“BAXTER?!”

I could hear Iris screaming out to me from the distance. She must have turned around briefly during her fight with the Iron-Armed Man just to see how far I got. Of course, at that moment I couldn’t even focus on my girlfriend due to the position killing me from the inside out.

“You know…”

The lady, who I was supposed to be saving now becoming my attacker, whispered seductively in my ear. Even the feeling of her breath made the skin on my ear burn, my body was becoming too sensitive.

“I have the ability to take away the poison~…”

The Poison Thief grabbed my hair and forcefully pulled my head back. I groaned as I was helplessly looking at her face and the empty sky behind her.

“All you have to do is surrender and agree to leave all your belongings here~! A pretty far trade right~?”

“F…fuck you…!”

The Poison Thief pouted.

“Now what’s with that attitude~? Are material belongings more valuable than your life?”

“I-I…d-don’t give a s-shit you take anything f-from me…but I’ll be d-damned if I surrender to the likes of you!”

I snarled at the lady.

“I-I’m going to be a H-Holy Knight, dammit! It w-would be d-disgraceful if I threw in the towel now!”

The Poison Thief rolled her eyes and yanked my hair harder.

“You are in no position to talk so high and mighty. Your life is going to end in five minutes. Be smart about your choices.”

“Here’s my answer…!”

I tried to spit on the Poison Thief, but my salvia failed to fly far and only managed to fall from my lips. At that moment, I looked like a baby drooling.

“Oh come on!”

The Poison Thief laughed at my pathetic attempt to resist.

“You are too funny! A part of me wants to keep you alive and toy with you so more but I have too many slaves already~! So you have two choices…do you want to die by my dagger…”

The lady inched closer to me, our lips basically touching.

“Or by my sweet kiss~?”

I mustered as much strength as possible to reply.

“S-sorry lady but…you are SO not my type! Plus—I’M A TAKEN MAN!!”

In a split second, I opened my jaw and bit the arm of the Poison Thief as hard as possible. The lady screamed as my teeth drew blood from her arm and she released my hair which gave me the opportunity I needed.

I jumped up to my feet and wobbled over to the Poison Thief. I slammed against the lady’s body and knocked her ass to the ground. At that instant, she dropped her weapon which I quickly picked up.

“I-Iris!!”

I shouted across the alley. My girlfriend, who was too occupied with her intense fistfight with the Iron-Armed Man turned her back for a split second and gasped when she realized it was me.

“Baxter! Are you okay!?”

“No! Some ugly bitch smooched me!”

“W-WHAT?!”

“A-anyway—here’s this!”

I threw the dagger to Iris who caught it easily.

“Thank you!” Iris smiled. “I’ll finish this quickly!”

She then channeled her flames into the knife, erupting a golden fire that consumed the entire weapon.

“Flame Magic: The Sun’s Grace!”

Iris then swung the Blade of Golden Fire which the Iron-Armed Man was able to avoid by jumping backwards.

“You call that firepower!? I’ll show you REAL FIREPOWER!!”

The Iron-Armed Man held out his metal arm. The white runes on his arm started to glow with a blinding light.

“Transformation Magic: Level 4!”

His metal arm then came apart and morphed into a giant metal cannon. The muscular man cackled loudly, spit flying from his mouth.

“GET READY TO TURN TO DUST! PHOTON MAGIC: RAYS!!”

A loud and searing beam of pure light was fired from the hole of the cannon. Even though the beam was approaching Iris at great speed, my girlfriend charged right at the beam at top speed, ready to strike.

“Your heat is nothing compared to the fire of the phoenix!”

In such a graceful movement, Iris sliced the bean in half as if it were butter. The bean became two rays that went in different directions and crashed into the walls of the buildings. They exploded into fire, ultimately hitting no one.

“I-IMPOSSIBLE—“

The Iron-Armed Man started to panic but there was nowhere for him to run.

“Eat this! Flame Magic: Dance of the Embers!”

As Iris zoomed up to the Iron-Armed Man, hundreds of small thin red lines surrounded and in an instant, they disappeared. The next second, Iris was behind her opponent as he exploded with multiple cuts and blood coming off his body. The muscular man lost consciousness and fell on his face, his ass tooted up.

Iris looked my way with a stupid smile on her face and a peace sign.

“Good job—“

My praise was cut short by a powerful upper kick to my chin. I fell backward but immediately rolled to my feet as I tried to regain my composure.

The Poison Thief was back up and she was furious.

“Asshole!” She shouted. “You called me an ugly bitch! I’ll make you regret that!”

“Hold on, Baxter!”

Iris started to run towards me to aid me in battle, but she was blocked by the Caster of Shadows who popped out of the darkness of the ground. He howled like a deranged lunatic as he charged at my beloved.

“Are you serious!?” Iris yelled, the veins in her head starting to show. “I don’t have time for this!”

“I-I’m fine, Iris!” I called out. “You take care of that asshole and I-I’ll pummel this whore!”

While I may have sounded confident on the outside on the inside I was barely holding on. The poison was taking its toll and the body was reaching its limit. I could barely even see my opponent in front of me, my vision disorientating.

The Poison Thief knew this and just chuckled at the sight of me.

“You have three minutes before the poison destroys organs.”

“And oh have one minute to shut the hell up before I break your face in!”

I took my fighting stance, ushering my enemy that I was ready for anything.

The Poison Thief took out another dagger that had three dead roses by the end of it. She cartwheeled over to me and started swinging her blade. For the first few minutes, I was able to dodge her swings, but the more I moved the more the pain was becoming unbearable.

Seeing that I would not last, Iris tried to run over to me. But before she could even get close someone grabbed her shoulder and yanked her backwards.

“W-what in the—?!”

The Caster of Shadows with a bloody mouth and a deranged smile. Iris growled as she was forced to engage in a sword battle with another opponent while I was busy trying not to die.

“I’m just curious,” the Poison Thief started talking. “Why haven’t you used your magic yet? It might help you in this fight.”

I said nothing as I tried to punch her in the face, she simply sidestepped out of the way and I stumbled to the dirty street floor.

I tried the same attack but it only brought the same result.

The Poison Thief furrowed her brow.

“Don’t tell me…are you a Null?”

I snarled at the lady.

“Can’t you just stop talking and fight!?”

“So you are a Null!”

The Poison Thief started looking at me as if I was a lost child.

“Poor boy~! You should have never tried to play the hero! What can a Forsaken ever do~?”

“Quiet!” I screamed. “If I wasn’t poisoned I would’ve beaten your ass by now!”

“Those are the words of a sore loser. What? Do you think a fight in the real world should have rules? You fight to survive and win! If you fell for a trap that is on you!”

“S-shut up!”

I tried to throw another punch but was interrupted by two quick kicks to the head and a fist to my nose. Blood spilled from my nostrils and I could some of my teeth loosening. Despite that, I still managed to stand on my own two feet, but it didn’t last for long.

The Poison Thief put her free hand to her lips and then blew a kiss in my direction. Dark green gas came out of her mouth and flew towards me.

As the gas hit my face it smelled like spinach, mixed with broccoli. Instantly my body felt incredibly heavy and my bones seemed to have turned into an easily bendable substance no different than paper.

“W-what’s…happening…?”

While I was stumbling like a drunken man, the Poison Thief pointed at me while laughing her ass off.

“How’s that Null! That’s my special skill—Poison Magic: Venom Mist!”

“S-smells fuckin’ horrible!”

After I finished ranting, the Poison Thief got close to me in a matter of a second. My guard was completely down and the lady slashed her knife on me—twice. As the Poison Thief swung her dagger, glowing red rose metals were left behind. A huge “X” mark was left on the center of my body, bleeding profusely and burning with harsh and unforgivable pain.

I let out a shriek and fell over on my back. After I crashed onto the ground, the Poison Thief got on top of me. She grabbed my head and forced me to look at her.

“As punishment for calling me an “ugly bitch” I will drown your body in poison,” the Poisok Thief declared with a sinister smile. “Maybe your heart will flutter under the sweet kisses I will give you~…but in a matter of minutes your heart and all other internal organs will melt~…”

“N-no…”

I tried to move my head away but the Poison Thief kept me steady as she planted her lips onto mine. The two of us were engaged in a sloppy make-out session—well she was kissing me while I was groaning in agony.

The feeling of the poison entering my bloodstream felt like my body was thrown into magma. My cells were on fire and my vision was becoming more messed up than a canvas covered in an overflow of paint.

‘T-this can’t be…this can’t be how it ends! It just can’t…I…I haven’t become a Holy Knight yet! Somebody…somebody please—‘

Right as I was ready to cry, the make-out session between me and my enemy finally ceased. The reason why was that she turned into an ice statue, she was stuck in the ridiculous position of lying on me and puckering her lips.

I weakly lifted my eyes to see a new individual with a cold mist surrounding their body come into view. The moment I saw their face I knew immediately who they were.

It was an extremely handsome dude around the same age. His eyes were pure bright like diamonds and his his hair was bluish silver hair. He wore the same Elendria Academy uniform as me and Iris except his was blue and gold and he sported a blue cape with the silver emblem of a wolf’s head.

He was one of the five strongest students in the academy, Dante Wolfegang.

“It seems Miss Brimstone has taken a wrong turn,” Dante stated aloud. “I shall direct you to the right path.”

Dante walked over as he approached Iris who was still fighting the Caster of Shadows. I tried to call out to him but my voice failed me as I lost consciousness.

Darkness took me and I knew no more.