"Damn it." Xavier said as his body had minor burns all over it, and his clothes....they weren't completely burned to ash. The monster stood up, breathing heavily as it's skin was scorched as well, evidence that it's attack hurt it as well. The monster roared loudly, when suddenly something hit it in the back of the head, knocking it to it's knees.
"I'm here too asshole." Mickey said, as the Diabolic Imp got to it's feet and glared at him.
The monster kicked off the ground, and flew into the sky, circling around them.
"How the hell are we gonna get it down?" Xavier asked as he picked up his second dagger, but his hand trembled as the burns hurt, but he ignored it.
"Don't know, but we need to hurry up before anymore of them come along." Mickey said as he picked up his shield. The creature growled and threw fireballs towards them, and they quickly dodged. At this distance, the fireballs weren't fast enough to actually hit them, especially Xavier. Realizing this, the monster dived towards them, it's claws opened and ready to rip them to shreds.
'That's convenient.' Xavier thought as he ran towards the Diabolic Imp. The two of them met seconds later, and the monster swung it's claws at him, and he slid under it's body. He stabbed his daggers into it's stomach, dragging a long wound across his body, painting his body with blue blood. The monster screamed in pain, trying to cover it's wounds as it flew forward and looked at Xavier with a glare, before looking forward again.
*Bang*
Mickey delivered a powerful shield strike to the monster's face. The monster was sent sailing across the ground, before crashing into a broken building. The creature struggled to get up, when a dagger struck it in the chest, and then another struck it in the otherside of it's chest. The monster coughed up blood, as it's life slowly drained from it, and the two humans that defeated it walked towards it.
"Huh, that was a lot easier than I thought." Mickey said as he walked towards it.
"The only reason you can say that is because you didn't get burned or launched into a wall." Xavier said as he plucked his daggers out of the dead monster. Most of his burn wounds have healed, but his clothes were still mostly destroyed.
"We should go check up on Maria." Mickey said
"You go ahead, and I'll carve out this thing's monster stone." Xavier said, and Mickey looked at him for a moment before leaving. Xavier started the gruesome work of carving out the Diabolic Imp's monster stone. He then went after Mickey, and soon found everyone outside the dungeon, surrounding Maria, who was breathing heavily with a terrible burn in her stomach.
"We need to get her back to the Sanctuary." Mickey said as he looked at Maria
"How, we don't have enough monster stones?" Rosie asked
"We have enough for five persons, six if you count the Aquatic Dwellers' monster stones. The real problem here is the fact that the guards kill prisoners that are severely injured." Xavier said, and Mickey's eyes widened.
"So we keep her here in the forest until she recovers." Mickey said
"That could take days, and we can't stay here when night comes." Bella said scared and Mickey glared at her angrily
"Then what do we do!!" He said
"The same thing I did when you were injured, make them an offer they can't refuse." Xavier said and Rosie looked at him with a frown
"What kind of offer?" Rosie asked
"Currently, we have two things to bargain with, the river and these Diabolic Imp. I'm not inclined to tell them about the river since they can easily go back on the deal once they discover it. But these new imps, they are definitely bargain worthy." Xavier said with a smile and they looked at him confused
"How so?" Anna said
"You guys remember what Tsubasa told Maria, about the Warden basing the tax off the ranks of the monsters. I'm guessing the higher the rank, the more points they get for them, but evidently, the stronger the monsters are as well, which is why they didn't ask for like ten imp monster stones, although I bet they wanted to. These Diabolic Imp's are E+ rank, which probably means that they give more points. So, if we can promise the Warden five of them everyday, I'm sure he would probably assure Maria's safety." Xavier said, and everyone, except Mickey and Maria who was unconscious, paled in horror.
"You want us to hunt five of those monstrosities every day, you must be insane!! As much as I like Maria, I'm not doing that!! The Sisterhood will have no part in a deal like that!!" Rosie refused vehemently and Mickey glared at her while Xavier's eyes went cold for a moment, before going back to normal and he shrugged.
"That's fine, Mickey and I will deal with it. We just need you to make sure Maria is safe." Xavier said
"That we'll do." Rosie said, and Mickey picked up Maria in his hands. They then walked back to the Sanctuary in silence, which took them around an hour.
"Halt." The guard said when Xavier walked forward, his entire body covered in blue blood, and pointed his gun at him.
"Hey, do you mind if we talk to the Warden? It's urgent." He said, raising his hands, and the guard laughed
"Who are you to ask for the Warden kid?" The guard asked and Xavier shrugged
"It doesn't matter who I am, just what I know. Tell him that I found a new type of monster, a stronger kind, and something called a dungeon." Xavier said and the guard thought for a second
"Relay it to me and I'll tell him." The guard said, and Xavier smiled, which looked creepy considering he was covered in blood.
"I think the Warden would rather hear it from me." He said