The Blue Angel

I knew they were hiding behind a tree about fifteen meters away from us and know exactly who they were. It is the rest of my teammates. Lucksonlay, Clevis and Mara are here too. After coming close to us, they said that they were asked to come here this morning by Jack and they followed his unofficial orders to train inside the valley.

He didn't call us as he was informed by one of the soldier stationed in the defense wall that we are already on our way here which I have no idea to whom he knows to inform of our depature.

He gives us some instructions and advises on what to do and what not when we are inside the Death Valley before we start going into the valley. We are going to hunt the monsters that are roaming in the outer region which are from one of the instant dungeons that appeared a few days ago at the entrance of the valley.

It is an E-grade dungeon which is going to be very hard for the rest of the team, so we have decided to have them team-up against a single monster while Dawn and myself will handle the monsters individually.

Jack and Nolan will be monitoring us and will lend us a hand if required. Usually the monsters will be roaming close to the dungeons they are from which helps the defense corp to locate them when they appear.

The monsters will attack anything that are alive, animals and humans alike. That is why there are no animals near the dungeons for us to hunt and will have to assume any animals we see inside the Death Valley is a monster due to the permanent dungeon.

We move cautiously towards one of the E-grade instant dungeons so we can fight the monsters with all we have. This will give us a change to gain experience against stronger enemies.

I keep my senses to the maximum so the monsters cannot give us any surprises. I did not activate the Ice Armor as I feel it is too OP for E-grade monsters. Dawn also did not activate her Fire Armor as she only uses it when the situation calls for it. Mara and Lucksonlay have already activated their elemental armors as they don't want to be caught by surprises that will happen if we are not careful.

We are almost close to the area where the dungeon has appeared and can hear a growling sound coming from a 'tree?'. I can sense something is different in this tree than the rest of the trees, but I am not exactly sure what it is.

"Treant !! Everyone, get ready!!" Nolan says with authority in his voice. I start to sense the same from a few other trees and they start to shake violently before two yellow eyes appear in their trunks and a big hole appears below the eyes.

After a few seconds, I can see a face carved in the trunk of the tree which has started to move using the roots that are now above the earth as legs. I am initially surprised to see this monster, but I regain my composure and take a defensive stance next to Snowfa.

I see Dawn coming close to me and taking a defensive stance looking at me with a smile that doesn't reach her eyes. She is definitely concerned about something which I don't know of. She is worried about my safety.

'Why is everyone close to me is overprotective when it comes to me?' I think of it as my entire family and now Dawn are always getting worries when I want to go into the wilderness and try to dissuade me by doing anything and everything they can. They don't do it only when it comes to the Guild's work or a mission from the company.

We make a circle with Jack and Nolan at the center and focus on all the trees that are slowly moving towards us. I have read about the treants, but this is the first time I am seeing them. This is going to be difficult as these treants have a massive defense and I am not sure if others can even scratch them with their Mid-F grade power.

I look at Nolan as the existence of the treant is not mentioned in any of the official websites I have seen about these dungeons. He is not surprised or shocked like us, neither is Jack, which means they already knew about them and have brought us here purposefully.

I want to ask them why, but this is not the right time for it. I immediately feel heat coming from my right side where Dawn is and I know she is activating her Fire Armor, but instead of orange, I see blue light coming from that side.

I turn around to see Dawn covered in blue fire instead of the usual orange. This could be her second awakening, giving her more attack power which has also changed the color of her element. Now I understand why Nolan called her 'Blue Angel of Fire' as she really looks like an angel when covered in blue fire.

I can see her eyes which are determined to fight anything that comes in her way, and the same killing intent I have sensed from her just a few months ago. I look at her and say "Dawn, everything is going to be fine, just relax and let your instincts guide you."

She looks at me with surprise as this is one of the pieces of advice she gave me when I was entering Figaro with her for the first time and I was scared and excited at the same time.

She smiles at me and turn towards the treants that are coming towards us. I can see two are coming towards us, but there are another three standing still about a few meters away from us. I convey the information to Jack who tells me and Dawn to attack the two while they will stand back and join us when the other three decide to join the fray.

I see the blue angel of fire running fast ahead of me to attract one of the monsters towards her and I feel happy to have such an angel at my side in times of danger.