"My name's Xander!"
"Na-ri!"
Having gotten the introductions out of the way, Xander knew it was time to fight with his life on the line.
He charged forward at the same time as he phased into the mirage realm, and Na-ri, seeing this, ran forward as well.
Xander let loose two throwing knives aimed right at the beast's face, coating them in lightning qi.
He knew they were unlikely to hit, but he timed it so that the throwing knives and he phased back into reality at the same time.
The bug beast, only able to sense and not see Xander and the knives, put most of its attention on Na-ri, costing it a last-second small defense against the throwing knives.
The throwing knives were barely blocked by a thin sheet of earth, one of them even managing to pierce through and hit the bug in its right eye, half-blinding it.
At the same time as it hit, Xander and Na-ri were both bringing down their attacks.
Xander was bringing down his katana, which was coated in death qi, along with a much larger katana made completely of death qi in 'grim reaper's sword.' He had also started to wrap 'necrotic chains' all around the bug beast, each of them trying to suck the life force out of the bug.
The bug thrashed around, trying to break each of the chains, but Xander just kept creating new ones.
Na-ri, on the other hand, had created a large arrow of the golden fiery liquid on the tip of her thin sword and pierced forward.
Both Xander and Na-ri were smart enough this time to aim for the gap in the bug beast's natural armor instead of trying to break it.
Both attacks landed, tearing deep into the hips of the bug beast.
Xander's first attack, the 'grim reaper's sword,' landed first, breaking the armor of earth the bug created. Then his second attack, his actual katana that was coated with 'wraith's touch,' pierced deep into the beast's hips, cutting the left back leg of the beast off.
Na-ri's attack, the piercing arrow, instead ate through the earth armor by melting the earth with its extreme heat, and then her sword pierced deep into the hip of the beast, cutting off its right leg.
"Skreeeeeeech!"
The beast was now missing two of its four legs as it shrieked out in pain, and its back half fell to the ground.
Xander and Na-ri both quickly began their next offensive, attacking the neck of the beast.
Just before they landed their attacks, though, the beast created two back legs made of earth and jumped forward, causing their attacks to hit the armor on its back.
The legs weren't the best, but they were stable enough to allow the beast movement.
"I got it!" Xander yelled as he turned to his right, ready to attack the newly constructed legs.
With a dash, a slash, and a thrust, he broke the back legs made of earth, causing the beast to quickly fall again. Just as he broke the legs, Na-ri restarted her attack.
She coated the edge of her sword in the liquid fire and slashed down hard right on the gap of its neck.
"Bang!"
"Skreeeeech!!!"
The beast roared out in pain as she cut deeper into its neck and pushed more and more molten fire into the beast's body.
Xander, wanting to help out, dashed forward, his body coated in lightning and his katana coated in death qi.
He thrust his sword deep into the neck of the beast, the katana breaking straight through the now malleable armor, thanks to the heat. As Na-ri pushed fire into the beast's body, Xander did the same with death qi.
The bug beast thrashed around, but before long it had quit moving and laid still, dead.
"Phew!" "Phew!" Both Xander and Na-ri let out as they fell on their butts, tired from the fight that, while short, had exhausted a lot of their qi.
Neither one of them bothered with each other as they caught their breath and started to refill their qi.
***
30 minutes later.
After refilling most of his qi, Xander looked up at Na-ri and noticed she was staring at him like a hawk.
He let out a small sheepish smile and said, "I don't know about you but…"
She quickly cut him off, "I think we should stick together."
Xander paused in thought for a moment, then nodded his head.
"Yes, I think so as well. I guess we were just lucky until now to not have run into an F-rank beast that wanted to kill us," Xander said.
"Because if we did, we would likely be dead by now," Na-ri added.
Xander once again nodded his head, knowing it to be true. He didn't fully trust this girl, and she likely didn't fully trust him, but they both knew if they wanted to make it out of here alive, they would need to work together.
"Well, umm… you know my name's Xander, but my full name is Xander Stone," Xander said, trying to build a little trust by getting closer.
Na-ri nodded her head and let off an awkward smile, "And my full name is Shin Na-ri."
Xander decided to keep it up, wanting to let her know he at least trusted her enough to at least tell her some more personal information, "As you can see, I have two cores, death, and lightning," he said with pride.
Na-ri let out a soft smile and said, "Yeah, I saw that… I umm… actually have dual cores myself."
Xander raised an eyebrow at that, "Really?"
She nodded her head.
"I can use this mix of fire and lava with my sun core…" She created a ball of molten fire in her left hand.
"And I can use life qi with my second core…" She created a ball of white light in her right hand.
"Wow, what are the odds," Xander said with a smile, not quite able to believe it.
"So, who'd you get your second trait from?" Na-ri asked.
Xander paused in thought, not sure if he wanted to share. Then he reminded himself that a part of his life would now be in her hands, so he thought it wouldn't hurt to trust her a little more, "My brother Austin gave me my second trait. My original trait has to do with death, and his trait has to do with mirage. That's why I'm able to seemingly disappear."
"Oh, ok, I see…" She nodded her head, "And where does lightning fit into the equation?" She asked with a questioning look as if she was genuinely curious.
"Oh, I got that from my mentor at the academy," Xander said, then he paused, waiting to see if she would trust him enough to openly share about her two traits.
After a moment of awkward silence, she finally gave off a short smile and said, "Well, I got my second trait from my sister. My original trait has to do with the sun; that's how I got my sun core… from my first trial, and her trait has to do with life."
Xander nodded his head and added, "Yeah, I got my death core manual from my trial as well."
As Xander was thinking of what more to say…
A loud alarm that seemed to come from the planet itself started to go off.
"Woo!!" "Woooo!!"
"Woo!!" "Woooo!!"
"Woo!!" "Woooo!!"
"Woo!!" "Woooo!!"
Both Xander and Na-ri started to look around, ready for an attack.
"Woo!!" "Woooo!!"
"Woo!!" "Woooo!!"
After about 20 seconds of nothing happening, they finally looked at each other, and Xander said, "What the hell is going on?"