"It not childish! It’s perfect" Astoria began walking backwards as Bell walks with Tokah close to him. "And, we can be together, forever. Just me, Ryu and y...."

In a blink of an eye, a black shadow sped past, right in front of Bell and by the time he realized what had happened, Astoria had disappeared.

*CRACKING SOUNDS*

A giant monster had grabbed her in between it’s teeth and slammed her against a giant maple tree, her bones cracking on impact. The monster looked familiar, it speed was incredible, if it hadn’t stopped at that spot Bell might not had seen it past. It was the giant wolf which he thought he had killed back at the campsite.

_B...but that not possible! How could it have survived!?_ Bell wondered his fear clouding his mind.

*CRACK*

The sound of Astoria bones scattering brought him back to reality. Bell grabbed his dagger, shoving Ryu-who was also terrified-to stay behind him. Even though she couldn’t see, with the help of her [fifth sense] she could sense the threatening presence but a question remains on her mind.

_Big brother said my skill could sense danger, why couldn’t I sense this monster before it approached us?_

"A..... Bel...."

Astoria opened her mouth, trying to speak, to call out to Bell, but she couldn’t. One of the giant wolf’s fangs had stabbed through her throat, with another stabbing through her ribs and legs. Even though she wanted to scream, she couldn’t. The pain just wouldn’t let her.

When the monster first attacked her, it had already destroyed her vocal cord and both of her lungs had been punctured by its fang and being slammed against a tree by a monster that strong had broken her spine. Even if Bell was able to save her, she will still die.

Astoria struggled to raise her right arm just enough for Bell to notice. Bell grabbed his dagger in fear, his eyes widened, and his face didn’t hide the fact that he was terrified. Same as Ryu, she held on to her brother shirt, her body shaking, even her expressionless face was covered with fear and maybe a hint of despair.

Astoria tried to open her mouth again to speak but only blood came out, if she can’t speak then she’ll have to show Bell what she was trying to say. With her left arm, her grip tightened on her staff and pointed it toward the monster’s eye and unleashed a [fire ball] which immediately made the monster bite harder, completely breaking her bones and killing her.

Her grip loosen as her staff slipped out of her hand and fell to the ground, her bright eyes slowly went dark and then...., she stopped moving.

Bell stood there... watching, his legs barely holding him up, his grip become weaker, his eyes were filled with tears. Even till her last moment Astoria tried to fight for her dreams but, unlike him... he was too scared. The monster opened it’s maw, letting Astoria’s body slumped lifelessly to the ground and then the monster turned to him, as if it was trying to say it was his turn to die.

Bell legs became wobbly and before he knew it, before his brain could give the command for his body to act. He turned around and grabbed Ryu by the waist and with the help of his upgraded [dash] skill, he ran.

"Just like a weakling should"

He couldn’t tell but he moment, it looked as if the monster just spoke but that wasn’t important. What was important was staying alive and making sure Ryu was too.

.

.

.

"Big brother, we need to stop!"

Bell didn’t listen, he kept running with Ryu on his shoulder. He had been running for a long time, he had long exhausted his mana but kept on running even though he was tired.

He tripped on a tree root that was sticking out the ground and fell down, Ryu rolled a few meters and crashed on a tree. He quickly stood up and ran to his sister.

"Ryu! Are you okay!?" He yelled as he struggled to raise her to her feet. "The monster might be closing in, let’s mov..."

Ryu held on to his shirt, causing him to stop. His breathing was heavy as she could hear his heart beat pounding against his chest, he was terrified. She helped herself and crawled to Bell then hugged him.

"Big brother, it’s okay" she said, her voice easing her brother’s uneasiness.

Bell flinched then stopped his movements, his eyes didn’t look around, his muscles was tense, and he didn’t ask Ryu to hold on to him. He was finally relaxed... maybe a little, but enough to think clearly. He looked down at his sister, his eyes widening in shock.

"Ryu, you’re bleeding"

Even Ryu didn’t feel the blood sliding down her face from her forehead, she most had hit it against the tree when she fell.

"Don’t worry, there’s a potion in the bag. It’ll heal y..." Bell paused, he looked around and then at his body. The bag that had all their supplies in it was gone. "I... where’s... I must have dropped it. And everything we need is in there, our food, our water and even the potions. I need to go back"

As Bell stood up, Ryu held his trouser. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"Please, don’t go back" She said with tears on her eyes, that was as something Bell had forgotten about.

Ryu could cry, he couldn’t even remember when last he seen any form of emotion from her, but since when he decided to take her with him, he had noticed Ryu becoming a different person. Her blindfold was slowly becoming loose, Bell completely took it off and wrapped it around her head.

"This will stop the bleeding, at least for now" He knelt down beside his sister with a sigh. "On second thought, I’ll just leave it. Who knows?, we might be close to the other side"

Bell helped his sister to stand on her feet and by using the sunset as a compass, they headed northeast. It might still be the second day but Bell felt like he had been in the forest for more than that.