Zilna's powerful arms pulled him back, and the countless slices across his body began to ooze with thick blood.

It seemed their claws contained something that made blood thicken as the wounds quickly clotted, but he felt a sense of lethargy and burning pain from the wounds.

She didn't even waste time, as her arm slammed outwards, the sheer force of her Gigante's strength crushing several of the black monsters with a strange appearance as she dragged him to safety.

'Fuck, what's happening!?'

His vision was blurry, only the distorted heat from Zilna's palm keeping his mind slightly focused as the blood swirling around him shot out like bullets of blood penetrating the countless beasts that started to pour from the black dome.

"P....pull back..." He tried to order, but his lips were numb, and his tongue moved slowly, slurring his words.

Alexander couldn't pull his thoughts together as Zilna and Venri seemed to take action. At the same time, Anna guided the dark elves.

Her new keen eyes as a Vesta allowed her to see the parts of those weakest beasts as their volleys became tight, using fewer arrows, while one rushed around the battlefield and grabbed the undamaged arrows.

Luckily the arrows were made from a special alloy and were not melted by the blood of the beasts.

Anna aimed at two targets: A beast trying to reach them; and another in front of Venri, who had fallen backwards after being hit on the shoulder. The arrow flew straight into the eye socket of the first target, instantly killing it before flying off towards the second. It pierced through the soft flesh, hitting its spine, causing an instant death for both.

Since they first met, the two became like a team as Anna dashed forward, her body twisting and darting around the beasts and the knights fighting fiercely as she grabbed the shoulder of Venri, dragging her from the distorted maws of a beast, before kicking its neck, with a brutal crack causing the thing to collapse on the ground convulsing.

"Thanks, Ann!"

"No worries, Ven!"

The pair quickly separated as Venri joined Katrin, whose left arm was feebly hanging, with a huge gash oozing blood as her sword blocked the two beasts assaulting her.

Zilna still protecting the completely dazed Alexander, her powerful arm now holding a glaive as it slashed across the air, causing a booming howl, before tearing apart the beasts that approached; each time they killed one, the black light would restore their tired bodies and minds, but the fatigue of constantly fighting at full power was slowly lowering the amount they could recover with outside means.

He watched as Anna used magic, which caused some purple smoke to form over her hands. She then threw her hand forwards, creating a small orb of flame and throwing it down onto the creatures below her feet. A shockwave spread outwards when it landed, destroying all the nearby beasts. This gave the girls more breathing room.

But after casting it, the poor girl's face was pale, filled with beads of sweat.

'Why is my head so fucked... ugh... Even... I know you want to fight... but.... hmmm?'

Alexander thought Eien was vibrating to fight more. Still, he then realised she was sucking up all the black blood as if it was food... filled with an idea; he placed the sharp blade against his arm where most of the bite and claw wounds were, pushing the blade into the healing meat, grimacing as the wounds were sliced back open as blood poured from the wound.

"...Hnnnngggg..." His teeth gritted hard as the searing pain washed over him. But when the blood stopped flowing, his skin closed tightly and healed almost immediately.

Even though his head wasn't working properly, he knew that this was thanks to Eien, but something was strange; the moment she began to drink his blood, the blade seemed more animated and vibrated, almost as if she was enjoying some climax or extreme pleasure.

'Oh?'

He felt his mind clearing up only a few seconds after Eien's help, but the blade was excited as if dying to fight and kill, the blade glowing bright red, like those beam sabres in the space wars movies.

'Eien?'

"Zilna, go support Katrin and Venri! I am okay; I can counteract the strange venom; it seems to be sedating and affecting the neural system, be careful." Alexander commanded, as his eyes began to glow a bright red, matching the colour of Eien as the pair stepped forward once again; now the blood aura was only around Eien; he forced it to remain around her, even though the strange small dots tried their best to return to his body.

"Behave... protect Eien... I'll reward you if you keep her safe."

It was only a hunch, but the moment he said these words, the blood suddenly began to spiral and dance around Eien happily, as if they had conned him, the beautiful scene causing him to smile wryly as he dashed into the black dome, now knowing to avoid all attacks, he couldn't risk more damage to his beloved vesta and the dark elves who were fighting far harder than he thought.

He had no choice but to rely on Eien's power to devour the strange poison on their bodies, using the shadows cast by the fallen tree's to hide. As he did, he saw a different type of monster here.

They looked like humans but were covered in black scales, their skin looking leathery, with horns protruding from the sides of the skull. They also had long tails, with a single horn growing out of the end.

Those creatures seemed to control and order the beasts to attack and were the main enemy, not the actual beasts, who were somehow born from a strange black pool in the centre of the weird village.

Many of these lizard men surrounded the three girls, forcing them to retreat, while Alexander noticed that there were many more of the beasts than before. Still, he soon discovered that the girls were not human, elves or any race he had seen before, with strange black vines and flowers blooming from their bodies; they looked distressed; one of them still was partly green, as her weak eyes seemed to become cloudy as she saw Alexander's face.

Her mouth opened, and unable to speak, she mouthed the words.historical

"Please.... help my sisters.... please help us!"

At first, he didn't want to move, but then he began to think to himself, what kind of creature in his own worlds lore would have vines, grow flowers on their bodies and live inside a forest, especially a forest with elves?

'Dryad... Nymphs...!'

Alexander's body moved faster than his mind, the nodachi in a reverse grip, as he leapt into the air, twisting around to slice apart the two closest lizardmen from their crotch to their neck with a ferocious spinning slash.

With the remaining time, he jumped and twisted his way through the fray of beasts. In a matter of moments, he was able to cut down four more lizardmen before landing back on the ground.

After cutting off the heads of two others, he turned to see Anna struggling against the last beast; as the beast attacked with its claws, Anna dodged the blows, but her movements were slow.

A glance told him why: Venri's left arm hung limply, with a large gash running across it, as her right arm held her sword steady, blocking the beast's claw thrust. Her face was pale as she fought with all her might.

She stumbled back as she blocked the next blow, falling onto her butt.

Alexander was about to leap forward, but Zilna moved faster, and the lizard men recovered and lunged towards him with their crude black daggers and strange spears.

He didn't have the time to worry about his girls, as he began to nimbly rely on his extreme reflex speed, dodging their attacks with a serious face as the eyes of the dryad watched him, her eyes filled with a wet look, as her vines began to gather and wrap together, into a sharp point.

She screamed in rage as she swung the vine-like weapon upwards, catching one of the lizard men behind its head and impaling it deep. Then, with a twist, she tore out the creature's throat, sending it tumbling to the floor dead.

"Gaaaaaah!?"

Another spear struck her shoulder as she fell back, grunting as the spearhead dug deeper into her shoulder. With her free hand, she stabbed forwards, piercing through the heart of another beast before rolling away as another tried to tear at her throat.

Suddenly the lizardmen began to shout as the beast pulled back, giving Alexander a moment to lunge forward; Eien's blade filled with blood slicing through the air with a beautiful red arc, creating a pseudo blood moon behind his body, and he cleaved several of the lizardmen into chunks of dead flesh.

As the beast collapsed, he turned to see Anna still fighting.

Blood dripped from her shoulder as she blocked another strike before leaping forward and stabbing the beast in the chest, ripping out the lung with her dagger and sending the creature collapsing.

Alexander took the opportunity to jump over her and land between the other two girls. He ripped out his blade, using the momentum of his leap to spin round and stab downwards, severing the spine of a beast attacking Venri while simultaneously avoiding a spear thrust from the last lizardman, who had just finished hacking at Anna.

Venri was in trouble. She had lost a lot of blood, and the wound on her shoulder was bleeding heavily.

"Damn, you!"

The lizard man raised its spear above its head and brought it down towards her, but Anna was quick enough to dodge it.

Alexander didn't mess around as he launched his body onto the lizardman, pushing him to the floor, as his fists began to smash the face of the lizardman, unaware that the three beautiful girls were watching him, their black vines slowly forming cute flowers as they watched him with shining eyes, like a princess watching a hero fight the bad guys.

"Ahh, damn...!" Alexander roared as he smashed the creature's nose with his fist, breaking it into pieces. "Dare to hurt my cute girls!"

"I'm fine, Alexander!" Venri shouted as she pushed herself up, holding her wounded shoulder as she got up.

"You're not!"

His eyes widened as he saw her bloodied shoulder, as well as her left arm, quickly pressing Eien to the wound as she sucked out the disgusting black goo, as she fell into his arms, as he held her tightly against his chest, almost choking her, as she let out a sigh of delight and slight tear, never feeling so care for in her entire life. At the same time, the other girls quickly cleared the battlefield.

"Anna, use Eien to help the wounded girls; she can absorb the stuff from wounds."

"Also, Anna, you did amazingly today; I will give you a nice reward; think about what you want on the way home."

Alexander smiled warmly at the elf as Anna nodded eagerly, as the pair began to heal Venri, who was already beginning to feel better.

The young warrior was exhausted, but his eyes showed no sign of weakness or fatigue; he was too strong, like a machine.

In a matter of minutes, Venri's wound was completely healed.

Katrin stood up, her armour dented and scratched but otherwise undamaged. The three girls helped each other, bandaging their wounds as Alexander finally turned his attention to the three girls.

"Thanks for helping me. You saved us. Thank you."

The trio bowed politely, their faces gratified; Alexander was surprised they spoke his language but then realised their lips were moving differently to their voices, like a badly dubbed movie.

"Do you have anywhere to go?" Alexander asked.

"Our forest is gone..."

"No home..."

"Go with mister?"

"Yes."

"We are grateful, mister!"

All three girls hugged him tight as tears formed in their eyes.

Then, suddenly, he heard a loud rumble, followed by the sound of cracking trees. A huge shadow passed overhead and landed nearby, making everyone flinch as the ground shook violently underfoot, sending roots and stones flying.

And then came a giant beast, easily twice the size of a rhinoceros. It stomped but easily passed them as it headed to the north, far away, as if those lizardmen were also keeping that beast from returning home.

'Somehow, I collected some strange dryad girls.'