A bandit was leaning behind a tree while staring at the direction where the cave was located.

That vastaya will come from that direction and he and his companions were ready to capture her.

And, they'd prepared something.

"She won't have any chances," the bandit mumbled while smiling to himself.

"What chances?" a voice asked in a small voice from behind.

Before the bandit could react, he felt pain explode on his head, and everything became dark.

Ahri was standing over the knock-ed out bandit while grabbing a stone tightly in her left hand.

She needed to stealthily knockout many bandits as possible.

But why not just kill them? Her mind asked.

Ahri shook her head.

Because I'd promised myself that I'll never kill humans again . . . she answered her mind.

Then, she dropped to the ground and started to crawl toward the next place where she'd seen a bandit was hiding.

Thanks to the forest being so dense with trees, she was able to knock out five bandits now without being spotted.

There were more bandits than before. There were only six bandits almost a year ago, but now, it seemed that there were more than twenty.

She snuck up behind another bandit and whacked his head with the rock as hard as possible.

He instantly crumpled onto the ground without making a sound.

"Hey, who's that?!" a voice yelled from somewhere from her right.

She quickly looked at the direction where she'd heard the voice and saw a bandit pointing his finger at her from behind a boulder.

She was spotted.

She darted toward the bandit while drawing magic from the world around her and forming it into a destructive orb in her hand.

She saw the bandit's eyes growing wide underneath his cloak before she flung it at him.

It hit the bandit in the chest, and he flew back and landed on the ground, knocked out cold.

She heard bandits yelling at each other.

"Where did she come from?!"

"I don't know! Just capture her!"

She turned around and saw three bandits running toward her with weapons in their hands.

She formed destructive orbs as fast as possible and threw them at the three bandits.

The bandits instantly crumpled onto the ground upon impact while fainting instantly by the pain.

A bandit jumped at her while bringing his wooden club upwards to bring it down on her head from behind her.

She skipped sideways, dodging the wooden club and she kicked him in the jaw with her foot.

The bandit yelped and fell onto the ground while clutching his chin.

Then, she dashed toward the tree where Jeffric, who was trembling, was tied up to while dodging blows from the bandits that attacked her.

She'd reached the boy and quickly sliced the rope that tied him to the tree with her rock.

"Iminha, I'm here!" Ahri said while dropping the sliced rope and the rock onto the ground. "Are you alright?"

I heard yells from somewhere, but I couldn't see where it was coming from.

The world around me kept on changing from normal to being dark, and back to normal again.

I was still trembling because I was still scared of seeing Terian's face again.

Coldness overwhelmed me while I still trembled with fear.

Suddenly, I felt the rope that tied to me the tree falling down around me.

Then, I heard a familiar and a welcoming voice speaking to me.

"Iminha, I'm here! Are you alright?"

I looked up and saw Ahri standing over me with a really worried expression on her face.

"A-Ahri?" I asked in surprise.

"I'm here to get you out of here," Ahri said while pulling me up quickly. "We need to run, now!"

"Not so fast, girl!" I heard someone yelling at us and turned to see the bandits standing a short distance away from us amongst the dense trees of the forest, changing from being bandits to being kids back in the village and back to being bandits.

The burly man was grinning before changing into Terian again.

"Lads," Terian said while looking behind at the kids back in my village, "unleash 'them'."

Five bandits nodded, turned around, and ran into the forest, disappearing amongst the leaves and the tree trunks.

Now, six, including the burly man, was left standing.

"Now," Terian looked at me and Ahri again and changed back to the burly man, "back to business."

I was frozen with fear because of the shock of seeing Terian again. I was trembling more than before, and cold sweat was trickling down my forehead.

"Iminha," Ahri said while grabbing my right hand, "we need to run, now!"

She started to run while dragging me by my hand to a random direction.

"Get them!" the burly man yelled at his comrades, and I heard them starting to chase us, their feet making sounds on the grass-covered ground.

We ran and ran, running past trees after trees.

We heard them chasing us through the trees and bushes behind us. But something wasn't right. The sounds were getting fainter as if the bandits were slowing down.

Perhaps they were giving up?

Suddenly, I started to hear something running through the bushes around us.

I looked around while running and saw only blurs through the trees and bushes. They looked like animals, but I wasn't quite sure.

Wild animals? I thought in confusion.

Then, without warning, something pounced at us through the bushes in front of us.

"Look out!" Ahri yelled and skidded to a stop.

The something landed in front of us and started to growl, showing its long fangs.

It was a wolf.

Then, more wolves came out of the brushes. And before I could blink, they'd surrounded us.

The wolves were now prowling around us, their merciless blue eyes glaring at us as, making me feel colder inside. They were growling viciously, fangs glinting in the faint light of the sun that'd made through the leaves and branches above.

"Th-This doesn't look good . . ." I said in a frightened voice.

Then, I saw the bandits stepping out amongst the trees to stand behind the wolves.

We were completely surrounded.

"Well, you see, these wolves were trained to their limits," the burly man said, "so it won't be hard to catch you, vastaya!"

I looked around wildly while every bandit kept on changing to kids and back into bandits.

Even the wolves started to change.

In my eyes, the wolves changed to monsters that I'd seen in my nightmares when I was young and back into being wolves.

The monsters were a mess of eyes, grinning mouths, and human hands that had claws growing out of the fingers. And everything about them was dark, dark as the darkest night.

Now, sweat was pouring down my body like rain while my heart felt as if it was frozen. My mind felt as if it was churning into a turmoil as if it couldn't comprehend the insanity happening around me.

The only thing that was holding me back from getting insane was Ahri's hand grabbing mine. It was the only anchor that anchored me to sanity.

Ahri glanced sideways at Jeffric while still holding his hand.

Jeffric looked . . . more than haunted, with his eyes wide open in terror, his clothes drenched in cold sweat, and he was trembling uncontrollably.

Then, she looked around at the bandits and the wolves that were surrounding her and Jeffric while forming a destructive orb in her hand.

"Don't come closer, you monsters!" she yelled and threw the orb at the nearest wolf.

It instantly hit, and the wolf collapsed onto the ground.

"You might be strong," the burly man said while patting a large wolf that was next to him, "but you will fall."

The large wolf looked to be the pack leader, with its scarred face and long fangs. And its eyes were staring right at her as if they were trying to pierce her with the glare.

"Kill the boy," the burly man said to the wolf, "but don't kill the vastaya, but you may hurt her a little if she gets in the way."

The wolf raised its head to the sky and howled as if it'd acknowledged him.

The other wolves howled too and started to close in on her and the boy with their fangs bared.

Ahri formed more magical orbs in her hands and started to throw them at the wolves in panic.

But when she'd thrown the third orb, she felt a sharp pain explode on her back.

She screamed and fell onto the ground while she felt blood trickle down her back. But she didn't let go of Jeffric's hand.

"Give up, girl!" the burly man yelled in a taunting voice. "Just surrender yourself, and we'll let the boy die quickly."

"Never!" Ahri yelled back and hugged the boy tightly with both of her arms to shield him from the wolves and the bandits, even though it caused more pain to explode on her back. "I'll never let you hurt this boy even if it costs my life!"

Time stopped while reality started to crumble around me.

Now, only darkness filled the world while everything didn't move, and the bandits had permanently changed to the kids that'd bullied me back in my village, and the monsters from my old nightmares didn't change back into wolves. The dark world around me was tearing into bits and pieces, leaving behind dark voids where there was land.

The skies above started to shred themselves into pieces as if the gods were waging war in heaven.

The reality was tearing itself apart.

And Ahri . . .

She was hugging me tightly. A big slash wound was streaked across her back by one of the wolves' attack.

And blood was trickling down her clothes, like a river of hatred.

This can't be happening . . . I thought desperately while staring at the world around me, which was only filled with the things that I feared the most.

"Somebody please tell me that this is just a dream . . ." I whispered while tears started to trickle down my cheeks. "This can't . . . this can't be happening . . ."

Then, I clutched my head with both of my hands and shakily stepped back, tears falling onto the dark ground.

"I-I won't accept this . . ." I whispered while more tears trickled out of my eyes.

"I know you won't accept this," a voice whispered to me.

I looked around but saw no one.

"Wh-Who's there?!"

"Don't you want to save your friend?" the voice asked, ignoring my question. "And . . . don't you want to kill the things that'd caused your friend to feel pain?"

I looked at the monsters from my nightmares and the kids back in the village who were all frozen in time.

Suddenly, I started to feel something hot scorching from the depths of my soul, as if molten lava was rising upwards.

"Don't you want to shred them to pieces for doing this to her?" the voice asked, and it started to change from a normal human voice to a demonic one as if a demon in disguise was revealing its true form. "Don't you want to feel their bodies turning into bloody bits and pieces?! Don't you want to hear them scream for mercy while you tear them apart?!"

The hot feeling started to engulf me like lava was seeping out of my body and burning my skin.

My body started to tremble uncontrollably with something that I'd never felt before in my life.

Something burning.

Something scorching.

Then I realized what that feeling was.

I felt rage.

"Do it, Jeffric!" the voice roared. "Slice them, kill them, torture them until even their souls are diminished!"

Then, the time unfroze, everything around me started to move.

One of the monsters from my old nightmares pounced at me and Ahri, with its fangs bared, clawed hands outstretched.

"Reap—" the voice said.

Suddenly, by instinct, I raised my left hand sharply at the monster, my hand clenched into a fist, and I closed my eyes, expecting the end.

But I felt nothing.

I slowly opened my eyes. When the scene struck me, my eyes grew wide in shock and fear.

Countless long dark spikes were protruding out of my hand and arm, all pierced through the monster in midair.

I unclenched my fist, and the long dark spikes mirrored the movements of my fingers.

The monster exploded, its blood flying everywhere while the pieces fell onto the ground.

"—and tear, Jeffric!" the voice finished. "Show them that you're a force to be reckoned with."