"What an idiot." Eira heard Asumi say under her breath as they sprinted holding their swords. Eira couldn't help but agree, her assumption was right, the wooden sword wouldn't have gotten him far, combined with his weak techniques that could barely create a flying slash. Still, Eira ran as fast as she could to save him in assistance of Asumi. She had to connect back with this girl once they were fully fledged demon slayers, she could be a good person to pair up with. They both halted as a massive shadow hid any light.

A massive demon with hands twisted along its face, yellow eyes glowing mixed with the vomit green painted across its fat body. Eira's whole body gained goosebumps, her body begged to retreat, the aura was more powerful than both of them combined. Eira felt the same gray aura as before, it was definitely the boy with the wooden sword. Eira gulped and held her sword.

"Should I... use that technique? No... I could risk the life of that wooden sword boy." She thought to herself. Unlike Eira, Asumi dashed forward quite quickly and started to slash at the fat hands that supported its body, it lost balance and fell on its back.

"Stupid kids!" It raged as hands rose from the ground and swung at Asumi. A hand quickly reached for her body but it was sliced by Eira who had just jumped into the battle. Asumi was startled a bit and took a step back. The wooden sword boy had fallen out of the grip of the demon and was on the ground moving away from the demon.

"Ali do something!" Asumi gritted her teeth as she got sight of the wooden sword boy.

Eira looked back at her, thoughts of how they may know each other sprung into her head. She was surprised at his name, Ali? it was quite... underwhelming.

"I can't do shit without a sword Asumi!" Ali shouted with a worry in his voice as he got up on his feet looking around, presumably for his wooden sword. On the other hand, Eira sprung into the air, jumping at an incredible height, the top of her head reaching the tree's leaves slightly. She made eye contact with the demon from up high, and put her arms up, her next slash would be aimed at the neck of the demon. She was confused on why it looked amused, but that wasn't the problem. Eira flew down like a bullet and swung with all her force, right into the neck of the fat demon. Instead of Eira's sword decapitating the demon, it bounced off the thick flesh, her control was thrown off and she started spinning in the air.

Eira was in shock as she looked back at the horrid demon.

"My neck isn't that weak to be taken down by a rookie like you." It giggled disgustingly. Its eyes curled upwards and it grinned with evil intent, a hand grabbed Eira's ankles, and slammed her body into the ground. Her face hit the ground, a bitter taste of dirt filled her mouth as she was dragged across the floor by the horrid hand. Her sword flew out of her grip, and in front of Ali. He looked at the metal blade and gulped. Eira was being thrown around like a ragdoll, she got a glimpse of the Asumi desperately trying to reach her, cutting all the arms that sprouted from the ground. It was endless. Eira felt sick as her stomach circled and twirled.

Eira felt a tight grip of this particular hand and she was thrown around roughly. Her back hit a tree's trunk as she felt the hand grip loosen and let go. An immense pain shot through her muscles as she winced in pain, she felt a splinter dig into her arm as her jacket's sleeve slightly ripped. As she opened her eyes everything was a blur, slowly things started to refocus. She had felt something she hoped she felt never again. Fear of death. The demon's aura was a crimson red with intent of murder. Just how powerful was it?

"Mother... Is this what you felt like? Hopeless? Weak?... No... I'm not the same... I will... kill this..." Eira's eyes lit up with rage.

How could she forget? She had wished to protect people close to her, the closest person to her... Was herself. Her body filled with adrenaline, the pain felt good all of a sudden, it hurt but it encouraged Eira to go on.

"I'll defend myself and die an honourable death if anything!" Eira screams looking for her sword. Her eyes fill with fear once again when she sees Ali holding her sword, two hands on the grip. All of a sudden her body is covered by goosebumps, what was that feeling? She sensed an overpowering black aura was spilling out of control and an attack that could shake the Earth was about to appear. Eira's hand shook and she desperately tried to pinpoint where it was coming from. It was everywhere. In every area danger was coming. Death was coming.

That singular word echoed in her hand. Death. Death. Death. She backed into the tree. The demon was laughing uncontrollably. Was it from it? The feeling only intensified and intensified, as if an attack was building. She closed her eyes and closed her ears and scrunched into a ball.

"I don't want to die! Please! Mountain Gods! Help me!" Eira thinks in her head, fear filling her body. Her determination had shrivelled up in front of the demon. The black colour infiltrated her mind, pressing all the buttons in her brain to say run away, she felt her face go pale and her stomach go low, her neck choked, like a barbed wire was wrapped around tightly. On the other hand, Ali was on a high, he held a stance, getting ready to unleash a massive attack with the new found metal sword he had picked up.

"Finally... I'll show them how my training has paid off!" Ali grinned as his muscles flexed and he got ready to unleash his first form. Eira gulped anticipating the attack. But then suddenly. It stopped. It all disappeared like an on and off switch. Eira's body almost instantly loses all its fear and instead the powerful aura she had sensed almost disappeared, it felt like it turned into a white neutral all of a sudden. Eira opened her eyes, she breathed heavily as she looked up. The demon's head was on the floor, and Asumi gently landed on the ground. She sighed and panted.

"Shit… maybe next time." Ali sighed. Eira looked up, she got annoyed seeing her loyal sword suffer in the hands of Ali. She rushed and snatched it off him quite rudely. He just laughed a bit and went to the Asumi. Eira looked confused as she watched Ali walk to Asumi so casually, she didn't seem like the type of person to want a small chit chat in this situation.

"Been a while huh?.. Asumi." Ali smiles as he says her name.


Author's Note:

That black aura was scary, I wonder who it is was coming off...

Me and my co-writer have decided to make Friday our offical posting day! Other days are not promised to have uploads, but from now on, you can trust every friday if you come there will be a new upload!

As always, if you enjoy, add it to your library so you don't miss any updates!

Amare Flos is also on Webnovel, Wattpad, Archive of our Own and Fanfiction net!