The travelling girl

The young lady inside of the empty black metal armor was trying her best to keep up a positive attitude.

"How much farther...?"

"It will take a while at this pace..."

First, she ended up losing her life in an accident involving a crazy boy that wouldn't just take 'No' for an answer, causing her and her best friend to fall to their deaths by being dropped in the ocean.

"I asked how much."

"Ugh... About two to three days... Give it or take..."

Then, she was transported into a completely strange new world where her body was completely different, random people would keep attacking her, a dangerous game of life and death was taking place, and strange creatures such as dragons turned out to be a present threat she would need to deal with.

"This sucks..."

"We could travel faster if you would just allow me to transform and carry you through the sky..."

"And give you the chance to run away from me? Fat chance... You're staying in your human form until I say so..."

To top it all of, she was now being forced to work together with one of said dragons. Not only that, it was the same one that took the life of an innocent man that tried to help her in her time of need when nobody else would.

"This is such childish behavior... You can't just keep treating me like this and expecting things to- Gaarghh!!!"

"Oh... Sorry... The sound of your voice was really bothering me so I wanted to see if shoving my sword in your mouth would fix that... Turns out it did! How about that?"

At the current moment, given her position as the only living being able to keep the dragon in check due to his ability to regenerate from even the smallest of particles, she had no choice but to follow him with his so-called plan of helping the human race defeat the dragon faction, even though she despised being next to him more than anything in the world.

The two were traveling through the hills of one of the areas of the human faction and following Lian to a new destination.

"Ughh!! You... It will always baffle me how such a young lass is so quick to resort to violence..." Lian Garen commented while trying to heal up his jaw.

"You try to stay stuck in a stupid hill for God knows how long after being killed by accident by some clown and forced to hang out with a murderer. See if YOU won't be in a bad mood after that..." the girl replied after pulling her sword back out.

Any time the red dragon would do or say anything to slightly upset her, the girl would simply respond by either stabbing or slashing a piece of his body.

At first, she had conflicted feeling about it due to him looking like a human being, but after spending nearly a month fighting with him in his dragon form like a pair of wild animals, she began to get used to her aggressive tendencies.

"Do not compare yourself to me, child... I'm a noble warrior from a proud race. I've lived three times your lifespan. The amount of struggle you went through is like a grain of sand compared to the majesty that is my entire existence!"

The girl just stared at Lian Garen without showing any reaction as he continued to talk about how grand and amazing he was, "Everything that comes out of your mouth makes me hate you even more... Its honestly kinda impressive..."

"Tch! Foolish kid... Your actions make me wonder just what kind of individual you used to be in your old world."

"I honestly don't know... My memory has been kinda foggy ever since I came here... I just remember being a student and hanging out with my best friend a lot..."

"I see... Surely this friend must have been someone responsible for taming you and keeping your temper on hold. And now that you two are separated, you keep going wild like a hopeless beast..."

"Hopeless beast?? Who was it that attacked me out of nowhere!!?? Who was it that killed Thomas??"

"Oh, for crying out loud... Are you gonna keep repeating that for the rest of your life? I told you, we are at war. Killing or being killed is part of the deal..."

"You do know that sounds immensely hypocritical coming from SOMEONE THAT CANT DIE! Right?"

"What about complaining about me stabbing someone while all you do is stab me with your claymore any time you get upset?"

"I'll gladly stop stabbing you if you stop surviving it..."

"Ugh... Talking with you is so draining..."

The only reason the girl was following this 'man' at all was because he claimed that due to their unusual situation, he would be willing to lend a hand in dealing with other dragons.

She wasn't really sure how wise it was to trust someone who would so quickly betray his entire race, but she tried to believe he simply feared her more than he feared the dragons.

The only risk she faced now was that he might be leading her to some kind of nest where his friends might be waiting to ambush her. If that ended up happening, she wasn't sure she would be able to defend herself while also keeping Lian under her control, but sadly, that was the only option she had right now.

Her only other choice was to keep fighting him for the rest of their lives, but even that would not prove to be a good idea as eventually, more dragons could appear to rescue him anyway.

This was pretty much a case of picking the least bad of a long series of terrible options.

"Anyway... The hell are we even going??"

The man sighed while rolling his eyes and holding his forehead, "Such a foul mouth... It pains me to hear a lady talk with such-"

"Didn't ask. Don't care. Answer the f*cking question..."

"Very well... As you may recall, me and my associate were sent here to observe the situation regarding the human faction's guest in order to prepare ourselves for the game."

"Right... You and Mr. three horns..."

"The very same. Right now, several dragons are doing the same thing in each of the factions that might represent a threat during the game. Since you want to defeat them so badly, we are going to travel to each of these points, defeat the dragon that is posing harm to them, and hopefully, try to create an alliance with these factions while were at it."

"Oh... That doesn't sound so bad..." she mumbled while holding her helmet's chin, "It honestly sounds kinda fun! I was curious about what the other faction areas were like... But would any of them really trust a dragon and a creepy empty armor?"

"They will once you save them from a dragon attack!"

"Oh... I see... So I get their trust by rescuing them!"

"Indeed!"

"I hate to admit it, but this sounds like a great plan! I get some battle experience! I shrink the dragons' numbers! Make new friends! And even get to visit new places!!" she commented while twirling from joy, "Ugh... If only I didn't have to deal with you..."

"Do keep in mind that dragons are not the only hostile race. Some factions might be just as if not more aggressive towards you and your goal!"

"I'll keep that in mind, thank you very much. But I find it hard to believe that anyone could be as bad as you..."

Lian paused in the middle of his walk and glared at her, "That's because you haven't lived for as long as I have..."

"Eh...?"

"Any time you think I'm bad, just try to remember that there will always be someone who is way worse..."

He looked down for a moment and then proceeded to return to his walk.

The girl was unsure on how she should react to that claim, "what the heck...? Did I remind him of something bad...?"

As they continued their way, a sense of quiet overtook the ambiance. Lian did not mutter another word and as a response, the girl had no reason to harm him again.

She honestly was glad about that. As much as she hated him, she didn't want to turn into someone who was used to the idea of shoving a blade into someone's body. The girl still wanted to believe she was a human being and not just a mindless bully stuck inside an empty armor.

The more they walked, the more the view of a massive cliff continued to approach in the distance.

"This will be our first stop..." he mentioned.

"What is this?"

Beyond the cliff, there was an immense fog that obstructed any sense of visibility as if a layer of smoke was trying to hide the bottom of the mountain.

"Beyond his point, we are walking into vampire territory..."

"Pfft. Excuse me!!??" she gasped while turning her attention to him.

"Vampires are the strongest faction after the dragons. If you want to beat the dragons, it will be better to secure an alliance with this race first!"

"Wait!" she begged, "Wait, wait, wait, wait... Vampires are real??"

"You know of them? Does your world also has this race of nocturnal beings?"

"Not really, but many of our storytellers are obsessed with them and love creating tales around their lore..." she explained, "It's basically one of the most popular mythical beings from popular folklore..."

"You don't say..." He mumbled, "My guess is that one of the guests from a previous game must have used their experience in here to spread the concept of some of our creatures in order to develop these tales you speak of..."

"Huh... That's... Interesting..." she commented while taking a few seconds to think of any other well-known legend that might have been born from this world, "Wait, so it really is possible to go back to my world?"

"Everything is possible, I suppose! As long as you are ready to take a risk and try!"

"Mmmm..."

"Now come! There is a bridge that will take us to the other side. It's a long walk so we better hurry up."

The red-haired man began to move across the edge of the cliff while a pathway connecting to an invisible end appeared.

In the girl's eyes, it appeared like a replica of the London bridge with a large tower acting as the entrance and the actual path staying high above.

"This is safe, right?"

Lian stared at her with a blank expression, "You are made of an unbreakable metal... EVERYTHING is safe when it comes to you..."

"You know what I mean... Will the vampires just allow anyone to cross their bridge like this?"

"Do not worry... It's still the middle of the day, and these lowly beings completely despise sunlight. None of them will bother us..."

The moment the dragon placed his foot into the tower in order to climb it so he could reach the pathway, a spear suddenly appeared out of nowhere and pierced his shoulder sideways, making him drop off the ground and spilling blood all over the grass.

The girl completely froze as she looked down at him as he struggled to remove the spear from his body.

"So... it appears I might have miscalculated..." he whispered.

"YOU THINK!!??"

The girl looked up and a pair of humanoid creatures revealed themselves in the sky with wings of a bat behind their backs and launching a rain of spears and arrows on top of them.

The girl glared at the dragon.

"So... it appears I might have miscalculated a lot..."