Ersia: Raven Dawn

All the colors and vibrating lines make Randia feel nauseous. All the loud noises, inexplainable emotions, and hardly complete sketches of figures filled his sight. However, he managed to narrow it down by paying more attention to the uncommon ones. Because, luckily, in the middle of a city that just had a colorful festival, ruffled souls are quite distinct from the others.

Alas, even then, he couldn't find anyone who might be Lisabelle in a kilometer radius. Hence, he moved to another location. After a few attempts, Randia unknowingly arrived at the dilapidated area of the city. Every alley smells like trouble, and there are a lot of murky souls despite the upcoming festival. Grim as it may, it's all the more reason for Randia to see even more thoroughly.

After almost half an hour of the arduous task of staring into myriads of souls, he finally finds some readings that match the description by height, although weirdly, there are a lot of them clumping within a single place. When Randia gets closer to the place, he can hear a girl's screaming from one of the shady alleys.

"Come on! Get up! This is what you want, right?!"

Randia couldn't be more surprised the moment he arrived at the spot. He expected a girl teared up, not one bathed in blood splatters. There, he saw six teenagers lying on the ground roughed up and three more standing at quite a distance. Even when he arrived, the girl didn't stop bashing the skull of an unconscious young man into the nearby wall repeatedly.

The girl herself is not unscathed. Her left eye is swelling so big to the point that it looks as if the eye is hiding behind a chunk of bread. Her whole body is full of cuts and bruises, especially her knuckles. The collar of her blouse is torn all the way to her right elbow, and her skirt is no better. She looks terrible, though not as awful as the men she dealt with.

"D-Damn you, Lisabelle! You know you won't get away with this, you leftover scum! My father will-!"

"Try me, Lucas. I'll do the same to your father, and your mother, and your sister, and your baby brother. After that, I'll go unearth your grandfather and take a leak on his bones."

"Tsk! You! What did I pay you for?! Go there and fuck her up!"

Lucas, the blonde young man in a purple tunic pushed his last two men forward. The two men reluctantly stepped forward as they were drenched in sweat. The moment they saw what happened to his fellow muscles for hire from up close, one of them decided to take out his blackjack knife. This surprises everyone, even Lucas himself.

"A-Are you guys nuts?! I'm not paying you for a murder!"

"Shut it, dammit! I'm not going to end up like those idiots! I'll show her that I mean business!"

After he said that, the other guy also pulled out his blade. They are really out for the kill.

"You are fucking crazy! Do what you want! We don't know each other!"

Lucas fled from the scene alone as his two henchmen stayed. Meanwhile, Lisabelle took a step back and crouched. She grabbed two empty beer bottles that were lying on the nearby ground. It reeks of piss, but she had no other choice.

Then, the two men rushed at Lisabelle towing their knives. In retaliation, Lisabelle throws the two bottles in such exceptional timing that they crash one another in the air right before her enemies' faces. The crashing bottle turns into glass splinters. One of the men was able to dodge right on time, while the other had the glass pieces pierced into the skin of his face and even his eye.

Now that Lisabelle only needs to focus on one of them, she grabs another bottle by the neck and smacks it to the wall, shattering it apart. She now has sharp parts on her bottle in an effort to slightly make it a fair fight. They finally duke it out and went for each other's neck. Lisabelle, being partially blinded on the left side is put at a disadvantage as her enemy keeps aiming for that blind spot.

As they swung around for almost half a minute, it became clear that Lisabelle was losing. Cuts after cuts are engraved in her body, and the next cut always gets deeper than the previous ones. Thus, she stepped back to create some distance.

"Tsk . . ."

"Hah! Not so cocky anymore, aren't you?! Come now, I'll cut off your limbs and rape you half-dead!"

"Huft-Huft . . . Shut the trap. Your mouth stinks."

After a while, Lisabelle made up her mind. She will make a big gamble that might cost her her life and dash as fast as she can to close the distance.

"You're dead!"

As the man lunges his knife forward, aiming at Lisabelle's chest, the girl suddenly switches her stance and crashes the entirety of her shoulder with the knife in full force.

"Ugh . . . !"

The pain is untold to her as the knife sinks deep into every fiber of her left shoulder's muscles. However, she has no time to dwell on the stinging sensation as she must bear it to land her final counterattack. Then, with all her strength he swings the broken bottle towards the man's solar plexus. It's a certain kill this time, and there's no way she will miss it as her left hand is grabbing the man's belt to make sure he can't get away.

"Enough."

Randia stepped between them and stopped Lisabelle's hand. To his surprise, her swing was a little stronger than he expected, and the broken bottle ended up only grazing the man's skin. Then, he grasped the man's hand until the bones cracked and he released the grip of his knife while screaming in pain. He also pushes Lisabelle back until she is dropped on the ground.

"B-Bastard! Who are you?!"

Without even answering the question, Randia sends swift and powerful blows to his liver and nape simultaneously, instantly knocking him unconscious. Then, he walked towards the other guy who was still aching in pain with the splinters of glass in one of his eyes.

"You. Take care of this mess and forget about today. Don't even think of getting close to the girl ever again."

The last henchman lifts his head to see Randia in the eyes. Realizing how big, tall, and bulky Randia was, he quickly understood that he stood no chance against him.

"Y-Yes, Sir. Thank you for sparing me."

Randia walked back to Lisabelle. Seeing how badly wounded she is makes him want to take her away and give her the necessary treatment immediately. However, before he even has the chance to talk to her, Lisabelle already points the broken bottle at him, albeit with a wobbly hand.

"Huft . . . Huft . . . Damn it, you're huge. Are you the boss? Do you want a piece of me also? Come then, let's get this over with."

"I come for your grandmother, Eleanor."

"You come . . . for my grandmother?"

Unfortunately, Randia's choice of words is so bad, and his intention is misread by Lisabelle. She turns very angry and immediately jumps at him swinging wildly.

"How dare you?! How dare you?! You couldn't take me down and now you are dragging her into this?! I'll fucking kill you even if it's going to be the last thing I do!"

Realizing how stupid he was, Randia feels so ashamed. After dodging some more of her swings, Randia grabbed Lisabelle and tried to restrain her. However, she struggled so hard and even bites a chunk of his hand till it bleeds quite severely.

"Calm yourself, Lisabelle. It came out wrong, but you must trust me that I'm not your enemy. I'm here to take you back to your grandmother."

Lisabelle stopped after a while, and the place turned quiet. Feeling that the girl has calmed down a little and returned to her senses, Randia lessens his strength. When everything seemed to be falling in place, suddenly, the girl cried in his embrace.

"Just do whatever you want to me. But please leave grandma alone. She's the only one I have," she whimpers softly.

Not long after, Lisabelle fell unconscious due to extreme exhaustion, and also the fact that Randia put a spell on her as he touched her hair, similar to what he did to Viena. Afterward, Randia took her away, and they vanished into the end of the alley.