Hell to Pay [Private|Job]

Raven sat behind her desk. It seemed that that was the only place anyone could find Raven anymore. She remembered how she used to travel more than twice in a week before she took the guild master title and comparing then to now, she couldn't help but think that things for her had gotten quite boring. It had been a while since she had a good fight too. Her last memorable fight was probably on that one job she went with Hikari, the ace of faith. After that, she had been cooped up in her office, looking through papers everyday. It was important to watch the financial progress of the guild and she often found herself sitting on her chair, her back stiff from the stress, her face crunched up, holding a calculator on one hand and a pen on the other. Staring at a blank piece of paper, she tried to figure out where to start and where to end. No, it wasn't normally so difficult for her to do this. In fact, usually, she would have finished it within a minute. But that day...something was troubling her that day. The heavy feeling in her gut told her the day would be very eventful for her.

Turning to look out the glass covered window, Raven narrowed her eyes at the darkening sky. Black clouds marred the clear sky that day, hiding the burning sun behind them, completely blocking out any source of light. She grimaced and turned the table lamp on her right on. She threw the pen and calculator on her desk before getting up. She took slow steps towards one of the shelves to the side, her fingers brushed through the thick covers of the books till she found the one she was looking for. She opened it but her gaze turned somewhere else as she looked out of the window again. She was waiting. Waiting for something to happen. Waiting to see if the feeling in her gut was trying to warn her about something. She could hear the dissatisfied sighs of her guild members. They probably had plans for that day and was staying back because of the weather. However, the strange feeling in her told her it was  a good thing that they stayed back. Finally, she turned and went out, locking the door to her office before walking down to the guildhall. It was going to begin.

It was to her room that Raven went straight to, blatantly ignoring the greetings and smiles of her precious guild members which soon turned into an odd,dissatisfied look when she walked right past them without uttering a word. It wasn't everyday that they saw their guild master paid no heed to them. Everyone and anyone who knew Raven, however, understood that she was up to something important and moved out of her way immediately. Most of them just figured it out from the serious expression Raven carried.

She didn't notice the screeching sound her door made when she opened it and left it that way when she hurried to her bed. But, slapping her forehead, she hissed at herself for forgetting before turning around to lock the door. It wasn't like she wanted to have people run in on her when she was changing clothes, after all. With that, she turned again and sped to her closet. A black tank top, a loose white shirt and a pair of black jeans was chosen before she closed the closet door. Her hands worked hurriedly on her clothes to take them off and replace it with her choice for an outfit that day. In the middle of it, she couldn't help but think why she bothered. If she was not wrong about her premonition, she wasn't going to look very pretty when that day ends.

Shrugging at the thought, she scoffed at herself and shook her head, mentally scolding herself for thinking stupid things when she had to be serious. After running her fingers through the shirt to sort it out, Raven walked towards the only mirror she had in her room. She ran a brush through her messy hair, sighing as she noticed how tangled it has gotten from the lack of attention she supplied to it. "Ah!" she cried when she felt the harsh pull of her hair when the brush ran through a few knotted locks of violet hair. Having her fingers work on removing it, she moved the brush through it again till her hair was neat and flowing smoothly. Finally, she placed the brush back where it belonged, took out a rose shaped hair clip and tied her hair back. She giggled when she thought that she shouldn't be decorating herself when Fiore was in trouble. However, she knew she had a bit more time before they showed up.

Her curls bounced when she strode down the corridor, having placed back the hard expression on her face. The sound of her ankle length boots on the tiled floor of the guild echoed, letting everyone know of Raven's appearance. She turned towards everyone that was gathered around in the hall and took a big breath. "Everyone!" she called for everyone's attention and when their gazes settled on her, Raven noticed that they were missing some key members. Either they were out on a job or were dealing with problems of their own. "For this whole day, I don't want a single one of you to step out of this guild. Especially the D and C ranks," she instructed, ignoring the confused look on everyone. She had warned her guild, but, how was she going to warn Fiore?

Placing a hand on her forehead, she tried to calm herself down and trotted out. She noticed one of the members following her and halted, turning to find a girl of thirteen, holding a broken piece of glass on her hand. "What is it?" she asked her, trying not to show the impatience in her voice. Raven's eyebrows shot up when the red haired girl placed the piece of glass in her hands. She smiled, didn't utter a word and ran back into the guildhall, leaving Raven puzzled at the act. Looking down at the rose colored piece of glass on her hand, she made out that the girl who approached her was a glass make mage and that she had given it to Raven as a sign of good luck. She smiled warmly at the object, placed a kiss on it and slipped it into her pocket.

Feeling energized all of a sudden, Raven unfolded her black wings and shout up to the sky. Her destination was the Raging Volcanoes, a not so very nice place to be at. The area was way too hot thanks to the volcano found there and the air was filled with dust, making it quite difficult to breathe in there. If Raven wasn't used to the rather bad atmosphere of her own world, she probably would have had some problems with the area she was now travelling to. "Time to slay some demons," she told herself, her black wings fluttering as she sped through the clouds towards the platform for an epic story of demons and demon hunters.

She had to fly past various lands, villages, cities and water bodies to reach Raging Volcanoes. The eerie feeling she got when she stepped down on the dark ground made her wrinkle her nose in disgust. Red, black and grey were the colors that registered into her head as she looked around. Odd enough, the place was quite silent, putting some stress on Raven. Her eyes traveled everywhere, hoping to get a glimpse of these demons she was warned about till the thought occurred to her that she was still far away from them. However, that proved to be wrong when she heard the pained scream of someone behind her.

She darted towards the direction she heard the voice come from. Her feet made almost no contact with the ground at the pace she was going at, appearing like a white blur against the black background. She stopped behind a rock and peeked out the corner to see a couple of demons, dragging a woman with them towards the volcano. The blonde woman struggled and tried to pull herself away from the demons, only to get slapped across the face by one of them. She slumped to the ground, almost lifeless from the force of impact.

The demons snickered, laughed at her misery and pulled her along with them again, this time, not experiencing any form of struggle from the woman. "What on earth are they doing?! Don't tell me they are going to throw these people into the volcano..." she trailed off, her expression hardening as a few lines from the demon hunter's letter crossed her mind. They were sacrificing humans to the demon lord Savnok? Her hands tightened to fists as she watched them. She walked around the big rock and started following them from a safe distance. At least this would tell her of their exact location.

The demons lead her up the volcano, with Raven sending a crow ahead of her to keep track of them. Her eyes went from light red to normal as whatever the crow saw was transferred to her through their link. Having the power to control crows sure was quite helpful, she thought, smiling at herself. It surprised her how calm she could be under the given circumstances. But then again, panicking wouldn't solve anything. Through her vision, she saw the demons throwing the woman they carried down to the ground, many other demons gathering around.

Then she saw her. The serpent woman leading the whole scene. It was surprising how the woman showed up so early. Like any other adventure, she thought Shaktari would show up last. But she wasn't alone. A few hell hounds surrounded the woman with red scales, forming a protective circle around her. She watched as the demon woman slithered towards the blonde woman on the ground, placing a finger under her chin before lifting it up to stare maliciously at the blue eyes of the beaten person. Raven could easily read the look of disgust and dominance on her face. After all, Raven had seen it many times on her own people before.

Shaktari stared deep into the blue eyes of the lowly peasant on the ground. Life of a few or many of worthless humans meant little to nothing to hr snake like self. Her tongue darted out to hiss at the woman in her hands, so fragile and weak. She wanted to squeeze the life out of that think neck and she dropped her hand down to wrap it around that same neck. She could feel the warm tears that fell on her hand, but, instead of sympathy, it brought her a sort of pleasure that only a sadist could achieve.

Before she could fall into the temptation of taking away the life of the worthless wench in her hands, she rose, dragging the woman by her throat. Effortlessly, she picked her up and dangled her on top of the volcano, enjoying the pain in her eyes as she played with her prey before the final strike. "Your worthless life will not be remembered," she hissed in her high pitched voice, slowly letting her grip on her loose. She watched as the woman's eyes widened and began to fall but was knocked back when she felt a powerful gust of wind pushing her back. A figure appeared in front of her red eyes and she once again hissed in anger at the violet haired woman that swept down and caught the woman she had just thrown into the volcano for her master.

Raven watched Shaktari's change in expression and smirked, holding the passed out blonde in her hands. "This ends here, you vile creature," Raven snarled, placing the woman down at a safe distance. With that, she flew back to the serpent, whose eyes had narrowed into slits at the sight of Sabertooth's guild master. "Let's begin this dance, Shaktari".

The member 'Raven' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Shaktari's eyes followed the flying girl that just interrupted her. 'How dare she interrupt my ritual?!' she yelled at no one in particular in her head. She could sense the amount of magic power coming out of the girl. She could tell this person was no ordinary human. In fact, something about her smelled like a demon. "A crow demon?" She laughed, mocking the eighteen year old woman. "You're a crow demon," her voice turned low and her tongue darted out, licking her lips while eyeing the bird like mage like a predator eyeing her prey. She was a serpent after all.

"Don't bother, Shaktari. You won't be able to touch me," Raven replied, finally coming down to place herself on the ground. Indeed, snake demons were natural enemies to crow demons. However, there was none in her world and this was the first time she found one too. The red scales decorating her body did make the demon look beautiful with a deadly glow around her. But, as a crow demon, Raven had the advantage in air where she would never be able to reach. White light surrounded her as she lifted the hand with her ring on it to her heart. When the light died down, Raven was standing with her armor on, ready to fight in full scale.

Shaktari snarled again, very much pissed off at the woman who could possibly put a huge dent to her plans. She screeched at the dogs around to go after Raven and as if waiting for her command, the hell hounds lunged at the violet haired girl. They ran towards her in full speed, ready to bite at any flesh that would be exposed to them. They had no mind of their own and carrying out Shaktari's duty was their prime concern. For that, they didn't care if they were going to die trying.

Raven flew up quickly as the hounds reached her within a jump. She barely avoided them and groaned at the strength they displayed. They had broken the ground below them with just one leap. Raven knew she would have to stay away from them. But Raven, who thought that was it about them, was quickly surprised when they spat molten lava at her which she couldn't have avoided if she wasn't quick to react. "They can spit lava too?!" She flew down, connecting her fist with the hound's muzzle, sending it down with a cry.

Raven's rose like eyes narrowed at the hound that fell to the ground with a painful cry that almost made Raven feel bad. However, that feeling went away when the hound stood up, ready to attack Raven once more. It charged towards her and Raven had to jump up before landing forcefully on top of its nose, sending it down once more. But it opened its mouth and tilted its head up, wanting to capture Raven between her teeth which Raven had to avoid by flying up just in time. She came back down to land another punch on it which it tried to negate with its claws and heavy body. It succeeded, throwing Raven back a few meters and she crashed back into a boulder.

As the pain shot through her back, Raven stood up fast, completely disregarding the pain. And then, it was back to the fast paced fighting with Raven laying hits after hits on the mutt. It managed to lay its paws on Raven a few times too. But the difference in power was clearly showed when Raven was able to throw it off her more than once. She was able to break its back although it managed to slam down on her and trap her between it and the ground.

Shaktari watched from the side, clearly amused at the way things were going. She admitted to herself that she was worried when Raven showed up at first. But, now, watching the twisting woman under her little pet, Shaktari's laugh rained down on her like thunder. Behind her, her demons were watching the fight too, cheering for the twisted game the hound was playing with Raven. What they probably didn't expect was for Raven to throw the hound off with the help of her armor's passive protecting function.

A black gust of wind, pushed the hound away from her and Raven, with a smile, landed the final punch on it, finishing it off by plunging her raven sword deep into its guts. She felt its blood on her hands as she drew the sword back, turning to look at Shaktari with her eyes shining red like the moon she saw that night on her world. Everything looked just like that day except, Raven was stronger and had stronger control on her dark self. This time, she wouldn't lash out at her opponents without counting the consequences.

Raven winced when she felt the pain of trying to move her hand. The hound didn't do much to her, but she was still sore from the whole situation. The idea of having to take out Shaktari next wasn't putting her mind in peace either. She looked down to find dust covering her whole outfit and sighed, having known this would happen to her favorite pair of jeans. It was ripped in places and her shirt was looser than before. In the end, she had to agree, despite the run over look, it made her seem quite badass in its own way.

Shaktari frowned, watching Raven chuckle at herself for reasons she didn't understand. To her, it seemed like Raven was calling her out for a battle. But, she had other things to do which included the resurrection of her master. For that, she can't get caught by the crow demon just yet. She would choose the option of flight for now. She must gather around more humans to sacrifice, after all. A lose now, can always turn into a win for her in the end. She will rip the pesky crow demon apart by herself when the time comes.

Must have been because Raven was too busy looking at herself that she didn't notice Shaktari making her escape. By the time she did look up, the serpent demon was gone and she was left alone with the corpse of the big hound she had just taken out. "Cowards" she spat, sitting down on one of the big rocks, finally stretching her muscles. Funny how a dog managed to roughen her up so much when she knew how to deal with them.

Sighing, she placed her hands on her knees and leaned down with her head between her legs. She knew she had to get up and find Shaktari. She could be at the nearest village while she was sitting there, abducting the residents to feed her master. 'What an annoying woman,' she thought, cracking her neck as she stood up, spreading her wings once more to search for the snake. She would turn the tables on her and the crow will triumph over the reptile once more. But first, she would have to find the damn demon and she was pretty sure she would find her in the nearest town that she had passed while she flew there in the beginning.

She was too late, Raven thought as she saw the destroyed village. The houses were nothing but rubble, everything was on fire and she could find the lifeless bodies of many on the ground. Pushing her lips into a tight line, Raven took slow, silent steps forward, evading the dead bodies of innocent people along the way. She was too late in finding Shaktari and she had already managed to pillage through the whole settlement. Raven sighed and dropped down on her knees, something hammering wildly on her chest. Why couldn't she have been a bit more faster in reaching them? She wondered, desperately holding herself back from losing her sanity to the demon inside her.

That's when she heard a small cry coming from her right. The voice was so low that if she didn't have good hearing, she wouldn't have caught it at all. Raven stood up, curiously going in the direction the sound came from. She halted when she found that it came from inside a half destroyed house. Could it be possible that someone was inside it? The louder cry she heard from inside confirmed her suspicion and she rushed forward, paying no attention to the crumbling state of the house she ran into.

She found him on the ground with his right leg trapped between a pile of wood and the ground itself. Apparently, the house belonged to a carpenter and the fire was starting to get to the wood fast. Raven covered her nose and mouth with one of her hands, evading through the falling wood and fire to reach the small boy. She could tell that he was not older than ten and she pushed the pile of wood off of him using her strength. She immediately hoisted him up and held him with her arms wrapped around his small waist. She would have to act fast. The ceiling was going to be completely destroyed and the option of flight was just not there. She tried to be fast and pushed herself out of the house with the maximum speed she could muster given their condition. "Ah! Shit!" she winced when she felt a small burning piece of wood fell on her shoulder but bit her bottom lip and endured it as she finally, managed to push the boy out before herself. She landed on the ground above the boy, covering him with her bigger body.

She sat up as the house completely crumbled behind her, panting hard as she took huge breathes to calm her racing heart down. She got her wish. She was going to remember this mission for the rest of her life, Raven thought sarcastically, wiping the sweat off her forehead with the back of her palm. She closed her eyes and ignored everything around her for a minute, completely forgetting her objective as her mind tried to have her return to a peaceful state of mind. When she opened her eyes and looked down, she was surprised to see the boy glaring at her.

"What?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at the boy who looked like he was ready to burst. "Are you one of them?" he asked, his hands forming fists as he desperately tried to keep himself up. Despite his courage, Raven noticed that he was shaking like a leaf and barely keeping himself conscious. "Am I one of what?" She asked back, now sitting back comfortably on the ground. "Are you one of those demons?! You smell like them!" he screamed, taking her by surprise as he lunged at him with his small fists, hitting her stomach.

Raven sighed, not wanting to deal with the whole thing and effortlessly pushed him off her. She was gentle enough to make sure she didn't hurt him. But, he still fell back and broke into a sob, muttering something about her father and mother. "I'm not one of them. I'm sorry you had to go through that," Raven answered, her expression softening. She placed a hand on his head, stopping him from crying and for a moment, the boy stared back at her and pounced on her again, hugging her this time. She returned the hug, patting his back, trying to comfort him. She didn't have to ask him to know what had happened. It was obvious a certain serpent had done this and they probably took the boy's parents with them. What surprised her, however, was the fact that she could still sense the presence of a demon around that place. If Shaktari had already left, why was there still the smell of a demon lurking in the village?

"I-It's still here," the boy told Raven between his cries, pointing to a direction where Raven could clearly smell the demon. Apparently, Shaktari had left a few of her servants to deal with Raven.

The member 'Raven' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Hell! They weren't demons! They were normal mages that smelled just like demons. 'Don't tell me they are dark mages that joined Shaktari and her plans,' Raven thought, sighing as she found them close the distance, the same malicious smile Shaktari had, plastered on their face as well. "You lot are ordinary mages, aren't you? Do you even know what you are doing?" Raven asked, anger clearly evident in her voice.

The mages looked at each other for a second at the outburst and ended up laughing at Raven's words. "We know exactly what we are doing," one of them told her, snickering at Raven while the other came up from behind and continued. "We are getting closer and closer to power, fame and money!" He exclaimed, his eyes sparkling at the thought.

"Greedy bastards," she spat, pushing the boy behind her as she fully faced the men now. "Do you really think Shaktari would let you idiots get what you want? She is going to make a sacrifice out of the two of you as well. In the end, you two are human as well!" Raven tried once more at knocking some sense into them. It almost looked like it worked because they were looking at each other as if they were considering Raven's words. But in the end, they both threw their head back and laughed harder at them. 'Are they a bunch of idiots or what?' She rolled her eyes at the ignorant fools. If they really thought Shaktari was going to do nything for them, they were sadly very much mistaken. She wasn't going to tell them that anymore though.

"Alright, so you want to fight me," she started, taking a breath. "I cannot guarantee the safety of your lives," She finished, channeling magic energy towards her vocal cords. Having taken all those lessons in vocal training plus her own magic and power had helped her come up with a perfect sound based spell and they were going to get the first taste of it. Her shirt fluttered, dust rose and the ground shook as her lips parted, sending out an ear splitting scream at the direction of both mages. Before they had a chance to react, the spell had hit them, sending them back by several meters and dealing high damage to them. This would teach them not to pick a fight with an ex idol.

Raven sighed, watching the still body of the mages that was going to attack them. She looked back to find the boy staring at her in awe and smiled, trying to tell him everything was fine now. She had to figure out what she was going to do with him. "Hey," she called for him, asking him to come closer with her hands as she knelt down on the ground, sighing heavily as she did so. She wanted to go back to her guild and sleep for a whole day without having to worry about Fiore getting burned to the ground by some stupid demon who had no other better thing to do than make other people's lives miserable. Wow, she was tired of it.

"What's your name?" She ran a hand through his black hair, smiling as she did so to put him at ease around her. It worked because in a few, he was leaning forward as if seeking more of the warmth she had. "Keigo" he answered, his voice so low that it was barely above a whisper. "Keigo, do you know where the demons that plundered this village went to?" she asked and he looked up, fear clearly written in his young black eyes. "A-Are you going to leave m-me here?" he asked, tightening his grip on her hand as he did so and her expression softened. "I won't leave you here, but I cannot take you to the battlefield either. Do you know someone in the next village?" she asked, thinking that she could put him in someone else's care for the time being.

He looked like he was thinking seriously for a second and then nodded, his eyes lighting up. "I...I know an uncle who runs a glass making shop in the next town. Me and my father used to go and work for him all the time around summer," he finally smiled, giving Raven a go on her plans. What she hoped for was that Shaktari had not gotten to it before them. But seeing as they had a head start and knowing their speed, Raven didn't need anyone to tell her that she should be prepared for another round of battle with Shaktari's minions. More importantly, she had to protect Keigo and pray to God that nothing had happened to this uncle he was talking about. She would be at a loss of what to do if this doesn't work her way.

Raven had to admit, for a ten year old boy, Keigo was quite heavy. Plus, he was scared of heights, too. It only added to Raven's difficulty as she struggled to fly with him in her hands. At that time, they were heading towards the next town where Keigo had an acquaintance. Hopefully, Shaktari and her gang would still be there by the time they got there and everyone would be alright.

Raven shifted Keigo's weight from one hand to the other, her eyes fixed on the small settlement that they were not too far from. She could catch the color of blazing red from the distance and groaned when it occurred to her that Shaktari had already rained down her destructive powers on the unsuspecting village. All was not lost, however, as she caught a glimpse of Shaktari in the middle of everything.

She kept a safe distance from them when she landed and hid themselves with the help of buildings. Raven's first priority was finding Williams, the glass maker that Keigo was talking about. She turned to Keigo who pointed down a road she guessed was the way to his uncle's house. The idea of whether he would still be there or not was a bargain in itself for the violet eyed girl.

They had to sneak past a few demons and Raven used her crows to make sure the road was clear for them. She could hear the sound of people screaming in pain and fear, trying to get away from the malevolent demons. Raven could do nothing but ignore it for the time being, trying to approach the situation as tactfully as possible. The demons weren't much of a problem for her, after all. Shaktari herself was her biggest concern and she had a wave of demons to go through before she could finally get her in Raven's grasp.

Raven stopped when she found Keigo stop in front of a building, not too big and not too small, the building seemed perfect for a shop that sold glasses. She was sure, that if it wasn't so broken and dirtied, that whole structure with its beautiful glass work would have looked quite attractive. What displeased her was the fact that she could sense nothing coming from inside the building which meant that the man they were looking for had been taken by Shaktari. Well, that is what ran through her mind.

Raven was startled when she felt Keigo throw her hands away and run into the half destroyed house. "Keigo!" she called after him, looked around and followed him inside, knowing she couldn't just leave him alone. After all, no one knew if demons lurked in there or not. She didn't understand why Keigo just ran in there either. Did he have no sense of danger? Raven wondered, sighing and placing a hand on her forehead. 'What a tiring day this was turning out to be. I wish Fred or Hikari would be here with me' She sighed again, remembering the fact that she was alone in this adventure.

The sound of something breaking is what snapped her back to the real world. She felt something hard under her feet getting crushed and looked down to find a piece of glass much like the one she was given this morning by the thirteen year old girl. 'Hmm I wonder...'her thoughts trailed off again, but her eyes focused on her surroundings. Shattered glass was all over the place and it was dark; very dark. She was having trouble adjusting her vision when she heard a noise coming from her left. Raven wasted no time in inspecting the noise and found herself walking towards the left corner of the room which was shrouded by a thicker shade of darkness.

"Keigo?" her voice rang all around the room, cutting through the strange stillness. "I'm here," she heard the voice, coming from within the darkness. Without any hesitation, she walked towards it, only to find the golden handle of a rather well hidden door. She pushed at it and the door creaked open, pale light escaping from it. When her vision adjusted to the sudden rays of light, she found that a small candle was placed on a desk to the side in the room. Her eyes darted towards the other side and found glasses of different sizes and shapes placed against the wooden wall on the room. She quickly went in and closed the door behind her with a loud click. Hoping to find some answers, she raised an eyebrow at Keigo who was kneeling down in front of a big rectangular piece of glass. "What are you doing, Keigo?" Raven asked, taking slow steps towards the boy. But, he shushed her, telling her to be quiet. "Don't talk, Ms Raven. He is about to come out!"

"Who is about to come out?" Raven asked out loud only to be shushed again by the small child. Now she was starting to get impatient. What on earth was Keigo talking about? But, that's when it happened. The huge glass started to glow and Raven could sense magical energy coming out of it. Soon, the room was blinded in pure white light, having Raven close her eyes automatically from the brightness. By the time her eyelids fluttered open, Raven was standing in a room with a child and an older man around his forties. "Would anyone be kind enough to fill me in on what happened?"Her voice was low and emotionless although her eyes clearly showed wonder in them.

The man in front of them groaned and stretched, then broke out into a string of curses aimed at Shaktari and her demons while Raven watched him, half amused by his words and half still serious. When he finally noticed his companions in the room, his mouth fell open. Wanting to tease the man a bit, Raven smirked and moved one of her hands from side to side in a waving motion. "Hello" she greeted, only to get an ear splitting scream in return.

"Uh" Raven winced, her eyes closing and lips tightening into a thin line from the effect of that scream. 'Did she look that bad after all the fight?' she asked herself, not really expecting an answer from her other part which snickered at her for her crazy thoughts given her current circumstances. "You! Are you a demon too?!" He backed away from her and she saw a small magic circle appearing on his right hand.

"If you are planning to attack, you'll regret it. And yes, I'm a demon too but I'm not with the ones that attacked the village," Raven put her hands up in surrender, hoping to get the man to calm down and listen to her.

"That's right, William. Raven is here to help," Keigo finally spoke, drawing William's attention to the young boy. "Keigo?" William squeaked, giving Raven the impression that he was scared out of his skin just a few seconds ago. She couldn't blame the poor man either. Shaktari had enough power to instill fear in anyone. The good news was that William had finally calmed down, pulling Keigo to him, exchanging a hug.

"William, can you tell me what happened in here?"

Raven didn't want to break the small moment they were having. However, she had to know what exactly happened in the place. She did have a slight idea of it but she wanted to hear it from someone on the scene. She already knew that Shaktari was outside gathering more humans for sacrificing. But, it didn't hurt to get some details, now did it?

William eyed the woman in front of him suspiciously. But the faith Keigo showed in her was enough for William to want to tell her what happened. He wasn't sure himself how or when it happened either. He was closing the shop since the weather outside looked bad. He wasn't expecting an army of demons to march into their village at that time.

"I can't remember everything myself. But, I saw a serpent like creature from my shop's glass window. She was followed by a group of demons, mages and hell hounds too. They started putting everything on fire! The dogs threw lava out of their mouth, the mages summoned fire from the sky and the other demons started dragging everyone away. But, there was something fighting the demons. It looked strangely like a bird but had human featured to it too. Its body was covered in some strange armor and it began saving most of the people from the demons. I took that time to use my own magic and hide myself inside the glass I made. I don't know what happened after that" William explained, breathing heavily, probably from fear.

Was there someone else other than her on Shaktari's tail? If so, who was it and what had happened to it? Had it been captured by Shaktari? Had it been defeated already? Several question scurried around in her head like mice, giving Raven a headache. Her first objective now was to find the person or creature that had helped the villagers. Raven could use its help in taking Shaktari and her demons out. But William had not seen what happened to the bird like being, leaving Raven with little to no clue on what could have happened.

"Hmm...William, I'm going to have to leave Keigo in your hands. Take care of him and hide yourselves if anything besides me comes back. In fact, don't show up in front of those demons at all. I promise to take them out as quickly as possible," She instructed and smiled when they nodded at her.

"Why can't this day get any better?" she complained to herself, walking towards where she had an idea for Shaktari's location. She had seen her at the center of the burning village from the sky while she was flying there. Hopefully, Shaktari would be in the same area. What bothered her now was the mysterious being that William was talking about. It was trying to help the villagers from what she was told. But, she wouldn't be able to believe it unless she saw it with her own eyes. Its objective could be anything, Raven couldn't breathe a sigh of relief yet.

Her head snapped up when she felt the force of something big crashing into the small house on her right side, leaving a trail of destruction the way it came from. From the looks of it, something must have been throws that way and what was that something? Raven's eyes narrowed in on the place the "something" had landed on, trying to see past the cloud of dust that settled in. When she made out the shape of a muzzle and glowing red eyes, she groaned, figuring out exactly what it was. "Another damned hellhound!" She exclaimed more to herself, running a hand through her hair in annoyance. She had enough of those bothersome mutts for one day.

Lady luck was never on her side, however, because the angry hound had locked in on Raven as its target instead of whatever that had thrown him that way. Maybe it was trying to take its anger out on an easy looking prey. Whatever it was, the big red creature wasted no time in lunging towards the violet eyes girl, its red orbs glowing in anger.

"Easy there, mutt! I'm not the one who threw you around like a rag doll," Raven snorted, rolling her eyes at the enraged dog. Raven had already managed to dodge its attack by flying up from where she stood and calculating the timing of the hound's movement, had dropped herself right on top of it, her legs on either side on it as she mounted the violent red being that struggled to throw her off it. "Get off me!" it growled, taking Raven by surprise for a moment. "These things could talk too?" she voiced her question out loud, earning a grunt from the beast under her. "Of course we can talk! What do you think we are?!"

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"Dogs?" Raven replied nonchalantly, earning another angry grunt from the hound. Was she hurting its pride now? She wondered, imagining these creatures acting like dignified nobles while drool slipped out of their mouth. Eww! Whatever about them was dignified? She had no time to laugh at her own thoughts because the impatient hound had started to charge towards a brick wall, probably trying to throw Raven off with it. However, just as he jumped towards it with its back facing the wall, Raven jumped away, causing the hound to slam into the wall and getting himself hurt.

"Well, that was quite stupid," she couldn't help but tease the creature that stood up. She found it limping the next time it charged towards her, baring its fangs at her, clearly intending to make a chew toy out of her. But Raven was fast. She managed to soar up to the sky, her wings drawn forward, she got ready for one of her recently learned spell. Her wings caved in, their ends pointing at the target below. As it stared up at her with amusement, Raven had started firing sharp feathers after feathers at it, hitting the hound straight on its back.

It moaned and whimpered in pain, having taken high damage from the hit. It was pretty much like an one hit knock out. The hound had lost consciousness forever. That's when Raven noticed two other hounds running towards their now dead comrade. She saw them sniff at it once before realization dawned on their eyes. Growling, they turned their attention towards the one that had caused the death of their friend, glaring ice cold daggers at her. Emotions were a powerful thing. She had to be careful.

But, as much as she wanted to sympathize with them, she wanted to finish it off and find Shaktari already. The dogs were not much of a match for Raven anyway. "I'm sorry. I cannot reverse my action, but I can send you two to your friend," she added, gathering magic energy all over her for the use of another spell. For a moment, it looked like she was not going to do anything. Taking it as a chance, the hounds had darted towards her and within three meters of her, they started to jump with their claws outstretched. But before they could fully reach her, they exploded while Raven managed to move back from the area of effect using her speed.

Shaktari gritted her teeth, waiting for her demons to finish gathering the humans around that area. She was going to go back to the volcano after going through the village she was at. But her plans were delayed when something attacked them. She had initially thought of it to be Raven, the woman that had attacked them in the beginning. But as it turns out, it was some other bird like being that she wasn't able to get her hands on. In the end, she had to send out some of her hell hounds to do her job for her. What she didn't expect, however, was for their life energy to disappear so quickly. She felt her loss of connection to three more of her beautiful pets and began yelling out orders to move faster at her other servants. She had to move from that location before either the mysterious being or Raven manage to get to her.

Raven didn't take much time to relax this time. She darted towards the center of the village as soon as she was done making sure the hunds were dead. She was hoping to find Shaktari still at the place she initially saw the serpent and maybe the mysterious bird like being that William had told her about as well. When she did reach the area, she found Shaktari in front of her, blasting out orders at the other demons to do their job faster. "What's the hurry, Shaktari?" Raven spat, anger clearly evident in her low voice.

She saw the serpent curse under its breath, turning to face the crow demon once more. "I'm surprised. I didn't think you would catch up to me so quickly," she jeered. "Did you like the little surprise I left for you in the other village?" Shaktari was referring to the two mages that Raven had dealt with before. "It was hardly a surprise, Shaktari," Raven started, her expressions unreadable as she took slow steps towards the serpent. "All it took was one spell. They were dead in the blink of an eye," she waves her hands as if the serpent's servants meant nothing more than pesky flies for her. "You should have waited for me yourself, Shaktari," Raven taunted. "I was hoping you would not run away" final nail to the coffin and Shaktari had spat highly poisonous venom at her, that acted like an acid, burning the ground it landed on, fortunately, a few meters away from Raven.

Raven stared at the ground that the venom had fallen on. The ground looked sunken in and it was burnt. For a moment, Raven had to thank whatever force it was that had her stay at a safe distance from Shaktari. By the time she had looked up, the serpent had turned to walk out again. "Where are you going, Shaktari?!" Raven snarled, not wanting to let the demon escape from her again. All she got was silence as Shaktari fled with a party of her demons. To block her way, she had placed some other demons up against Raven.

She groaned, closing her eyes in annoyance. She could clearly remember three hell hounds, one mage and one stronger monster. They eyed Raven as if she was food, making her raise an eyebrow at all of them. "What?" she asked, crossing her arms in front of her. The creatures looked at each other and then gave Raven an odd look. "Don't even think about it. You little things can fight or run away. Either way, you will be dead in an instant," she told them, waving a hand nonchalantly in front of her face. She was starting to get tired of dealing with them. On another note, she had not found the mysterious bird like creature either. Had it followed Shaktari and left already? she wondered, sighing with her fingers ribbing her forehead.

The impatient creatures were starting spit and throw fire at her now. She had to fly up and use her speed to avoid it altogether. "Oi! Give me a break! Do you guys have any idea what I have been doing from the start of this day? I have been flying around, getting demons thrown at me and does anyone care?! No!" She complained as the monsters stared at her as if she had grown a couple of heads more. They shrugged and watched Raven fume for a few minutes before they fired their magic at Raven again.

"I told you guys to stop bothering me!" Raven cried, using her Raven Call spell again. Taking a deep breath, she screamed at the top of her lungs, sending powerful sound waves towards her opponents. It instantly reached them, knocking out the mage and the hell hounds. It left her with the huge golem like creature to deal with that Raven glared daggers into. It growled furiously, causing powerful earthquakes that caught Raven off guard.

The member 'Raven' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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