Xander continued to follow Na-ri and Hana at a distance where they wouldn't be able to spot him, mostly just going by their tracks instead of having an actual visual of them.
Periodically, he would hear sounds of battle and would sneak his way up to get a glimpse of the action, but luckily, so far, nothing bad had happened, and no fight was too much for the two to handle.
Xander had a run-in or two with beasts, especially when the mist would hit, but he was always able to easily avoid them thanks to sensing them early with his Mirage Sense and using his Mirage Trait to sneak away.
Like this, several days went by.
***
Xander was slowly walking through the woods following their tracks when he began to hear the sounds of battle.
Still worried they would run across something they couldn't beat, Xander was quick to make his way forward as fast but as silently as possible.
After running for about five minutes, he finally made it to the sight of the battle. It was a little hard to see, thanks to the sirens that had gone off several hours ago, bringing the mist with them.
But from what he could make out, Na-ri and Hana were fighting against a lone devil and were struggling to take it down.
[Devil - G-rank - High]
'Why did she pick a fight with a devil? Does she never learn? It's not her job to protect everyone and kill all the evil in the world,' Xander thought as he watched the fight.
Hana was, of course, in the backline, constantly firing arrows of ice, trying to annoy and distract the devil enough for Na-ri to get a clean kill.
Na-ri, on the other hand, looked like a sun goddess with her blade of molten fire and her body that gave off a yellow glow, indicating she was buffing herself with a speed or strength buff.
She attacked the much taller and stronger devil head-on, skillfully sometimes lunging forward, other times knowing when to retreat.
The devil, on the other hand, wielded a massive nine-foot-long spear just as skillfully as Na-ri wielded her sword.
The devil, like most devils, was around seven feet tall with polished dark red skin.
The devil never acted like it was on the losing end of the fight. Even on the occasions Na-ri had it on the back foot, no matter the situation, it had a creepy smile that spread from ear to ear and showed off its teeth while also constantly cackling in a laugh that was clearly fake but also clearly brought pleasure to the devil.
Na-ri continued to attack the devil, who, like Hana, used water as its core, directly countering Na-ri's molten fire with a tough defense and a skillful offense.
While Na-ri would have her moments when she pushed the devil on its back foot, most of the fight, Xander was on his toes, ready to intervene after the devil, for the umpteenth time, almost cut her head off.
Xander would have already intervened if he didn't know how prideful Na-ri was and how she would likely be more mad that he swooped in than happy, even if she was clearly losing. But once the devil sliced deep into the inside of her left thigh, Xander knew it was time to do something, or he would be letting her own pride kill her.
Knowing it was time to take action, Xander phased into the Mirage Realm and readied two throwing knives.
He ran quickly to the 15-meter point right before stepping into the devil's soul sense and then let the throwing knives fly.
They landed, hitting the unsuspecting devil in the back, one for each shoulder, shocking the devil while also charring its shoulder blades.
The throwing knives had come just in time, too, with the devil about to execute Na-ri not even a second later.
"Ahahaha! So another one has come to play!" the devil yelled, not at all disappointed in his foiled attempt to kill Na-ri.
"Xander! What are you doing here?! I thought we were going our own way?!" Na-ri yelled, clearly as angry with him as he figured she'd be.
"What, no thank you, Xander, for saving my life?!" Xander yelled back.
"You have your trump cards, and I have mine! I was going to be fine!" Na-ri answered back.
"Can you two stop fighting and just kill the devil!" Hana, having had enough of their petty argument, yelled back.
"Fine! But after the fight, you better have a good explanation for this!" Na-ri yelled, wanting to make sure she got the last word in.
Xander ignored her and focused on the devil while Na-ri started to heal herself.
He charged forward, katana in hand, and just as he was about to bring down his katana, he used 'Lightning Dash' to dash to the left at the same time he used 'Necrotic Chains' to not only suck out the life force of the devil but to tie him down.
The devil, though, was ready. It swept to the right with his spear, skillfully blocking Xander's assault while using his core to freeze and break through the chains of death qi.
'Dammit, I forgot that ice somewhat counters my Necrotic Chains,' Xander thought.
'I should just focus on using lightning; it should be the counter to his water.'
Xander charged his katana up with lightning qi while also summoning 'Lightning Strike' to hit the devil.
The devil tried to block with his water, but it could do little to block Xander's lightning.
Xander went back and forth with the devil, katana versus spear, and unfortunately for Xander, the devil was much more skilled with his spear than Xander was with his katana. But fortunately for Xander, his lightning strikes were stalling and shocking the devil so much that he was able to compete and get a few good hits in.
The devil, though, was still able to heal from its many injuries with its natural healing factor, but the smile was finally off its face once it noticed that Na-ri was no longer healing herself and was joining the fight.
***
***
***
[Name: Alexander Stone]
[Rank: G-rank - Entry] - [Saturation: 2%]
[Death Core] - [Attunements: Death 100% - Life 10% - Other 50%]
[First Trait: Reaper's Revival] - [Death Charge: Fully Charged]
[First trait Rank: Divine]
-
[Rank: G-rank - Entry] - [Saturation: 2%]
[Lightning Core] - [Attunements: Lightning 100% - Other 45%]
[Second Trait: Mirage Realm]
[Second trait Current Rank: G-rank]