The Night Zone (2)

She nodded as they headed inside, she grabbed a few things from her pocket dimension and created a light salade after combining the fresh plants from the wall. Azrael sat down next to her as he told her about the Night Zone.

...

(This flashback is from Azrael's POV)

It's the darker side of the planet, you should have known that there's a big difference between this planet and the others as one day here is close to 5,000 hours and because of this I often live on the side that's closer to the Night zone as it gives me more time if I don't want to move, and it also provides more training experience as the closer I am the more often I get to train.

However, this time when Andras and I were in the Night zone there were more creatures than I had expected. They had also become much stronger than the ones in the past. We were proceeding like normal at the beginning, and for a few hours, we didn't see any of them.

I should have become more cautious, but I took it as a sign to explore thinking there was a stronger creature to fight. I was right about a stronger creature, but it wasn't just one. We were about 5 hours into the Night Zone when they started to appear.

They have adapted to be able to see and move faster so it wasn't a surprise, yet I was too confident taking them on my own not keeping up my guard and letting Andras fight freely. I didn't think much of it at first but after an hour I noticed we weren't far from the place where the fighting started. That's when I thought we should return and come back later.

We were retreating when their numbers increased and they started to surround us, we fought like that for a few hours. Andras was getting tired from all the fighting, so I cast a barrier around Andras while fighting.

That's when one of them flew out from the rifts using their claws to tear at the shoulder. It was a surprise since I hadn't been injured in so long. I was able to stop the bleeding before it got worse, but we continued to fight.

After a few more hours I was able to get rid of the major creatures and Andras took care of the little ones, then we flew back this way. Then we were on our way back and near the edge of the Night zone when we were ambushed by another group. This time their numbers were doubled and few of them were the ones that had escaped us before.

"I understood then that this ambush was planned, and we fought for hours before all the creatures started to run away. I decided to let Andras carry me out since that way I could prevent opening up my wounds. I lost conciciousness on our way back," Azrael said his tone cold and Flora glanced up at his expression. He was visibly upset, and she could guess why so she asked a simple question, "When are you going back?"

He glanced at her surprised and she smiled saying, "I know you are, just tell me when so I can go with you this time, at the least you will not have to worry about your wounds if I am there." He smiled before saying, "I would have thought you would try to stop me."

Flora laughed getting up and asking, "Would you have if I told you to?" She reached for his empty plate, he held onto it looking up at her, his eyes softened as he said, "Yes."

Flora blinked her heartbeat quickened as he let go of the plate and she walked away saying, "You should rest some more." He smiled calling her name in a gentle tone, "Flora," and she turned as he continued, "Andras wanted to give you this, as thank you for healing him."

Azrael created a pile in the corner of the room placing all the washed fur on the side and she smiled saying, "I'll be sure to thank him, you need to rest."