The Gathering Girl IV

"But seriously. What are you even doing here!!??" the girl screamed as she jumped high up in order to deliver a blow to the enormous crawler in front of her.

The beast stood its ground and retaliated with a headbutt in order to counter her metal fist.

The white-haired vampire boy hurried to catch her as the impact had sent her flying backwards with the power of a jet, "I asked my superiors for permission to aid you in your quest! It took me a while but they finally allowed me to join you!! I began to track down your path and saw your red dragon flying away by himself away from these woods!"

The crawler began to charge after the two while completely pulverizing everything in its path with its huge body.

The boy noticed the girl asking him to launch her at the beast and proceeded to do so after spinning around and in order to gain momentum.

She raised her blade and while taking advantage of the speed of the throw, slashed one of the beast's eight limbs before landing safely on the ground.

"I thought your boss didn't like me!" she commented while wasting no time and starting to run around her enemy once again.

"He doesn't! I told him I would act as a spy to keep an eye on you in case you considered turning against us!"

"Oh..." she whispered taking a moment to consider if she should be worried about that, "Wait a minute..."

"I just told that to earn his permission!! I would never betray you!! Gaagh!!"

The boy was so distracted that he didn't even realize the giant beast right in front of him smacking him in the face with its colossal skull.

The girl began to wonder if once again the situation wasn't just too good to be true and that she was letting her guard down to be stabbed in the back once again, "Why should I trust you? I already betrayed once today! What guarantee do I have that you won't just discard after using me?"

The creature continued to make its way through the trees and tearing everything down while the boy remained attached to its head, "What could I possibly gain from doing that!!??"

"Hell if I know! I barely know you!" she replied while giving chase after the two.

"I just saved your life!! You were about to let yourself perish to these things!"

She couldn't deny that, but at the same time, she also remembered that Lian Garen tried to help her out plenty of times, but all of that was done in order to gain her favor just so he could betray her later or use her strength in his favor.

The girl knew it now. There is nothing for free in this world. He said it himself that he was tracking her down. He was stalking them. Was this really the behavior of someone she could trust? If the boy was trying to help, its because he needed her for something. She refused to let herself be tricked once again. She refused to continue to be naive and allow someone to take advantage of her.

"Tell me the truth!!" she screamed.

"What!!?? What truth!!"

"Why are you helping me!?"

The boy finally raised his wings and jumped out from the crawler's skull by gliding towards the terrain, "I told you! Because you promised to defeat the dragons!!"

"And I'm meant to believe that?? You really think I'll buy that you placed your trust in me even though we've only met once? Hell! Even I am starting to doubt if I can really do it!"

As more trees continued to fall, the massive seven-legged creature finally realized that its prey had escaped and turned around in order to release a loud cry of anger.

The girl stopped running after the boy landed right in front of her with sweat covering his face.

"I'm telling the truth!! I believe in you!!" he continued.

"Why?" she asked while raising her blade and pointing it at his neck, "Why would you trust me? Why would you place your faith in me? I know you're hiding something!! You can't expect me to believe you just came running to me with no ulterior motives!"

"U- Ulterior motives!?" the boy began to twitch and avoided looking directly at her.

"Ha!! I knew it!!" she pinned him down against a tree, "Tell me!"

The boy glanced at their side and noticed the giant crawler had finally spotted them and was about to charge in their direction like a truck out of control.

"That thing is going to run us over!!" he shouted, still avoiding to gaze in her direction.

"Then you better answer fast!! Why are you here!??"

"I..."

The beast continued to approach.

"I know you're hiding something! Tell me the truth!!"

"I..."

A giant shadow began to block the light of the moon and casting the two of them into a deep darkness as the eight red eyes of the monster continued to glare with a bottomless fury at the two youngsters.

The girl was starting to lose her patience, "Time is ticking, leather-boy! Spill it out! Now!!"

"Okay! Okay!! I'll talk!!" he finally yelled while turning to face her with his head covered in red and his mouth trembling as if he was about to start crying, "I... I think I've fallen in love with you!!!"

The crawler shoved its head towards in order to swallow them both but the girl simply circled her sword in a diagonal arc and slashed its jaws away from them.

It was only after finishing up cutting the monster that she realized what she had just heard.

"Wait... What did you just say...?"

The boy felt his heartbeat accelerating as he watched the girl holding her stance after cutting down the monster while it continued to cry in pain and fall on the ground, raising a pile of smoke and leaves while the light of the five bright moons reflected itself on her blade and her dark armor.

"I... I think I love you..." he said it again.

This time the girl was the one who turned her face away while she started to process the situation she was in.

Was the boy being serious? Or was this another trick from someone who wanted to get her guard down? She got curious and peeked a small glance at the lad's face and noticing that he was covering his mouth while more red started to spread through his cheeks.

'Just how could a vampire blush so much? Wasn't lacking blood their thing?' she wondered.

It seemed that he was indeed serious. Either that or he was an amazing actor. But if he was serious after all, what does that mean? What should she do?

"Look..." he began to talk while approaching her, "I know this is weird for you..."

"Aaaghh!! Stay back!! Don't come any closer!!!" she shouted while pointing her blade at him.

The boy raised both hands as a sign of surrendering, "I don't want to hurt you! I swear!!"

"That's not the problem!!!"

"Then what is?"

The vampire lad stared at her as she continued to hold her weapon at him and realized that she was trembling and trying very hard not to look at him.

"Is... Is this the first time someone confesses to you?" he guessed.

"Sh- Sh- Sh- Shyut yup! I mean- Shut up!!" she replied, barely managing to form her words, "I lost my memories of my previous life so I don't really know!!"

"Look, if we could just talk for a momen-"

"I said stay back!!" she yelled again, this time nearly piercing his chest with her claymore, "I need time to think about this!! Stay still until I figure out what to do!!"

"Ah... As you wish..." he mumbled.

The girl was extremely glad he couldn't see her face right now. She had no doubt that if he could, she would be flaring up from all the emotions swirling around inside her head.

She began to question the credibility of his words. Thinking back to their first encounter, all she did was scream at him, fight him, and then get an earful from his king. Did she really do anything worth being loved over?

"Since when?" she mumbled.

The boy began to scratch his hair while diving into his memories, "Probably after you left..."

"Eh...?"

"Once you were gone, and I got back to my position guarding the entrance of the kingdom... I began to think about you and the things you did.

You managed to tame a dragon. Bested me in combat. Saved my people from an invasion. And even now you are on a quest to change the balance of power of this world!"

The girl began to process his words. She honestly hadn't even realized how her actions would look like from an outsider's point of view. All she wanted to do was kill dragons and keep Lian Garen from running away.

"Just thinking about the sight of you riding that red dragon and bringing my people to your side while facing that other dragon! You looked so... So amazing!! You were amazing!! No...

You ARE amazing!" he uttered while staring directly at her with sparkles in his eyes. The boy was acting as if he was talking with a superhero or a celebrity.

The girl wasn't sure if he was really in love with her or if he was just turning into her fan, but one thing she knew, he was on her side.

"Uuhh... Well... Thanks... I think. I'm very flattered that you like the way I fight dragons and all..."

"So does this mean I can join you?" he asked while bringing his face closer to her, which almost caused the knight to scream.

"J- Join??"

"In your quest to take down the dragon empire!" he explained while raising his fist as if some kind of fire had been lit up inside of him, "I want to help!!"

"What about your kingdom? Don't you guys have to worry about other dragons coming to invade it or something? Is it okay for you to be here and not with them?"

"The sooner I help you take the dragons down, the sooner my people will be truly free from them! Helping you out will be a much better use of my time than just standing guard all day and waiting for the enemy to arrive!"

The girl still wasn't sure. It was one thing when she had to work with Lian Garen. As much as she hated him, he seemed like someone who could be of use to her, someone smart and capable. But in this case, it almost felt like she would be the one to take care of this boy, and she already could barely take care of herself.

"You said it yourself, I lost my prisoner... Without him, I don't know where to go or what to do..." she admitted.

He noticed the sad tone on her voice and the way she started to lower her gaze, "You want to solve the mystery of this forest, right? Maybe I can be of aid!"

"How so...? Lian Garen took the only map with him and used me as bait to draw all the crawlers away from him. He's probably already figured out by now what's causing all these creatures to appear..."

The lad crossed his arms and smiled at her, "I bet I know where he is going! While searching for you through the air I spotted something that might give us some answers!"

"What is it?"

He extended his arm towards her, "Do you trust me?"

This situation felt very similar to the day she was offered to join forces with Lian Garen.

Back then, she felt like she was making a deal with the devil and walking into something she knew she was going to regret. But this time? She felt like for the first time ever since Thomas, the universe was offering her a chance, and that the true regret was going to be not to take it.

She grabbed his hand and shook it, "You better be right!"

"I give you my word!"