Chapter 27 The Unyielding Resolve

"Don't worry, your friend will soon join you after I'm done with him. " She extended her tail, a pointy end, sharper than a sword aiming straight to her chest.

'No, I can't let her get away with this…!' She tried, she tried in every way to make her body respond to her command, it simply didn't want to move. 'Sorry Kouki-kun, I wasn't able to protect you from her.

I failed to save someone again…'. She braced herself for the end.

She heard the attack reach something, a second passed, then two, after she considered it long enough Akeno opened her eyes only to be shocked by what was in front of her.

"The third time's the charm, I finally got you. "

There, in front of her, stood a teenager giving her his back. His stomach was pierced by the tail aimed at her, he was grabbing it as if his life depended on it.

"Y-you. " Perse said, astonished, " How did you break free from my spell?".

"Surprised, eh?" Shinji responded, a grin present on his face even though his mouth had a trail of blood from the impact of the tail. "I don't know what was that or how you paralyzed me, but I'm not gonna sit still while you harm my friends.

"

The monster struggled, she swung her tail back and forth to finally be free from the teenager, he complained about the pain, but never let go. "Let me go, you worm!" She screamed.

"Not planning to do that, freak. " He just said, his mouth clear with a bigger trail of blood on it, his vision getting a little blurry because of the blood loss.

"I told you I'm a tough nut to crack, more so when my friends are in danger. "

"And this is why. " He reaffirmed his grip, all his strength containing the desperate Perse from fleeing.

"Now! Himejima-san!"

From behind Shinji a figure got airborne, her fingers with lightning tickling from them, each passing second the lighting got more powerful, much larger. Akeno shouted, her attack was with all the might she had, thousands of lighting bolts were sent to the monster, making a direct hit on her.

Perse shouted from pain, her body constantly receiving more damage than it could handle, her once perfect skin started to burn, bleeding from the impact. Sadly as the lighting kept coming, Shinji, because of being holding the monster still, also received a little of his team mate's attack; grunting as he felt the sheer vibrations and burning from lighting going through his body.

Not being able to handle anymore, the teenager finally let go of the stray. She was sent flying to a nearby wall because of the raven haired girl's power.

As soon as she impacted on a pillar, she collapsed to the floor.

"Heh…heh, take that. " Said the black haired teen as he breathed to catch some air.

Even though the worst part of Akeno's attack was received by Perse, he, because of being stuck with her, received a vast amount from it.

"Kouki-kun!" He heard from behind. His legs were giving up, his vision getting more blurry as the pain of the open wound of his stomach hurt again.

As he fell to his back a pair of arms got him.

As he looked up he saw it was Akeno who caught him, her face clear with worry, he then turned to see Perse lying unconscious. "We did it Himejima-san, that was one hell of a blast you shot there.

" He said while cracking a small smile.

"Yeah, it was. " She responded while sighing, him talking to her seemed to calm her down.

"What were you thinking of getting stabbed just to grab her?" She scolded.

"Sorry, not my best plan, I know. " He just said while making an apologetic face.

Soon a red circle appeared on the ground close to them, the light emanating from it getting stronger each second.

As he got blinded by it he tried to look to where the monster lay defeated, only to see that she wasn't there. 'Dammit! She must have escaped.

After all it took to finish her…' He thought.

As he looked to the sky, he was getting sleepy, his eyes closing before him, his body giving up its remaining strength.

While the feeling of getting stabbed and being almost dead returned to him, a migraine was forming on Shinji's head.

He started to think he might as well get used to this feeling.

It was night time in Kuoh, the city lights decorated the surroundings while the presence of the crowds of people roaming were absent. Although it was a change of pace, it gave the feeling of danger, for such a place to be deadly silent was not calming.

There, in a dark alley situated away from the city center, stood a creature. Said creature was badly wounded because of an encounter that went horribly bad for her.

Still damaged with scars lethal to most humans, she cursed herself for letting her prey get the best of her; where once stood a figure of a woman emanating elegance, was now a creature torn apart by rage and pain.

"Those damn devils!" Perse cursed as she started to treat her wounds with magic. "To think such a lowly breed of reincarnated scum can even have the dignity of hurting me.

I won't let this go unpunished!"

It was all going according to her plan, the way she manipulated the magic in the area to show two obvious spots where she could be was perfect, she made the devil's in the area split to search for her, making her able to hunt them down one by one. The ones sent to the plaza would be the first to satiate her bloodlust, all was swiftly moving towards her objective.

But he appeared again, he showed up and messed up her strategy once again. The human that should have never been reborn, the one she struck before and came back from the death.