I ran into the clearing. I know, a good person would have prioritized the lives of whoever that might still be inside, but honestly, I did not care as much as I should have. My life, and maybe Kaelen's and Elias', were more important than the survival of strangers who probably would not help me if I was stuck in a similar situation.

I was never a hero.

Kaelen shouted over at me as we passed the place where the fence once was, "There might be people inside, Terra! Are you sure?"

I did not reply. I didn't know how to tell her that it was part of my plan, to have it focus on innocent people so that we could escape mostly unscathed. Elias shot me a conflicted look, but followed without a word of complaint. He understood, I knew, and I was thankful for that. On the other hand, Kaelen's accusing glare burned me, although she said nothing more. We both knew that there was no changing my mind, and it was clear that she did not want to strike out on her own to lead the beast away, either.

Behind us, the wolf-unicorn roared and sped up, its paws landing heavily on the ground as it continued chasing us. The sound spurred us on, rushing through the blades of grass and clusters of shrubs as we strived to increase the distance between us and the beast. As we ran deeper into the clearing, we could see other people gathered nearby in small groups, huddled together as they tried to appear invisible so that the monster chasing us would not catch sight of them.

Of course, they failed.

The first time the unicorn-wolf sniffed out a human and feasted on the poor man, my heart clenched painfully and there was a bitter taste on my tongue. Others nearby began dashing deeper into the woods, too, but more were frozen in spot, panicking instead of doing something to save themselves. A few brave ones tried to attack the monster, but its hide was so tough that their makeshift weapons just broke on contact. None of the pokes drew blood, and the assailant was quickly dismembered by the beast out of a maddened rage.

However, just as the wolf-unicorn moved on to its next victim after dealing with the last of the fools who dared to attempt to hurt it, another person jumped out to fight it. A sudden pressure weighed down on all of us as she appeared, and I instinctively stopped to watch. The girl had long black hair which flew in the air as she unfurled wings very similar to mine - only that it was fully black and much larger (I still haven't checked how my own wings looked like, but I knew that hers was bigger). From her hands black shadows erupted, forming rapidly into a sword made of shadow essence. How did she obtain this ability?

Hydra murmured in my ear, 'From this alone, it is easy to tell that she is much stronger than you are, hatchling. She might be more powerful than I was back in my world.'

It was hard to believe at first, but as she flapped her wings and rose into the air to deliver her first strike, all the while avoiding all the attacks the monster was sending at her, my impression of the girl changed fast. She raised her sword and slammed it into the monster's side, etching into the beast the first wound it had received today. A few dark blobs of shadow essence remained in its body, but the girl did not bother to call them back. Instead, she striked again, before disappearing a second later to avoid a sharp-tipped hoof that was flying towards her.

I looked around to see where she had gone to, and soon found her on the other side of the beast, striking the wolf-unicorn with her sword again. After tens of these exchanges, with the girl teleporting away every time the monster tried to hurt her, the girl flew back a few meters and shot dark strings made of shadow essence towards the monster. They attached themselves to the beast's wounds firmly, and no matter how much the wolf-unicorn tried to escape, it could not do so.

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The girl's hands performed a complicated, quick set of movements, almost like a dance, and the monster's body convulsed according to her fingers' movements, hitting itself repeatedly until it staggered, the angry light from its eyes fading away like a switch had been turned off. Its eyes closed and its body sagged. Seeing that, the girl retrieved her strings and descended towards the ground gracefully. Her wings disappeared when she landed, and she strode towards the fainted monster. It was not dead, but it was definitely unconscious. Its body shrunk slowly as it lay there, slowly returning to the form of a normal wolf. The only difference was that it had a horn now.

I let out a breath I did not know I had held, and felt Kaelen and Elias relax around me as well. The girl came over to us, her eyes on me, "Can I join your battle group, Rav-"

I clamped a hand over her mouth before she could give my name away. While I was less wary of Kaelen and Elias, I wanted to tell them my real name myself. Having it come out of another person's mouth might make them think that I did not trust them - which was true, but was also best left unsaid. I excused myself from my companions and led the girl away from them before removing my hand.

Gripping her by the collar of her white jacket, I pulled her towards me with a sharp, shadow essence enhanced tug. The girl knew my name when I had never met her before, and that was enough to make me suspicious. Not even everyone in the same course and same year as I was in university knew my name. I would never have expected that a stranger would recognize me. I growled, "Who are you?"

Her eyes widened, but there was only a brief flicker of fear in her eyes before she replied confidently, "I'm your classmate, remember? I sit near you for lectures very often, but we barely talked."

I did not remember her, to be honest, and my secondary instinct - the one that came with my shadow essence - confirmed that with an uneasy feeling. She was lying to me, I could be almost completely certain of that, but would it be worth it to call her out and make an enemy out of her?

No, it would not. I had seen the level of control she had over her shadow essence, and it would make me a lot more powerful if I could just play along and convince her to join us. Of course, I could not trust her fully in the near future, maybe even for the whole time she was with us, but until she proved to be troublesome... We could cooperate. Even so, I could not just let her go this easily and make myself appear like an idiot, so I held her gaze with a glare, pulling her tighter, "What's your name?"

Silence. What little patience and trust I had in her was wearing out fast. Somehow, the emotions rushing through me were different towards her than I remembered feeling when I rescued Kaelen with Elias, but I refused to dwell on that. Focusing back on the girl in front of me, I growled, shaking her, "Answer!"

She finally replied, "Saskia, Saskia Reyes. I know you might not have heard of me but..."

That was enough for now. Any more of her blatant lies and I might change my mind again. As I turned to leave, she trailed off. I expected her to follow, but she stayed at her spot and continued trying to convince me, "Raven, I can be useful. I have... information, and you know I can fight."

"Prove it," I spun back to face Saskia, "What information?"

"You will not be able to learn shadow essence control without me."

"That doesn't prove anything," I shook my head, eyes scalding. Saskia could have just observed that from my training and the battles I had engaged in after I received my daemonic transformation ability. That did not prove anything, and instead, I could feel suspicion rise up inside me. If she was really following me so that she could lie to me now, the girl could be dangerous. Even if I could handle a crisis Saskia caused in the future, I wanted to avoid it happening in the first place. If it required a battle with her now, I could-

"In three days, the second Main Event will take place, and for you, it will involve Emi."

"Don't use her nickname as if you know her!" I shouted as I fought the urge to scream, kill and cry at once. I had been successful at suppressing my thoughts about Aemira the last few days, but Saskia's sentence had brought all the memories back.

You knew the truth. The memories of the first day told me. You knew, you just wanted to hide from it.

Saskia nodded, but pressed further, "Accept me into your battle group now and see for yourself if my words are true in three days."

I narrowed my eyes, and we fell into an uncomfortable silence as I scrutinized her. There was no cracks in her confidence, no sign that she was lying. Eventually, I opened my mouth.