Round 3 With Hellspawn

Ulrich immediately leapt from the game. "Wait, what?" He screamed. "Demons? Already?"

Dominic nodded, clutching his arm to stop the bleeding. "Sapphire's coming, she's just delayed on evac duty. Go on ahead, I'll just get the orb and a bandage."

"But…your arm." Lainey looked more terrified than ever. Considering what they were just talking about, it wasn't really surprising.

"Relax, I'm right-handed." Dominic replied.

Despite his wishes, Ulrich waited outside the door for him while Lainey ran ahead. Maybe it was a sense of friendship and wanting someone to face hardship with, maybe it was fear, he didn't know. But he waited the three minutes, and Dominic came out, axe and gem in hand, looking at Ulrich.

"What the hell, man?" He asked, looking annoyed.

"We're facing this together, dude." Ulrich replied. "Now let's go."

"What, as friends?" Dominic's eyes widened.

"Yeah?" Ulrich asked, slightly confused.

Dominic gave Ulrich an enthusiastic high-five. "Hell yeah! As friends!" After that, with the impact of Dominic's high-five still hurting Ulrich's hand, Dominic ran faster than Ulrich ever saw him run, and followed.

They caught up to Lainey after around fifteen minutes of running, they ended up to where Sapphire was. She guiding around twenty people out of a train which fell to the side of the road, shooting wind at some of the demons, unable to fully kill them. About fifteen demons were around the train, being flung back. Ulrich infused the energy in his fingers into his gloves, or possibly palms and cupped his hands into a single flare, taking out around eight of the demons, watching as their particles ascended into the portal in the sky. Sapphire managed to pull a child out of the train, throwing it to a woman. She silently pointed to a hillside in the distance, and one person started running, for the rest to follow. She leapt off the side of the train, and started running towards the city, propelling herself to the start of a run.

A couple remaining demons went inside the train. "Hey, should we do something about that?" Dominic asked.

"If they didn't get out at this point, there's nothing I can do." Sapphire replied. "Now get going, we have other people dying in there."

Ulrich wanted to inspect it, just in case. Nobody was dying if he could help it. When he approached the train car, a demon shot out like a bottle rocket, and Ulrich immediately shot a small flame at it and disintegrated it, watching its particles fly into the portal.

Dominic stepped forward to help whatever was still in the train, brandishing his axe, just in case this was some kind of super demon. But instead, Shin was thrown out, with Ayana jumping out after. She looked taller, about as tall as Ulrich, while brandishing fangs.

"Woah now!" Dominic stepped back, smiling at what he was witnessing. "What is this, exactly?"

"Wolf blood." Ayana replied, struggling to get the words out through her new fangs. "What you think?"

"Lady, this is absolutely incredible!" Dominic screamed. "That Komo guy better watch out, because the Demon Destroyers are in full swing! Now let us go, for the glory of demon slaying!"

Sapphire nodded, rising both her hands up, creating a small current towards the city. She grabbed Lainey, putting her in a bridal carry.

"Okay, I'll be sure to break your fall. Now hop in."

Without any further words, and before Lainey could say anything, she jumped in, with Ulrich following in silence.

"You need me to pick you up?" Dominic asked calmly.

"No, no. I'll be fine." Ayana replied, looking at the city. "It's safe, right?"

"Definitely!" Dominic replied enthusiastically. "And if not, you can kick me as hard as you'd wish!"

"Sure?" Ayana asked, touching her upper lips and noticing that her fangs were disappearing "Let's go."

"Absolutely not!"

The two turned around, and Shin was standing upright, adjusting his broken glasses.

"I'm sorry, but I absolutely cannot allow this! I'm sorry, sir. But Ayana and I will be taking our leave."

"Excuse me?" Dominic shouted. "Why, exactly?"

"Apologies, you must not know about mages. Ayana is getting married in a few months and must be in top condition for the wedding. Now, if you excuse us, we'll be taking our leave." And with a final adjustment of his glasses, he grabbed a now normal Ayana by the arm, and left for their house.

"Woah now, man!" Dominic yelled, diving in front of him and almost tripping. "What does Ayana think about this?"

"That isn't important right now. What matters is getting her married and continuing the bloodline."

"Bloodline?" Dominic questioned.

"She's marrying another blood mage. Mage genes are hard to preserve, so we have to do this, considering how it was almost ruined last time."

"Ayana? This…you cool with this?" Dominic asked. He could see that from the moment he grabbed her arm, her brown eyes were glazed over. He went past Shin, and straight towards Ayana, touching her shoulder.

"Ayana? You coming?" He lost all the former bombastic energy in his voice, touching her on her right shoulder.

And once that touch connected, Ayana jumped slightly.

"What was that, blondie?" She asked, seeming slightly confused.

"The whole…marriage thing. You seemed kind of out of it."

"She's just tired. Now, if you will excuse us." Shin interrupted, tugging on Ayana's arm, and she wrestled her way out of it.

"I'm going with them." Ayana said, her firm voice attempting to hide the slight wavering in her words.

"Excuse me?" Shin asked, the calmness in his voice slowly disappearing.

"She's fighting with us, bro." Dominic answered, his voice dripping out the 'bro' like he was speaking of something truly vile.

"Ye-yeah!" Ayana stammered, slowly moving behind Dominic. "I'm going to help them!"

"Excuse me, these people? You don't even know them." Shin replied while attempting to grab Ayana's arm, which Dominic stopped by grabbing Shin's.

"Well, I can't just let them die." Ayana replied, her voice having slightly more of a presence. "I don't know them, but they don't even know this country!"

"Look, I understand the situation." Shin responded, freeing his arm. "But surely you understand that the future of blood mages is important. Think, Ayana, for the sake of our parents."

"Screw them!"

Shin's eyes widened at Ayana's two words. She had nothing but pure anger stretched across her face. Dominic stepped out of the way, flashing a smirk at Shin.

"Why the hell are you still focused on our parents? They left! Six years ago! They said nothing to us since then!"

"Well, yes, but…" Shin stammered. "The bloodlines."

"Would you shut up about bloodlines? We're both dual-blooded! Dad was an enhancer!"

Shin, slowly seeing his grip was waning, tried to appeal to Ayana one last time.

"But, the mages…" His voice stopped, seeing the fury in Ayana.

"You know what? I don't care what mom and dad think, I hate them. I always did."

The anger in Shin's voice returned when he heard that. "Excuse me?"

"I hate them. I hate the jobs. I hate Akira. I hate being a mage."

She gasped, putting her neck back while clutching her chest.

"But most of all, I hate you!"

Her eyes were shut as she said it, putting all of her energy into her statement.

Shin stood there, dumbfounded, stammering to try to say something back, but Ayana merely turned, heading towards the slowly disappearing current. Dominic flipped him the bird with a satisfied grin, and jumped into the portal back first.

Once Dominic landed, he saw the other four waiting for them, Lainey taking the electronic cigarette out of her mouth.

"Where were you two, exactly?" She asked, sounding slightly pissed off.

"Some crap about her brother." Dominic replied casually. "Ayana dealt with it."

"But it's solved?" Ulrich asked. "You two ready to go?"

"Definitely." Ayana replied, sounding more ready then ever.

"Okay, you two can go left, we're guessing the least dangerous shit is there." Lainey said.

"Woah now, we're splitting up?" Dominic yelled out.

"We're trying to reach that building in the centre of the street without that Komo guy noticing us." Ulrich answered, pointing towards the Roppongi Hills Tower, a monument of a building in front of them, and at the top, was Komo, unleashing hordes of demons to terrorise the streets. "The street splits three ways, so Sapphire and I are taking the middle, Lainey is going right, and you're going left with Ayana."

"Got it!" Dominic yelled, giving an enthusiastic thumbs-up. He was about to grab Ayana by the arm, but stopped, merely going left, with Ayana following.

And then, the other three went their separate ways, all with one goal in mind. Defeating the demon commander.