Claudia was glad that Arsha was finally able to bring the beast down but she was worried about one thing.
"Hey." She called as she slowly got up on her feet.
"Huh?" Arsha responded before turning to her.
"It's good that you managed to bring it down but are you sure cutting off its tail was the right thing to do?"
"Oh, it's still alive." He remarked before turning to the beast.
He thought she was assuming that it was dead so he tried to clarify that.
"I know, what I mean is that, Sir. Gravin would want its tail to still be attached to its body, I'm sure of that." She uttered as she began to move toward him.
"Well, that's not my problem." He responded bluntly. "It couldn't be helped, if he didn't want it to get cut off then he should have provided information on how to deal with it."
She wasn't too quick to respond to that as she kept her gaze on the surprisingly unresponsive beast for a while before turning back to him.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." She said before covering her mouth with her hand. "At least I don't have to take the blame for it." She mumbled.
"I heard that."
"Huh, what? How did you….."
Before she could complete that statement her sword came flying her way and just before it could fly past her, she raised her hand and caught it.
"If you're planning on taking at least part of the blame then I'll just take everything." He declared.
"Everything?"
"Yeah, the blame and the credit." He remarked before turning to her with a somewhat smug expression on his face. "We're both aware that you didn't really contribute much to this so when he gives us this special reward, I'll be taking seventy percent out of your share."
"Hey, slow down for a second." She stressed. "I know I didn't do much but why seventy percent? I wouldn't even agree to fifty percent and you're telling me you want seventy."
"You don't have any say in this, Miss Third-ranked." He retorted instantly.
She was taking everything calmly until he called her that, now she was subtly glaring at him.
'And I thought he had stopped calling me that.' She sighed inwardly. 'What am I even trying to do here?'
"Okay, fine, I'll let you have fifty percent if you ask nicely."
She was a bit hesitant in saying that because a part of her knew that he wasn't going to do it.
"What part of having no say in this did you not understand?" He retorted.
He still had that subtle smug expression on his face and it was starting to get on her nerves.
"Sixty." She said before sinking her teeth into her lower lip.
"I said seventy." He responded.
Before they knew it, the whole thing turned it a bargaining session.
'How does he go from quiet and considerate to this? But I guess there's no reason for me to be that surprised, the guy seems to have a screw loose that acts up sometimes. I was actually going to give him fifty because he saved my life but now…."
"I told you, the most I can give you is sixty." She snapped.
Her voice seemed to have gone higher than usual there and it was quite obvious that she was angry now.
"And I said I can only take seventy," Arsha responded, effortlessly retaining the calmness in his voice.
At this point, she didn't know what to do, if it was possible she would walk up to him and punch him but she was aware of how that was going to end for her.
"Fine, you can just take the whole thing." She fumed before turning away from him. "I don't even know why I was forced to stay here with you." She hissed as she walked toward the hill.
'I don't even know why we're arguing about a reward we don't know anything about.'
She had only walked a few steps when she heard a groan.
"What are you trying to play now?" She muttered before quickly turning around.
It turned out he wasn't trying to play anything, that was a real groan and it came from getting his body impaled by some kind of vine that was holding him up mid-air now and the vine was protruding from the part of the peacock where Arsha cut off its train from.
"No." She gasped.
She felt terrified but not because of the beast being conscious.
What terrified her was how it pierced Arsha with this vine-like part and was still pushing further like it wanted everything to stick out from the other side.
'Is he dead? No, I'm sure he can't die that easily. What are you doing, Claudia? Move before he actually dies! '
Her body got covered in lightning at that moment as she quickly charged toward the beast and as soon as she got there, she slashed down on the vine with her sword but she was met with great disappointment as her blade ended up bouncing on the vine not even being able to make a dent.
"What?"
'No, this can't be, if I don't cut this thing then he'll die.'
She tried to force it while the terror and prejudice in her mind grew.
That did nothing other than cause her ability to spiral out of control and with all that lightning now running through the beast's body, it began to feel uncomfortable.
The vine swung vigorously trying to shake off the annoying insect biting it and in the process, it ended up shaking off Arsha and it wasn't in a nice way.
He was sent flying back until he crashed into the rubble created by the destroyed hill.
"No."
She let go of her sword and quickly rushed to Arsha who was in a very terrible state at the moment.
There was a visible hole in his body, his uniform was covered in blood and he didn't seem to be conscious.
She felt like throwing up but since she didn't want to do that, she covered her mouth with her hand before crashing to her knees.
Her body was trembling and tears were slowly building up in her eyes, she was terrified, this was her first time seeing something so gruesome happen to someone after all.
She took off her jacket and used it to cover the hole but it wasn't like that was going to do anything.
"Arsha." She cried before closing her eyes, allowing those tears to drop down on his body.
'If I had not turned away then maybe I would have seen it coming and this wouldn't have happened.'
"Why do things have to end up this way?" She sobbed.
"Hey."
At first, she thought it was just her mind playing tricks on her then she heard it again.
"Hey," Arsha called with a groan.
"Huh?"
She opened her eyes at that moment to see that his eyes were open, they looked weak but seemed to be glowing a bit.
"You're alive?" She muttered before a smile slowly found its way to her face.
'I didn't think she would cry this much for me.'
"Yeah, so you can go ahead and clean the tears now." He said before forcing himself to sit up on the floor.
"Hey, you shouldn't be doing that, you're still hurt."
'How is he still alive after that?'
"I think we should call Sir. Gravin, this seems to have gone out of hand." She suggested before cleaning her tears with both of her hands.
She was just about to bring up her watch when Arsha grabbed her by her collar and pulled her closer.
"Don't worry about that." He remarked staring deep into her eyes.
This was the closest their faces had ever gotten, her heart was racing from the experience and she found herself drowning in his eyes.
"What are you talking about, you're terribly injured, you can't fight like this." She responded in a somewhat hypnotic tone.
"Watch me then."
His gaze shifted to her neck which seemed to be somewhat exposed now because her jacket was gone and that was the moment when his heart began to race.
"No, not this again." He bit his lower lip before pushing her away.
"Hey, what's wrong?"
She was quite baffled by that sudden reaction and tried to get closer again but he had something to say about that.
"Come any closer and you won't like what might happen to you." He threatened before moving further away from her with his hand covering his face.
Now she was left sitting there staring at him with mixed emotions of confusion, curiosity, and fear.
Yes, she was afraid because she was sure he would have done something if she had gone closer because both of his eyes were glowing now and he had this sort of murderous aura around him.
"Just what are you, Arsha?"