woman lets out a deep sigh. “I hate to burst your bubble but that ‘girl’ is more than likely your familiar. So even though she resembles a certain sex, the fact is she’s a genderless being. As are all familiars.”

Arjun looks at Seri in disbelief. “...No, way…”

“Don’t believe me?” The woman reaches her hand towards the sky. “BOSTON!” She shouts.

Suddenly the large dragon like creature that supported her in the fight, comes sweeping down from the night sky, landing neatly beside her.

“Speak.” She commandingly directs this order to the creature.

“Ma’am?” Boston responds unsurely.

“This is my familiar, Boston. And as you can hear he has the voice of a borish male. However—” She points to Boston’s lower half. “This guy here isn’t packing any genitalia, be it male or female.”

“The reason being is that familiars are personas of what we hold in our hearts.” She places her hand on her chest and haughtily continues. “Emotions, memories, personality, everything that makes you, YOU is rolled into a magical ball known as a familiar.”

She makes a small gesture with her hand, as if beckoning someone to come to her. And in a moment, the large beast is engulfed in a blue light that zips to the woman’s motioning hand.

Now sitting in her hand, are the same black pearl earrings that she wore before the fight ensued, placing them back into her ears.

“And there you have it!” She proudly declares.

Arjun stares at Seri in bewilderment as she places her hand on her cheeks in embarrassment, mimicking a blushing teenage girl that’s acting bashful in front of her crush.

“But still, it’s not often they take the appearance of a human.” She briefly inspects Seri from head to toe, before focusing back to Arjun.

“I’ve only heard of one other male witch before though, but that’s usually treated as an urban legend.”

This utterance piqued Arjun’s interest. “There’s another male witch!?”

“Was. He’s long dead though.” She says slyly as she shrugs, then begins to dust herself off.

“Well, now that that’s cleared up I guess I should get going—”

“WAIT A MINUTE!” Arjun abruptly shouts. “Don’t act so nonchalant about this. What the hell was that creature just now, what do you mean by witch, and just WHO the hell are you!?”

“Me?” She replies in a blasé tone. “I’m Clarissa von Adelgrief. I’m the sole heir of the Adelgrief family, so I’m basically royalty!” She puffs her chest out in a prideful manner.

“And that thing that you and your familiar got rid of for me, is what we like to call a Witch Eater.”

“…Witch Eater?”

“They’re beings that devour anything that emits mana. They tend to target larger prey first.” She points again to Arjun. “For example, you or me.”

“Even then, they don’t tend to invade a witch’s territory, however I think I understand the reason it targeted you.” She sits on her words for a few seconds and concludes.

“I think as thanks for getting rid of that one for me, I’ll tell you exactly what you’ve gotten yourself into.”