Pinkshuchan: LALIHO! Hey everyone! Pinkshuchan here! I'm glad all of you are enjoying the story so far. Last chapter, Akihiko met a travelling merchant named Shinoda and learned of something assumed to be the Fire Lion was in the abandoned village. Curious about this lion, said to be only lion from the neck up but the rest of him human, Akihiko decided to check it out. What will happen once he meets the Fire Lion? Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter 4

The Lion and the Hunter

Broken stone houses stood within a circle of buildings and stone pathways were covered by some of the ruby sand from outside. The only things that were still in tact were small lion statues holding torches with flames that glowed red and gold. That was how the abandoned village looked during the night, even with no people living there.

But maybe, there was something still living there.

Akihiko had taken the entire day to reach the village. Though the journey here was difficult with demons sent by Haruhiko after him, he was still able to make it there while it was still dark to see the Fire Lion, who only comes out at night, for himself. He looked around the entire village, remembering some memories that were both blissful and painful.

He remembered the people, who were strong and kind, but were violent if provoked. They all worshiped the Fire Lion, which served as a god to them. The continent itself was named after the Fire Lion's real name, Feuern. He remembered hearing all kinds of different stories from the people, mesmerized by how their religion was so different compared to Damonen. But Akihiko, although a prince of Damonen, was not that big on their religion. He liked to learn about all the continents and all their thoughts.

And then, there were the bonds he made there. More specifically with one person. A boy his age who was nicknamed 'the Lion Child' as his personality was similar to that of the Fire Lion. But there were sides of him only Akihiko knew, as the boy would never dare show it in front of anyone else. They grew to be the best of friends, although there were some differences between them. While Akihiko liked to spend his days being lazy, the boy would work hard and would, as Akihiko would say, 'dig his own grave' from so much work. But Akihiko's dear friend would never dare lower his pride. What Akihiko wouldn't give to see his friend and all the people of the village again.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard Suzuki pointing something out. In the far side of the village, there was a giant flame. Akihiko recognized the location. It was the Temple of the Fire Lion, a place where people who feel like they have lost hope pray to the lion to gain more strength and courage. Akihiko ran as fast as he could with Suzuki flying behind him. What could this mean? Was this where the Fire Lion was?

He made it to the temple to see what looked like a naked man with long cinnamon hair kneeling down before the giant statue of the Fire Lion. Who was that strange man? Why was he praying in front of the statue?

"Excuse me!" Akihiko called out, "Are you a resident from this village that managed to survive against the demons or are you a traveller?" The man broke out of his praying state and stood up. He turned around, causing Akihiko to jump at the shock.

He looked like a normal man from the back, but when looking at the front, Akihiko could see what Shinoda had talked about. A man with a lion's head, including red eyes and a long cinnamon mane that could easily look like human hair, but with pale skin and long hands with sharp claws. The lion man glared at Akihiko and roared at him, preparing to attack.

Suzuki flew as fast as he could to hide from the lion, but Akihiko took a fighting stance. He would assume this creature was a demon, but he didn't look like any demon he had ever seen before, especially in a guide of demons he always carried with him just in case. It was a mystery, but first he had to defeat this lion.

The lion man stood on both his legs and arms as if he was an actual lion. He stood his ground, ready for any attack Akihiko makes. But Akihiko only just circles around with the lion following his movements. Both circled around each other, wondering when the other would attack. It didn't make sense for Akihiko. If this thing was a demon, it would attack him without hesitation. But although this thing was a beast, he had some humanism in him as well. He stood normally and slowly walked over to the lion man. The beast still stood his guard but even he began to slowly drop it.

Both moved closer to each other but with extreme caution. They moved closer until they knew they didn't have to worry about one attacking the other. The moment they got into eye contact, the lion began crying of joy and pain out of the blue. Through his soft roars, the silver haired man could hear one word and stood there in shock.

"Akihiko."

But then something began pulling the lion away. Both Akihiko and the lion weren't sure what was going on until they saw a rope that was lassoed around the lion's neck. The Fire Lion gave another loud roar before flames consumed his clawed hands and burned the rope, freeing him. But who would want to catch him? Akihiko saw his answer.

"Dammit!" Shinoda cursed while throwing the rope away, "Note to self, must use anything fire proof to catch him."

Akihiko glared at him. "Shinoda, you're not a travelling merchant are you? It was only a cover for your true identity. You're a hunter!"

Shinoda chuckled. "Indeed," he replied, "I am not a travelling merchant from Stahlern. I'm not even from that place. I'm a hunter from Damonen and I came to retrieve this half demon. I almost had him thanks to you, Prince Akihiko. That's right! I know you're the traitor prince. But even so, I am glad. You led me to that precious half demon right there."

"What the hell are you talking about? Half demon? There's no such thing!"

"Not until now! You see, when the demons followed you here they didn't just destroy the village. They took the residents of this village to become test subjects of a new way to create demons. His Royal Majesty Emperor Haruhiko allowed us to go through with this with the exception that if they are a success he is allowed to use them to kill you. And indeed, they were.

"That is until this guy known as the Fire Lion came in. Like everyone else in his village he was to become a pure demon. However, as we tried to change him into a demon like the others, he would fight the transformation. Quite the stubborn guy he is. He's quite beautiful too," Shinoda chuckled, causing a growl from the lion. "The most interesting thing then happened. Only his head and parts of his body were changed to be more demonic, but the rest of him, including mind and heart remained human. He managed to escape our base farther away in Feuern and I was made to chase him.

"I followed him here to the abandoned village. My guess was that he was searching for something. Either that or he just missed home. I was plotting a way to catch him when you came to my fire. And then I figured, I could kill two birds with one stone. Well, kill a bird and capture a beautiful lion half demon."

"So you mean that you used the people of this village as pawns for an experiment using force?" Akihiko stood in fighting stance. "I will never forgive what you have done to the people and to my friend here!"

Akihiko and the lion watched as Shinoda pulled out what looked like a whip. "Tell you what Prince Akihiko! I'll spare both you and the Fire Lion if you defeat me in a battle. However, I am allowed to take your life and take this lion's freedom should I win."

The silver haired smirked. "That shouldn't be too hard for me to defeat you. I've defeated a lot of level 3 demons. It would be hard to defeat someone with that strength."

"You are too cocky," said Shinoda, "I'm no ordinary hunter from Damonen. I will show you my strength through battle."

And the battle began. Both circled around each other while keeping a fighting stance and never breaking eye contact. This was a battle that determined not only the lion's freedom, but Akihiko's life as well. But Akihiko was determined to win. He knew he could win. He knows that he would be strong enough to defeat Shinoda. How powerful could he be?

They stopped circling each other. Shinoda made the first move, using his whip like weapon to reach Akihiko. But Akihiko knew what was to happen and managed to dodge. He used this dodge to get closer to Shinoda and try his own set of attacks. The hunter was knocked back a few steps, but he still stood. He tried another attack on the silver haired man but only resulted with another dodge on Akihiko's part. However, when Akihiko tried another attack on Shinoda, the hunter gave a counterattack and the silver haired man was down.

They kept fighting, able to get blows on each other. However, Shinoda was able to get more blows on Akihiko than the latter did on him. And it was then Akihiko realized; he was at a disadvantage.

Akihiko only had his own body to use as a weapon which required him to attack his opponent up close. However, Shinoda had his whip like weapon, which was able to stretch quite far in the battlefield. It would be quite difficult to get anymore attacks on him without getting any damage on himself. If that was the case, he would surely lose and not only would he lose his life and his chance for freedom, but the lion's freedom would be taken away as well. He couldn't let that happen, especially since this lion was…

He thought of an idea. There was no way Akihiko could win like this and he didn't want to be reckless. So there was only one thing left to do. As he dodged Shinoda's oncoming attacks, he moved closer to the lion, who stood away to not get caught in the battle. Akihiko raised his hand, causing a violet glow to consume it, and slammed it to the ground, causing smoke. The smoke surrounded the area and blinded Shinoda just for a bit. But when the smoke subsided, Akihiko and the lion were gone from that spot. Shinoda knew what had happened.

It was a demon summoning.

He moved his sight to the sky, and sure enough Akihiko and the lion were riding a demon to escape, followed by Suzuki who was trying to catch up. Akihiko's choice of demon was typical considering the theme of his demons. The demon was a flying bear like Suzuki, but was bigger, flew while looking like it was on four legs instead of two, and had feathered wings. He had to admit that it was clever, but not clever enough. Like Akihiko, Shinoda also summoned his own demon to chase after them. His demon was a crimson pterodactyl with black markings all over its body. He jumped on it and flew in quick speed to catch up.

Akihiko and the lion felt relieved that they were getting away from the hunter. The lion, who was sitting behind Akihiko, kept his arms around the latter's waist to keep him from falling, but also in a way of affection with his head in the crook of the silver haired man's neck. But this content feeling could not last as they heard a screech from a demon. They looked back to see Shinoda right on their tail. Akihiko turned back and leaned closer to the bear's head.

"Saitou! We need to go faster!" he told the bear, known only as Saitou to the silver haired man. The bear complied and moved faster. But that wasn't stopping Shinoda. The bear was a Level 2 demon. The pterodactyl demon he summoned was a Level 3. He had the advantage once again. But even with speed, it wouldn't be enough to take it down. He had one thing left to do. He opened his mouth and began a scream that was close to breaking the sound barrier facing Akihiko and the lion.

It was a successful hit for Shinoda, but wasn't such good luck on Akihiko and the lion. Saitou couldn't take the pain of the scream that he began to fall down to the ground. The bear landed on a part of land on top of some sort of mountain, but Akihiko and the lion knew better.

They were landing on a volcano.

Akihiko grabbed the lion and jumped off Saitou before the bear was about to have impact with the ground. They managed to land before Saitou and Akihiko was able to save Saitou by ending the summon. It seemed that they were safe.

But not until they saw Shinoda landing near them. "Now that wasn't playing fair Dear Prince," he tsked, "You are supposed to save your life and this lion's freedom by defeating me, not by running away. But I will make sure that this is fair," He ended his summon with his own demon. "We shall continue this battle, but none of us are allowed to use demons in anyway."

Akihiko was in trouble. There was no way he could defeat this hunter. But it made him wonder; how was this person stronger than him when he was only supposed to be a hunter? Shinoda didn't give him a chance to figure it out though, as he was already starting to fight. He was about to make his first attack when he himself got attacked by something else.

It was the lion. It was as if he was protecting Akihiko from the hunter. Shinoda used all his strength to push the lion off and far away. He glared at the beast. "I suppose you didn't hear me," Shinoda spoke to the lion, "I said no demons. But don't worry. I can fix that." He pulled something out of his pocket and threw it high. The item exploded, but didn't seem to do anything. The lion charged at Shinoda again but was pushed back by some sort of barrier. He tried and tried but it wouldn't budge. The hunter laughed.

"Just give up, my beautiful lion!" he continued, "Watch as I kill the man before us and take you back. If you are this beautiful as a half demon, I wonder how beautiful you will be as a full demon!"

The lion roared in anger as well as worry. He had to stand helpless as Akihiko struggled to keep alive against Shinoda. He didn't know what to do; how to stop this, how to help Akihiko who was doing his best to help him.

"A lion tied down is no different from a helpless kitten. But they both can provide support."

The Fire Lion looked around to the source of the voice to see a hooded figure there. He knew that person wasn't there before. Who was this person? The hooded figure only chuckled. "You really look quite cute flustered," it continued, "You wish to help your friend but cannot do so in the state you're in. You wished this since this first happened to you; you want to become human again." The lion roared in response. It was as if this person could read his mind.

"I know a way to solve this. Don't think wrong though! No longer can you be truly human again. Once you develop a demon gene, it is impossible to remove it. However, it is possible to make your human gene stronger so you can break through the barrier and save your friend.

"Do you recognize this place? Being a resident of Feuern, you know all the landscapes here. This volcano was believed to hold a spring that may possibly cure anything that happens. But it isn't a sure thing. There are those that die from drinking it. Some believe it's because they can't handle the scorching heat, others believe the water is poisoned. Could you possibly be one able to survive it?"

The lion was not scared by the hooded figure words. He nodded, as if telling the figure that he could handle it. The hooded figure nodded and moved aside, revealing said spring. It caused the lion to stand back in shock and some of his confidence escaped. But he would not dare back down. Before becoming the beast he was, he knew he was a man of great pride. Would he let go of it just because of some rumoured water? He gulped and walked forward.

This was it! This water was the one that would possibly turn him back to human. He brought his hands with his long sharp claws into the water and cupped some of it. It was possible this water could kill him but he didn't care. He had to do this. For himself and for Akihiko. He lifted his hands with the water and drank out of it.

Back with Akihiko, despite his attempts of staying alive, he was getting easily beaten up by Shinoda. With the beaten prince on the ground, the hunter moved closer and smirked. The former looked up at him. "Who the hell are you?" he asked.

"It is like I said," Shinoda replied, "I am no ordinary hunter. In fact, since you're about to die, I might as well tell you. I am one of those chosen by Emperor Haruhiko to keep the demons from doing anything disastrous to Elementar. I am one of the Five Damonen Knights."

Akihiko's eyes widened. The Five Damonen Knights?! He had heard of them but never had he thought that he would have to deal with any of them. Surely Haruhiko had warned the knights to be on the lookout for the silver haired prince and kill him should they find him. It was also typical that the Ruler of Damonen would not tell his younger brother as to be more successful with killing him. At the state he was at now, there was no way he could defeat any of the knights. Shinoda grabbed Akihiko's neck and began to strangle him. The moment he puts all his strength into his hands, it would be over for Akihiko.

But Shinoda was attacked from behind before he could finish Akihiko off. The silver haired man coughed the moment the hunter's grip on him loosened to the point of dropping him back onto the ground. Shinoda was in pain with a burning feel on his back. Something scorching; a fireball, was shot at him. There was only one that could use a fireball but that was impossible. No demon or their abilities could be used on someone in the barrier. The lion, although half demon, was in the state of being more demon than human. So then how…?! He couldn't believe his eyes the moment he turned to where the demon was.

"Well, now the battlefield is evened up!"

That voice! It was so long ago when Akihiko had heard it. Could it be? He looked up and, like Shinoda, shock was shown on his face. Where the lion was stood a young man that looked like he was the same age as Akihiko. However, he didn't look completely human. Some features he had when he was still the lion were still there but weren't as animal like. His nails weren't as long, but still looked like claws and though he had a human face, fangs were still there when he opened his mouth. Not only that, but his ears were pointier.

He was the Lion Child.

Shinoda smirked before he walked away. "Well, there's really no point in fighting a battle that's two against one, especially when it seems the half demon has taken more of a human form. I'll let you get away with living this time Prince Akihiko. But the next time we meet, your head will be swiped by my whip. And with one raise from his hand, Shinoda summoned his pterodactyl and flew away. Victory was Akihiko's for now.

But the victory didn't last long as the young man the lion turned into fell to the ground. Akihiko ran to help the Lion Child, but not before crying out his name.

"Hiroki!"

Pinkshuchan: Yep, that's Hiroki. There must be people rejoicing. Though probably not since people might be expecting Misaki. Not to worry, Misaki is in this story. When he comes in is going to be a surprise. You will need to read on to find out. Read and Review!