Meanwhile, Rei and her party are still looking out for Shokei and Antoinette. Finding their friends is no-easy task as they already had their first encounter in the forest.

  "Shokei..." Rei calls out to her allies in the forest. "Antoinette...where are you two?"

  The look on Rei's face shows that she appears to be in fear and anxious, not knowing what may have happened to them.

  "We should find them." Tamiko said to Rei. "Try not to panic."

  "I know, I know." Rei said to her. "I just hope that they don't wind up dead as Antoinette mentioned a while back."

  "Then again, we need to keep our eyes in check for anything that can come towards us." Saeko said to everyone.

  "Huh?" Marie looks up and notices someone coming from above. "Look out!"

  The party looks up and sees a figure swooping down with a huge sword at them. The party steps out of the way as the weight of the sword came down hard, thrusting to the ground. This stunning moment caused the whole group to stop in their tracks. The figure stands up to take a tight grip with the sword and without warning, swings its sword against the party.

  Rei and her party avoid the sword and prepare themselves to fight. With their weapons out, the figure stood there and rests its sword on its right shoulder. Neither side made a move, and, in a few minutes, the figure thrusts his sword on the ground. For some reason, the enemy did not want to fight and does not pose a threat to the party anymore. Rei gets her party's attention to withdrew from facing off the unknown warrior and revert to their normal positions.

  "You freak! Who are you?" Marie yelled at the figure.

  The figure appears to be a humanoid wolf with looks of an adventurer. He appears to have an athletic build and has almond-shaped hooded bck eyes that are like two dark pits. With a spike-down blue hair, the figure smiles with two small canine teeth.

  "Who are you guys?" the spiked-haired wolfman asked the party.

  The party looks at each other first until Rei stands up to him.

  "The names Rei and this is my group here." Rei introduced herself. "Who are you?"

  "The names Obsidian," the wolfman mentions his name.

  "Obsidian...fair enough." Marie agreed with the name.

  "O...k," Rei crosses her hands and asked. "Why the hell would you attack us in the first pce?!"

  "Are you part of a group of bandits?!" Saeko asked and yelled at him.

  "Absolutely not..." Obsidian replied to the party and shakes his head. "It appears I have made a mistake for striking down at you all. I am a mere traveler and never align with any bandit nor cn ever."

  "What's the real reason for attacking us then?" Rei asked with concern.

  "It was my fault for doing that against you." Obsidian said. "I look down and thought you were that notorious cn, Bloodstrike. Instead, you are young beings that are not monsters to my eyes. I apologize if I was going too far."

  "You don't look like a threat...but I do accept your apology." Rei said to him with a nod.

  "Where are you all heading off to and why?" Obsidian asked the party.

  "So noisy..." Marie said, looking off at a direction.

  "Hey now." Rei nudged her. "Show respect, will you?"

  Obsidian waited for a response.

  "We are on a lookout for our missing friends." Rei tells the wolfman. "One of our allies is a Princess."

  "A princess..." Obsidian said, listening to this.

  "Yep." Rei said. "I believe you happen to know this cn, Bloodstrike, right?"

  "I do actually," expined Obsidian. "What I know, Bloodstrike really has a case of sensitivity when travelers come in this territory. You see, their detection is strong, and they can set traps for their victims to be lost and luring their victims in surprise without warning. The cn is known for kidnapping and then they use their victims for human sacrifices."

  "Human...sacrifices?" Sadako asked with concern.

  "What kind of enemies are we dealing with here?" Rei asked him.

  "We are talking about vicious looking lizard men." Obsidian replied. "These strange beings look for hunger and eating human flesh."

  "Ewww! Creepy!" Marie shuttered.

  "Then that means Shokei and Antoinette are the prey." Rei said. "Those two are in danger!"

  "We got to save them before it's too te!" Marie said with a worried look.

  "Do you happen to know where this Bloodstrike's territory is hiding?" Saeko asked.

  "Bloodstrike's bass is found somewhere near the mountains in this forest." replied Obsidian. "By heading northeast from here, we would have to search out for their hideout in order to rescue your friends."

  "If you have an idea on where the hideout is, then lead the way for us." Rei tells him.

  "No problem! It'll be a pleasure to help you guys." Obsidian said with a smile.

  "That big sword of yours would be useful to getting around this pce." Tamiko said, staring at his weapon.

  "Let's...not hurt the trees, ok?" Marie pleaded.

  "No no! Not what you think silly!" Tamiko joked.

  "We should get going." Rei tells the party. "Let's head on out!"

  "I will say this." Obsidian said, walking on the road. "It will take us a long trip to this hideout."

  "In other words, this is a huge forest, right?" Rei asked him.

  "Exactly." Obsidian replied.

  Everyone heads northeast which is the direction they are going.

  Nighttime falls over at the Great Forest. Shokei and Antoinette are still prisoners inside Bloodstrike's cell. Right now, the girls can overhear voices that are coming outside from the small window above. The conversation sounds like a meeting and there was an appuse.

  "Hahaha! I am pleased to announce one of my fellow members of Bloodstrike to the stand!" the leader of the cn, Kod speaks out.

  Not able to see what was going on outside, Shokei looks around and there she finds a small hole on the wall. She peeks to see what was happening. There, she sees a group of lizard men in bandit gear outfits and there she can see one of the members of Bloodstrike standing next to Kod.

  "This is the brother that led his group successfully capturing two precious victims of ours." Kod speaks to the cn group. "One of the victims we have captured is very special, which is none other than the Princess of Senwald! I congratute you, Anozaxon, for the diversion you caused on those wretched travelers."

  The Bloodstrike cn cheered for their member with praise. Shokei looks to see the member received his award for his achievement.

  "Hey!" one of the Bloodstrike members speaks out. "What are we're going to do to our victims?"

  "I know! We'll kill them!" another member suggested.

  "Better than that!" said a third. "Let's torture them by giving them maltreatment and kill them!"

  "Sounds great!" another cn member agreed. "Why not we do that to our victims now?!"

  "Not so fast!" Kod shouts out to his members. The group turns their attention to him. "I bet that those other travelers are looking out for their friends. We shall deal with them first...that is if they come across our turf!"

  The cn agreed.

  Shokei and Antoinette listened to the sounds from the cn. Already, learning on what was going to happen, Shokei moves away from the hole.

  "I have a grim feeling that they're going to do something to us." Shokei said. "Whatever it is, it does not appear to be pretty."

  "...oh no..."

  Antoinette felt scared and felt afraid of what might happen to her soon. Shokei looks into the princess's eyes, and she can see her being nervous and frightened of the danger that she and her are into.

  "Look," Shokei, taking a breath, and said, "I know how you feel about this, but I told you not to worry too much."

  "You...yes, you said it before...and...ugh, I don't know..." Antoinette buried her face.

  "Control yourself or they'll hear you crying." Shokei tells her, moving in close. "We need to figure out where this is all going."

  Antoinette did her best to remain calm and she gets close to Shokei. Holding her close, Shokei rubbed her back to comfort her, making her fear ease down. She looks up at the window and all she could see is the moon shining while the trees are covering the view.

  Rei...everyone...I hope all of you come to our rescue..., Shokei thought.