“So, who’re you?”

Cutting straight to the chase, Alex looked over to her and asked, his voice bolstered by a tinge of hostility. No matter what a person may look like, they could be an entirely different person on the inside. If she was someone dangerous, then he'll take her out, here and now.

“M-Me…?”

As her eyes matched his, the fog lingering in her mind lightened. Her thoughts became clear once more, and the figure of Alex looking straight at her became clear.

She stared awkwardly for a moment, before her cheeks reddened like a tomato and curled back in shame. “P-Please don’t l-look at me…” She said shakily as she covered her eyes with her hands.

“…Ha?”

Due to the sudden action of this girl, who had just survived falling from an inhumane height, he was left dumbfounded as he watched the girl continue to curl up into a ball. What was she so afraid of? He asked silently.

Slowly, she opened up her eyes, but immediately closed them back as her eyes fell upon him once more.

“Oi. What’s wrong?”

“Y-Your chest…”

“Ha? My chest?”

Alex looked down to his chest in confusion. ‘What? Are my bandages falling off?’ He tilted his head on confusion. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with his chest, so what was she so scared of?

Was it…blood?

He shuddered as his mind ventured into unforseen places.

“Y-You’re…n-naked…”

“…………Oh.”

After a long pause, he quickly turned around. {Illustrator} activated, he conjured himself a new leather T-shirt. He forgot that he lost the other one. Oh hey, it’s also blue, his favourite colour!

Putting on the shirt, he made sure his bandages were fine and turned back around. “There.” Twitching slightly, Marie slowly moved her hands away from her eyes, and seeing that he wasn’t bare-chested anymore, she let out a relieved sigh.

Does she have a phobia of men?

…I’m not going to dive further in.

Intruding into personal matters is a no no!

“…Ahem. So, who’re you?”

He swiftly readjusted his slightly wet jeans and stared back at her. Her cheeks still red from the lingering image, she shyly pointed to herself and asked “M-Me?”

Alex narrowed his eyes in suspicion. The black pupils he had focused in onto her. A slight tinge of red could be seen in his eyes.

“Yeah. Who’re you?”

“I-I’m Marie Maple!”

“Marie, huh.”

Alex displayed a somewhat shocked expression upon hearing her name, which sounded oddly normal. An odd thought cropped up in the back of his mind.

As a test, he decided to say something completely unrelated.

“…Do you know Earth?”

“E-Earth?”

Marie was taken aback by that word. Earth. It was a name she thought she would’ve never heard again in this new world.

“T-That’s…”

“…I see.”

He didn’t need to wait for her to answer him. Just from her expression, and her reluctance alone, he knew that she was someone, one of the students transported into this world. A small ray of hope shined in his clouding heart.

“A-Are you perhaps…?”

“Yeah. I was also a student. Name’s Damian Alexander. Just call me Alex.”

“A-Alex?”

Just like he did, she too was surprised to hear such a normal sounding name. All the people she knew from this world had such…unique names.

Although he wasn’t someone she knew, which was pretty much the entire school, she somehow believed that he was a student, just like her!

Now that her identity was proven, there was no need to show any hostility to her. And just like that, the [Blood Hound] skill was quickly taken down.

Although he couldn’t control it yet…

Oh well, he’ll do it later!

But now that he knew that she was a student, another creeping question barged right in. A question he had been wanting to ask, but didn’t have the chance to.

“By the way, do you know someone called Jake Darryl?”

Her mind perked up instantly as a name she knew was heard.

“Y-You know Jake?!”

“Yeah, he’s my only…Wait, I was the one who asked! Answer my question correctly!”

“H-Hii!”

To the sudden outburst he had, she let out a shriek and curled back into a ball once more. Scratching his cheek in confusion, he quickly bent down and tried to comfort her, only to realise that he had never comforted a girl.

Sh*t…

“Uh…Sorry about that.”

“Uuu…?”

Slowly moving her hands away, she looked up to him in fear. Seeing the pitiful girl, he awkwardly scratched his cheek and stretched out his arm. While still looking down, she took hold of his hand and stood up.

“Um…”

Just as she let go of his hand, her legs began wobbling once more. She shamefully turned her eyes away from his. He turned around and scratched his hair in defeat.

What would someone do to comfort someone else?

It was a question he had never really asked consciously. Because of his lack of interaction back in school, this was a question that had never really popped up, especially with someone like Jake as his friend.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance and turned back.

“…”

“E-Eh?!”

Suddenly, Alex closed in and wrapped his hands around her, drawing her closer to him. Because of the shock, she wasn’t able to pull away, and even if she tried now, his strength was much higher than hers.

A couple seconds passed silently, and her cheeks reddened in an instant.

“Are you alright now?”

Alex asked calmly as he kept hugging her. Back in his younger days, his mom would do something similar if he cried, and he hoped the same effect would take place here.

Oddly, there was a warm feeling on his chest, but he ignored it splendidly.

“Y-Yes…”

She managed to whisper softly to his ears. Hearing her, he sighed in relief and let go of her. To her surprise, she felt much calmer now, and being hugged like that felt oddly…nice.

“N-No! What am I thinking?!”

“…?”

She slapped her cheeks unconsciously and looked back at him, her cheeks still blushing slightly. He wondered if he really did manage to comfort her, but she looked alright.

So, I guess it worked!

But just as he was about to open his mouth, a loud shriek sounded in the air.

“Quuuuaa!”

“?!”

Alex turned his head over to the source of the noise, and there up in the air, he could see a grey bird-like figure, flapping its sharp wings in the air. Its black eyes stared directly at them. Its sharp grey beak shimmered in the sunlight.

“Tch. I don’t have any weapons.”

He complained silently as he stretched out his finger. Due to the vortex, his desert eagle was lost. Luckily, the little crab was fine, but it couldn’t fight…

“Quuaa!”

Sensing the magic coming off his finger, the bird-like monster shrieked and dashed at them. A bead of sweat rolled down his face as he saw the bird quickly closing in. Did this bird have magic sensors or something?

Who knows?

Whatever, it’s coming!

“Tch, Marie. St-“

“{[Asteroid Belt]}!”

Before he could finish his words, Marie stepped in and activated her magic spell. A dust cloud circled around her, before merging together into 10 different rocks, floating around her.

Each rock was about 10 cm in diameter, and they were all grey in colour. Perhaps calling them rocks wasn’t very fitting.

A belt of asteroids circled around Marie!

“Quua!”

“Please!”

The rocks circling around her closed in on each other. The asteroids stopped right above her head, forming a grey asteroid wall. The bird’s beak stabbed right in, breaking away 2 or 3 asteroids, but the wall was intact!

“Ha!”

From behind, Alex jumped above the asteroid wall and swung down his giant cleaver. The bird easily broke away and flew back up. His sword cut through empty air.

“Fast.”

He commented in annoyance. His eyes narrowed dangerously as the colour red spread all over his eyes.

[Blood Hound] was active!

“Buy me time.”

“S-Sure!”

Marie quickly reformed the broken asteroids and repaired the asteroid wall. The bird saw this and moved to the right, trying to attack them from the side. Noticing this, she moved the asteroid wall to the right, letting it take the full brunt of the peck.

“Qua!”

Easily, it broke off the asteroids and flew back up. But just as it was flying up,

*Bang!*

A shot resounded from behind her. Turning her sights to her back, she saw Alex standing, his left arm pressing against his skull as he aimed a weapon she would have never expected to see again in his other arm. He pulled the trigger, sending a shower of magic bullets at the bird.

But this bird wasn’t like the monsters in the oceans. It easily flew aside and let the bullet fly by. Alex clicked his tongue in impatience.

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

More shots were fired off, but the bird easily flew through the air. All the bullets simply hit the clouds above, disappearing into the sun.

“There’s no chance…I need to stop its movements.”

He thought silently as he watched the bird’s movements.

Ever since his {Blood Borne} skill ranked up, observing slight movements had become much easier for him. But even then, he didn’t have the speed to stop such a fast moving monster.

What should he do?

“……”

“W-What do we do…?”

Alex silently watched as Marie continued to reform more and more asteroids to defend from the bird’s attacks. The bird’s attacks were simple, but they came at a quick succession.

Their margin for hitting was tiny!

“…Marie.”

“W-What is it?”

“Can you perhaps…form the wall just as the bird comes?”

“E-Eh?”

Marie asked back as she reformed another asteroid. Beads of sweat rolled down her face as her MP dropped drastically. Forming and reforming these asteroids over and over again tore down her MP count.

Her MP was already below 20%...

“I mean…Can you trap the bird?”

“I-I’m not…too sure I can…”

Alex scratched his cheeks. ‘This girl doesn’t have any confidence…’ He silently commented to himself as he watched the bird hover in the air. Its beak pointed, ready to attack at any moment.

“I’ll tell you when to form the wall.”

“W-Will you…?”

“Ou.”

Marie looked at the bird desperately. Slowly, she separated the asteroids slightly, forming holes and openings in the wall. The bird saw this and charged right in.

“Yosh.”

Alex carefully observed the incoming beak. The sharpened grey beak, shining in the light like the edge of the blade, cutting through the air.

“Now!”

“Y-Yes!”

Staggering slightly, she moved the asteroids back into place. The bird pointed its beak right at the one remaining opening, and stabbed its beak right in. “H-Hii!”

But that was its biggest mistake!

“Q-Qua?!”

Suddenly, with an astounding force, Alex gripped his hands around the beak, and broke the asteroid wall entirely. The beak still in his hand, he slammed down the bird straight onto the ground.

*Bam!*

“Qua?!”

Alex pinned down the beak with his hands, and stepped onto its two wings. The bird struggled to get out, but his combination of [Blood Hound] and {Blood Borne} kept it in place.

He freed one of his hands away from the beak. Shining brightly, he traced a small blade in the air and wrote the word ‘Steel’. Out from the shining light, his hand gripped the handle of a small steel knife, its edge gleaming under the sun.

“Q-Qua…?”

*Puusshh!*

With one swing, he stabbed the knife straight into the bird’s head. Blood came gushing out like a fountain, tainting his whole left arm red. He stepped his leg over the knife, and pushed it further in.

Struggling uselessly, the bird’s life was ended. Marie could only silently watch as the bird died away.

With beads of sweat rolling down and his whole body shivering, he let go of the dead bird and stepped away. With his shaking hand, he conjured a napkin and wiped away all the blood on his hand. He also drew a new shirt to wear, he couldn’t stand the blood all over it.

And it seems like she can’t handle seeing his bare chest for some reason…

Throwing away the bloody napkin, he let out a sigh of relief and looked back at her. But he wasn’t wearing a smile, and his eyes were still painted in deep red.

“A-Alex?”

“…There’s more coming.”

Just as his words reached her ears, her whole body screamed as it felt an incoming danger. Somehow, her instincts told her to jump to the side, and knowing her previous experiences, it’s better to follow!

*Burr!*

Just as she jumped away, from where she was standing on earlier, a blue monster came sprouting out.

This time, the monster looked similar to a mole, just with 3 large claws on the end of each of its arms, which were also covered in bluish black scales. Its head was covered in what looked like a helmet made out of the same scales, with two small slits for its eyes.

In simple terms, it’s a mole on steroids.

*Bam!*

But with no hesitation, Alex picked back up the giant cleaver from earlier and swung it down. The steel edge collided with its tough scales, tearing apart some of its armour.

“Gucho!”

The mole clasped its arms together and intertwined its claws. Pointing them at Alex, it rotated violently and jumped at him. The claws merged together into a drill!

“Guh.”

Standing firm, he blocked the drill with his large blade. Taking the chance, he slipped under the drill and kicked the mole’s body, sending it flying into the air. Raising his cleaver, he sent a wide slice straight at it. More scales were torn off.

“G-Gucho!”

The mole gracefully landed on the dirt and prepared to attack once more. But Alex closed in quickly and stepped onto its stubby toes. *Pwush* The mole screamed in agony as it felt Alex’s brutal crush.

Lifting his leg, the moles toes were left all swollen and twisted. Walking with those toes should be impossible now. Without showing any emotions, he jumped to the side and swung his blade horizontally, braking through the already torn scales and slicing the mole into two.

The innards spewed out like a piñata.

With his hands over his mouth, he turned around in disgust as he contemplated over his actions.

Meanwhile, Marie only stood by the side with her eyes wide open.

Just like that, another monster was taken down!