I gritted my teeth as I fell into the mud on my back. My opponent, a huge paladin stood towering over me, smirking as he slung his large sword over his shoulder. "And I thought you were the 'best hero'." He teased. I grunted. This guy was really starting to get on my nerves.

"I will never die in your hands." I growled as I turned my face away to spit out blood. The salty taste of iron still lingered in my mouth, but that wasn't one to worry about at the moment. "We'll see about that." The man shrugged as he lifted his sword high above his head, ready to strike.

I squeezed my eyes shut. I was simply too drained to do anything more. I waited for the impact, but it never came. Before the deadly sword got slice me into pieces, a glowing metal chain shot out from behind some bushes and wrapped itself around the paladin's neck. My eyes widened as I attempted to sit up.

The paladin gawked, dropping his sword and moving his large metal-clad hands to grab the chain around his neck. I watched in awe as he was pulled back towards a petite young redhead. She cried out as her claw dug itself into the paladin's back. He screamed in pain and quickly ran to hide among some rubble. The girl tried running after him, but then noticed me and stopped.

I watched as the paladin teleported back to his team base. I scooted backwards in horror as the girl walked towards me. I wasn't afraid that she would hurt me. I was afraid that she would see me in such a state. Beaten, drained and put to shame. I shut my eyes as I felt her presence right in front of me. Instead of laughing like any other normal player would, I heard her kneel down beside me and ask softly, "Hey, are you alright, Demon Hunter?"

I turned to look at her, a very depressed and frustrated expression on my face. It must've scared her because a whimper escaped her pretty little lips and she backed away from me a bit. "Don't worry, I'm too drained to do anything to you." I said. As if that made her feel relieved, she let out a deep breath and scooted closer to me.

Without warning, she placed her small hands against my broad bare chest. My own large calloused ones found flew to grab hers on instinct. She gasped and stared up at me. "I-I – nevermind." I sighed as I let my arms drop to my sides again. Her hands glowed a warm green and all of a sudden, I felt all energized and well.

"What did you…" I started, but she cut off my sentence, "I healed you," She smiled sweetly before standing up and dusting her white sundress and smoothing her soft red hair, "You'll be able to continue fighting now." I raised an eyebrow and eyed her suspiciously. Why would she do as much as heal both my health and mana when she doesn't even know me?

And to top it off, who in the right mind would wear a dress to a match? Or maybe she was so good, she didn't need to wear proper armour to fight. "U-Uhmm…is there something on my face?" She asked timidly, intertwining her fingers. "Ah, no." I shook my head as I stood on my feet and dusted my pants. She had a cute voice.

"Alright, I'll be off then!" She flashed me a toothy smile before running off. Just as I lost sight of her, the match ended and it was victory for our team. I smirked to myself as I left the battle map and strode into the lobby to collect my emblems and experience points.

Chapter I

Right after we entered the Sinskaald Rift, our battle map, I advanced towards the borderline where the two opposing teams met. I kept myself invisible behind a fairly large bush and squatted there. I didn't waste my time getting to know who my teammates were and how they looked like. Petty things like such weren't necessary. I could tell that they're on my team by just glancing at their health bars.

The timer hit zero and I sprung forwards, manically shooting away at some advancing minions. After 5 minutes, I had already taken down two foolish opponents and many minions. I smirked as I hit level 3 and decided to feed off of some giant spiders. Before I could make my way there, my map flashed bright red.

I shifted my gaze onto it and spotted a flashing red dot that wasn't very far from where I was standing. I sighed. A teammate was in trouble. Without hesitating, I ran towards where my ally was. When I turned a corner and reached the small clearing, my eyebrows shot up so high, I thought they were going to fall off.

The person who had sent the warning was none other than the Savage Princess that had healed me a few matches back. She was clad in a pretty deep blue dress and had only one claw in her hand. Her other weapon, I noticed, was chucked into a nearby stream. What angered me the most was that she was surrounded by all 5 of the opponents.

"Cowards!" I yelled as I sprung forward towards them. Two of them spun around just in time to catch me heading towards them and ran to hide in horror. Another fell unconscious right after I shot him with a fiery bullet. The only one left was a stubborn Battle Mage. "I'll give you a chance to leave right now or I kill you." I warned.

"You wouldn't want to kill a pretty little lady like me, would you, handsome?" She cooed as I neared her. "1." I narrowed my eyes at the magician. She was clad in what seemed like just a small piece of cloth; definitely too small to cover up everything it was supposed to. "2." She smirked at me and winked. "3." I raised my gun and in a split second planted a bullet into her side.

She glared at the two of us and shrieked in pain. Then, she teleported back to her team base. Once I was sure she was gone for good, I turned to the Savage Princess. She was sitting on the ground and holding onto her right arm tightly. She looked up at me with her cheery sky-blue eyes and smiled. "Thank you, Demon Hunter."

I tried my hardest to smile but what was presented was only another signature smirk. I reached out to pull her onto her feet. She let go of her arm which I found was bleeding. "You're bleeding." I pointed out before mentally kicking myself in the crotch. As if she couldn't see that. "A-Ah yes, it's alright!" She quickly butted in before I could say anything further.

"Come here, I'll heal you." I motioned her to come nearer to me. She hesitated for a bit before walking towards me. She was, I found, almost a head and a half shorter than me and was only as tall as my chest. I mentally snickered. I had always liked short girls. I grabbed her by the arms as gently as possible and concentrated on my healing.

Before we knew it, her health and mana had gone up and the long gash on her arm had patched itself up. "Amazing!" She cried out as she ran a small finger over where the gash once was. Then, she bowed down in front of me again and again, "Thank you so much! I owe you, man."

"No problem. I was just doing what I had to do." I shrugged and returned her cheery smile with just another smirk. "I think we should advance before our opponents reach our tower." She told me while scanning the area in front of us. "Yeah, let's go. I'll watch your back and you watch mine." I said in an orderly manner and she obediently nodded.

We made our way towards the borderline of the top lane. The coast was clear so far; no opponents or minions were approaching us. We finally reached our opponents' tower, and that was where the fun started.

-Time Skip-

I stood at the counter, waiting for the lady to hand me my emblems when suddenly someone grabbed my arm from behind. I spun around quickly on reflex and let my whole body relax when I saw that it was just the Savage Princess from earlier. "Hey, princess," I smirked, "Waiting to collect your emblems too?" She simply smiled back sweetly at me; one of the things I couldn't resist.

"Ah, yes, that's one! And my name's Akartu, by the way. You can call me Kat." "Alright then, Kat. I'm Lebmont. Lebmont Windrunner," I nodded before taking her hand in mine to shake it, "And what's the other one?" She tilted her head to the side a bit, staring at me in confusion, when she finally realised what I was pointing to. "Oh, right! I wanted to look for you."

I raised an eyebrow. Now it was my turn to be confused. How would she possibly be looking for me? "What is it you want?" I asked her straight while nodding to the lady who passed me a bag of emblems. "A-Actually, it's not just me. My guild master was wondering if you would like to join our guild," She giggled, hopping up and down in excitement.

"Me? Join your guild? Why?" I asked all at the same thing. She sighed, probably wondering why I asked so many questions. "Because he thought you were really good and…and…we're recruiting!" She finished with a wide grin. I flashed a charming smile and could've sworn I'd seen her cheeks turn red.

I really didn't want to burst someone's excitement bubble but I just sighed and rested my large hand atop her soft hair. She looked up at me with a pair of bright hopeful eyes. I sucked in a deep breath, "I'm sorry, princess. I fight alone and I'm really not interested in joining anyone's guild right now." Her smile slowly turned upside down as she lowered her head.

"Aw dang," She pouted, looking really disappointed, "Well, I respect your decision then…though I was really hoping that you would-" "I'm really sorry." I apologized genuinely. I really did feel bad for turning down her guild's offer, but it was just something I had to do. I will always fight alone.

She nodded in understanding as she collected her own bag of emblems from the same lady at the counter. "Ah, so we won't be able to see each other anytime soon, I guess." She ran a small hand through her warm red hair, tiny fingers entangling the strands. "Why would you say so? We could be buddies." I wiggled my eyebrows at her. Her hands flew towards her face to cup her cheeks as she giggled.

I sent her a buddy request without wasting any time and she accepted almost immediately. "I'll be off then," I winked, though I didn't know what had gotten into me, "Kat." She blinked a few times before her face turned a light shade of red. She frantically waved at me from behind, "Until next time, Lebmont!" And then, I disappeared through the portal.

…

"Dang, he doesn't want to join our guild? And I thought it was really prestigious and all…" The slightly disappointed Paladin groaned as he dropped his head. "Not at all, master!" The Savage Princess cried out as she patted her guild master's back in reassurance, "He just doesn't want a guild. That's all."

"Kyrius is just being a drama queen." Eryx, a male Battle Mage and another member of the guild rolled his eyes at the scene. Although their guild master was one of the strongest Paladins in the league, he was also extremely witty and dramatic. The Paladin quickly shifted his gaze towards the magician and pouted at him.

"Oh, so that's how you treat your master?" He feigned a hurt look and pretended to grab at his heart, "Fine. I see." Eryx smirked, folding his arms and folding one of his legs on the chair he was sitting on, "Yeah, now you see." A few other guild members snickered while the rest didn't even bother to pay any attention at all.

Kyrius' mouth hung agape as he exasperatingly cried out and pulled the surprised, and at the moment; annoyed, Akartu into a tight hug. "Let go of me, you big dramatic baby." She huffed, struggling to escape from his grasp. This was all Lebmont's fault and she was going to get back at him.