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"Look!" Shizu held up a green carcass of a two-meter wide fish, with extremely sharp fangs.

Izaya laughed She was like a child meeting a whole new world. He remembered her talks about how bored with life she was the night before.

On the day he got her virginity he didn't think they'd have this kind of deep friendship. As the bot were Zhi Rui's subordinates and knew the type that gathers around her, they tried to not get close. He knows her as a fickle woman who killed her former lord because she was being annoyed. That was the official explanation Zhi Rui gave. It sounded nuts, but he didn't doubt. Not once did Zhi Rui took a good egg under her wings.

And she knew him as an overly attached dad, that'd anything for his daughter. She knows he committed genocide repeatedly when searching for the group that took his daughter away.

Because they both had the first impression formed, they did everything casually, with no string attached. as they were strangers it didn't matter what they did, so they played around. And now they are close friends.

She says she isn't bored with him around. He asks until when her excitement on him would last. So he had to do her repeatedly. Then for some reason, she'd laugh at his uncouth manner. He liked to think it was love, but they were both too damaged and twisted to start spouting fairy tales, so, like Zhi Rui, they enjoyed the moment.

Izaya shook his head a ther and gave the level three crocodile that the disciples were fighting the last hit, sending it to heaven.

As the disciples thanked and looted the beast's body.

Shizu appeared in front of him with a wide-open fish mouth ready to swallow him whole.

He jumped back, in a fight stance.

Then she laughed her eyes out.

He sighed.

"You're forty-two already. you shol-"

PAH!

A fish struck his face, sending him to heaven.

"AAHHHH!" A slave screamed. Izaya jumped to his feet, he didn't run to the slaves, on the ground beside Shizu the soil moved. She looked at him with anxiousness, and he seemed frantic. two steps, a black robbed man emerged from the ground and reached with the tip of his sword into Shizu.

Suddenly he laughed wickedly stomped the ground and swung his hand backward. His gloves suddenly shone in eery green. Zhun Xuying had enchanted his weapon with the sharp green element.

As he swung back a spell of fire turned his ribcage into charcoal. His beast blood was activated and coupled with Zhi Rui's methods, it ended up as a shallow wound.

But his claw drilled the enemy's eyesockets, destroyed the surrounding bone and crushed the brain inside.

The robe fell and he saw an old lady at the end of his arm. He frowned and jumped back to stay beside Shizu, her knight armor made by Zhun Xuying herself had no damage on it. But she lost a hand. She tied her bleeding wrist with a piece of cloth and look at Izaya's wound.

"It broke all my ribs on my left side. I can exert the same amount of strength as before bu-"

"Your body can't ake the backlash. Alright, I'll cover this side so you can use it in a minimum." She completed his sentence, as she moved to his injured side

They both used everything given to them. both the people that attacked them obviously underestimated them severely. and died with unaddressed griefs.

Shizu suddenly chukled. Izaya perked his ears up. "We should really thank Zhi Rui for informing our abilities exactly as we have them."

Remembering what Zhi Rui wrote on those papers she sent to the sect He laughed out loud too. He found it childish, like a children's prank, after all a sect had eyes, a lie like that can't do anything. Yet here they were, both of them killed two different levels, four cultivators. Beaus the enemy assumed they both were focused on support instead of fight.

They were rigid in place. In front of them, another man and woman finished off the last of the ten slaves.

Two against two, it was a good number. But the wind who suddenly blew downwards all of sudden broke that notion. Izaya sighed internally. By the pressure coming and the shadow on the ground, it was two people crashing down.

The attackers aimed in them together. Izaya and Shizu's reaction was to dash in opposite sides but Izaya knows that if they separated, they'd both die. And since nobody answered when they furtively called for help through the hope of rock. They couldn't expect reinforcements.

Decisively, he jumped to Shizu's side, She instantly understood his idea. She grabbed his hands and jumped backward in a flash, but the danger from above struck down fast. Blood spewed along with the dirt of the place as the enemy made a crater on the ground

Izaya's whole right arm was cut off in their landing.

Shizu and Izaya were sided by side again, but their enemies doubled in numbers.

Izaya sighed. "It was good meeting you." He said with a laugh.

"I didn't like you when we met thought." She answered with seriousness.

He sighed deeply.

Without warning. he struck the ground in a way the dirt flew up and they both bolted in the swamp's direction.

They'll only be out of danger if they reach the base.

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"Behind you!" Shizu yelled, her battered armor reflected the moonlight but her needle-like sword left no shadow as it passed slightly above Izaya's shoulder and sunk on the shadow behind.

Without stopping Izaya grabbed Shizu who was in front of him and ran away maniacally.

The trees passed by his eyes in flashes of green he could barely see.

One tree, two, three, four...thump!

The area in front of them went up in a storm of earth, dead leaves, and wood debris

"AAARRHH!" Izaya burst through with bulging red veins.

From underneath, a blade passed by his knees, he fell forward. Time slowed down as he fell, he calculated things in an instant. He couldn't feel below his left knee, he just lost a leg. They already fought and killed six different level fours that came for them, Fatigue would settle in as soon as they even think of stopping. Shizu lost an eye, an ear, and a hand. But the one pursuing them right now was a level five, rather than pursuing, he was enjoying the thrill of the hunt and taking his time. Without a leg, Izaya wouldn' be able to scape with certainty, but Shizu still has legs and a better shot at running away and alerting Zhi Rui. If he used his remaining strength to threw her ahead, he could stall the attacker enough for her to do it. Only one of them could survive, and his chances were minimal as he had lost a right arm and a left leg.

As gravity took them downwards Izaya 's arms veins bulged to the maximum he focused every bit of his strength to launch Shizu away.

As he aimed forward, she was smiling at him, without another word, she grabbed his collar, stomped on the ground and used all her strength and the momentum of the fall to send him away. His wide eyes stared at her smiling face. as he grew distant. He couldn't understand why.

Shizu fell to the ground and rolled away. after tumbling five times and being stopped by a tree, she used a thick root as support to get up. Her armor was in tatters, the only thing whole on her was the sword that she could barely raise.

There was a smile on her face as she stared at the unkempt level five man.

He had an amused grin on his lips. "That was stupid. You could've let him throw you, then without a doubt, you'd survive. He's strong as hell, even without a leg and an arm, I think he could stall me for a full five minutes."

She laughed. "Man pride themselves as logical beings, yet they act on the first thought in their heads. I have no doubt that he thought just like you, and was ready to act. But he forgot, that I have one limb more than him, and a weapon, I can stall you for at least fifteen minutes and knowing him, even without a leg and an arm that's more than enough, he'll get back safely."

"But you'll die." The man said with a chuckle.

Shizu suddenly laughed hysterically.

"Yes! I'll finally die! HAHA! And a heroic death nonetheless" She laughed even more loudly.

The man finally stopped grinning.

"It isn't fun like this."

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Izaya rolled on the ground with his only arm and stabilized himself in the tree for the tenth time. like an arrow from a bow, he extended his good leg and bolted himself from the tree, he flew a hundred meters straight before smashing into a tree, with a whole bruised body he tried to do it again, only to feel a gaze on him.

He turned and saw, a bloodshot green eyes at him. "Where?" Is the only thing that came out of her mouth.

The air hadn't come back to his lungs yet, struggling he pointed and spoke.

"S-Shizu, ten minutes."

Zhi Rui fed him a healing pill and threw him high, he made and arc and fell directly above their base.

Then, only her after-imaged remained behind.

She used Izaya's tactic but she aimed and controlled well, in four minutes she felt a huge tremor on the ground and ran in that direction, the only thing on her mind was speed.

Finally, she felt the smell of blood. three more steps and she arrived at a clearing and froze.

An unkempt man with disheveled hair and beard was breathing roughly while looking down at his feet. There were eight fist-sized holes on his torso, and they were healing in absurd speed. But Zhi Rui' eyes were under his feet.

Golden hairs stained with the dirt of the earth and warm blood, small shining shards of an armor she had grew used to see. Shizu had her face in the direction where Zhi Rui came from, her bleeding eyes seemed to be staring at Zhi Rui. Her chest piece of armor had sunken in beneath his feet, he had stomped on her chest, literally crushing Shizu's heart.

He adjusted his breath, took a deep breath and looked at Zhi Rui. "I have to tell you, this bitch was quite the hassle to kill. Haha."

Zhi Rui took her eyes off the dead Shizu and looked at him with a warm smile, she sighed and spoke with smiling bloodshot eyes.

"Yes, she really was quite the fickle bitch."
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