Blood-Crazed Monsters III

Nyana plunged her arrow into the hybrid's forehead, putting a hole in its brain. The wound quickly started to close up and the hybrid slashed at her neck with its claws. Too bad. She was just an inch out of its reach. Nyana pulled out the arrow and stabbed it into the hybrid again, and again, and again.

Finally, the hybrid's hand dropped to the ground and it stopped moving. For good measure, Nyana stabbed the hybrid one last time in its heart to ensure that it wouldn't be coming back.

"Phew...* Nyana felt beads of sweat trickle down her forehead. The small cut on her cheek should have closed up by now but she still felt a small itch. As much as she wanted to wipe the sweat off, her hands and arms were coated in black blood. Some of it also got into her face and clothes, making her look like a serial killer who just slaughtered someone mercilessly, and it wasn't that wrong.

Nyana stood up, returning her arrow back to her quiver. The tip was a little dull after all the stabbing, but she could still use it. "This heat... Just how do the Otanians take this?" she said between her heavy breaths. She knew the desert would be hot, but she wasn't expecting it to be this hot. She wore lighter clothes than she usually wore when she heard her next mission would be here, but she was still sweating this much. It really looked like she took a dive into the river with how drenched she was.

Nyana had the clunking of metal footsteps and looked down to see that the reinforcements had arrived. Furthermore, they also evacuated the civilians as well. In honesty, this was faster than she expected. She watched the fight between the two sides. The soldiers were fierce and skilled, giving the hybrids no chance to fight back at all. At the rate this is going, the fight will be over very soon... But that's when it happened.

*Boom!*

Just when things were going well, everything turned sour in a second. Another bomb went off and hit a large portion of the soldiers since they were clumped together in a tight ball. Their formation was the best it could've been for the bomb, converting almost half of the soldiers.

"By the trees..."

The tides of the battle shifted in an instant. The soldiers were disorganized from the blast and weren't able to regroup in time. The guards backing them up didn't have sufficient equipment to fight the converted soldiers and were slain by the numbers.

Everything was falling apart. Nyana muttered a curse and looked to the other side to see how it was going for the royal guards. Surely, they would have more luck, right-

No, they weren't. Ayrete had them pinned against a wall. Nyana had no clue what happened while she was dealing with the two hybrids that were after her, but the traitor somehow won against the two royal guards despite having been cornered earlier.

Not good. With him around, none of them could use magic. He was a massive thorn in the way and needed to be disposed of before things turned catastrophic.

Nyana fetched an arrow from her quiver, taking out the bloodstained one, and fired it without wasting a second. The arrow whistled through the air and bounced off Ayrete's armor like a rubber ball, alerting him of the elf's presence.

Crap... She should've aimed a bit higher. Nyana wasn't used to shooting from so high up and misjudged the height, missing his head by just a tiny bit. She saw the man's face. It had an amused look as if he was saying, "So you survived against those two hybrids..."

Wow, things were sure headaches without magic. Nyana didn't wait to see what Ayrete would do and fired another arrow at him. It, of course, missed him. The soldier just stepped to the side and it flew harmlessly past his face, but it didn't miss completely. The arrow hit one of the hybrids that were fighting the royal guards.

Taken by surprise, the hybrid toppled over from the arrow hitting its head. This allowed Rui to have the opportunity to strike the hybrid down and assist her partner with his. They cut off the arms and legs of the hybrids to buy themselves time as they took on Ayrete.

By the time Ayrete realized what happened, it was too late. It all happened so quickly that he didn't have the time to react. All the hybrids were disabled and he was alone for the next minute at least. This was the end for Ayrete, or so Nyana thought, but surprisingly, the soldier was a lot tougher than he looked. He took on the two royal guards, and though he struggled, he still managed to hold his own against the two of them, just long enough for the other hybrids to get back up on their feet and rejoin the fight.

Ayrete smiled. He reached into his armor and pulled out yet another bomb. "No!" Nyana pulled out an arrow and fired it at the bomb.

"Let's see if this works on you two as well," he laughed as he threw it at the two royal guards. Nyana's arrow was off the mark by a significant margin, having tried to predict where he would throw it. She thought that he was going to throw it at the crowd again, and it didn't cross her mind that he would try to infect the two royal guards.

The bomb went off and needles flew everywhere. Lentis and Rui huddled together and used their swords and armor to block as many needles as possible while keeping their heads and the other exposed parts of their body out of reach of the needles. But it was like trying to avoid raindrops during a storm. It was impossible to block them all. While they succeeded in blocking most of them with their combined efforts, one managed to get through and hit the male royal guard on his neck.

"Tch! Not good!" He grabbed the needle and pulled it out as fast as he could, but it was too late. The serum was coated on the tip of it and it had already made it inside.

"No! We've already lost Siegfried! I will not lose you too, Lentis!" Rui dropped her sword and began squeezing the blood out of Lentis' neck. Lentis flinched but complied with the procedure for a second before abruptly stopping Rui.

"Look out!" Lentis pushed Rui aside and lifted his sword, stopping a hybrid in its tracks before it could hit them.

All the while this was happening, Ayrete stood with his hands raised like some sort of a conductor as an orchestra. Everything was going the way he wanted it to. Though there were a few nuisances here and there, such as a certain elf almost getting in the way of his plans, everything turned out the way he wanted it to in the end. "Magic is your downfall! You relied too much on it, and now look at you!" he laughed.

"Magic this, magic that. If you think I can't kill you without my magic, then think again!" Enveloped by rage, Rui picked up her sword and sliced the hybrids that blocked her path in half with a single swing. Ayrete would've been met with the same fate if it weren't for another hybrid jumping out of nowhere and taking the blow for him.

Ayrete was startled by the sudden fierceness in Rui's attacks and drew his weapon. He parried Rui's next blow and dodged the third. "You're not as good as they say!" Ayrete swung his sword at full force, forcing Rui back.

"Now! Time for the grand finale!" Ayrete took something else out of his armor.

"Not on my watch!" Nyana fired the remaining arrows she had in her quiver at Ayrete in an attempt to stop him, but the hybrid that took Rui's hit for him got back up and also blocked the arrows with its body.

Ayrete took out a small glassy orb and broke it. "Too bad. You couldn't stop me. This is the end for all of you!"

Starting at the north side of the colosseum, explosions went off from under, blowing the spectator's area up into the air. Seats and rocks went flying. The explosions happened in a clockwise fashion. At the speed they were going off, there was plenty of time before it would reach the soldiers at the entrance.

"D*mn it! We need to go!" Rui helped Lentis onto his feet and the two of them sprinted for the exit.

"Huh? What are you fools doing!? Hunt them down!" Ayrete ordered the hybrids. They stumbled around for a bit, confused by all the chaos that was going on. "Ignore the explosions! Just go!" he shouted, not chasing after the two himself for whatever reason. The hybrids obeyed his command and chased after the two royal guards.

"They're on us!" Lentis informed Rui that the hybrids were right behind him. Rui glanced back and saw them. They were catching up quickly and it was only a matter of time before the hybrids were on top of them.

"They're not an issue!" Rui yelled over the sounds of the explosions. What was a problem, however, was the army of hybrids in front of them. "We need to get through them somehow!" They have yet to spot them but Rui doubted that they could casually waltz past all of them.

"...How much time do you think I have until I turn?" Lentis asked.

"Don't say that! You'll be okay! Don't think of doing anything reckless!" Rui didn't want him to think that it was already over for him and sacrifice his life to save others. "You won't turn! We'll figure something out!" Rui already got most of the bad blood out when he got hit by the needle. Even considering how fast the transformation took place, they still had a good amount of time.

"Just like back in Silverfield, heh." Lentis couldn't help but laugh a little. This was really the same as back then. Rui was helping him out when he was injured. He didn't feel anything strange going on inside of his body at the moment, but he knew that he was on borrowed time. But for now, he wanted to hope that there was still a chance. If Rui got the blood out in time then he was safe. But there was no way for them to know right now. Only time will tell.

On top of them, running by their side was Nyana. Luckily, the explosives weren't planted within the walls of the colosseum and she was safe where she was. Unfortunately, she had no way to get down and she was also out of arrows. All she could do was watch as everything under her turned inside out and was blown up.

While ringing around the colosseum, Nyana was keeping her eyes peeled for Kies' whereabouts. "Where is he!?" She searched the place where his body was last seen but it wasn't there. Did one of the hybrids get him or did he get back up himself? Nyana was worried about him.

"This much isn't enough to kill you, is it?" If Nyana's guess on what Kies is was correct, he was several times harder to kill than even these hybrids. He should be alive, no he has to be alive. The only person who could take care of this mess now was him. If he was somewhere down there, then maybe, just maybe, he could stop all of this.

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