They had been marching for a couple of hours, getting closer to their destination by the minute. Sera was leading them, well technically Lucy was leading them and warning them of dangers.
Sadly she can't go into the sky anymore, the 'Pet' as everyone calls it, is too near to be safe for flying.
'When was the last time I was in the sky just for the fun of it? I really miss it, but if I had time for fun then me and Bea would've already had sex. Speaking of Bea, I should bring her into the sky once, it would be fun. For me at least.'
As she thought about Bea a smile crept on her face. After fantasizing a couple of minutes she turned towards her new assistant.
'Now that I think about it, I don't know anything about her other than her name.'
"Hey Faith, tell me about your past."
"My Lady, what would you like to know."
"Tell me about your life before the Fall." Faith's face became weird.
"I had a boring life. I worked at an auto repair shop working on the richer people's vehicles, that I would never be able to afford." Sera had a small smirk as she said.
"We had two cars in our household, one for my dad, the other for my mom." She said proudly, then Sera began reminiscing about the past, but stopped when she noticed Faith staring.
"Uhm... what is it?"
She quickly turned away, embarassed. "I...I'm sorry My Lady, it's just that no one knows anything about you from before the Destruction of Newber. I got surprised to learn something about your past."
"Ohh, I understand. But you are wrong."
Faith looked at Sera confused. "About what?"
"That no one knows of my past. Bea knows a most of it. And it isn't a secret, just simply no one asks about it. You could ask anything and I answer, you should know more than others anyway, since you are my assistant."
Faith looked like she was about to explode from excitement. But she reined herself in and instead said.
"Thank you My Lady, for trusting me. I only have one question. I had thought about it for a long time and can't seem to find an answer. Why?"
It was Sera's turn to be confused. "Why, what?"
Faith smiled at her. "Why did you survive? What motivated you?"
Sera thought for a while, then began dying of laughter. But she stopped seeing thqt Faith looked very ashamed.
"Don't be embarassed, it's good question, but the answer won't be what you expect. So you want to know why I survived when everyone around me died? The answer is pretty simple. Pure rage, that's what kept me alive. I got very angry at that stupid Pigeon for destroying my city and decided to kill it no matter what."
Faith was shocked by this information. "You-you decided... to-to kill a Horror of the 3rd Tier? And then went... and actually done it?"
'She would've probably passed out if she learned, that I used his own sword.'
"Yeah, but don't think too much about..."
Sera couldn't finish her sentence because suddenly a shadow jumped at her. She immediatly summoned her sword and stabbed the shadow, but Sera missed the killing blow.
Instead it pounced on her and in the next second Sera was on her back. The breath got knocked out of her, and a mouth full of sharp teeth was quickly approaching.
It reached her head and was about to close down crushing her skull, when gunshots sounded. Suddenly the weight lifted from Sera and she began coughing.
After a second she looked around, there she saw one of those shadow leopards dead. It looked even bigger than the one she fought on the roof.
'It must have been from a higher Tier, but not Class. This would've been a death sentence if the creature was a Corrupted.'
As Sera looked at the corpse, she realized that the gunshots killed it. Which was weird, because those guns were pretty much useless against anything above Tainted.
'Wow, it actually went in the stab wound I made and killed it. How lucky, wonder who made the shot.'
She turned around and her heart skipped a beat. Faith was lying on the ground unconscious. Witchdoctor and the rest of them were already a couple meters away. Sera began walking over as well, although a bit stiffly.
Lucy came over and asked. "Are you alright My Lady?"
"Yeah, just a bit bruised from the fall, it will pass in a minute or two."
Sera arrived next to them and knelt beside Faith.
"Witchdoctor, diagnosis?"
"I don't know My Lady... There seems to be nothing wrong with her... She just passed out for no reason..."
Sera glanced at the dead monster, then at Faith.
"No reason my ass! Get Moe here right now! Lucy you lead the group, we shouldn't linger here. And someone bring that corpse, it has many valuable materials!"
"Yes My Lady!" Everyone saluted and went their way.
In a few minutes Moe approched Sera and with a bow asked.
"Is there anything you need from me My Lady?"
"Did Faith have killed a monster before?"
"No, My Lady! But she still one of the best soldier we..."
"Stop! Fuck me... If she didn't kill anything before... and she spontaneously passed out after her first kill..."
"You don't think..." Moe started but Sera cut in.
"She is an Evolved."
Moe nearly fell from shock. "She has been a soldier for 6 months. How unlucky, she shot many monsters, possibly hundreds but never gotten a killing blow."
But Sera's mind was elsewhere.
'She killed a Rotten of 2nd or 3rd Tier, which means she will be passed out through the whole journey to the bunker. I hope the girl won't need to communicate until then.'
Sera looked towards Faith. They put her on a makeshift carrier and two people were already bringing her along.
"Okay Moe, Faith is your responsibility. When she wakes, immediately call for me. Understand?"
Moe bowed and said. "Yes, My Lady."
With that done Sera returned to the front of the group. She had a feeling that it will only get harder from here on out.