Waiting for a reaction from the enemy Chara looks over at the confused Alicia. Unsure what to do she slowly moves her hand towards the hilt of the sword. Seeing Chara's reaction the mysterious person suddenly begins speaking.

"Hold it there miss, its a simple request, drop your weapon and hand over the girl." The man asked.

"Chara what is happening, why are there several people surrounding us?" Alicia spoke into Chara's mind, remembering what Alicia said about the spell she replied with her thoughts. "It seems like you have a target on your head, how many are surrounding us?"

"At least three, two fire mages on the rooftops above us and the man in front is a shadow mage." Alicia scanned the area looking for their foe.

"Concerning, how confident are you in taking out the ones on top?" Chara asked, looking back she sees three hooded people cornering them in the alley.

"Not really, I can't see the spell, only their core." Alicia replied.

Sensing something amiss the man began speaking again. "I am sorry to disturb the silence, but we have a lot of affairs and we need to hurry things along, I will count to three, and you will hand over the girl." He said with a threatening tone, agitated by the unresponsive duo.

"On his call, cast earth wall to separate the ones in the back and cover yourself with a water shield." Chara ordered without hearing Alicia's confirmation.

Counting down to three the man was surprised when suddenly the quiet girl behind the knight placed out her hands and a large earth wall arose behind her, blocking of his associates.

"Kill the knight and take her!" The man screamed out as he began attacking Chara with his twin daggers. Casting the spell a sapphire blue shield appeared before Alicia, blocking her from all sides.

Seeing her companion safe Chara began counterattacking the man with a flurry of cuts, but was expertly deflected by the twin daggers.

"It seems you have been well trained miss, what house are you from?" The man asked while trying to get through Chara's defenses.

"None of your concern." Chara simply replied as she parried one of the cuts.

Standing helplessly Alicia wanted to help, seeing the two mages on the rooftops still standing there she for a moment dropped her shield spell and conjured up two fireballs and launched them at the mages up top who didn't react in time and were pushed of the roof, landing hard on the ground.

Whistling in response the man jumped back and laughed. "It seems like our intel was wrong, we heard you were a water and air mage, but it seems like you could use fire and earth, this is interesting."

"How did they know I was connected to water and air?" Alicia asked herself while casting her water shield again.

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"Now we really have to take you away young miss, you see, my benefactor has become interested in you and with your powers you will serve well in his test." The man explained.

"Over my dead body." Chara refuted as she leapt forward with a slashing attack, countering the blow with one his daggers he become more and more irritated at Chara's stubbornness.

The battle continued with the man and Chara trading blows and cuts on their bodies, but suddenly during a down ward slash Chara's sword was intercepted by the twin daggers.

"You know, now I have become really mad." The man said as dark smoke began rising from the daggers and before Chara's eyes her sword was snapped in two by the force of the enemies parry.

"What the..." Surprised Chara didn't react in time and was kicked back by a forceful hit at her stomach.

"Chara are you okay?!" Alicia screamed out to her friend, unsure of her condition.

"I'm fine Alicia, just stay safe." Chara ordered as she stood up and faced the man once again.

"You damn knights, never understood when to stay down." The man said as his face twisted weirdly, noticed by Chara she wondered who their opponent really was.

"You asked me before what house I belonged to, have you ever heard of the butcher of Denstadt?" Chara asked as flames erupted from her gauntlets, alighting her fists in bright red flames. Lifting her head up towards the now scared man she answers her own question.

"Well, he's my brother." As she answered flames sparked from her boots and in the blink of an eye she was just a meter away from her foe. Crossing his arms in front of his chest in reaction Chara's punched hit true and the man was thrown back several meters, smashing right into the back wall of the valley.

Turning around she called out to Alicia everything is safe and to drop the spell. Hearing Chara's words she hastily dropped the water spell and asked if she was okay. But before she could answer Chara heard the rubble falling down and the man slowly stands up, spitting a mouthful of blood.

"HAHAHAHAHA, Who could have known the great knight Faelan had a sister and she would be a personal knight to our target." The man laughed hysterically.

"It seems like I have to take you seriously now." As he spoke Chara could her the clothes ripping and the face covering came undone, revealing a sharp set of teeth, bones cracked as the man began growing taller and hair began growing on his chest and back. In shock Chara looked on as the man turned into one of the cursed kin, an amalgamation of man and beast.

"Why in Cyril's light would a werewolf be here!" Chara exclaimed while taking her stance with her arms crossed before her.

Having lost his human side in the transformation the beast rushed towards Chara and began unleashing several powerful punches and jabs at the knight, trying to dodge and block the ruthless attack Chara could hear her bones cracking in her arms.

Sensing danger Alicia roared out while performing a long incantation. "Where is he?!" to Chara. Hearing it she responded, "Where but in front of me." She answered as she nearly dodged a powerful punch from the side.

"DUCK!" Alicia screamed, confused but trusting Alicia she hastily dropped down on the ground and saw overhead a large ball of fire was launched from Alicia and rushed towards the beast. Not reacting in time the werewolf was hit by it and set aflame, screaming and lashing out in pain it, but for naught as the flames tore asunder its body and seeing their foe Chara screamed out to Alicia to drop the spell, dropping her shield and the flames she dropped down in exhaustion.

Slowly walking towards the singed body of the werewolf Chara grabbed it by the shoulder and punched it in the face, having dropped her flame fists since dropping down on the ground.

"Who sent you? Why are they targeting Alicia." Chara asked while punching him one more time. Reverting to his normal form Chara could see the tremendous bleeding on his body.

"The Guild... send their regards... try to flee... you will not escape..." The man spoke slowly as death took ahold of him, his lifeless eyes staring back at her.

"Dammit." Chara exclaimed, but suddenly dropped down, not hearing anything from Chara Alicia became frightened and crawled over towards her body.

"Chara what happened, are you okay?" Alicia asked but no response came from the knight. Realizing something was amiss she cast her detection spell and saw that Chara's mana core was empty, knowing the risk, Alicia pushed all her mana into the opal colored crystal, forcing all her magic into it.

"Take my life force you damn winds, let me save her." As she spoke suddenly the darkness faintly lit up and she could for the first time since the experiment see. Her eyesight cloudy and nearly blind she could see the battered and bloodied corpse of the man and the still body of Chara, pushing her body to the limit she lifted up the knight and placed her head around Chara's arm, carrying her. Staggering they slowly left the alley and headed back towards Ave Ludum, passerby were shocked and wanted to help but in her delirious state she lashed out.

"Touch her and your dead." Alicia responded with an icy tone, scaring the older man.

Walking and staggering she could foggily see the gate and the two guards rushing up to them.

"Are you guys okay? What happened?!" One of the guards asked with a scared tone in his voice.

Not having any strength left in her body she dropped down on the ground with Chara beside her, before darkness overtook her once again she uttered, "Save... her."