“What the hell was that?” Ryzen asked in astonishment.

The explosion caused a large crack to run through the ground and Ryzen had managed to find a moment of respite in between it somewhere.

Enancia had a dire look on her face and took a moment before responding, “I’m not one hundred percent sure but it may have been an A-tier demon. I know of a skill that one of my brothers had that would cause such destruction. To ever actually use it is… just horrible.”

Ryzen couldn’t believe the level of destruction that an A tier could cause. In his head, he knew it had to be something like that but to actually experience it was a completely different story.

Still, he couldn’t spend time dawdling on their power. Those demons were likely still searching for him and Enancia didn’t have shadow guard like he did.

Enancia expressed this sentiment by grabbing onto Ryzen and giving him a grim look. “We need to go. They are going to come for us.”

Ryzen nodded and jumped into his shadow with Enancia. He zoomed out of the fissure in the ground and already, there were innumerous demons surveying the area.

Ryzen left the perimeter of the shadow of a tree for not even a second when one of the demons closer to them turned to look exactly in their direction. Enancia wore a horrified look and Ryzen wasted no time in sending a shadow dagger at the demon’s throat.

The demon fell to the floor in anguish but was clearly not dead. Still, Ryzen would have a few moments before the demon alerted the others and sped off in the opposite direction of the city. They needed to get out of here as fast as they could.

However, Ryzen wasn’t dealing with weak vampire guards anymore. Multiple demons were catching up on them and they were likely using Enancia to find them. Based on what Enancia had told Ryzen about the search skill, it just located any living beings within a certain radius. More advanced ones could find out what type of creatures it was. Thankfully, they must have confused her for being a demon on their side before but now it was clear that was not the case.

A couple of arrows penetrated the ground where Ryzen was but obviously did nothing to him in his shadow. What scared him was how fast they were. If he had magic projectiles come at him like that then he wasn’t sure he would be able to dodge it.

Quickly running out of options, Ryzen threw a shadow bomb on the ground, creating a large cloud of smoke. The demons chasing them started coughing as they inhaled it and finally, came to a halt.

Ryzen continued to rush out of the area and now, there was only a single demon chasing him. However, it was clear this guy was no joke. The demon literally was practically flying towards them and had multiple shards of ice rotating around his body. Everything the demon got close to turned to rock-solid ice. Ryzen had no doubt that he would not be able to take this demon on.

Four sharp icicles burst out of the ground, perfectly surrounding Ryzen. The only way out would be to exit his shadow. He already knew if he did that then he would be instantly killed.

To Ryzen’s shock, Enancia motioned for him to let her out. He immediately shook his head but she frowned and tried to pry herself out of his arms. What was she trying to do?

Ryzen would not allow her to try to sacrifice herself. He didn’t want that. He didn’t want to lose her again.

Somehow sensing what he was thinking, Enancia rolled her eyes and made punching motions. It wasn’t until then that it hit Ryzen. She had something up her sleeve. She wasn’t just trying to throw her life away. He sighed in relief causing Enancia to groan.

Finally, he let her go and when he released her from his shadow, he never even saw her move.

“Come out now! Quickly! I don’t have much time!” she yelled while holding the head of the ice demon.

Shocked at what had just happened, Ryzen came out of his shadow and he felt Enancia grab him. What surprised him was that he once again never saw her move to grab him.

Not even half a second later, he suddenly started flying through the forest at speeds he didn’t believe possible. If it weren’t for his massive stat upgrades then he was positive that he would have died.

Seconds later, they came to a stop and Enancia was once again fully visible.

“What the hell? Enancia what did you do?” Ryzen asked, failing to process what just happened.

“My skill! Now, quickly let’s get back into your shadow. I traveled a good deal away from the army but I’m still not sure if it is enough!” Enancia practically jumped on Ryzen and went into his shadow.

He sped off in the same direction they’d been going and slowly, the forest started to come to an end. The trees became more sparse and were replaced by endless grass fields. In the distance, Ryzen could see a group of houses.

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Feeling as if they were in a much safer position than before, Ryzen came out of his shadow.

“What is that?” Ryzen asked while pointing at the small cluster of houses.

“A vampire village most likely. It could be safe or perhaps not but either way you should be strong enough to fend them off. Villages such as these usually have little to no protection besides against simple monsters.” Enancia said

“Monsters? There are monsters here?”

“Oh right, you’ve never seen one since you’ve been stuck underground… the short answer is yes there are. The long answer is well… long. Monsters are basically the inhabitants of the wilds. They have their own skills and tiers just as us.” Enancia said with a shrug.

Ryzen basically got the gist of it. It was likely he would eventually encounter a monster so he needed to prepare himself for that moment.

“Won’t they be mad at you since the demons just destroyed Vampirneck?” Ryzen asked.

“Well yes but there is no way for them to know yet. We’ll take advantage of their ignorance for now. The only problem I can think of is that tensions between the vampires and demons have been high for a while now. That being said, it still isn’t entirely uncommon for each species to visit each other's countries. Although, I doubt any vampires are alive in Zemina at this point.”

Ryzen nodded his head to agree as they neared the village. As they got closer, Ryzen could see the outlines of vampires looking up to see who they were. What’s strange is that some of them seemed to have been farming. Ryzen wasn’t sure why as vampires didn’t eat human food.

“Welcome travelers, to our village. I trust you mean us no harm?” a burly man said. He must have been somewhat on edge as he wasted no time in asking if Ryzen and Enancia were dangerous.

Ryzen didn’t blame him for that, in fact, he understood completely. He would also be worried if two random people, especially a race the vampires were at odds with, showed up.

“There is no need to worry. We are just looking for a place to rest and then we will be on our way.” Ryzen said with a nod.

The man’s shoulders let loose some tension and he smiled. “My house also functions as an inn of sorts for travelers such as yourself. You are welcome to stay there.”

“That sounds fine,” Ryzen said with a nod. “However, I have a question. Why are you farming?”

Ryzen didn’t bother saying that vampires can only eat human food as that would be obvious. This isn’t earth. Everyone knows that vampires live in this area and that they cannot eat food.

“Oh, we live in peace with vampires in exchange for safety. All we have to do is give them some of our blood from time to time.” the man said with a smile.

“Oh? Are there vampires up here? I know they don’t prefer the sun.” Enancia asked.

“Of course not. They have their own little village set up below.” the man said.

Enancia nodded and seeing that they had no more questions, the man led the way to his home. Once they went inside, he showed Ryzen and Enancia where they would be staying and left to go to tend to the fields.

“Can vampires not go outside?” Ryzen asked Enancia. Now that he thought about it, he never saw vampires outside besides the short time they were getting supplies.

“Of course they can. Why wouldn’t they? It’s just that their vision and skin are more accustomed to the dark so the sun can irritate them a bit. Higher-tier vampires don’t have to deal with it at all though.” Enancia said with a smile.

She sat down on the sole bed and motioned for Ryzen to come sit near her. He easily complied and they snuggled together.

“Ryzen?” she asked softly.

“Yeah?”

“How are you so calm?”

“What do you mean?” Ryzen asked in confusion. Was he acting strange?

“Well, you're from another world! Everything you know is gone. Not to mention, weren’t your fellow humans killed in the destruction of Vampirneck?” Enancia asked with a frown. She was clearly worried.

Truthfully, Ryzen hadn’t thought about his classmates for a while. He didn’t quite know how to feel about them all dying. It was sad but he wasn’t about to start crying about it. Ultimately, there was nothing he could do. He could only have one person in his shadow and that person was Enancia.

Still, her question had bothered Ryzen. What was wrong with him? Should he be more sad? Should he be angry? He didn’t want her to think he was a monster or something. That thought did bother him.

“Wait, sorry, you don’t have to answer that. I just want to make sure you’re doing alright.” Enancia said while waving her hands as if to dismiss the topic.

“Does being so calm… scare you?” Ryzen asked quietly.

Enancia rapidly shook her head. “No, No of course not. It’s more calming than anything. Like I said, I just wanted to make sure you’re okay… But… you care about me right?”

“Enancia!” Ryzen impulsively shouted. After realizing he did so, he quieted down and said, “Yeah, I do.”

Enancia giggled at his reaction while wearing a huge smile. “That’s the most emotion you’ve shown since you saved me. Anyways, I know you do but I just wanted to see how you reacted and I’m glad I did… but why?

“Why do I care about you?” Ryzen asked.

Enancia nodded, her crimson eyes looking straight into his.

Ryzen sighed and said, “I’m not completely sure. You’re pretty I guess.”

“That’s it? That’s all it takes?” Enancia said with a gasp.

“No, of course not! You’re just different… or maybe I’m just weird. I don’t know!” Ryzen said with a groan.

Enancia laughed and hugged him tightly. “You really are an odd human.”

Ryzen hugged her back and smiled. “I know.”