17. Did you eat my friend?!

Victor looked at it with a terrified face, it was normal to see that monsters have feet but the one in front of him had human-like feet that doesn't seem to fit the image of a monster in his mind.

"You didn't possess my friend, didn't you? Is that why you have human feet and a monster-like face...?" He asked despite feeling that his heart was racing as fast as a racing car in his chest like it was gonna burst. 𝑺𝒆𝒆𝒎𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝑰'𝒎 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒂 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈...

He mumbled something to himself and multiple small dagger knives appeared around his safety barrier but to his surprise, the thing in front of him didn't flinch nor move.

"I'm not afraid of you monster!" he told off the monster before launching the daggers towards it in one shot but the thing in front of him dodged all the daggers swiftly, without getting a single scratch on its body. The daggers landed on the wall behind it instead.

"What...how did you-" before he could finish his sentence, the monster cast a flying orb illusion towards Victor but his shield blocked off the attack but that orb was just an illusion...

The real orb circled around his barrier and seemingly it multiplied around the barrier before every one of the orbs exploded causing the shelves around to shake vigorously as if an earthquake had struck.

Things on the shelves dropped onto the ground from the huge impact of the orb explosion, his barrier even cracked a little but still was sustaining the damage pretty well.

𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈...𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒂 𝒔𝒊𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒎𝒚 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒆𝒍𝒅. 𝑾𝒆𝒍𝒍, 𝒊𝒕𝒔'𝒔 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂 𝒔𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒌. Victor stood back up on his both feet and the monster was smaller than he was, he was a head and a bit taller than the monster was.

"Okay, now where's my friend? You didn't eat her right?"

"What if I did...HAHAHA!" Victor was taken aback by the sudden demonical laugh from the monster and the way it spoke was so low, lower than what he had expected. 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒅𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒗𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒆. 𝑫𝒂𝒎𝒏, 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒎𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂 𝒎𝒊𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆.

The monster got ready as it had more orbs floating around in circles and Victor prepared himself more daggers that now were enhanced into swords.

A horde of swords went flying towards the monster but it cast a shield that shielded off the attack and bent all the swords, making them drop onto the floor.

Victor widened his eyes, staring at his swords that were on the floor, with their tip bent just from a single block of a shield. 𝑴𝒚 𝒔𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕?! 𝑯𝒐𝒘- He sensed that something was coming at him but his shield took the last damage hit before breaking away.

The two stared at each other, no one made a move. 𝑳𝒆𝒕'𝒔 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔...Victor mumbled something before his eyes glowed, he extended his hand out, casting an unknown spell on the monster.

The ground under the monster started shaking, making it look down and a large fire emerged from the ground, burning the monster as it let out horrible screams.

After a while, he thought that he had gotten rid of the monster hence he let down his guard a little.

He waited for the fire to die out and when it did, his eyes widened in shock, seeing that the monster that is supposed to be burnt into crisps is now gone from sight.

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕? 𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒈𝒐!? He turned back, sensing that there was someone behind him and there was.

The monster stood behind him, holding a knife close to his neck and he could also feel other multiple sharp things poking him from behind, not letting him escape.

𝑪𝒓𝒂𝒑, 𝑰'𝒎 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒂 𝒃𝒆 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕...?He stared directly into the eyes of the monster but somehow it wasn't killing him but when he tried to move, it held the knife closer to his neck.

"There there..." Victor muttered out, glancing down at the knife that was by his neck, he gulped down his saliva, hoping that the knife wouldn't just go slitting his neck open.

The monster and Victor stared at each other for a couple of moments before he could hear small chuckling noises.

𝑰𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒍𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒆? 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒍𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉? 𝑾𝒆𝒍𝒍, 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒎 𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒍𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒕𝒉. 𝑾𝒂𝒊𝒕, 𝒅𝒐 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒍𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉? He thought as he bombarded himself with questions that he doesn't know the answers to.

"You lose~"  The monster spoke up but this time with a softer voice which sounded familiar to Victor, 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒗𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒆...He stared as the monster pulled back the knife and stepped back.

The 'monster' did a swipe on the face revealing Vivian, the one that had been behind the monster-looking thing and attacking him. It turns out that, Vivian was just playing a small trick on Victor, using her magic mask to scare him. He stared at her in pure disbelief, he went through all that small chaos, just to find out that it was her behind all of it.

"Seriously Vivian..."

"You were so scared haha but great moves there though." she laughed as he frowned at her.

"I could have injured you right here right now you know."

"Right with what? Those swords were just a game over and the fire, you could have set the shop on fire you know." Vivian pointed over to the swords that were still lying on the ground damaged. 𝑹𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕, 𝒎𝒚 𝒔𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒔...𝒑𝒐𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎, 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒅𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒏𝒅. He sighed.

"You know you could have teleported out from my small trap instead of just standing there and staring at me right?" she pointed out again before going over to the swords, picking them up. 𝑶𝒉 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒉~ 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒕, 𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕...𝒉𝒂𝒉𝒂-

"I think I got mesmerized by your appearance too much to even remember that I can teleport."

"Oh, I think I got mesmerized by your cabbage-like appearance to even remember that I could have killed you right there on the spot," Vivian repeated what Victor said to her, with some words changed as a joke.

"Right...haha, very funny." he crossed his arms as she chuckled but soon got interrupted by a loud gasp, making her shoot the bent swords that turned straight again from her magic towards the direction of the voice.

They turned to look at the owner of the voice and it turned out to be Jaxon, who Vivian knew but not Victor. Jaxon stood in place as the swords that were thrown towards him by Vivian were traced around his body figure.

"Are you trying to kill me?!"

"Oh, I'm sorry?"

"You know that guy?" Victor asked, pointing towards Jaxon who stared at them, looking a little displeased.

"Shop."

"Shop what?"

"Owner."

"His the shop owner?" He asked again as she nodded at him. 𝑪𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝑰 𝒈𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕.

"Yes young man, I'm the shop owner, Jaxon. I suppose your her friend since I heard you yelling about some monster eating your friend earlier?" Vivian chuckled when she heard that, making Victor flush a little in embarrassment. 𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆...𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝑰 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔?

"Okay, back to what I initially wanted to say...What on earth is with this mess and the ruckus all about here?! The floor even has a burnt circle mark and whoever was screaming just now, it sounds like a dying goat that is trying to let people know that it's here...This is a pet shop, not a farm."

This time Victor laughed at the last sentence, making Vivian cast out two extra swords, one flew towards Jaxon and the other to Victor.

The two stopped and froze as the swords stopped right in front of their faces. "Who are you saying sounded like a dying goat huh..."

"Uhhh haha, was that you? Then never mind...I just blurted it out by accident~"

"Mhmm hmmm~" The swords faded away as the two sighed in relief that they are still alive. The shop was in a little mess from the fight Vivian and Victor had, it wasn't looking good but to them, it was still manageable for a good cleanup.

"Now what are you two gonna do about this mess?"

"He'll help clean it up." Vivian pointed at Victor, happily smiling at Jaxon as he looked over at Victor.

"What? Me?!"

"Yea you, who else?"

"But you made the mess from your explosion!"

"Well, you're the one who started the fight with your daggers!" Vivian retaliated back at Victor. 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒍...

"You-!"

"You both stop fighting and just clean up the mess..."

"But-"

"No buts Vivian, just do it." Jaxon sighed, walking away from the messy scene, leaving the two staring at each other.

"Hmph, blehhh~" Vivian stuck her tongue out at Victor and started picking up the things that were on the ground like the food packagings. 𝑮𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒏 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒄𝒍𝒂𝒊𝒎 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒍, 𝒔𝒉𝒆'𝒔 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅-

With a snap of Victor's fingers, a broom appeared and he started sweeping away all the litter that was on the floor that came from the pet food packages that had ripped open when their fight took place.

Once they cleaned up the mess they created, they went back to the front of the store and stood there. 𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝒂𝒎 𝑰 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏...?

"Why are we standing here for?"

"I don't know."

"Why did you want to come to this shop for?"

"I don't know either."

"What-" Victor stared at her in confusion. 𝑶𝒌𝒂𝒚, 𝒔𝒐 𝑰 𝒈𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒘𝒆'𝒓𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒂 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒔𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒓. Jaxon wasn't by the counter and Victor didn't know where he went.

"What are you guys still doing here?" Jaxon's asked as he appeared out of nowhere by the counter. Victor stared at him as Jaxon was in his werewolf form while Vivian was in her human form just like Victor. 𝑱𝒂𝒙𝒐𝒏 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒎𝒔 𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒆...𝒊 𝒈𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒔.

Vivian looked over at Victor that made him look back at her.

"What?"

"Answer him."

"I don't know. I followed you here."

"Are you guys dating or is he a stalker?" Victor looked at him with wide eyes, 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒂𝒎 𝑰 𝒂 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒌𝒆𝒓, 𝑰 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒎 𝑰 𝒐𝒏𝒆.

"His no one, so that counts him as a stalker right?"

"Hey what are you saying?! I'm not stalking you, I'm just accompanying a friend," Victor responded as he stared at Vivian, who was looking at him with her poker face.

"Am I not your friend-?"

"Are you?"

"I'm asking you, why are you asking me back."

"Okay." Victor stared at looked at Vivian with visible confusion shown on his face as to what she answered and what they were talking about. 𝑴𝒚 𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒊𝒔 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒅 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒚-

Vivian looked around the shop for something and smiled into space, the puppy was snuggling around Jaxon as he froze in place like what he did before.

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝑰 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏...𝒐𝒉 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈. Vivian suddenly thought of the reason why she came to the pet shop for.

"Hey Jaxon, did the young man and woman from before come today?"