Right before the arrows hit their mark, the giant demon rat wagged its tail making one of the arrows miss. It writhed in pain and immediately became frenzied upon the other two piercing its chest and slightly above its right kidney.
"Crap…" Nagisa said.
"What do we do now?" Airi asked.
"Of course we try and finish it off by aiming for its tail," Nagisa grinned and unsheathed one of his swords then rushed in.
Airi prepared another arrow.
"Tell me where to aim," Airi was in position.
The giant demon rat dashed towards Nagisa.
"Prepare an Ice Arrow and fire it when I tell you!" Nagisa yelled and Airi proceeded to do so.
< Crystallizing Arrow >
Airi enchanted the arrow and pulled the string back.
"Now! And aim for the ground beneath me!" Nagisa shouted with the demon rat just a few meters in front of him.
She immediately pointed the arrow downwards to aim for the ground beneath Nagisa up front. The arrow slid past Nagisa's waist and crystallized the ground, freezing it. Nagisa ducked right on time before the demon rat would bite his head off and used the ice to slide rapidly beneath its four legs and aim for the tail.
Nagisa cut diagonally and severed its tail, thus destroying its third and final heart. The rat writhed in pain and began dissipating into dark purple mist, slowly fading out of existence. Upon its corpse laid a smaller amount of Ashen ash.
"Demons embody Arcane Crystals and Ashen Ores to increase their powers. After all, they are usually brought from a different continent to ours, their physiology is different," Airi informed Nagisa.
"Do you mind if I take it?" Nagisa asked.
"Not at all, go ahead, I have no use of it," Airi waved her hand.
The two of them headed back to the surface then to Chitose's own office. Chitose tapped her desk lightly with her pinky repeatedly.
"So… you two defeated it, and you claim it was a Stage-3, Giant Rat Demon?" Chitose questioned them.
Neither Nagisa nor Airi waved one bit with their eyes. Nagisa took out the ash and shoved Chitose.
"Mm, yeah seems about the right amount for a Stage-3 one. You guys got lucky though, next time call for backup," Chitose measured the amount of ash which they scooped up into a smaller vial.
On their way out Nagisa turned his head back to Chitose.
"What about the additional credits?" He asked her.
"Take it as my goodwill for now, I will reward you each at a seperate time when the moment is right," Chitose waved them off.
Nagisa sighed outside the corridor and headed back downstairs to the lobby.
"So much for goodwill, huh?" Nagisa sighed.
Airi looked at him.
"At least we both survived did we not?" Airi smiled for a change, "How about we go and have dinner somewhere private?" Airi suggested.
Nagisa panicked for a second, "Din-nnn-er?!" He shrieked, "Are you possible asking me out for dat---" Nagisa got interrupted.
"No!" Airi took a step back and turned her head sideways a bit, "It is to exchange our identities and keep them hidden," Airi added slightly flushed.
Nagisa immediately smiled, it was foolish for him to think otherwise. He managed to completely forget about their earlier promise to inquire more about one another.
"How about I do you one better, and make you dinner," Nagisa kept his smile.
Airi nodded suspiciously of his confidence but accepted his offer of invitation. They quietly walked back to the dormitory and Nagisa unlocked the door. Emi rushed to greet him once she heard the key being inserted.
"Welcome home!" Emi leaped and hugged Nagisa.
Nagisa gently patted her head, "Glad to be home," Nagisa replied.
Emi then took a glance and whiffed off Airi, then both of them stared at each other for a second.
"What a cute little werebeast, what is your name?" Airi hunched down slightly to be the same height as Emi.
Emi smiled and gave Airi a hug which confused Nagisa, she was not this friendly with Chisa. Airi patted Emi's head.
"Emi!" Emi replied back to Chisa while hugging her.
"What is going on…" Nagisa was still largely confused about the situation.
"The elves around here are always nice to us werebeast!" Emi cheerfully stated.
It made sense, both were counted as lesser classes and were discriminated against. But Airi was an exception, she was a noble high-elf.
"Big sis, you are a high-elf princess, right?" Emi's eyes beamed, "I always heard stories about your kind from my mother, how elegant and beautiful high-elf princesses are," Emi nonchalantly mentioned.
Nagisa thought for a second. Was Airi not a noble? Wait… was she a princess? His head started to hurt. Airi sighed and undid her mirrage, unmasking her true identity. Airi's ears became longer and her entire aura changed into a greater one.
"I forgot how well werebeasts can tell auras apart," Airi smiled and kept patting Emi who remained clueless and wagged her tail all happily
"Interesting… how about you tell me all about it," Nagisa smirked and wanted to inquire further on the matter firsthand.
Airi turned her head rapidly and stared down at him.
"How about if you manage to cook me something satisfactory?" She cunningly smiled and thought Nagisa was not up for the task.
"You will come to regret those words," Nagisa kept his smirk and headed to the kitchen.
Emi immediately followed and demanded any course that involved meat in it. Nagisa turned around for a second.
"You are not one of those elves in the fairytales who are all vegetarian, are you?" Nagisa asked and Airi shook her head.
"Good," Nagisa turned back and began cooking.
The aroma filled the room and Airi was dreading to take a look. However each time she attempted it, Nagisa sensed and tried to catch her doing so. Albeit each time Nagisa turned, he found Airi pretending to stare at the wall.
Nagisa smiled, he knew Airi was dying to know what course he was making. After a while the food was ready and he put the plates on the table.
Airi gulped and Emi already began devouring her portion. She cut the lamb steak carefully and elegantly unlike someone else he knew and Nagisa thought of Chisa when her guard was down.
A sliver of meat was put in Airi's mouth and she covered her mouth while chewing slowly and savoring the taste. The way Airi was eating reminded Nagisa of a high-class and old-fashioned custom. Airi's cheeks became flushed and she put down the kitchenware and stared intently at Nagisa.
"What?" Nagisa put on a perplexed look while Airi puffed one of her cheeks with a serious look in her eyes.