-74- Close friend

"So, what's you and your friends' names?" Lian Qiang asked as they ran back, following the boy to his suspected injured companion.

"My name's Ben, and my friend's name is Reed," Ben said without slowing down.

The closer they got to where Ben was taking them, the more Xander felt something was off, but he kept pushing the feeling aside, thinking, 'There's no logical explanation for this feeling, and while I don't really care about this Ben or Reed guy, I would feel a little bad if I just left Reed to die.'

Eventually, they were 25 minutes into the supposed 30-minute run.

"He's not too far up here…" Ben said, but as soon as he said that, a devil jumped out of the shadows and attacked him.

"Bang!" Ben just barely managed to pull out his sword in time to block.

"Dammit!" Ben said as he was overpowered and pushed to the side.

The devil then phased into the shadows once again, this time attacking Lian Qiang.