Scarlet

With the morning sun bringing a ray of light to his face.His eyes slowly opened but were unfortunately immediately shut by the bright light. It took a few seconds for Kevin's eyes to adjust to his surroundings. His head was pounding. Bladder full. He moved his jaw and noticed his dry mouth which required moisture. Looking to his left, he noticed the familiar surroundings. It was the Haku village's hospital. Gazing to his right, he noticed Lilith staring straight at him without making a sound that startled him.

"This is getting common. You wake up to a different area because someone dragged your unconscious body and me just..... being me I guess," Lilith said with a giggle at the end.

Kevin said nothing, trying to sit upright. To his dismay, he could feel aching all over his body which incited a grunt from him.

"Only if I could have some of your energy to completely heal myself," he said to Lilith, stretching his arm forward to absorb her mana to heal himself.

"Hell no! That's rude, is that the thanks I get for carrying your worn-out body here? Do your wishy-washy crap on someone else," Lilith said slapping Kevin's hand away.

Hearing her talk about bringing him here reminded him of the events that just passed. It was a rather long day. Who would have thought, their supposed one-week bounty hunt would end in a day or to be technical two? Their mission was filled with events that were not related to their objective.

"What happened?" Kevin finally asked.

"The guy I fought was quite strong, I gave him everything I had and still lost," Lilith said with a look of disappointment.

"And they also...."

"Also what?" Kevin asked.

"For some reason, they took Kirby," Lilith finally said.

Kevin clenched his fist in anger when he heard that, not only was he too weak to defend Larry but Kirby too. Not only in strength, but he didn't even know why they took him. He lacked knowledge.

"Larry is alive."

Kevin's mood lightened up a bit hearing that, with Larry being alive, he could ask for an in-depth explanation of who the men were. However, Lilith informed him that although he was still alive, he was still unconscious. Even his werewolf regenerative prowess would take a while to heal such injuries.

"Seems everything has been going downhill. I thought Norm would be the last of our problems. I was wrong," Kevin said, lying back down on the bed.

"Well, I do know something. After you were downed, he mentioned the tournament happening in dimension xiv. Probably where we can find him and Kirby. We have no other leads, so we are going there next!" Lilith said while punching her fist into her hand. She was definitely after payback for getting beat up.

"Why would he do that? In the first place, we are his enemies, normally he should have killed us! Especially Larry! If he was that strong and made an error in letting us live, then we'd probably be the luckiest people alive," Kevin stated.

"Well I mean, he did look old. Probably has foggy memory," Lilith suggested, trying her best to prove a point.

The cold stare Kevin gave her, proved that her point was dumb. Putting that aside, Kevin needed to get stronger and find Kirby. Kirby was the first friend he had made and was damned if he was going to let someone else take him. Just then, a thought popped up in Kevin's head.

"Is the tournament not the event that was being publicized everywhere in Doku city?" Kevin asked.

"Look at you using big words!" Lilith spoke making an amused face.

Explaining to the best of her knowledge, the tournament was an event where the youth from different races and planets fought to determine the best. It was practically any normal fighting competition but on a higher scale and was a famous event. But it had been called out a few years back because the hosts died. It is probably now the only descendant of the hosts, their son who is organizing it again. That is the main reason it is being advertised on such a big scale.

After explaining what she knew, she headed toward the door intending to leave.

"Where are you going?" Kevin inquired, feeling quite lonely without the presence of Kirby.

"Rest up. Naturally, of course, you better not wishy-washy the doctor with your tattoo. We have the festival coming up and after that we save Kirby!" Lilith grinned before leaving.

Kevin had to admit in very rare moments like this, Lilith looked cool.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

A cold breeze could be felt on the beast's face as it flew through the clouds, the silent mountains, the frozen rivers, and the bright light of cities which were beneath its gaze.

The ice dragon, Ectis, flew through the skies with its beautiful wings which displayed a variety of different shades of blue. Oddly enough, its appearance did not match the usual description of a terrifying beast. To put it simply, Ectis looked majestic.

The ice dragon was concerned when he approached an empty city, his city. He was the king of the ice dragonkin. As time went on, pure dragons mated with other races giving what is now known as dragonkin. Some possess the ability to transform into dragons while others do not. The king was also one who could transform and was highly respected among his people. That was why he found it odd, that no one in the city welcomed his presence upon his entry.

To be more exact, he could not see anyone welcome him. Changing to his humanoid form, he decided to stroll through the city, probably the people were just not aware of his presence.

"This is beyond odd! I cannot detect anyone !" He panicked after searching for an hour.

Confusion turned into desperation, he quickly searched various homes in an attempt to find anyone yet to no avail. It made him worry whether an attack had happened causing them to flee. However, the city was fine, showing no signs of an attack.

He hastily flew to his castle, no guards were protecting the gate. He had quite the grand castle which he searched thoroughly and did not find a single soul.

His heart sank, wondering what had become of his people. He finally opened the doors to the last room, the throne room.

"You are finally here, oh great ice dragon king," a woman who sat upon his throne said.

The voice immediately caught his attention, his first thought was to ask what happened. However, the person who sat on his throne was not of his race. She had red long hair reaching her knees, azure eyes, and pick juicy lips which could seduce many men.

"My name is Scarlet! The temporary leader of the shinigami group and we will be taking you... either dead or alive." She spoke with confidence as she crossed her legs.