As he was plummeting towards the ground he grit his teeth ready to hit a tree or the ground yet all he felt was a choking feeling after something caught his armor making it hit him in the throat without warning.
"Akkh! H-huh? *Cough* *Cough* what did I get caught on!?"
He quickly looked back as he noticed he was suspended in the middle of the air. When he turned he realized who it was before letting out a little sigh of relief.
"What do you think your doing Ryder!? Why did you jump off that mountain like that! Are you trying to die!?"
"N-no! Of course not! I wouldn't dream of it… princess Anna…"
———
1 Hour Earlier
"I mean… I'm happy that Kaylee has started to take her first steps in truly comprehending our families power but… how long am I going to sit here looking at her purple mist strangle things! I want action!"
Anna was frustrated, she wasn't able to fight at all earlier besides the execution she did to the forest. Even then she wasn't allowed to enjoy her victory instead she was yelled at!
Her hands were itching to fight something strong as she looks around for any potential danger Kaylee may be in.
When she looked around she noticed a far away mountain with a very bright shining light on top. When she focused more on it she noticed it was a powerful beast! This greatly shocked her as she flew up a little more checking on how far they had gone into the Star Light Mountains.
She was left with her mouth wide open as she noticed they had already entered the middle zone! They had even gotten half way through it as Kaylee casually strolled through the now empty forest in front of her.
"How did I not notice! Wait! How did she even get here!"
When Anna started to go down she noticed a weird looking spiral mountain with a flat top almost piercing the clouds.
On it sat a very familiar boy that also made her question herself once again. It was odd that 1 of them got into this area and survived on their own. Yet both of them coming here and being in the same area can't be a coincidence.
"Is this fate? Is fate making both of them always be beside each other even when they don't know if the other is close or not?"
She had waited another hour not wanting to disturb either of them for now until she noticed Ryder standing up before contemplating something. Only to throw himself off the mountain!
"What the hell is wrong with him!?"
She quickly flew over catching him by his armor.
———
"Then you better have a damn good reason brat! Did you even think for one second about how Kaylee would feel if you got seriously hurt or died from this!?"
Upon hearing this his mind went blank. He never even thought about her feelings when making this decision. He had just potentially caused the one he thinks about the most to suffer from his own actions.
At this moment he didn't care about if it was rational or not to think that way. The feeling of guilt instantly filled up his chest as his heart hurts at the thought of seeing Kaylees tears again, especially if he caused them.
"… I-I don't have an excuse… I was confident that I could survive the jump with my current body… I did this just to save time… I almost made Kaylee cry to save time…"
It felt like his suppressed emotions was trying to break out of the seal. Even his instincts had helped but the real heavy hitter to his emotions was Cain.
Even if he howled his sadness away it didn't stop it from affecting Ryder without him even knowing.
He felt more sensitive and more prone to lean towards the extreme at the moment almost like he couldn't control himself until his brain was hit with a massive head ache making him yell out in pain.
"What!? What is it!? Why are you yelling so much!"
Anna was confused as to why Ryder suddenly screamed like he was being murdered until he finally calmed down in her arms.
When he stopped yelling his expression went back to normal not showing a hint of sadness any longer.
"I'm sorry about that… anyways. You heard my reason for doing this, I'm sorry though for not thinking about the others first… however why are you here?"
This made Anna freeze up, she didn't know what to say. She wasn't supposed to be here, Kaylee told her not to come but her reasoning took over moments later.
"It's because I'm still supposed to follow some students around to make sure they don't get killed! Don't question a awesome protector like me again ok brat!"
She was sweating, a little nervous about how Kaylee would react to her sister secretly following her when she told her not to.
"….O-Ok…. Can we go down now? I kinda need to get back to the safe zone"
"Huh! Uhh… tell no one you saw me!"
She flew a little further down before whispering those words to Ryder only to drop him on top of were Kaylee's gas was.
It was still a decent drop since she didn't want to get spotted by her sister. Instead she just threw him down from half the height of the mountain before being caught by Kaylee.
"Oh! I finally found a gold rank beast! One is in my trap now all I have to do is CRUSH!"
She placed both hands together squeezing hard as the gas surrounds Ryder only to feel the intense pressure bearing down on his wolven armor slowly crushing him.
At first he was confused as to why he was suspended in the air but now that the pressure was building he used more power to forcibly break the hold on him with a powerful claw attack forcibly pushing the gas away.
"Ah! It's a feisty one too!"
Kaylee yelled out as she gathered the gas condensing it to surround the beast exclusively as she used her star power to increase the pressure once again!
'What is up with this smoke!? Wait… who just said that?'
"Hey! I don't know what this is but please stop trying to crush me!"
He tried to yell out as she fought against the crushing force. His technique was constantly cracking making him drain more of his soul force as time went one.
Upon hearing his words Kaylee became startled. However she was still cautious, she had heard that some beasts can actually speak so she wasn't going to be fooled so easily.
She began to thin out the gas keeping it around Ryder's body as she clears enough to finally see who it was she caught.
When she saw it was Ryder surrounded by a familiar golden energy she immediately released him.
"What are you doing here!? I thought I finally caught a gold rank beast yet the one I find is you! Why didn't you say anything till now!"
"H-huh? Well… I didn't know it was you. I couldn't see you so I assumed it was a beast since I've never seen this… thing? Before coming from you…"
Instead of angry he seemed genuinely happy to see Kaylee yet he felt awkward about the situation.
"Ah… sorry. I was just using my new power while gathering beasts for our test…"
Seeing his happy face light up the moment he saw her made her heart skip a beat. This made her completely forget her previous anger as she walked over to check on Ryder.
"Why did you come so far into the mountains Ryder?"
"Well… I didn't want to put anyone in danger I also needed to get a gold rank beasts body for my test with teacher. I had to, think. Sort things out I guess."
"Ok! Then let's head back now! I'm sure we can get enough beasts together to pass the test for all four of us!"
Seeing Kaylee acting like her normal hyper self made Ryder laugh a little but he soon followed her as they began to head back.
"Oh yeah, did you kill a gold rank beast? If not we can always go a little deeper…"
"I did, I spent the whole first day hunting beasts while looking for a gold rank beast. Then I ended up finding and fighting 2 at once! It was tough but I have my own ways to live through those situations"
Both of them began to talk about their experience going into the mountains alone as Ryder hesitated telling Kaylee about Anna.
He didn't want to keep things from her but he felt like it would be wrong of him to ray her out after she saved him from a lot of pain.
"Before I forget! I actually have something for you, think of this as living proof that I fought those beasts."
He laughed a little as he had two of the three pups appear out of thin air from his ring.
Spatial rings don't have a limit to what they can contain. The only problem is the air in the space, which was easily taken care of since Ryder is constantly filling the space with air for the pups.
"Oh my god!? They are so cute! I didn't know beasts could be so cute! Give me! Come on! Hand them over quickly!"
She seemed all giddy when she saw both pups as he handed her both of them she carried them like babies while hugging them giggling and laughing to herself.
Up in the clouds above one other was also having a similar reaction as she fights with herself not wanting to give away her position while also wanting to love on the pups Ryder just showed them.
With that both of them kept talking and laughing as Ryder admired Kaylee on their way back to camp.