Having made up his mind, Xander charged forward toward the demon that had its left side facing him.
The closer he ran toward the massive halberd-wielding demon, the more the demon started to show that it knew something was off, but it was too late. Xander phased into reality and stabbed the demon in the side, starting to pump death qi into the demon's body while also wrapping it up with 'necrotic chains.'
"Get over here!" the devil yelled as he finally saw Xander phase back into reality. It started to teleport over toward the three as fast as possible, but Xander hoped to be able to finish off the demon with Na-ri's help before it could make it.
The demon, now with a katana in its side and Na-ri attacking it from the front, knew it was in a tough position. With one hand, it brought down its halberd, attacking Na-ri, while with the other hand, it punched out with all its strength at Xander, who was within arm's reach.
Xander quickly dodged to the side but still kept his hand on his katana, not wanting to stop pumping the death qi into the demon's body.
The demon then reached down, grabbed Xander's arm, and started to squeeze.
"Crack!"
"Ahhhhhhhh!" Xander yelled as the demon, with the monstrous strength it gained from its trait, began to crush Xander's arm.
"Xander!" Na-ri yelled as he was once again crying out in pain.
The demon looked down at Xander with a smile on its face, as if basking in the pain it was causing him.
But this gave Na-ri her chance.
Xander watched through his soul sense as she nimbly dodged the halberd. Then her body glowed bright yellow as her entire body began to transform into the embodiment of heat itself.
As her body turned to molten liquid fire, she jumped onto the demon and wrapped her arms and legs around its body, very quickly burning it alive.
"Ahhhh!!!" it screamed out in pain, much louder than Xander thought possible, before it went still and dropped to the floor.
Na-ri quickly phased her body back to its regular self.
"Are you ok?" Xander asked through gritted teeth, worried if using what seemed to be her trait had any adverse effect on her.
"Yea, I'm good, just low on qi," she answered him.
"Good, and thanks," Xander said as Na-ri ran to him and started to heal his arm with her life qi.
They both looked around, ready for the devil's attack, but it was seemingly gone.
"It must have got scared and teleported away through the shadows," Na-ri said after completely healing Xander.
Both Xander and Na-ri now sat on the ground, and Na-ri started to heal her injuries as well.
After catching their breath, they each stood up and walked over to the girl who Xander still had hiding in his mirage realm.
As they walked over, he phased her back into the real world, and she was none the wiser, still thinking she was hidden from view and not knowing the outcome of the fight. She made sure to stay quiet.
As she saw Xander and Na-ri walk over to her, though, her face turned into a huge smile of happiness, but mainly relief.
Na-ri took her time to thoroughly heal the girl, and afterward, they started to talk.
"So what's your name?" Na-ri asked in a gentle voice.
The girl, who looked to be younger than both Xander and Na-ri, nodded her head with a smile, "My name's Hana Tanaka (Japanese: HAH-nah TAH-nah-kah), and thanks for saving me."
Na-ri gave the girl a beaming smile, "It was no problem. I'd do it again in a heartbeat."
Hana, who was on the shorter side with black hair, brown eyes, and a young but cute face, smiled even bigger.
"So, how old are you?" Na-ri asked.
"I just turned 16," Hana said.
"Really? I'm sorry you have to go through this," Na-ri continued to coax her, not wanting the young girl to get hung up on the torture she had just been through.
"So, what are your names, and how old are you two?" Hana asked as she looked at both Na-ri and Xander.
"Well, my name is Shin Na-ri, and I'm 18 years old."
Xander nodded his head, "I'm Xander Stone, and I'm also 18."
"So, do you want to travel with us?" Na-ri asked.
"Yes!" Hana said immediately.
"Ok, no problem," Na-ri said with a welcoming smile.
'Wow, for a young girl who just got tortured by a demon and a devil, she seems to be mostly fine… the tower really does make some strong people,' Xander thought.
After a little more small talk, the group got up and went on their way.
***
A couple of hours later.
"Slash!" Xander cut the head off the last G-rank beast.
As they looted the bodies, Hana asked, "So, are you guys also from the first universe?"
Na-ri and Xander both looked at each other, then slowly nodded their heads, "Yea, we are," Na-ri answered for both of them.
"Woo!!" "Woooo!!"
"Woo!!" "Woooo!!"
"Woo!!" "Woooo!!"
"Dammit, not again," Xander said as the siren for the mist started once again.
"We're too far away from the cave to go back," Na-ri said. They were hours away from the cave, and the mist would hit in an hour.
"We can only fight our way through and hope to run into a safe zone," Xander said.
"What did you do last night during the mist? Did you find a safe zone?" Na-ri asked Hana.
"No, we didn't. I got caught about 30 minutes after the sirens went off because I got scared and started to run to try and find a safe zone, but they never found one. They just bunkered down and fought off all the G-rank beasts and two F-rank beasts that came."
"Well, it looks like it's going to be a long night," Xander said.
***
An hour and a half later, they were fighting a group of G-rank fogclaws.
Xander and Na-ri took point, and Hana fought from the back. She used a bow. They had learned throughout the day that she admittedly wasn't the most dominant fighter.
Her core was the element of water, and she was able to create arrows made of ice, so they put her in the backline to rain down arrows on their enemies.
The good news, though, was while she wasn't that good at fighting, she was really smart and a great tactician. And being that she used a bow and fought in the backline, she always had a good view of the battlefield and could always give good callouts.