When Oliver regained his sense he was back in the same subway car he had been last night. ''This place again?''

''So you finally woke up... In a manner of speaking.'' Oliver almost jumped out of his skin at the sound of the voice. But when he turned around he saw the same old man as last time.

''You again? Why am I having this dream again?'' He asked in an annoyed tone.

The old man chuckled. ''As I said, I am real. I did not expect to speak to you so soon. But from what I can gather you're going in a dangerous situation soon. So it's fortunate we can talk.'' Before he could continue the subway car came to a stop and the door opened to the same large open field as yesterday. ''Come with me young Oliver.''

He was still suspicious of all this but he decided he might as well follow Harmony. After all if it was just a dream what's the worse that could happen?

Finally they stopped once they were far enough. Harmony smiled toward the young boy. ''As my Champion I want to bestow upon you two gifts. However I won't be able to give both of them at the same time. So I think I will start with my first gift. The Reaper's Cry.''

Oliver looked at him with a bewildered expression. ''The Reaper's Cry? What's that?''

''As I said last time my role is to guide the souls of the departed Elestia. As such I have the ability to sense when a living being is about to die. To aid you in your quest I will also give you that ability.'' Harmony said to him.

Oliver looked at him with a disturbed expression. ''Why would I want to know when people are about to die?''

Harmony smiled at this. ''It's very simple, contrary to what people might believe, fate is not set in stone. So when you sense that someone is about to die. You have the ability to change their fate by saving them from whatever danger they face.''

Oliver looked at him in awe at this. ''You will really give me an ability this powerful?''

Harmony nodded but then he crossed his arms. ''Unfortunately since you are a mortal, your ability to use the Reaper's Cry will be severly limited. For one thing using this ability will drain some of your ether so you can't have it activated all the time. And secondly you will probably only be able to sense the death of someone a few seconds in the future and the range in which you can sense death coming will only be a few meters. In short this ability will almost be only useful to save yourself and your team and not much else.''

Oliver frowned but then nodded. ''I see so it's not much like a vision for the future. This is more like some sort of sixth sense that can detect danger at the last minute right?''

At this Harmony nodded. ''I suppose you could see it that way.''

''So how do I activate it?'' Oliver asked eagerly.

''First we will have to meditate to try to unlock the Reaper's Cry inside of you.'' Harmony said and Oliver groaned. Suddenly gaining a new ability seemed much less interesting...

- - - - -

In the end Oliver had barely scratched the surface of his training before he was interupted by Clara who shook him awake. If the dream had been real he could now try to activate the Reaper's Cry but Harmony said it was so unrefined that it would be only a waste of his ether if he tried to use it right now.

The trio had now decided they had recovered enough from the journey and were now trudging throught the desolated town of Bluesung. The town almost looked like a warzone as buildings were almost crumbling all around them and they could see a lot of rubbles in the streets.

''What happened here?'' Clara asked with a frown plastered on her face.

''I don't know, but if I had to guess it was probably a Dragonling.'' Xofamai said with an equally grim expression.

''Could a Dragonling on his own really do that much damage to a big town like this?'' Clara asked with a raised eyebrow.

''On their own? Probably not. But Dragonlings are similar to Dragons in more way than one. Just like Dragons they can give power to wild Elestia and make them swear allegiance to them. Obviously they cannot give powers to as many Elestia as a real Dragon can. But most Dragonlings can have from twenty to one hundred Elestia under their command depending on how powerful they are. That many Elestia would be more than enough to do the damage we see here.'' He replied grimly.

Oliver gulped nervously. ''So what you're saying is that we were lucky that our first Dragonling only had a bunch of dumb zombies at it's command.'' Xofamai only nodded in response and they continued to walk in the ruined town in silence with only the sound of the wind howling furiously throught the barely standing buildings and debris in the streets.

The place felt suspiciously empty, even in a ruined town you tend to see at least a few wild Elestia roaming around like rodents and birds. But this place looked like a complete graveyard. Even the frozen Ringabell City had felt more alive than this.

The stillness putted Oliver on edge, his hand was hovering above his Draconid Gems ready to call out his loyal friends at a moment notice. Then when he began to think he was just being paranoid the group heard the sound of two voices chuckling inside of a small house with cracked windows.

''Well lookie here, it look like we have uninvited guests in our little paradise. What do you say to that Kenny?'' A nasally voice said in a mocking tone.

''They chose the wrong place to get themselves lost, Barry.'' A more gruff voice reponded with a deep chortle.

Dust and debris formed a cloud as the two of them jumped out of the window and blocked the road in front of the trio. The first man was tall and lanky, he wore long suspenders and he had a long pointy nose. The other man had a much rounder shape of body and wore a white shirt cacked with mud and sweat, along with a pair of jeans falling apart at the seams. His nose was much rounder than his friend and almost looked like it was squished on his face.

Xofamai was not impressed at their display and he looked at them with a deadpan expression. ''We're just passing throught, please do not disturb us or you will regret it.''

''Oh! I'm so afraid Mr. I dress myself in black to look edgy. You came into our territory and now you have to pay the price. Give us all your stuff and we might let you walk out of here without roughing you up too much.'' The lanky man said with a smirk on his face.

Oliver growled and took a familiar gem from his pocket. ''I don't think so, Sandy come out!'' The Flodeera emerged from her gem and glared toward the two men who was threatening her Chosen.

But much to their shock the two thieves chuckle before retreiving familiars object from their pocket. ''You tought you had the advantage with your Elestia, huh? Well too bad for you, we're also Chosens!''

''What?!'' Oliver exclaimed in shock.

The two men smirked like a pair of vicious hyenas before calling out the name of their Elestia. Two beams of energy emerged from the gems in their hands. The one on the left took the form of a tiger with a long mechanical tail and iron teeth. The one on the right took the form of what looked like a cobra but it was made out of a noxious purple liquid. The liquid left a trail of smoke in it's trail as soon as it appeared on the concrete.

''Be careful about the snake Sandy, I would bet my arm it's poisonous!'' He said with narrowed eyes.

Sandy nodded in understanding and took a fighting stance while glaring at the two Elestia. Xofamai followed Oliver example and called out Aqua out of her gem. The slime-like Kitsubi stared at her foes with an unimpressed expression.

Oliver decided now would be a good time to see if his dreams had any truth to them and he tried to activate his so called Reaper's cry. He did not think he would need the ability to deal with these two clowns but he wanted to know if everything he had talked with Harmony had any weight or if it had really been all a dream.

He concentrated on the feeling he had felt during his dream and much to his surpise he felt a surge of power coming from his chest and it was quickly spreading all over his body. ''So there was some truth to what that old man taught me.'' He muttered to himself.

''Did you say something Oliver?'' Clara looked back at him with a inquiring look.

Oliver shook his head. ''No let's just take care of these bandits. Sandy throw a rock on the Lightning Elestia!'' But before the attack could hit Oliver felt something flare up in his mind and for a brief moment he felt like he heard a loud shrieking noise inside of his head. It was followed by a splitting headache that made him drop to one knee on the ground.

''Oliver! Are you alright?!'' Clara yelled with a startled expression.

But before he could respond a loud blaring noise erupted in the distance and before they even realised what was happening a hole tore throught the skull of the fat bandits and he fell lifelessly on the ground.

''Barry!'' The thin man exclaimed in horror. Another gunshot ran out and Kenny had an identical hole in his forehead before he fell lifelessly on the ground. Both of the Elestia looked at ther now dead Chosens and chose to run away, their allegiance with them now null and void.

Oliver looked at where the bullets had came from and he could see a figure standing on the roof of a small apartment complex. The hooded figure noticed it had been spot and fearlessly jumped down to the ground leaving a cloud of dust as it landed.

Everyone was on guard as the figure casually approached the group and Oliver flinched when he finally noticed who was under the hood. ''M-Maikoh?!''

The girl finally smiled but it was cold and vicious. ''Did you think you could get rid of me that easily Oliver? I'm the one that will kill you and no one else.''

Clara putted herself in front of Oliver with a scowl on her face. "You again?! How dare you show yourself after the beating I gave you last time?!"

Maikoh laughed at her words. "I changed a lot since the last time you saw me." She said as she pulled back her hood revealing a pair of snow white canine ears sitting atop her now equally white hair.

"What happened to you?" Oliver asked with a shocked expression.

Maikoh smirked arrogantly before fliping her hair with her hand. "You like it? I made a deal with a Dragon just so I could kill you. You should feel honored." She raised a hand toward Oliver.

Instantly the same strident scream he had heard earlier came back in full force and by instinct he jumped away from his position. His instincts rewarded him when a bolt of lightning came crackling to life from Maikoh's hand and turned the asphalt where Oliver stood into a smouldering black spot.

Clara screamed angrily before shooting a blue beam of energy toward the white haired girl. "We don't have time to deal with you! Our community is in danger!"

Maikoh countered the beam with another bolt of lightning before chuckling. "Do I look like I care? I have nothing against you. So if you let me kill Oliver, I'll let you go and we'll never have to see each other again."

"Sorry but I can't let you do that, these kids are under my protection." The voice of Xofamai said in his usual neutral tone.

"Ah, I was begining to wonder if you could talk!" Maikoh said with a smirk. "Listen to me, you're a Ranger of the Ding Dong Resistance aren't you? Then you must know it's very dangerous to keep a loose canon in a military group. Oliver has been known to run away from his allies when he's needed the most. I know that all too well." She said with a bitter frown on her face.

"We know about what Oliver did in Xilo and I'm sorry about what happened. But Oliver has proven to be reliable these past three months. And even if he didn't, my honor as a Ranger wouldn't allow me to abandon a soldier under my command." Xofamai replied with cool eyes.

All pretence of humor left Maikoh's expression and a burning hatred replace it. "Then all of you will die!"

Oliver once again felt the scream of a banshee inside of his head. He was now starting to get what it meant. ''Sandy create a stone wall in front of us!''

The bipedal deer nodded in understanding before slamming her hoof on the ground and making a slab of stone emerge in front of the group. It was just in time too, Maikoh had taken her guns out of their holsters and had fired toward Xofamai. The slab of stone errupted into pieces as the two bullets coated in electricity made contact with it but it was still enough to stop them in their tracks.

''Aqua throw water bullets at her.'' Xofamai commanded to his water Kitsubi. She nodded and did as ordered expelling dozens of small orbs of water toward Maikoh. But before the bullets of water could reach her, her body was enveloped in a coat of electricity and then it was as if she vanished into thin air.

''W-what?! Where is she?!'' Clara asked in shock. Her question was soon answered as they felt a strong gust of wind and Maikoh appeared behind Aqua before shocking the Kitsubi with a bolt of electricity. ''She's fast! I can barely see her moving!'' Clara exclaimed with a concerned look.

Aqua for her part was laying on the ground and was breathing shallowly. "Aqua return!" Xofamai said before returning the water Kitsubi to her Draconid Gem. Then he glared at the girl who had hurted his Elestia and unsheated his sword. ''Oliver, Clara, stand back. I'm taking care of this.''

"Are you sure that's a good idea? She's much more dangerous than she used to be." Clara said with a frown.

"Don't worry about me, you should stand guard with Oliver, unlike us he wouldn't be able to survive her attacks." Then Xofamai took his sunglasses and carelessly threw them on the ground. His red eyes started turning brighter until they were almost blinding.

"What's happening to your eyes?!" Oliver asked bewildered.

Instead of responding to him Xofamai started to mumble to himself. "Oh great hunters of our past from the ferocious lions to the majestic eagles. Give me your vision in my hunt for justice, Ultra Foresight!"

"What is this some sort of party trick? It won't help you!" Maikoh said mockingly before firing both of her guns toward Xofamai. He responded by taking a defensive position and his sword cutted the air so fast it was barely visible. When he was done both bullets fell at his feet crackling slightly with the small amount of power they had left.

"D-did he seriously just deflected two bullets with a sword?" Oliver asked in awe.

"What a show off, he could have just dodge them," Clara said with a shake of her head.

"Let's see you deflect this!" Maikoh yelled before her arm crackled with raw electricity. With the same lightning speed she had displayed earlier she came charging toward Xofamai. As she came face to face with him she tried to punch the man at full force. She fully expected him to try to block the attack and it would have resulted in her grabbing his arm and shock him at full force. But instead he sidestepped just as she came in front of him and he delivered a sweeping kick to her legs making her unceremoniously fall flat on the ground.

Maikoh grunted angrily and tried to quickly lift herself from the ground resume her assault but before she could Xofamai raised a hand toward her and yelled. "Black Cloud!" In an instant Maikoh couldn't see anything anymore. "Clara, Oliver, run now!" The voice of Xofamai yelled from the darkness.

Maikoh eyes widened before growling angrily. "You won't get away from me!" She lifted her guns and fired erratically all around her hoping desperately to hit her target. But as the dark smog finally cleared she looked around and noticed the streets were completely empty. "Damn you Oliver, I'll fucking kill you I swear! You'll pay for abandoning Mika, you spineless coward!"

- - - - -

The trio finally stopped running after what felt like half an hour. "I'm pretty sure we lost her." Clara said while trying to regain her breath.

"For someone who only recently became an hybrid she was really powerful maybe even close to my level. If the fight continued any longer there was a high chance she could have killed Oliver after she overwhelmed me with her speed. Once we're back at New Ringabell I'll post a mission for Rangers to hunt her down. She's way too dangerous for two Hunters like you two." Xofamai said with a grim expression on his face.

"It seem kind of unfair, it took me months to master the powers I have. But to her it almost seemed like second nature." Clara said with a pout on her face.

Xofamai looked at her from the corner of his eyes. "To be fair the Mind Nature is the most difficult Nature to master, but it's also the most versatile Nature out of all of them. There's a reason why some people call it the Magic Nature. The fact you came so far in so little time speak volumes about your intellect."

Clara preened under the compliment but as they continued to walk throught the desolate and fractured road she noticed someone had been silent the whole time. She looked back and noticed that Oliver was intently looking down on the ground as if he was lost in his world. "Oliver are you alright?"

Oliver looked like he woke up from a trance and he shook his head. "...It's nothing." He said while trying to avoid eye contact.

Clara would have none of that, she approached him and forced him to look at her. "I like to think I've known you long enough to know when something is wrong. So come on spill it."

He seemed to want to back away from her at first, but finally a look of resolve overtook his expression. "...I think it would be better if I did missions on my own from now on."

Clara looked at him with a stunned expression. "What do you mean?! We've done missions together since the beginning and now you want to disband? What about our mission to slay the Dragons have you forgotten about it or what?!"

Before Oliver could respond to her the voice of Xofamai interrupted them. "Quiet down you two. We're coming close to New Ringabell, there's no telling what might wait for us there."

They came upon a familiar hill, they held their breath as they climbed. Once they rised atop the hill they could see that the wall of New Ringabell had dents all over the entrance. But thankfully it looked like the Knights had not managed to breach inside the wall. On the ground they could see armored men and women laying motionlessly, presumably dead. They could also see the corpses of a few Elestia, Oliver resisted the urge to gasp when he saw what looked like an older version of Sandy laying on the ground. His hand reached his pocket just to be sure she was still there and he felt a pang of relief when he felt the warm gem in his hand.

"Who goes there!" A voice yelled making Xofamai and the two teens stopped in their tracks. A Ranger approached apprehensively but his shoulder sagged in relief when he saw who it was. "Sorry for the poor reception Xofamai, as you can see the Resistance has been attacked."

Xofamai nodded grimly. "We heard, how bad was it? Did we lose any people?"

The man looked downcasted at his question. "Unfortunately yes, we lost Mathis, Daniel and Elissa. And as you can see we also lost about a dozen of our best Elestia."

Xofamai cursed under his breath. "Who attacked us? Was it one of the Dukes?"

The man shook his head in response. "It was only a group of grunts, I think they were testing our defense more than anything else. But the General has putted the whole town on high alert in case any of them come back. Also she told us that any returning Resistance members should report straight to her."

Xofamai internally groaned at this, after the encounter with that crazy girl he wanted nothing more than take a shower and go straight to bed. With a sigh he turned toward Oliver and Clara. "Well you heard him, let's see what the General has to say about all this."

Making sure there was no one else beside them the gatekeeper opened up the gate and let the trio go inside. Everyone they met on the way looked at Xofamai with relief once they caught sight of him. Oliver hadn't noticed how much people looked up to the man before this. Hard to believe someone with such an attitude could earn so much respect.

They arrived at Olivia's office and entered inside. The old woman sighed in relief when she saw the three of them. "I was getting worried. You're the last group to return from your mission I was beginning to think the Knights had found you."

"No we haven't encountered any Knights, thought I wouldn't say what we encountered was much better." Xofamai replied with a frown etched on his face.

Olivia's expression grew more serious. "Alright, give me the debriefing on your mission."

Xofamai did just that explaining everything that had happened from the moment they had stepped into Organus, their encounter with the people of the mall and their fight against Maikoh.

Olivia rubbed her temples once he had explained everything that had happened. "So let get me straight, in the span of a few days you encountered an ancient Bloodfangs claiming to be from the early twentieth century, a gun wielding man threatening to kill anyone that come into his mall, a pair of bandits who got their hands on Elestia and then both bandits were murdered by the same girl who shot Oliver in the leg, but this time she was an hybrid and she tried to kill Oliver again before you managed to lose her. Have I missed anything?"

"No that was pretty much it." Xofamai replied dully.

Olivia sighed in exhasperation. "I swear the three of you are a trouble magnet. One of these day you are all gonna give me a heart attack."

"Umm General Clementine?" Oliver said with a conflicted expression. "I've been thinking for a while and I think it would be better if I did missions on my own from now on."

"What, this again?!" Clara exclaimed not believing what she was hearing. "Are you crazy? Don't you know how dangerous it is ou there you-"

"Clara! Enough." The voice of Olivia said sternly. Clara looked like she wanted to object but she stayed put as the General bought her attention to Oliver. "I wouldn't recommend doing this Oliver, however since you're not a Rookie anymore I cannot stop you from leaving your team. But you should know that without the supervision of a Ranger, Hunters are only allowed missions of rank C on their own. And believe me I will make sure they're missions of Rank C this time. You have a knack for accidentally taking missions of higher rank than you're supposed to." She said with a shake of her head.

Oliver frowned but hesitantly nodded his head. "I understand."

Olivia sighed realizing he wouldn't budge on this. "Well you should sleep on your decision. There won't be any missions outside of New Ringabell for at least a week. We can't afford to send our Chosens on errands when the Knights could attack us at any moments."

The group said their goodbye to the General and left her office. As soon as they were outside Clara turned to Oliver with an angry expression. "What's the meaning of this?! You're giving up on us just like that?! What about our goal of slaying the Dragons, have you forgotten about it?!"

"Let's admit it Clara killing the Dragons was wishful thinking at best. We only managed to kill Boreas because of Justin's sacrifice. Beside you have way better chances to deal with the Dragons than I do. All I have done is putting you and Xofamai in danger." Oliver tried to walk away but Clara grabbed his arm and forced him to look at her.

"This is all about Maikoh isn't it? You're afraid that we're going to kill her right? I can't believe you're still trying to defend that crazy bitch! She tried to kill you without any remorse!" Clara yelled with a clenched fist.

"She's my sister Clara, or at least she used to be. Everytime we go outside I'm afraid either you or she will die and it would be all my fault, just like with Mika. I don't want to see other people die because of me, I have enough trouble looking at myself in the mirror arleady." And with that Oliver dislodged his arm from her grip and walked away with no destination in mind...