Rewwwweew

With the loud roar, the beast successfully stunned everyone and pounced at the nearest person. 

The assassin was the target, and as soon as he saw the beast, rather than fighting it, he used all his strength to throw it away. 

The beast was pushed, and it flew towards Aile, Ellie and Violet. 

Aile saw the beast flying towards them, and he saw the assassin with a smile on its face, smirking at him, this made Aile's anger and rage boil. 

The beast was an ape-like animal with a green mane around his upper torso, his eyes fixed on them, and now they became his target.

Aile realized that it was going to be dangerous and decided to kill this damned assassin, the next chance he got. He had been too much of a hindrance to him. It was the third time he was endangering his life.

For now, he placed his leg on Violet and pushed her far away, while using the same momentum jumped to the opposite side with one arm around Ellie's waist as her face faced his. 

Bam

The beast landed in their location, creating a mess, as some dust and plants and herbs flew everywhere. However, its spiteful eyes landed on Aile, and it moved its back towards them.

"Ah, damn it," Aile shouted in alow volume, as he was flung away by the tail of the beast. The whip-like feeling was painful and deadly if his body had not been strengthened by his Spirit Surmounting Cultivation he would have been killed. In his anger and rage, Aile forgot to disguise his voice as he cursed. 

Ellie's eyes were wide open, but they became even more surprised when she heard him. 

Thud 

Aile used his body to cushion the fall for Ellie, not seeing her expression. As soon as they fell in the wild vegetation, Ellie pulled down Aile's mask as she thought she had heard Aile. After Cape Tie, Ellie had not seen him. Therefore she wanted to know if she heard right.

Seeing his face, she was shocked and said, "Wha-What are.."

Aile wanted her to be quiet, so he moved his hand that was on her waist up to bring it to her mouth, but she already started talking. Aile then pulled her closer and used his mouth to seal hers. 

Using his mouth as the connection, he then activated Emily's technique and directly spoke to her mind. 

"Be quiet, I am here in secret, and I do not want my identity to be revealed."

"Menmeme" Ellie tried to speak, but her lips were sealed by his, and she only ended up with an awkward kiss due to her lips movement. 

"Just think of something and try to send it through your lips."

As Ellie was trying to get the hang of the technique, a bit of her saliva leaked out her mouth to Aile's. Some to the side of his mouth. Aile tasted it and found it sweet and delicious, and involuntarily started to suck on her lips to get more of it. He also placed his other hand on her waist, moving it from time to time.

"W-What are you doing?" Ellie said as she finally figured out how to communicate.

This woke Aile up and realized the dark side of his soul has activated again. This was due to his intense anger towards the assassin and now desire. He quickly started to move his light element to suppress it. He then saw the inquisitive expression on Ellie's eyes. He could not just tell her the reason that he kissed her by accident and continued to enjoy it was because of his dark soul.

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"It is payment for saving you, and also if you tell anyone about me, then I will tell Violet about our kiss. I am going to move my mouth away, do not shout out anything now." Aile had no choice but to go back to his previous practice of how he made the princess keep his secret. It worked last time he was hoping that it would work this time.

She held him for a bit longer and said, "Bastard, you will pay for this."

"Not letting go, are you enjoying it?"

Aile's hand roamed her body, and then Aile let go of her. He realized that controlling the dark side of his soul was much harder, as he had only learnt to suppress lust but not anger and bloodlust that he feels towards the assassin. 

His action of endangering him was still on his mind.

He got up from underneath the vegetation and started to walk towards the area with the sound of fighting, of course, he fixed his mask after leaving Ellie.

Ellie was blushing and also seething with anger as she saw him walk away, she noticed the diagonal-bloody wound on his back. She became emotional and said to herself, "Damn it, he took an attack for me, now I cannot be angry at him." After seeing him in the distance, she thought, "Saving me and taking advantage of me are two different things, bastard you will pay. I will pay you back for saving me, but... bastard... that was my first kiss."

Aile was controlling his anger and blood lust, and he managed to calm down, as it was not the time to show hostility at this point. Once Aile reached the battlefield, he noticed that Hunter and Marcus were fighting the beast. The assassin was smirking at him. Which made his anger rage out of restraint again, and he tried to control it.

Violet immediately ran to him and said, "Where is Ellie? Is she fine?"

"Over there, she is ok." He said with his disguised voice again, pointing at where they landed.

Violet ran in that direction. 

Aile noticed that One, Two, Three and Four were giving clumsy support to Hunter and Marcus as they fought the beast.

Aile sighed in relief that everyone was ok. He had told them to act weak in front of everyone, to not raise their guard. This first beast was not that strong. Thus Aile was not worried that anyone from his team would be too hurt, but he feared that they might use their full strength, making everyone suspicious. Plus they were already warned of possible danger if they revealed their prowess. Not to mention their action of deceiving people by clumsily fighting the first beast would be revealed. Hence they knew the risks of being anything but low profile.

Aile too could have saved Ellie and Violet easily, but he would have to reveal his power, which he did not want. Thus he did not raise anyone suspicion. Aile's anger surged again, seeing that Marcus was not worried about Ellie's safety. He controlled his anger, and Marcus activated his technique and created an arrow with high water density. Which shot towards the beast. 

Swish

Arrrrrrgh

The beast roared in pain, and before it could retaliate against Marcus, the attack of Hunter came. He used a sword to impale it.

With another shout, the monster fell down and died as his blood leaked everywhere.

Eaaarhaa...

The ground was wet with blood, One, Two, Three and Four came to Aile, and when they saw his wound, they gave off killing intent towards the assassin.

Aile did not give any clear indication of his rage, he was waiting for an opportunity to get rid of him. He knew, now was the perfect opportunity in the beast territory. 

Soon Arnold came and gave a very fake apology to Aile. Aile could clearly see that it was just a show to impress the girls. Arnold did not care in the least bit about the assassin's action or Aile's injuries. 

Aile nodded and accepted it and gestured him to talk with him alone. The assassin smirked seeing Aile's action, he thought that Aile would complain about him and was laughing. Aile snickered inside and thought let's see who will be laughing soon.

After taking Arnold a bit further away, Aile said, 

"Young master I found a way to help you."

"What? I do not need your help?" said Arnold suspiciously.

"Sorry, I saw you, young master, wanted an opportunity to talk with the two maidens, since the young master does not need that, I would like to apologize." 

Aile then started to go back.

"W-Wait, is that true?"

Aile nodded.

"How?"

"Well you see I am injured and the maidens are tired too, so we including you can stay here to catch out breath and heal. That way, all of us will remain near, and we can send the stronger people to check the route ahead to make sure we do not face any more danger. This will allow us to go quickly and not lose time after we catch our breath. In the meantime, you will look like a hero to the girls; worrying about their safety and allowing them to rest and you can try to converse with them. Plus what would happen if another beast attacks and your safety is jeopardized? This way not only will you be safe but also get the opportunity to be appreciated by the maidens."

Arnold became interested and asked Aile more about his plan. Aile told him that he should send the assassin and Marcus up ahead to check the way, to make sure it is secured for them. 

He did not tell him that there is a much stronger beast waiting up ahead to tear the two apart.

Arnold believed him, even more, when Aile did not propose anything that could compromise his safety. Hence he tried to test Aile for the final time by saying, "Since you are so good to me. I will let you punish my man, just determine a punishment for him, for being inconsiderate."