7. Ruin Guardian

.Kagura and Aki gaped their mouth in horror.

Blood seeps out of Ray's stomach, legs and arms. His face painted with scratches, his lips began to turn blue and his once dark blue eyes filled with joy are now empty. He held his stomach limply with his bloodied right hand while the other one weakly holds a dull knife. Kagura rushed to his side with tears followed by Aki. She put his head onto her lap and gently nudged him to wake him up.

"Ray, Ray! Come on, wake up!" she pleaded. Aki got to straight to work and dialled the others. Her phone flashed a group call with the others in the call.

"Everyone, we found him. I'm sending our location now. I don't think we can't get him out-" suddenly, she felt uncomfortable. She soon screamed dropping her phone in the process. Kagura looked at her friend questionably. Aki pointed her shaky index finger towards Ray's legs.

The left one is missing.

Loud footsteps erupted from the speaker of her dropped phone within 10cm from her position. "Hey, Aki! What the hell happened? Are you three alright?" she regained her composure and replied the call.

"Both of us are unscathed, but him. I think you guys should see it for yourself,"

"We'll be there shortly,"

She closed the call and shifted her attention back to the two individuals. She scooted closer to the now crying Kagura. Tears dropped to Ray's face, making him scrunch his face. He opened his eyes slowly as he bears an absurd amount of pain. He doubled his efforts to lift his right hand to Kagura's chin surprising the two girls. He let out a low grunt, smiling at her.

"H-hey Kags. Wh-what are y-you doing here?" he stared deeply into her eyes. Kagura engulfed the injured men in a tight hug, holding him to dear life, afraid as if he's going to disappear to the afterlife.

She sobbed into his chest. "He-hey Ray. Don't worry, you're safe now. We're going to get you out of here. Hang in there alright," Ray then turned his face in front just after loud footsteps rushed to their location. The group finally arrived with the almost the same reaction as the two, if not worse. He then shivered aggressively thus making to tighten his hug with the petite girl making her looked at him in confusion.

Small icicle blood sprung out of his throat scaring the others. Kagura's eyes went wide at the sudden action.

"It's cold Kagura. I…..I won't get out in time," he then remembered something and it's not a very pleasant one. "Ge-get out of here. There's r-ruin guardian roaming ar-around. I-" before he could finish his sentence, another iced blood spluttered out of his mouth dirtying Kagura's outfit. His eyes started to droop. They quickly stood up. Azusa got to the two, pulled Kagura and Ray apart then he puts the injured soldier on his soldier.

"Whoever you are, we aren't going to leave you here," everyone smiled at his action. "Come on, let's get out. Now!" they left the bloody corner and sprung their way out to the ruin entrance. Just as they were almost out of the abandoned ruins, a sludge came down towards the group ambushing them. The girls screamed as they got thrown to the side, Azusa stumbled on a boulder making him fall flat to the ground resulting in him losing his grip on Ray making the poor man went flying towards a tree crushing his back. Ray groaned loudly as he felt the impact on his already injured back. Crane managed to dodge the attack but got his face punched by an enormous lizard monster sending him to Azusa crashing into the green haired boy. They all got up after the attack to meet three lizard monster standing on their two legs. Their slit yellow eyes filled with hatred, their sharp claws clung with each other causing an ear-screeching sound.

Crane's the first one managed to stood up in a battle stance. "What in the world are these things?"

"They're ruin guardians. It is said they kill anyone that trespasses their ruins. I'm surprised they're still alive. I thought they went extinct like a hundred years ago," Rose said as she struggles to got up after the sudden attack. The group got into a battle stance ready to fend off the monsters.

Jane used her speed passive and went behind the three lizards with a katana in her possession. She slashed the sharp blade aiming their heads which they parried it with their claws. Aki took the chance and pulled out her dual wield pistol shooting them until the chambers went empty. Kagura rushed to the three distracted monsters with her powered up blade to land a clean strike. Crane charged his gauntlet and slammed it to the ground creating a powerful shockwave.

Smokes erupted from the three lizards. They looked at the smoke in hopes the three guardians to be on the ground, lifelessly.

But of course, they weren't called the ruin guardians for nothing.

The three walked out of the smoke unscathed, except for that one lizard that got his shoulder grazed by Kagura's blade. The lizard growled at the Kagura in anger.

Suddenly, the tree started to sway strongly as if a tornado is coming to their location. The lizards body became bigger and bulkier. Their once slit yellow eyes turned bloody red. Their claws became sharper and deadlier. The three let out a powerful roar blowing the group with a blast of air.

Ray watched from the side with him laying flat on his stomach. The soldier looked around to spot a moldy rifle laid under a tree near him. He grabbed the nearest stick and stabbed the ground while dragging his body to the said weapon. He's lucky that the monsters are busy dealing with the group of powerful teens. The others doubled their power trying to even the match between them and the three monsters.

Suddenly, one of them managed to grab Aki by the throat making her struggles for air. The lizard then threw the poor girl to a small pond. Rose and Jane rushed to the culprit with anger in their eyes and started dealing a barrage of attack only for it to dodge the attacks with no effort whatsoever.

While the two were distracted, the other two lizards fired a fireball out of their mouths launching the two away landing besides Kagura. The two men chanted a high class magic simultaneously for a stronger outcome of damage.

'With the tide of the waves,'

'And the flow of the sea,'

'Wipe out enemies with the water of judgement,'

'and perish them from this world,'

'Alka Shojin!' a strong sea water launched out of their hands with high velocity to the lizard. The three smirked. It's payback.

"Reflect out enemies"

"Total reflection!"

(The two lizards are using Ruin Language. I tried to use weird word font but it doesn't apply in webnovel :v)

A transparent screen appeared in front of them reflecting the two boys attack the moment the strong water made contact with the screen injuring them greatly. Fortunate for them, Kagura managed to cast shields for the two but it's not strong enough to block the attacks completely.

The three lizards growled and charged to Kagura. She failed to cast another shield as panic took control of her. Their hard scaled body crashed her small figure sending her to her friends.

They panted heavily catching their breath. Fatigue started to take control of their system. The three lizards chanted another powerful spell catching them off guard. The fatigue failed their instincts to kick in.

Suddenly, one of the lizards got his shoulder impaled by a bullet making the creature screeched in pain. They turned to the culprit revealing Ray pulling the lever of the rifle. He shot another round of bullet straight to the other one's chest. Angered, the three launched a shadow ball straight to him. Ray flew to the side and fell flat on his back.

"Ray!" Kagura screamed in horror. The three lizards were blinded by anger. They walked slowly towards Ray. Kagura tried to go to them in their tracks only to be held back by Rose and Jane.

"Let go! Can't you see he's in danger?" she struggled out of their grasps unsuccessfully.

"Listen Kagura. We need to plan something to take them out. We have to use Ray a decoy to buy us time," Aki said to her. Kagura gave up and they quickly made up a plan as quick as they can. Time is running out!

Ray tried to get up by using a broken stick as a support only to fall back to the ground. He looked up in fear as the three lizards marched their way to him. He used the stick to drag his body to his rifle. Just as he was about to take the weapon, the lizard stomped his arm making him screamed in pain. The lizard twisted his feet separating his hand from the gun and kicked it away. He dug his claw onto his back piercing his flesh. Blood started to spurt out of his back. He grunts silently. The lack of water and the sheer amount of pain made his voice go numb. His visions were hazy.

As the three were distracted with Ray, Jane used her sword to immobilize the three in their position. Crane punched the ground creating a crater to plant their legs inside the ground, holding them in their place. Azusa used his bomb to weaken their defence while Aki and Rose chanted buff spells to Kagura as she enhanced her sword with the Spirit Crystal. The three struggled violently to break free from their chains. Jane's cage katana blew apart plus one of the swords impaled Jane's left shoulder making her screamed loudly. The crater made by Crane became flat causing the reverse wave to violently shock his body. Crane fell unconscious with bubbles in his mouth.

Ray witnessed the fall of Kagura's group with sorrow in his eyes. He tried his best to move his body only for nothing to happen. His mouth moved signalling them to escape, run away from the forest. Memories of him, Kagura and his friends flashed before his eyes.

'I guess this is where I die huh?' he thought to himself. His body temperature dropped severely resulting in his white skin to slowly become blue in colour. His body felt cold as if he's been engulfed in ice. Suddenly, Ragsherum came knocking his head roughly in fury.

'Oi kid! Are you really giving up? After what we've gone through? This is nothing compared to our training dammit! Think about your friends. Ariel! Kagura! Aiwa!' the demon gave him a piece of his mind. He's not letting his host to die now.

'If you really care for them, then fight dammit! Don't you dare back down now!' images of his Kagura flashed before his very eyes.

Her smile.

Her kindness when he met her.

Ariel.

Aiwa.

Hikari.

Everyone.

.

.

.

.

.

Power

!

A sudden energy flows inside him. He focused his will and ragsherum's with the cold inside him. He bit his lips supressing the pain while trying to resonate himself with Storm's power. Suddenly, he felt something cold in his right palm. Without thinking, he shot the blue coloured energy towards the three lizards just before they managed to completely break through the chains.

Cold ice engulfs the cold-blooded creature holding them in their place. Looks of surprise painted their scaly face. Kagura took the golden opportunity and swinged her sword to their necks, splitting their heads from their bodies. Blood spurt out like a fountain from their neck. They sighed in relief. The battle is finally over. Kagura looked at Ray as swings side to side before he fell to the ground on his back letting out a loud thump. He managed to stood still before normally by using a stick to stabilize himself.

Kagura rushed to the fainted soldier. Kagura placed her head to his heart. Her eyes widen.

'No heartbeat'

She panicked but soon calmed down after she caught a beat of his pulse with her three fingers under his chin. She then examined everyone, it doesn't look like they could walk back to the village easily.

Jane had one of her katana piercing her left shoulder. Crane is spazzing out on the ground with bubbles in his mouth from the huge amount of shockwave being sent to his system. Azusa had a broken arm. Rose and Aki were severely tired, the two could pass out any second from now. She called the village chief for backup, which they responded with a helicopter heading towards them in 5 minutes.

She looked at Ray as he laid unconscious on her lap. She turned his body over so his back faces her vision. She put her palms on his pierced back where the lizards claw managed to puncture it and began chanting healing magic which managed to stop the blood from flowing out but didn't close up the wound completely. The young girl frowned while looking at his unconscious figure.

"What happened to you?"

............….

(5 minutes later)

"Move! Move! Get them on board now!"

The chief roared to the escort team wearing all grey combat uniform with a magic rifle in their grasps. They lead the group into the three helicopter separately. Kagura, Ray and Rose on the Blackhawk-0R7, Shiki and Crane on StealthMeter-23 while Aki and Jane on Waterbreath-10.

(Blackhawk-0R7)

The medic placed Ray on a makeshift stretcher and started to patch him up. They used healing magic stopped the blood from losing. The wounds were being treated swiftly and carefully as they couldn't be too rush since they are above the ground nonetheless. Rose slept while being treated by a female medic after the long, tiring and deadly battle while Kagura couldn't stop worrying for Ray as she sat across the operation set with her eyes peeled on their action.

Suddenly, one of the medic went panic. He called the village's best mage leaving the others in confusion.

"What's wrong aye? The guy needs medical attention. What's alerting you?" the said medic sighed before explaining the situation, gaining the other attention. He pulled out his hand an image of Ray's body structure appeared.

He pointed his index finger to a light blue shaded area of his chest. "You see this area," he circles the area and the others nodded. "There's foreign magic particles spreading around this area, which later will go to his heart. This is a serious problem. According to his body autonomy I've gained, he doesn't have any mana nor magic affinity. So this means that this foreign magic could maybe be both a threat or friendly to the user. It's better if we patch up his other physical area and leave that area until we get to the mage," the others nodded and went back to work.

Kagura's eyes started to droop. Even though she worries greatly of Ray, her fatigue started to win over her. She passed out with her head on the sleeping Rose's shoulder.

(StealthMeter-23)

"Clear!"

A medic with electric magic charged both of his hand before sending an electrical wave of magic to Crane's shaking body. It took the doc three times before his body went normal resulting in the poor boy to wake up with a jolt clashing his head with the older man. He grunt in pain.

"What the hell was that for? All that hardwork for nothing!" he left the guy while fuming in anger. He took a sit angrily besides a hunter sipping a coffee while enjoying the flight. Shiki could only sweat dropped at the incident occurring in front of him. Crane took in a heavy breath before releasing it and shrugged his shoulder. He moved over to the green haired man that's getting his broken arm wrapped in a sling cloth. She left him leading the bulkier man to take the seat next to Shiki.

"What happened back there? It felt like my body got crushed by an anvil," Azusa kicked the air lowly before replying.

"You really don't remember? That shockwave must've knocked your head to oblivion. Now didn't I told you to keep practicing that move back before we got sent here?" Crane scratched the back of his head with a tint of red cheeks, embarrassed that he didn't follow his instructor's order. His face quickly grew dark as he remembered Ray.

He clicked his tongue. "Hey, don't you think this mission is worthless? What did we even get? Look, I almost lost my mentality, you got a broken arm. I've also remembered just before I went spazzing that Jane has her katana in her shoulder while Kagura, Rose and Aki are tired as hell. That guy just brings a bad taste to my mouth," Azusa shook his head while chuckling. Crane furrowed his brow with a tick mark on his forehead.

"Oi, are you laughing at me or what?" Azusa shook his fine hand and hold him to his seat. "It's nothing. Ironically Crane, if not for him, we would already be dead," this doesn't satisfy the young man.

"What do you mean by that? We would be fine IF we don't rescue him,"

"And that's where you're wrong," Shiki shifted his eyes to stare at his friend's red orbs. "This expedition showed us new things my friend. It showed us how much of a weakling we are if not for Kagura and that Ray guy. Kagura managed to suffer minimal damage for her quick thinking and action. I'm not saying we're idiots but just look at the fight. You could see how weak our fighting skills are," he stopped for a moment to catch his breath.

He continued. "Don't you feel weird? That Ray guy can still be alive even though he lost a ridiculous amount of blood. He can't use magic either. Even that ice magic earlier, it doesn't match up. I could only sense blood in that ice, which means," Crane widen his eyes while looking at Shiki as he nodded.

"He uses blood as catalyst. Only a few could pull that off. To sum it up, there are certain people that were born without mana nor magic affinity. But in this era it's really rare. They could only use magic from either items that releases magical power or the harsh one, gains a blessing,"

"This Ray, is interesting. Who knows what could we learn from him that even makes Kagura to have a crush on him?" Crane just looked to the side, frustrated.

"Yeah right. I suppose,"

.........…..

(Waterbreath-10)

"Bite this,"

"Over my dead body!"

"Just bite it. Don't be a bitch about it,"

"Make me,"

'This is going nowhere,' thought the old medic. He shoved the small squishy cute plush into her mouth making her surprised. He put his left arm on her left shoulder while his right hand grabbed the hold of her katana that impaled her right hand and pulled it out to his heart content. The katana user muffled her screams with the plush in her mouth. The sharp blade finally got out of her shoulder. The doc threw the katana aside and started to treat the stab wound as the girl glared at him with tears in her eyes to which the old doc just laugh it off.

"And done," he finished the bandage wrapping. "Oh and before I forgot," he purposely grabbed the chewed plush out of her mouth and threw it into a waste bin. He patted her head before walking away laughing thus leaving the girl frustrated but she enjoyed it as it briefly reminded her of his grandfather. Rose was just laughing her ass off before the katana user towered over her small figure.

The girl shivered in fear at the taller figure in front of her. Jane smirked and threw her body towards her engulfing the girl in a hug. She shifted her position in a headlock and started nudging the poor girl's head.

"What are you laughing at you brat? Enjoying me suffer huh?" the girl only whined as her head gets nudged roughly. Jane released her firm grip on the short haired girl and positioned herself onto the seat for her to comfortable.

"Man, that's some fight right there. I'm glad my sword didn't betray me. That's my father's technique that I've learned when I was a kid. It's a signature move. Oh how I'm glad it doesn't be the death of us," Rose chuckled at her antiques.

"Yeah, but I guess we should thank Kagura and that guy. If not for them, we would've died," a lightbulb appeared on top of Jane's head.

"That reminds me. He's from the Elite Force right?" Rose swiftly turns her head.

"Say what? How do you know?" the katana wielder shrugged.

"There's a torn badge on his uniform. Plus that uniform looks almost the same as the one my grandfather showed me,"

"Who's your grandfather exactly?" Jane smiled with her eyes clos and did a peace sign.

"It's Kaid!"

............….

Ray slowly opened his eyes and saw his surrounding became white.

'I'm back here again huh?' he got up with a huge pain on his rib and back. He managed to stand still until he got a slap on the back of his head by a certain demon general.

"You brat! What were you thinking? You almost got me a heart attack. I don't want you to die just yet. Not when I still didn't get my plan in action," Ragsherum scolded him with his arms crossed. Ray sat on the ground listening to his rambling like an obedient kid.

"Yeah, yeah.... Mom," he smirked which irritates the demon more earning himself a smack on top of his head. Smokes came out of the demon's fist.

"Let's cut to the chase. Now I need to you to focus. If we want to live, we need to control this weird magic. I can only channel a little bit of my magic to enhance your defence," Ray nodded. Ragsherum then did as he already said which made Ray's body grown a dark aura around him. They walk to an area filled with nothing but ice and cold temperature. In the middle, stands a sphere emitting a blue light. Ragsherum put his hand on his shoulder.

"Kid, you need to hold the power off before it went berserk until we get to the village's mage. They're going to get us help. But for now," he looked at the aggressively sphere emitting a strong surge of mana.

"Resonate with that power. It may kill us but hey, If we did manage to control it, maybe it's time for you to use another type of magic right?" Ray smiled.

He inhaled and exhaled, regaining his composure. He then looks at the sphere with determination.

"Let's go!"