After ducking to avoid the sword, Aaron looked up. Crow was now a few meters away from them. He was standing still.

Next to him, was Explo, his comrade that wore pink armour.

“Hi. Tracking you was very easy,” she said, not specifying why.

They had followed them to the metro station.

The woman held her red magic cannon. “Any last words?”

At the same time, Rico glanced at Marc’s right arm. Something about it didn’t seem quite right.

“What?!” Half of the arm unexpectedly fell to the ground. Blood spurted out of both halves. “Crow’s sword struck his arm?!”

Marc was bewildered. Crow’s sword cut his forearm off so perfectly that he didn’t even realize it at first. Only when it fell to the ground did he notice.

It hurt a lot.

He couldn’t think clearly anymore.

The cannon was fully charged, yet he still ran towards Explo. What else could he do? Running from the gun would put Aaron and Rico in additional danger.

A red magic jet emitted out of the cannon at incredible speed. *BVVVVVVVOOOOOM!* Smoke spread everywhere.

Marc only barely managed to avoid the beam by spewing water out of his left hand, making him leap upwards. “Damn it! What sort of weapon is this?! I can’t breathe and… I can’t see anything!” He was surrounded by smoke.

*Woosh* Suddenly, Crow appeared before him. He was flying too fast. Marc, still in the air, couldn’t avoid his sword. *Slaaaash*

“What’s happening over there?!” Aaron and Rico couldn’t see through the smoke.

*Toc* Something round abruptly fell to the ground and rolled towards them. Its blue beanie and blue eyes slowly gained colour as it approached them.

Rico gasped, “Marc’s… HEAD?”

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“RUN!” Aaron grabbed his brother’s hand.

Unfortunately, the smoke was dissipating. Explo quickly found them.

“Think you can run?!” *Bvvvvv* she started charging her red magic cannon once again.

The two kids kept running anyways. It was the only thing they could do.

“She was one of them. I know it! That other guy too! They were the ones that killed my friends along with that ‘Zomb’ guy! This is so unfair! I can’t run from her weapon. Marc could barely avoid the beam when he was alone, plus Rico is right next to me!” thought Aaron

“YOU TWO! Hide behind this shield!” A mysterious feminine voice came from their left. Before Aaron could turn his head to look towards it, a round shield appeared on his right. It was transparent and had a seafoam shade of green. It was conjured by a dark magician.

Aaron decided to trust them. He believed it to be their only possibility of surviving.

*VOOOOM!*

Sure enough, the beam that seemed so strong was blocked by the shield that was so thin.

Red smoke appeared once again.

Behind them, the dark magician, that was previously on top of another round shield, floating in the air, decided to jump down to their level.

“Hello. My name is Christiana. I’m from the Tremblay guild. Adjacent to this metro is an even older metro. Run in this direction and you will see a hole in the wall. Another train is waiting for you there.” She pointed in the same direction that they were previously running.

Christiana was a tall woman fully dressed in black. She was in her late twenties. Her eyes were glowing with a beautiful seafoam green colour. Her black hair landed a couple of centimetres above her shoulders. She had long legs and wore red shoes made to increase swiftness.

Just as told, Aaron and Rico ran away.

The magician started walking towards Explo. “Fight someone on your level. Stop picking on the weak.”

Inside Explo’s helmet, a grin appeared. “So, you finally decided to appear. I was worried you’d let Rico die. Are you as strong as me? I doubt it.”

“No. I’m stronger!” Christiana conjured another shield in front of her. It was horizontal and floating in the air.

“What are you doing?!” asked Explo.

Christiana was very experienced. She had learned many ways to utilize her gift to make solid mana surfaces appear.

She grasped the farther side of the shield with her hands, loosening her arms, and inclined her body as if she was surfing.

*Wooosh* She suddenly launched her whole body, achieving a very rapid speed. “John! Take care of the other one!”

A man with very short blond hair looked at Crow and responded. “Very well.”

His eyes glowed black. Tens of needles were surrounding him. His dark magic ability was object manipulation.

“You, the swordsman! Let’s fight!”

End of chapter 8