Mercenaries [Mision = Me, Erza and DMC]

The member 'TehDMCmaniac' has done the following action : Dices roll

#1 'Block Dice' :


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#2 'Monster Dice' :

When Hirana had arrived to the scene, Aegis had already been fighting the assailants. Determined to take them out with one attack, Hirana charged in with malicious intent. "Venom Godslayer's Art: Contagious Kick!" yelled Hirana as she lashed her leg out at the nearest assassin. She hoped that she would be able to save Aegis in time, it would be a shame if one of her closest friends died. She had analyzed the battle scenario with tactical swiftness and knowledge. Knowing that the assassins were probably inexperienced in combat, they would most likely bunch up with the mentality that there will be strength in number. That was where Hirana's tactical knowledge and combat abilities came into use. By using that attack, her poison would not only infect the victim that she had kicked, but also spread to all targets around the victim. Although all targets included Aegis, Hirana could quickly cure him with her antidote. No true poison master would not know how to counteract the poison that is made by them. At any rate, she watched as her attack glided towards the assassin whilst he backed up towards the wall. Cursing herself for having to apologize to Erza later for injuring her boyfriend, she felt the kick come into solid contact with the assassin. The assailant spiralled back for at least 10 meters before landing quite roughly on the ground. She glanced at the other assassins and gazed at their terrified faces. Licking her lips, she stuck bared her teeth at them in a manner that would make her look anything short of a victim of insanity. She found that battles like these were often very delicious.

The member 'Soleice' has done the following action : Dices roll

'Damage Dice' :

As Erza was sitting near the politician, keeping an eye for any assassin she was wishing for something exciting to happen. She was getting damn bored waiting by the man who needed protection so badly. 'What do the assassins see in him? I mean he doesn't seem so important.' she thought. Erza could sense at least four people's Aura around her. She became a little alert and then cooled down thinking that it must be the assassins fighting with her comrades. But as soon as she thought that an arrow hit the wall between Erza and the politician.

Standing up, she tried to find their hiding places. But it was not necessary because they sowed themselves willingly as they jumped from nowhere in front of her, pointing their arrows straight at Erza and the politician. Smiling sarcastically at the assassins she spoke, "I was waiting for you guys so eagerly you know?" But she knew that she would have to separate the assassins from their bows and arrows if she wanted to live, as well as protect the politician. Working her brain frantically, Erza came up with an idea.

"So I guess you guys are after him?" she asked.
"Yes." one of them replied.
As she was asking him the question she connected her Aura gum spell to their bows and arrows. As it was invisible to them Erza had the upper hand. Pulling her right hand back furiously, she saw the assassins opened mouths as they saw their weapons flying towards Erza. As she released the bows and arrows from the gum she threw them back near the unconcious politician.

As the assassins were still in shock, Erza extended her right hand towards them and whispered, "Aura Bullets." As soon as she said that a red magic circle appeared before her extended hand and then thousands of small, red-coloured bullets made of Aura were shooted at them. As soon as it hit the assassins three of them fell down unconcious. Erza looked at the last remaining of them.

The member 'Erza Loveheart' has done the following action : Dices roll

#1 'Monster Dice' :


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#2 'Damage Dice' :

"GAAAAAAA!"
The sound of steel hitting steel.
"Come on!"
Swords clash with swords.
"You can do better than that!"
The sound of steel ripping flesh.
"Haha!"
Masking his pain with a smile in the battle of ridiculous odds, the knight held his ground.

Even if they only used shortswords, the assassins were far too many and too well trained for it to be an easy fight. That, however, did not necesseraly mean, that the knight didn't like his odds. He was used to thiese kinds of situations. He used to train in similar circumstances long ago when he still had his old life. Yes, he could always be found training against atleast a dozen knights somewhere in some nearby meadow. Such hopeless battles only reminded him of the happiness he had back then. He could only thank his enemies for that.

Jumping back a couple of metres, Aegis gave himself a few seconds to analyze his foes. 18 assassins, all of them armed with compact crossbows, poisoned crossbow bolts and shortswords. It seemed that the poison's effect was to wear down the one who gets hit. Considering just how weak the effect was on Aegis he was certain that it was generally stronger, but somehow partially neutralised when it entered his body. Having no poison resistant elements in him, the only thing left was his inborn magic resistance, implying that the poison is a magical one.
The assassins's tactic was a simple one. 6 of them attacked the knight at melee range while the rest armed their crossbows, then immediately moved aside as the barrage of bolts gets launched at Aegis. The only real problem was that they had excellent coordination and timing. Their individual strenght was laughable when compared to the young knight's combat prowess, but their perfected strategy made them seem more like one unified body, rather than individual fighters. But things were all going according to plan. Aegis just had to keep them all away from the polititian until his allies arrived and he was doing just that by forcing them to fight him.

"Aw, 18 to 1 odds and you guys are still having difficulty winning? Would you be interested in swordsmanship courses, perhaps?" - taunted Aegis with a broad smile - "Come on! You can do better than that!"
As if answering his taunt, the enemy assumed a different, more apparantly organized, formation. 8 of them formed a front line and took a lowered stance wile the rest formed a semi-circle behind them and armed their crossbows. They were going to do a simultanious assault to end the fight there.
"Heh"
The knight understood that there was a very large chance he might die there if he fails to parry the blows aimed at his vitals, so he focused on the crossbowmen in the back line.
"This is going to hurt."

The assassins charged. Their front line rushed to the young knight and surrounded him, landing attacks from all possible directions. But their goal was only to keep Aegis busy and immobile while the rest shoot him down, and he knew that.
Blocking a sword attack aimed at his throat with his gauntlet, the knight used his sword to parry a bolt that was flying at his chest. Noticing as one of the assassins was initiating an attackfrom behind him, Aegis grabbed his foe's wrist, stopping his attack, and moved behind him, locking his arm behind his back and using him as a human shield to avoid the incoming barrage of crossbow bolts. Managing to avoid all except one, which impaled his left shoulder, the knight kicked the now dead assassin at one of the enemy and turned around to deliver a horizontal slash with Fervour, both attacking and defending. His sword was heavier and his hits were harder than theirs, so he managed to block a couple of attacks without losing much of the effectiveness of his strike. Attacking like so meant that he left some part of his body open to attack, but he had to do it anyway, to keep their attention.

With each of his strikes Aegis got more and more wounded. It was a difficult battle of endurance, and he was losing it. The bolt that hit his shoulder was still there, as he did not have to luxury to drop his guard and remove it, and the poison that's on it had been slowly sapping his strenght. It was probably not that long since his fight had started, but it felt like it had been going on for hours. His body was wounded in atleast 20 different places and his entire left hand was almost completely numb because of the bolt in his shoulder, but at the same time he had managed to take out 5 of the assassins and wound a couple others, aswell as keep them on that terrace and away from their target.
Suddenly, as if carefully waiting for the perfect moment to strike, Hirana's familiar aura came into the knight's sensing range. Turning around, he saw his ally as she ran up to one of the assassins and kicked him, spreading poison all over the area, poisoning everyone else, including Aegis.
"Wonderful."
The knight, already poisoned enough as it is, lost his sense of balance and, staggering over to the edge of the terrace which was a metre away, fell off of the ledge.

The member 'TehDMCmaniac' has done the following action : Dices roll

#1 'Damage Dice' :


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#2 'Damage Dice' :

Hirana was shocked as she watched Aegis fall over the edge of the terrace. Screaming out: "Kinana, catch him!" as Kinana the snake slithered up to the terrace with blinding speed and leapt over. Hirana then diverted her attention to the oncoming foes. "Thats... Hirana... from the Magic Council" shouted one of the thugs. Hirana smirked, "You guys are in a lot of trouble." she remarked. Lifting her hand over her head, she gathered all the existing waves that surrounded both her and the enemies. Compressing them into one tight ball, she watched as their eyes widened in disbelief. "Burn in hell." said Hirana with a demented laugh as she threw the compressed ball towards the thugs. "Its just a little ball!" yelled another thug. Hirana laughed as she watched the ball grow in size as it hurled towards the thugs. They scattered and broke ranks, running for their dear lives.

The member 'Soleice' has done the following action : Dices roll

'Damage Dice' :

There was an assassin who was still standing after being hit by Erza's Aura Bullets. As she stood there, waiting to see if he fell down because he seemed too weak, she understood that she was seriously wrong. The assassin charged towards her taking out a dagger from his side and caught Erza by the hand, when she was about to punch him.

The assassin, in his hurry to hurt her, cut through the sleeve of Erza's hoodie. As it dangled on her arm from one side, it revealed her red guild mark. "That was a preety serious move dude. You have now put me in the danger of being revealed to my Legal Guild comrades as a part of the Dark Guild Savage Skull, you are gonna be punished for that.” Erza said, her eyes glinting with malice. The assassin was holding both of her hands, but what could he do about her legs?

She knew that, for defeating this man she didn't even needed to be a mage or use magic. He was already too weak, with Erza's previous attack but he was still holding up. Moving her right leg in an arc Erza tried to kick the assassin in the stomach with her knee, but she missed as he had already assumed that. He left her hands and ran in the direction of her fighting comrdaes.

The member 'Erza Loveheart' has done the following action : Dices roll

'Damage Dice' :

The knight was in a really bad situation. Atleast it was good that his mind was too hazy to be worried about the height from which he was falling. It was probably less than 2 seconds since he fell from the edge of the terrace-like platform but he was already almost at ground level. Bracing for the impact, he closed his eyes but then he felt as something wrapped itself around him. Almost immediately after that he felt a strong impact, the collision with the ground. Rolling on the hard soil for a few seconds, the knight came to a halt.
"Guh... that's odd."
Every part of his body was aching because of the bad fall, but strangely enough he was just brused. No broken bones or anything like that.
Opening his eyes, the first thing Aegis saw was the head of a giant snake as it stood a few metres away from him. It seemed that what he felt wrap around him while he was falling was infact Kinana.
"She must have jumped after me to save me." - thought the knight out loud. Looking a bit more closely, he noticed that Kinana was actually unconscious.
"It seems she has hit her head during the impact... I should thank her once she wakes up."
Now that he thought about it, how does one wake up an unconscious snake? It wasn't like he could just go to it and wake it up with a slap.

But that line of thoughts was quickly interrupted by a rather destructive explosion-like effect which occured on the platform where Hirana currently was. Looking at it from the ground it was clear that she didn't need any help with the enemy which was there.
"Look at you, one-shotting everyone in the blink of an eye when it took me like 5 minutes to defeat a couple." - joked Aegis before standing up. As he raised himself to an almost erect possition, he felt how with each passing moment he was losing more and more of his ballance as a result from being so intoxicated. Sensing as he started leaning to the side, the knight recreated Fervour, which was destroyed because he dropped it when he fell from the edge of the platform, and used it as a cane, supporting his unbalanced body.

Having stood up, Aegis looked around. He knew that Erza had to be somewhere nearby, so he decided to go to her and assist in defending the polititian on ground level.
Peering into a few trees, he saw the figure of the person he was looking for. It was difficult to tell what she was doing or which direction she was facing from that distance, but it seemed like she was holding her shoulder. Was she wounded? For a moment an image flashed through his mind, which made him grit his teeth. 'I should go make sure she's okay' - thought Aegis as he started walking towards her.

Not knowing what had become of Aegis or Erza, Hirana continued to question the weaklings that she had just beaten. It seemed that they were hired by a very powerful and wealthy host and would not reveal his identity even if it meant their lives. That annoyed Hirana to her very core. Shuddering with rage, she threw one of them over the terrace and threatened to go through all of them if they continued to keep their secrets. One of the covered his bicep and Hirana immediately removed his hand. It seemed that these assassins were from Savage Skull, the dark guild that had caused her tons of trouble since she had become a Council member. Knocking each of them out, Hirana grabbed the dark mage and jumped off the terrace with him. Landing softly, Hirana headed towards the direction that Aegis was in, due to the nature of the Lacrima Communication orb system. Not seeing the point in keeping the dark mage a secret, she slowly strutted in the direction of the woods. Along the way, she saw that Kinana was abandoned. Gently waking Kinana up, Hirana decided that she would have to yell at Aegis a bit later. For now, she was going to walk towards her teammates and finish the job.

As Erza stood there; clutching her arm tightly at the spot where it was cut to stop the blood, she saw the familiar blue figure. It was Aegis. “Damn, they are here already…. They must not see my guild mark, especially him.” She whispered to herself. In a hurry to hide her arm so that her guild mark was hidden she drew her long hair over it. All she could do was to wish that Aegis or Hirana had not seen her hurt or if they didn’t previously then they shouldn’t.
As Aegis’s body came nearer Erza saw someone else coming from behind too. It was Hirana, with a snake resting on her shoulder and she was also dragging a badly bruised man behind her. ‘Curse my bad luck, like it wouldn’t be hard to hide it from Aegis alone now I also have deal with the Magic Council member.’ She thought. She also wondered from where Hirana got the snake; they were always a bit of fascination for Erza. But now was not the time to think about snakes that appear from nowhere, it was the time to hide about your Dark Guild from your Legal Guild mates. ‘Hope they don’t see the blood covering my arm and if they do, they don’t pay attention to that’

It was a little ridiculous now that he thought about it. Fighting an exhausting battle against a strong foe only to find himself poisoned by his backup was something he hadn't experienced before and was probably something he wouldn't be able to forget very quickly either, atleast not the nausia caused by the toxins inside his body.

Barely keeping his balance, the blue knight slowly staggered to the place where Erza was. His vision blurry and wavering, much like his sense of ballance, Aegis tried to speak to his partner, but fell down on his knees before he could even say a sound.
"Ugh... I swear... if anything ever kills me it's going to be my allies..." - mumbled the knight in a low voice, as if complaning to himself, before trying to stand back up. Having been drained of his strenght and then poisoned, the only thing that was keeping him conscious and able to move was his willpower, but even that was no longer enough for him to stand up. Realising that he couldn't move much, the tattered knight remained in the kneeling possition he managed to achieve and tried to grab Fervour with his left hand in order to use it to support himself once more. As he tossed the sword from one hand to the other, he realised that he could not move his left arm at all as he watched his weapon drop down beside him, his left hand not even moving an inch. Infact, he couldn't even feel it. As he looked at the lifelessly hanging limb, he noticed that there is still a bolt sticking out of his shoulder.
"Ah." - was his almost uninterested reaction, voiced a moment before he reached over to the crossbow bolt with his still moving right hand and ripped it out of his body while strongly gritting his teeth. It seemed that even though he could not feel his arm, the pain in his shoulder was not something he would be spared from.

Dropping the bolt down to the ground, Aegis finally lifted his head to look at Erza and spoke to her with a weak voice - "...Are you okay? If you are wounded you should rest."
Even though his vision was blurry, he could tell that there was blood dripping from her arm. Well, he couldn't really make out if it was blood or not, but he could see that there was something red on her and that her clothing was a little tattered. That was something he could definately see, which was good considering that the only reason he kept his consciousness was the fact that he didn't like the idea of resting while he is not sure that everyone is okay. It would have been very troubling if he couldn't do what he was staying awake to do.

Hearing the faint footsteps of someone approaching, the tattered knight turned his head and looked over his shoulder. What he saw was just a barely definable blurred silhouette, but the familiar aura it emmited told Aegis who it was. Turning his head back to Erza, the knight smiled faintly and spoke jokingly.
"Ah, it seems our partner is coming to kill me now." - the blue knight's words were interrupted by his own coughing, caused by his body's attempts to clear his lungs of the blood that was beggining to flood them.
"Please, tell her I'm sorry for leaving Kinana. Oh, and thank her for the poison she gave me, it's pretty *cough* effective. I think it might be combinable with the other poison I have in me for greater effects."
As soon as he said that, the knight felt as his consciousness finally left him and, a moment later, dropped to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

P.S: Soleice left this mission. :(

"Please, tell her I'm sorry for leaving Kinana. Oh, and thank her for the poison she gave me, it's pretty *cough* effective. I think it might be combinable with the other poison I have in me for greater effects."
As soon as he said that, the knight felt as his consciousness finally left him and, a moment later, he dropped to the ground.

Erza dashed towards him and bending beside him gently picked up his head from the ground and placed it on her lap. She saw Hirana approaching and exclaimed, "Did you poison him too?"
"Yeah, had too because of the turn of events." she said and pulled out a bottle from her side, uncorked it and opening Aegis's mouth she poured the contents of it in the knight's open mouth. "Well, Erza sorry to say but I've gotta go to the Magic Council for some important work. And so I need to leave you guys. Aegis is gonna wake up pretty soon and same goes for him." she said glancing at the politician."

Erza thought, 'The mission's almost over and if she's away I've got a better chance of hiding my secret.' "Sure Hirana. I completely understand your situation." Erza said.
"Okay good luck then!" saying that she turned back and walked off in the opposite direction. She was looking at Hirana when she heard a moan from Aegis, "So you are awake, huh?"

With steadily returning consciousness, the knight opened his eyes only to be met by the blinding sunlight and the familiar silhouette.
"Ugh...hmm... that was quick." - he started saying - "Waking up, bright sunlight, a beautiful angel welcoming me. Yup, without a doubt I must have gone to haven."
Truth be told he himself wasn't exactly certain if what he had just said wasn't actually true. Considering the disturbing quantities of toxins he had hoarded in his body during the fight, his sense of... well... almost everything was completely messed up and while he was cured from the friendly-fire poison he got, there was still the fact he was shot with God knows how many poisoned bolts. As one can tell by looking at him, he was in a pretty poor condition, albeit a slowly improving one.

With the slow passage of time, despite his persistent lack of strenght, Aegis' vision was recovering. Silhouettes started appearing as imagines, figures becoming more detailed and colour perception returning to it's usual sharpness. His pupils managed to adapt to the high light level and he could finally see things more clearly now.
Looking at the girl before him, Aegis realised that his head was lying on her lap. A rather shocking realisation. His eyes opened wide, the knight blushed lightly and tried to roll away to the side, but to no avail. It seemed that his fatigue was far too great, or was it something else? An question which would be answered once he regains 100% of his senses, including pain.
As he realised he can't really move yet, the knight looked away, not feeling comfortable when facing her gaze.

Muttering things about heaven and stuff is the first sign of insanity right?? Or is it the result of being poisoned beyond normal limits????? This was the question that popped in Erza's mind as she heard Aegis say awkard things. She looked at him with curiosity, just to make sure he was okay and saw him turning his eyes away. Understanding the matter, she sighed and removed her torn jacket revealing a white full sleeved shirt. She folded her hoodie and with her right hand she held Aegis's head up from the ground and placed her jacket under it.

Standing up she walked towards the unconcious politician while questioning, "Not as comfortable as a pillow but still works doesn't it?" Leaning beside him and saying while shaking him by the shoulders, "Heyyy, Mr.Politician! I guess its time for you to wake up!" As the guy opened his eyes dully she exclaimed, "Finally!!!" And turned back to look at the 'poisoned patient' but in the little time Hirana left the place Erza had totally forgotten about her guild mark.

As the knight watched his partner take off her hoodie, Aegis caught a glimpse of traces of blood on her clothes and shoulder. Was that not what he saw before he fainted? It seemed that it was no hallucination, as proven by the small drop which fell on cyan-haired mage's cheek.

Erza stood up and went over to the sleeping polititian, apparantly intending to wake him up. That meant that she would have her back turned towards Aegis, in other words giving him a chance to look at her wound to assess it.
Despite still feeling remarkably weak, the blue knight clenched his teeth and put all of his effort into raising his torso up, a feat he managed to achieve by leaning on his right elbow. Having raised himself, Aegis took a good look at Erza's wounded arm.

The ripped clothing.

The streaks of blood left behind by the crimson drops as if spiraling around eachother, the dance of two ribbons.

And then, the lonely mark resting on her shoulder, the symbol of her allegiance.

The knight said nothing. Gathering his strength once more, he rolled over so that he would face the ground and pushed himself up. Even with shaking limbs, he managed to raise himself and stand up, though it took every last drop of his willpower to force his muscles into submission, ignoring their desparate pleas for rest. Having stood up, Aegis looked over his shoulder at Erza with what seemed to be a disinterested face.
"Your guild mark is showing." - stated he - "Cover it up if you are still keen on hiding to who you answer."
A brief pause.
"Don't look at me like that. I won't ask. You probably had a reason to lie, so I won't inquire about it.".
Averting his gaze from Erza, for a brief moment he seemed to have a spark of regret in his eyes.
"We should go before he awakens fully, otherwise we would fail the client's requirements."

With those words, spoken with a calm tone, the knight began slowly walking towards the exit of the courtyard as if denying the existence of the injuries and conditions he had suffered.

"Your guild mark is showing. Cover it up if you are still keen on hiding to who you answer. Don't look at me like that. I won't ask. You probably had a reason to lie, so I won't inquire about it. We should go before he awakens fully, otherwise we would fail the client's requirements." said Aegis with the regret clearly audible in his voice.
"I-I....... Yes I had a reason to lie." Erza replied looking Aegis straight in the eye. Most people would not have liked to show their faces at such a moment but Erza never felt like she did anything wrong by joining Savage Skull. There are some moments in everyone's life when their choices seem bad to the world outside but you know it yourself that you had reasons to follow those choices. And in those moments you may feel like justifying yourself or maybe not.

Erza had a choice, she could decide whether or not to justify herself. A voice spoke in her head, a voice which seemed really familiar but hard to remember. 'This is not the right time, let him heal from this.'
'Okay.'

Aegis was already quite ahead of her as she was rooted right at the place she was before. Walking a bit faster she was trying to catch up with him and then being right behind caught him by the hand turning him hard to face herself. "You're right... I did have a reason to lie to you. I don't care what you think about me right now, but I'm fine with my decisions. And I take them for reasons.... believe me, I won't regret them."

Leaving his hand, Erza turned behind; trying hard not to look back, "Leave right now if you want to, I've got a habit of it."

A loud, yet unexaggerated sigh.
"My my..."
What could he do really? It is true that he was rather sad. On one hand that was normal, he was lied to by someone dear after all. But on the other hand... can he really be that selfish? Can he just play the role of the wounded one?
"That would be awfully unfair."
Another sigh.
And then... a giggle.
"Such a handful you are."
As she stood with her back turned to him, the knight's footsteps were heard behind her.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
He was told to leave, to follow his selfish heart and pretend to be the wounded one. Indeed, perhaps that would be the better thing to do.
However...
"Shush, you silly girl."
Aegis could not do that. As his low voice rang in the world around, he hugged her from behind, pressing her arms to her body so that she won't be able to resist incase she chose to. With his face almost touching hers, Aegis whispered in her ear.
"I'm not going to leave you."
His hug tightened.
Such simple words, yet they seemed to carry a meaning deeper than the deepest ocean. A meaning he conveyed to the girl in his arms from the bottom of his heart... but also a meaning he conveyed to himself.

A light breeze.
As the setting sun shone upon that garden one last time, the trees' shivering leaves gleamed gold. Much like a stagelight, the illuminating warmth they reflected enveloped it's brilliance the two whom dared defy the laws of that twisted world.
Were they supposed to be friends? Were the supposed to be allies, or were they supposed to be enemies?
In the face of the truth, those worries were nothing more than trivial. What mattered was what was deep inside, locked within the confines of the knight's heart.

I love her. - a fact irrefutable. So was there a reason to leave her?
Don't make me laugh - No, instead he knew a thousand different reasons to stay with her.
"A guild mark changes nothing, Erza. Honestly... do you think so lightly of my love for you? That's almost disappointing." - spoke the knight jokingly, yet somehow still serious.
"But you know, if you really are keen on turning your back on me..."
Suddenly, as he was hugging her so, Aegis lifted her feet of the ground and turn around, putting her back down opposite of where she stood.
...You could atleast try to face to exit, though it's fine if you don't. I am a little curious as to how you are going to climb over a 10-metre-high fence with spikes on top of the metal bars.
A light laugh, then a kiss. Pressing his lips to her cheek, Aegis gave her a light kiss and released her from his hug.

"So then, shall we be going?"
And a midst the golden glow of the garden shone his typical carefree smile.

"Such a handful you are. Shush, you silly girl. I'm not going to leave you." said Aegis as he hugged her from behind. As he said that, thoguth were different in Erza's mind. She was thinking about what she said moments earlier, and smiled at her own foolishness. 'What I said was so ridiculous, I never knew I had talent for speaking so emotional.'

"A guild mark changes nothing, Erza. Honestly... do you think so lightly of my love for you? That's almost disappointing. But you know, if you really are keen on turning your back on me..." a sudden pause and he lifted her and put her down, making her face the opposite side. "...You could atleast try to face to exit, though it's fine if you don't. I am a little curious as to how you are going to climb over a 10-metre-high fence with spikes on top of the metal bars."
She smiled once again, blushing softly as Aegis kissed her on the cheek and released her from his hug.
"So then, shall we be going?"
And Erza nodded more to herself than to him.