~ Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. ~

- Helen Keller.

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"This will never work,"

I watched a bit skeptical at Praxina's doings, she looked like she had had some kind of weird sun stroke or something. It was that bad and ominous look in the corner of her eye, yet she looked like she knew what she was doing.

We had found a perfect hiding spot, a narrow gap below the normal mine's tunnel which around Praxina uncasted a shield barrier, so the enemies wouldn't find nor detect us. It was quite loud up there, the guys were really getting at it.

"We need to hurry if we're gonna get them out of there alive." I said to Praxina, but was forced to step aside as she kept drawing these weird circles on the ground with a white powder she had, casually ignoring me. It had taken her already a minute to prepare whatever the hell she was doing.

"Faith, this is a bad idea." Armen said to me, as confused as I was of what the Elf was doing. "Even if the enemies don't know we're still here, my Master does. That's why we need to move and get out of here so they can too." He nudged me a bit, even I got a bit hesitant.

The Beast might be right, after all he and Armen shared a bond between them which was unbroken. That's why Alchadar must be using his last strenght up there fighting the enemy, as he's waiting us to get out of there. What we're doing is more harmful than helpful!

"Praxina, I don't know--" I rubbed the back of my head but suddenly the Elf rose up to my face, looking me directly in the eye. I froze.

"You wanted to help them, didn't you? And you Beasty, you know as well as I that once that Demon keeps busting his ass up there he won't be able to transport them out of there in time." Praxina said to me, then Armen. Her rational-ass was what really had me lost for words for the first time.

Yeah, I wanna help.

But what help can I offer against those Devils?

"The sooner we get back allows him to use his portal." Armen snarled, but Praxina already got back on her work. She drawned still a couple of more circles and Insignias, looking determined.

"He won't be able to do that unless he rests first. And those guys won't let him do that, and most importantly they won't let him escape." Praxina still argued and finally stood up, looking down at her creation of powder in proud. "All right, are you guys ready to rumble?"

Armen and I glanced at each other with slight hesitance, but it was soon gone. We knew that what she was saying was true, using a portal needed much of strenght and magma. Alchadar was at his weakest, and it was two against seven up there, which worns out just about anyone. No matter how strong you were.

I had made up my mind and nodded, turning forward.

"I'm in." I said strong, not fazing. I was the damn crazy Demon's partner, there was no way I'd allow him to get kidnapped or killed-- not if he depended on me at least the slightest.

Praxina nodded to me and turned to Armen, then Gail on his back. The boy had stayed awfully quiet, but he was not too fond onto the idea of his sister leaving him again. It was written on all over his face.

"Can you keep Gail safe for me?" She asked, that sudden glim of worry and hesitance shown in her eyes. I knew she was scared of loosing him again, but our top priority one job was to get him out of there- and not bring him back into the battle arena.

Armen nodded to her after a moment, glancing back at the Elf boy who squinted his ears a bit in surprise. He clearly enjoyed riding the Beast.

"Hold tight, kid."

Even I was momentarily surprisen how the Beast agreed to her request. My group hadn't gone too easy on Praxina. Then again, Alchadar really cared for the boy. I guess he kept it as his somekind of duty to look after him.

"All right, step back." Praxina got finally done, we heard a loud bam near us, as if someone just hit a wall pretty hard. I shut my eyes in the hopes that it wasn't Alchadar.

When we finally stood enough away Praxina broke the magic ball into half, then threw the other piece of the portal ball down to the ground, creating almost underground tunnel. Sudden wind breezed from it and I tried to keep my feet strongly on the ground.

"The hell you broke it for!?" I yelled, it was really hard to hear anything. It was almost like when the Elf uncasted the damn black hole in front of us a while back which nearly sucked us in, but this time the wind was opposite. It blew us away from it.

"We need the other piece to get the hell out of this place!" Praxina groaned right back to me, stuffing the other piece into her pocket. While I was too occupied to stare at her I failed to notice the big figures coming out of the portal, until one shadow hovered right past me.

"Whoa!" I jumped back over to Armen as bunch of things flew out of the portal, big creatures with the wings, face and front legs like that of a hawk, while the rest of their bodies were almost like that of a lion's. And not to mention, they reached almost up to Armen's height and came in with the package in different colors. "Praxina...?" I questioned, my voice slightly breaking. "This is your best idea? Birds!?"

"Oi, they're not "just" birds!" Praxina pointed me a sharp finger and approached the powder eating creatures, until she jumped on one of them, the creature jumped wildly a little in discomfort but soon relaxed. "They're Aethons. Birds that just love to hunt people with powder stuck on them."

She showed me a bottle, a grin on her face. I didn't know would've it had been wiser to just go back or glue myself to Alchadar till the last minute.

... I'm fucking insane.

"... Yeah. Why the hell not? " I was starting to fear myself of how easily I was willing to go along with this insane plan. She threw me a bottle and directed me closer to a whiter Aethon, showing it was time to move. I carefully jogged over to it, studying the huge and beautiful creature. Slowly, I allowed my hand to trace along it's feathers to calm it down a bit until I got a good grip, then hoisted myself on it. At first it acted like a wild horse-- it kicked the air and brushed it's head madly but soon she calmed down... yeah, she definitely was a female. "Okay... okay...!"

"Faith." Armen said beside us, I turned to him before the last minute. We were about to ran out of powder and the animals would get moving. "Master will have my head for this."

"He'll have mine instead of yours if I survive." I said to him and at that, I kicked the bird's sides a bit, sending it into a fly. It was almost as an instinct, anyone could ride a horse... or a bird with the body of a lion?

"If!?" Armen growled out after us, the shield barrier didn't break just as I assumed it would.

I nervously held onto the feathers and tried to stay on, seeing that the rest of the birds followed after us. It was a whole damn herd of them, possibly thirty or more. The way we approached the enemy grew darker and darker, we could smell the blood in the air.

Alchadar...

"Eyes on me!"

I snapped out of it and turned to Praxina, her arms doing all kinds of swinging stuff as she motioned forward. I hope she didn't sign language me something of a plan since I missed every single thing she did.

"Got it?" She asked, I casually shrugged my arms in the air. Did she seriosly believe I knew what she was doing? "Oh, bloody Moon..." She facepalmed, what can you do?

"Hey, I didn't receive any kind of 'Elf-training' stuff as I was a kid or whatever, and I most certainly did not grow in a big palace everything handed over to me on a freaking golden plate." I snapped, call me tense and stressed. I didn't need this, not now and there. Why the hell didn't we discuss of the plan before we left the safety!?

"Excuse me!?" Praxina gasped, mouth gapped wide open. My eye caught sudden movement that distracted my attention on her, we were there. My blood ran cold as she opened her mouth. " 'Everything handed over to me in a golden plate', first off, it was a platin plate-- and no, I don't get everything I damn want. You know why? Because life is not that damn perfect for anyone-- !"

"Praxe!" I growled, seeing a big boulder come straight at us. My heart missed a beat but luckily the creature below me dodged it with ease, just brushing it's head a bit uncomfortably. "I think we got spotted."

We flew along with the huge bird army into the open clearance, which from we escaped earlier. We saw Alchadar and Chris- barely holding their ground. But I think they got some new kick as they, along with the enemies became pretty aware of our presence. Forbidden one actually.

The tattoo man didn't look too pleased yet his eyes lingered on the huge birds in wonder, sudden smug look covering his face.

"Faith!? What're you doing!? You two get the hell out of here!" Chris yelled to us, looking really pissed and exhausted. Even though he himself was a bloody mess. Not only did his shoulder bleed from earlier, but he had gotten new pretty severe cuts all over his body and even a nasty looking cut on his right leg, which looked like he limped a bit because of it. Comparing him to the enemies, it seemed that seven against two was a pretty unfair battle.

"Don't ruin the party." The dangerous man before them said, staring after us as we flew past them. I tried to study the situation on how I intended to use the powder. "Everyone's allowed to come and join."

Alchadar had a pretty scary look on his face, I think I had never seen him look so angry, calculative and worried. If the enemies didn't kill me, he would. But when I saw him, I knew I couldn't leave him and Chris behind. His condition had gone worse, not to mention that he had barely a memory of a clothing still on him. His wounds were way more deadly looking than Chris', I think he was the one to take up most of the hits.

I caught the Titan holding a pretty big looking cannon on his shoulder, the tip of it pointing straight up at our direction.

"Permission to fire?" His deep, alcohol burned voice asked, his dark purple eyes targetting both me and Praxina. At that I grabbed onto the bird's feathers tighter, glancing at Praxina. She gave me a straight hand-motion and showed it down, I knew we were diving down to them. Perfect.

That way we don't target the guys too.

"Do what you like." The man only said, I narrowed my eyes at the heating cannon. Calculating the distance between my friends and the enemies real quick. It wasn't impossible, but we couldn't afford to hit it. At all.

"Wait, no-!" Chris tried to interfere but terrifying looking lianas emerged from the creepy little girl's back who held the doll, stopping the Demon Slayer. She moved them around almost like that of an octopus, her eyes dark blue like the ocean.

"I don't like dropouts." She said, cold.

"Be ready!" Praxina yelled to me, defying all the odds as she jumped to stand on the flying creature she rode, staying a bit crouched. I nodded and held the bottle of powder closer to me, seeing the Titan's cannon ready to fire.

And once it did, I had a few seconds of terror going through me as I saw it coming straight at us. It was a big and colorful plasma, green and black swirling around fighting each other. If it hit us, we would definitely be goners. If not of the hit, but of the fall too.

"FAITH-!" What gave me a boost to overcome it, was Alchadar. The damn Demon almost jumped after the burning, hot flaming ball if the Gods didn't stop him. Trap him.

I won't leave you here, partner.

At exactly on crucial moment I took a tight grip of the Aethon's feathers and pulled, causing it to fly up on right and avoid the deadly blow right on time. The fire hit to the mine's ceiling and caused a rumble of rocks to come down, but we knew they were distracted and unprepared for a moment.

"Now!"

I, along with Praxina doved down, the bird army following us. I rose up to stand on the bird's sides as I held tightly on, the wind blowing all over my face. I almost flew off but was determined to make it, I wanted it to work. So I held on twice as bad.

The enemies spotted us coming from the smokescreen down and fast, their bodies going rigid. I popped open the powder bottle and calmed myself, I had adrenaline floading in my veins. I also knew that this had to work, we had a few minutes time if we managed to distract the Seven with the bird's help.

"Sneaky little things. What're they trying to do?" The leopard woman growled, somehow I picked it up the closer we got. And it was actually terrifying once we got less than five meters away. I had my eyes set on the little girl, the leopard woman, the Titan and the leader of them, the tattoo man. If I trapped them and Praxina the Gods as well the odd hood wearing girl then we'd be more than ready to go.

"Here's little something for you!" I grinned, something I had never done in such a situation. As the birds spread their wings again and stopped right ontop of them me and Praxina poured the entire bottles down, watching it pop on them like on a cake. Nice and pretty.

"-- Jump!" Praxina ordered again and I understood why: my Aethon as well the other ones attacked immediately on the powder. On the enemies.

I quickly hopped down and landed not-so-smoothly on the ground, but I immediately moved as soon as I found my footing. As I glanced back I could see that the birds actually did some damage, they clawed the enemies and ate it right off the Seven... or most of them. The strange girl as well the small girl were in a safety bubble which wasn't breakable, but they were still stuck under the birds.

"What the hell!?" The handsome and young God questioned, trying to pry past the creatures. It proved to be impossible as I thought.

My eyes caught the Leader looking after our running figures, all the while he kept punching the birds out of his way or killing them with his sword. It was obvious that once the birds weren't an issue anymore, he was coming for us. For me.

I hope we're out of here before that.

"Faith!" Armen ran-- only God knows where up to Chris and Alchadar, Gail still with him safe and sound. The exhausted Slayer lent onto the Beast while he spat blood out, groaning frustrated.

"Armen!?" I questioned, me and Praxina finally catching up to the guys. Why the hell we jumped off like way away from them? As soon as I was there however I got to Alchadar, helping his barely conscious body closer to Armen who could support him. Even though I caught onto the look he was giving me. "We need to move, no time to argue."

I rounded up Armen to help Chris out too, lifting him up on the Beast behind Gail when he barely could stand.

"You've got some- balls." Chris said to me, he had drool mixed up with blood trailing down the corner of his mouth, which he eventually spit out. I ignored him for now as I made sure Alchadar still held onto his Beast, the Demon didn't look too good. Armen groaned in annoy of Chris' look.

"Don't you dare spit on me, or you're dead." The Beast warned, showing some warning teeth. But still I could feel Alchadar's eyes burn a hole into the back of my head, I knew I was screwed for coming back. I didn't follow his direct order.

I'm so dead.

"-- Faith-!" Praxina suddenly gasped, her attention drawned off from Gail for a minute to stare something behind me. I swung around the second I saw her, as well a big shadow tower over me.

"You're first." It was the Gladiator, his eyes staring deep into my soul as he already had a sword come straight at me. It gave me the chills. He was so fast that I wasn't able to pull away from the attack, receving a cut on my upper arm before somebody was there to bump me out of the way. Somebody collided swords with the attacker.

I maintained my balance and turned to see Alchadar there again, protecting me even though he was almost in deadly state. Hell almost knocking on his doorway! He pushed the Gladiator's sword on right until he sunk it to the ground, then kicked his face. Earning us a full five seconds.

"We're getting the hell out of here right now!" Praxina screamed to us as well she smashed the other portal magic ball fragment to the ground, creating a portal. "Come on!" She swung her hand to us widely, it appeared that she wasn't going without us even though she pushed Armen along with her brother through it.

I acted quick, grabbing my partner's bare arm as well I dragged him with. It was hard since he was so heavily built and weighed a lot, but I gritt my teeth and forced his feet to move. Because if he didn't and the portal closed, we'd be trapped and dead. Correct, I was not leaving without him. Not even if the damn world was coming down on us.

"You can do it." I half ran/jogged over to the portal which allowed Praxina to run through, my head glancing back for a second. It was enough to see all Seven of them to charge at us, at the portal. Once we got in I saw Praxina hold her last magic ball, it was the color of green. "What're you-?"

I stopped, holding Alchadar's huge arm strapped around my shoulders, his body leaning on me quite a bit. I think the Demon was using the last bit of his strenght using it on not crushing me.

"Just go, go!" Praxina groaned, showing us to get moving. I hesitated a bit but thought again, Alchadar needed medical attention. I needed to get him out of there first.

So I turned back, not looking back as I pushed myself to keep going. I dragged me and Alchadar through the portal, biting my lip the entire time. His legs weren't moving too confidently anymore, he was loosing conscious.

"Don't die on me now, Al...!" I growled, forcing my shaking legs to keep him up and moving. I had to do it, I couldn't afford losing him there and then.

I glanced up at him, his forehead bled pretty badly and he had his lip cut, his whole face decorated with mud and dust. But his eyes were open, looking down into my eyes. I tried to hold myself together, what he looked like made me want to cry. He had pushed himself way off the limit.

"I came back to save you, not to see you die." I sniffed, pushing myself twice as bad to continue. We were nearing the portal's end, I knew it of the way light suddenly shone on my face.

Out of nowhere the wound on my upper arm begun to sting, pretty bad. I looked over to see Alchadar's bleeding thumb placed on it-- our bloods mixing up, which created little smoke. My eyes narrowed as I looked up at him, confused.

'I don't like seeing you cry, Faith.'

What startled me half to death was the fact that I could hear Alchadar, but his lips didn't move. Nothing of his face moved in fact, his eyes the only ones locked with mine. I blinked away the forming tears and realized, that his voice was in my head. He, was in my head.

"How'd you...?" I asked, out of breath. He directed his look down onto the wound he pressed and removed his thumb, the only thing left on my skin was a lightning shaped scar. I think I was ready to pass out too.

'Speaking wears out my strenght, as much as I'd like to speak to you. You don't have to worry, I'll live no matter what.'

"You can't be sure!" I said to him, my tears almost forcing out by themselves. I knew he acted tough and strong, but he wasn't immortal even though his kind's life-span was long. "Even you can die, Al! You're not invincible... you're not immortal!" I had to get this out of my chest, after what I had witnessed today. He was one reckless, strong knuckleheaded Demon who thought that injuries were nothing- but that wasn't true. Bad wounds could kill anyone. "You can die...!"

I felt Alchadar's arm tighten on my shoulders, as he pushed my head against his bare chest. It was far beyond my belief of how he lost his armour again, and even his T-shirt, but being pulled against him and close to his neck made me stop. It calmed me down a bit. I was shaking of crying, yet I felt my skin crawling. His skin on my face felt tingly.

"-- I'm not dying on you, Faith. I promise you that." The words left his lips, the safety of his demeanor and body calmed me down. Even though I didn't complain hearing him in my head, it felt better to hear him speak. To know he was still there with me.

I sniffed, nodding to him.

"I'm counting on you then." I said, squeezing my arm around him.

"-- The hell!?" Suddenly Praxina emerged from the portal behind us, stopping at our spot. "The portal's closing any minute now, we've gotta go!" She said to us, and without any kind of warning-- Alchadar fell limp in my arms.

"Alchadar-!" I almost tripped but Praxina caught him with me, the Demon didn't respond. He was unconscious. "God damn it!" I groaned as Praxina got his other side, we begun dragging him through. I quickly wiped away the tears on my face and focused forward, he had promised me. He wouldn't die on me.

"Hurry up!" Praxina said to me exaspared, glancing back at us in terror. I turned to see a black void closing on us faster than expected. The portal was closing.

I hopped forward fast and held onto Alchadar dearly, seeing that the light in front of us was getting bigger. It wasn't even an option would we make it or not. We were going to make it.

In the last second we jumped right through it, landing heavily on the ground on the other side. I didn't give myself time to catch my breath nor see what was going on as I crawled back to Alchadar, turning him on his back and lifting his head on my legs. I was careful that his horns didn't poke me nor I didn't harm him.

"Alchadar..." I softly called, hoping he'd give me a tiny response even in my head. But his eyes remained shut and he looked like he was dead, yet I felt that his body was warm. His chest rose in a steady rhythm, yet it was kind of laboured. But I relayed onto his promise.

"Alchadar!" I heard Gail from a distance and turned to look, seeing my friends, as well King Thranduil and bunch of soldiers there. The King let his son down from his arms and let him run over to me and my partner, his eyes starting to tear up. "No..." He said shakily, I had tears swallowing up my eyes again but I shook my head, brushing them away again.

The miserable looks on Armen, Chris and Praxina's faces doubled up my determination, I was going to make sure the Demon would pull through it.

"He's not going to die, he promised me." I told to Gail, a sad smile wearing on my lips. The look on the small Elf boy's face looked unsure, making me hesitant too. Even though Alchadar said he was going to be okay, I was still worried.

"We need a medic-- ASAP!"

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~ keep reading.