Chapter 11- a sudden return home

The deep and vicious roar sent chills up Riyoko and Arisa's spines despite their distance from the building. At the same time, beams of lights in a variety of colors were shot toward the building, causing an explosion and filling the rooftop with smoke.

Arisa held Riyoko's hand tightly with a look of intense pressure imprinted on her face.

"A… Arisa…?"

"Listen Riyoko… If it really Is a high class, then both of us are in the worst situation right now,"

"What do you mean…?"

"A high-class flame monster usually prioritizes the one they're targeting until they kill or at least immobilize you… It's going to be very troublesome so you better hope nothing comes out of that smoke…"

Riyoko struggled to keep his composure despite the intense and sudden pressure along with his confusion about the situation.

"This is all too much… earlier I was just confused about what is happening altogether and now it seems that my life might be in danger?" he thought, "please let nothing come out of that smoke alive and moving!"

"…"

"…"

An intense silence filled the area as they waited for the thick smoke to fade.

"Nothing seems to be moving…" Arisa said, "I wonder if…"

"Shut up…" Riyoko said blatantly, silencing Arisa.

"E… eh?" she tilted her head in confusion as she looked at Riyoko's incredibly serious and tense expression.

"These types of moments are typical… the trope where once anyone says that line things become a lot more complicated," Riyoko thought, "Now… everyone just please wait for the smoke to fade in sile…"

"Did we get it!?" a soldier from a distance shouted, aiming to communicate with the other distant soldiers.

"oh no…"

SWOOSH*

Suddenly, the massive monster covered by bits of weak flames dashed out of the smoke and crash-landed on a small building nearby.

"Oh of course!" Riyoko said, letting out his thoughts as he suddenly got pulled by Arisa.

"Well, that certainly wasn't unexpected," she said as their bodies once again began to glow a faint green light, "Let's go! Stay with me!".

She once again pulled Riyoko closer to her and began flying through below the buildings to avoid being seen. Suddenly they heard crashing noises from a distance behind them, taking both of their attention.

As they tilted their head to look, both of their eyes shrunk in shock and sudden fear as they made eye contact with the massive creature standing on top of a building. With its massive body with a shape similar to a deformed or mutated gorilla, just one direct contact with any form of attack from it could result in major to fatal injuries.

"I should probably be fine if I get hit once lightly," Arisa said, looking forward and speeding up their flight, "now I don't know your capabilities, but it's probably best for just the both of us not to get hit, right?"

Riyoko nodded multiple times with haste.

The monster began to emit flames out of its flesh and roared as it begins to make its way toward them.

Arisa grabbed Riyoko's hand tightly and then threw him up as hard as she could.

"Woah!" Riyoko screamed, flying weightlessly above the sky, higher than any of the buildings around them.

As he was floating weightlessly above, he took a quick look around and saw a bright flash of light from a distance, not too far from their position, "huh? that's…" he said, having a strong sense of familiarity from the light.

BOOM*

Suddenly, a strong explosion occurred below him. As he looked down, he saw a building collapse and smoke filled the entire road near it as Arisa was making her way toward him.

"What happened?" he asked as Arisa grabbed his wrist.

"I exploded the building… anyway, it seems you'll be ok," Arisa replied as she slightly began to sweat.

"Huh? what do you…"

Suddenly, Arisa pulled both of them back to the ground, some distance away from the collapsed building.

As their feet touched the ground, Arisa let go of him and stared at him deep in the eyes.

"Listen, when I threw you above the sky earlier, I noticed that both of its eyes were locked on to me. That means you'll be ok if you start running way now,"

"W… what about you?" he asked with a sincere look of concern.

"Idiot, you're life is in danger right now, just focus on yourself and run…" She let out a sigh, "I'll be fine, as you've seen earlier, I can buy myself some time at least…"

Riyoko suddenly recalled the light he saw from above.

"Maybe there's no need to separate…"

"Huh? what are you saying? We don't have time…"

"You see… earlier…"

BOOM*

Suddenly, a strong explosion occurred from the building right beside them. Creating a strong shock wave, blasting Riyoko off the ground and falling down some distance from the explosion as Arisa was nudged on the ground, standing still and strong.

"Riyoko!" She quickly glanced back to back at him and the currently burning building near them, "crap! It was so sudden I wasn't able to protect him…"

She tightly gripped her hand in frustration.

A blurry vision… ears ringing causing a headache. He sat up from the cold ground surrounded by heat from the scattered fires, as the moonlight shined above him.

"Hey! You're alive right!?"

A high-pitched tone, Arisa shouting.

She stood in front of him, facing the burning building as the flames became wilder as if something was emerging from it.

He stood up, feeling dizzy as he faced her.

"You need to go, it seems like things will be complicated from here," Arisa said.

"but what about you?" He replied, taking a step forward.

"Don't come any closer!!"

Suddenly, a strong burst of wind came out from the burning building along with a deep and fearsome roar, causing both of them to get tense.

As the cold evening breeze mixed with the heat of the burning building, his shoulders stiffened and his knees began to shiver.

He stared intensely into the ravaging flame as an odd entity he had never seen before slowly emerges from within.

"What are you waiting for? RUN!"

His eyes glowed bright yellow as he feels heat coming from inside of him.

Flash*

Suddenly, everything became dead silent. Not a single sound from Arisa's voice, the ravaging flames, or even the wind.

Riyoko felt confused as he observes the surroundings while standing still.

"Huh? what's happening…? Why does everything seem a little less saturated in color? It's suddenly so quite and I can't hear even the sound of my own breathing… wait, am I even breathing? And most importantly, nothing is moving… it's like…"

Suddenly, he heard a sigh as a familiar woman walked past him and stood some distance from him and Arisa.

The woman let out a sigh, "how did things even turn out this way… did the guards just completely not notice? Was there a fault in the system of the walls? Or in the worst-case scenario… it might have been…"

Riyoko slowly tilted his head toward the familiar tone, "Reine?" he thought.

She scratched her head seeming stressed, "Ugh! I'll think about it later, for now…"

she then raised her hand and aimed at the entity deep within the fires of the burning building.

"Let's see… it's nearly about a level of a high class… so first of all,"

Suddenly, a green barrier formed around the frozen Arisa.

"Then how about this… first is: Water, HNO3… the I have nitric acid, and then…"

Suddenly, three magic circles formed around her hand, aiming at the flames.

"then I'll compress oxygen and gas together so when it makes contact with the fire… things might get ugly so…"

As more unreadable texts formed within the magic circle surrounding her, A green shield was suddenly placed in front of Riyoko.

"Ah, thanks…" he said reflexively.

"no problem…" Reine replied blatantly, "then I'll use nitroglycerin and trinitrotoluene so…"

Reine suddenly stopped her mumbling and slowly tilted her head toward him with an incredibly shocked expression, as if she has seen something that was extremely not in the ordinary.

"H.. Ho… How the hell…!?"

Flash*

As time suddenly continued to move, the magic circles let out a strong burst of elements that shot through the flames and created a powerful explosion, and scattered dangerous-looking liquids all over the area.

"Prostasia," Reine said, covering all of their bodies with a faint yellow glow.

"R… Reine!" Arisa smiled and felt relieved as she walked toward her.

"Huh? Reine?" she glanced back to back at Reine and Riyoko who both had different kinds of confused expressions,"

"Arisa… sorry but you need to go to the camp at district 12 immediately, I need to talk to Riyoko for a moment,"

"Eh?"

"Please…" she looked at her with a grave expression and a cold and serious tone.

"Um… ok,"

Looking confused and worried, she flew away from the area without question.

"Umm, yes?" Riyoko stood straight, feeling a slight sense of pressure coming from Reine.

Reine grabbed her head looking extremely stressed, "Look… I already have a bunch of shit to deal with… and now you add more to the things that are going on in my head just like that!"

"Eh…?" Riyoko said, feeling nervous.

"Sorry I shouted like that… I didn't mean it…"

"From your tone, it's like your apology is the one you didn't mean!"

"I… let's talk another time, I feel too tired for this right now…"

Sounding exhausted with a stressed look on her face, she pointed at Riyoko as a magic circle formed in front of him, "it's getting late, you should go back… and by back, I mean…"

"Huh!? Wait…!"

Blink*

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Birds chirping, sounds of leftover raindrops falling from the ceiling to the ground, engines of a vehicle passing the area some distance outside.

He sat up from his carton bed with big open eyes and a lightweight feeling.

"I'm… back…?"