*Starting Scene*

With the focus on the alley Ilya and Mark resided in not long ago, a gold blast creates a shock-wave that shakes the whole area while brimming out of every possible opening the pathway has to offer after a furious female voice powerfully declared, "Burst Explosion!" This is immediately followed by a dashing Ilya, who had regain possession of her staff via her left hand since the other continues to be a bit hurt, as she wisely made separation between herself and the alley while the gold outline that temporarily encased her body fades away. Simultaneously, the hazel-eyed beauty steers her head to the left to glance at the brilliant essence of light that's relentlessly fluctuating incredible winds and is suddenly found under gunfire. As a result, Ilya haphazardly weaves her body to evade the barrage of bullets while thinking, "What in the world?! How does he manage to shoot through an explosion?! Are the guns and their bullets magic-based items that can withstand severe damage?! That's the only way I can think they could do what they're doing!" She then switches her concentration to the left and sprints in that direction as she thinks, "Better question! How's he still alive?! Isn't he supposed to be human?!"

The gold explosion gradually dies down, displaying a decently burned Mark as his Hunting Rifle's poised forth and is breathing excessively with an undeterred behavior while unable to see where Ilya's located. "Run, my delicious morsel! The chase is always my favorite part! It makes me crave you more!"

The bony Nemesis associate gags out blood after doing his best to keep his eyes open and mumbles out of slight irritation, "Fuck... Blowing up in my face like that was a big surprise. Sure, I'm not a stranger to women lashing out at me 'cause of my over-the-top, sexual advances, but I've never had one do it THAT way." Mark weakly laughs as he tries to get out of the practically incinerated alley without diverting his weapon's aim.

Soon enough, Ilya witnesses Mark emerge from the alley, halting her running to face the gunner from his left, while quite relieved by the fact that her spell indeed had affected the opponent, however, remains a little wary and thinks, "He's in bad shape at the moment. I'm assuming he merely survived thanks to me performing Burst Explosion without my staff." The white-haired girl lifts her staff toward her midsection, grasps it with her vaguely injured right hand as she maintains her left hand's hold near the bottom and points the light blue gem at Mark while continuing her thought process. "I'll bring this to a swift end with one more Burst attack!" The gem atop of Ilya's staff, surrounded by the pair of dancing, golden rings, greatly shines and is about to send an energy blast.

Sadly for Ilya, Mark doesn't intend on losing yet as he suddenly commandeers his Hunting Rifle at the accessory-endowed teenager, and with amazing accuracy, shoots the illuminating gem right in the center, which causes Ilya to stagger back because of the sheer force behind the projectile while rendered awestruck. Once he does that, the cropped-haired man smirks in delight and hurriedly launches three more rounds at Ilya.

Ilya's reaction lags a tad and barely draws her staff horizontally to repel the lead bullet hurling straight at her abdomen with the other two measly striking the Spellcaster's thighs, partially crippling her for the time being, as she drops to her knees following a gentle cry escaping Ilya's lips while having her eyes shut. After that, the staff-wielding individual lowers her head to check the condition of her legs, persevering through the stinging pain ailing her, with the golden weapon softly mounted on Ilya's lap. It takes the young lady less than a second to notice the tiny sum of blood seeping out of the wound and faintly mutters, "Two more grazes..." Ilya painstakingly returns her attention to Mark with some frustration evident. "But they really hurt!"

Mark, retaining his gun's barrel directed at Ilya, chuckles a little with his balance momentarily faltering due to the excruciating agony he's suffering and steadily advances toward the fair-skinned dame while exhibiting confidence. "If you wanna' talk about hurt, I'm your guy! The man you see before you is no novice to pain!"

Ilya scowls at Mark as a hint of annoyance joins her frustration. "And you're telling me this because...?!"

Mark joyously smiles while an evil gleam resonates in his brown eyes and finishes Ilya's sentence. "I'm a kinky motherfucker! The best meal I love to ravish is one that's beaten into a pulp and beats me back in every sense of the phrase!"

Disgusted by Mark's statement, Ilya pulls her head back with a gasp held back as the white-haired person irritably comments, "Ewww, you pig!"

Mark retaliates to Ilya's insult by steering the Hunting Rifle's butt ahead with roughly a meter of space keeping them apart, stands sideways via his left foot toward the hazel-eyed Spellcaster and heartlessly rams his weapon into Ilya's face while profoundly enraged. "Who are you calling a pig, vermin?!"

The back of Ilya's head slams upon the street, sending a tremendous quantity of pain all over her body, while lying motionless on her back with the accessory-wearing girl's eyes closed again after both legs unraveled during the sharp jerking of her being and are stretched underneath Mark as the gold staff stays plopped over Ilya's lap.

Meanwhile, Mark contorts forward since he couldn't take the strain of his recent action, showing that his circumstance isn't much better off, as he glares at the ground as the Hunting Rifle's lightly raised above his head via both hands. "It's the same thing with every Spellcaster we've met! You all have the nerve to look down on humans when it's supposed to be the other way around!" The beige-haired male sets his sight back on Ilya while properly pointing the rifle's nozzle at the adversary. "You're the monsters! Our kind was here first, so just crawl up into a ball, get used by us and die!" Mark gets ready to shoot as he narrows his eyes.

Ilya's boots gingerly make contact with Mark's legs prior to the teenager snapping her eyes open to concentrate her vision onto the enemy as her face's kind of bruised up while emitting a courageous demeanor and radiates a gold outline once more. "Burst!"

Mark's legs are promptly blasted by the energy, making the Nemesis affiliate uncontrollably fall forward due to lack of balance while even more pain consumes him and accidentally fires his rifle in the process.

Fortunately, thanks to Mark not managing to sustain his aim, the bullet skims Ilya's right cheek and crashes into the earthy terrain. Following that, Ilya lifts her right leg toward herself as Mark keeps on falling, and before permitting the cropped-haired man to land on her, passionately says, "Here! I learned this from my friend Trace! I hope you like it! Burst Kick!" She ferociously plants the sole of her right boot onto Mark's face while the gold energy overruns the whole head and sends the brown-eyed human skyward a tad. Right after that, Ilya strives to get to her feet with her right foot mounted on the ground next to her left foot, both hands fiercely gripping the staff as its gem's positioned forth again, and intently observes the now downed Mark.

Mark lies on his back with his Hunting Rifle's nozzle stuck into the earthly street eight meters above him as the rest of it protrudes upward and then attempts to regain his composure while watching Ilya in an outraged manner. "Bitch!" The bony human turns over so he can rest on his stomach and desperately crawls to his weapon without much use of his legs since they've been rendered useless. "Death is too good for you now!" Mark profusely coughs while blood spreads on top of the ground's surface as his left eye's presently shut, momentarily ceases his journey to the rifle and speaks in a moderately exhausted voice. "I was gonna' fuck you... And then kill you, but that's not enough anymore...! No, I'm gonna' shoot your limbs off and... Make you my sex slave...!" He resumes crawling with just three meters dividing him from the Hunting Rifle. "I don't give a fuck... How much of a hassle it'll be... Trying to keep... You're ass alive...! That cunt of yours... Will make up for this shit... You did to me!"

Just when Mark reached the upright weapon, Ilya appears toward his right as she continuously emanates the gold energy throughout her body and callously jams the bottom of her staff atop the brown-eyed henchman's right hand, pinning it to the ground, via her left hand while coldly watching the Nemesis member.

That uncaring action causes Mark to yelp in pain with his eyes temporarily squinting and barely utters out of anger, "Vermin...!"

Ilya scoffs while applying more pressure on Mark's entrapped hand without really changing her personality. "My name's Ilya, asshole! Ilya Henseka! You either respect it or get blasted over and over! Your choice!"

Stunted by Ilya's proclamation, Mark can only look at Ilya with distress as nearly all of his strength has left him and faintly grits his teeth.

Ilya's staff immensely glows while the hairband-wearing beauty retains her intensity. "Your silence isn't an acceptable answer! Burst!"

A gold blast instantly transgresses upon Mark's pinned hand, hurriedly scorches it as the cropped-haired person throws his head back with massive discomfort notable and frantically screams.

Ilya refuses to stop terrorizing Mark and talks with discontent in her tone. "I don't believe in killing people, but I'm so annoyed that I keep getting perverts as enemies lately! I feel like I'm in a endless loop and I want it to stop already!"

Mark haphazardly moves around in the effort to break free as he foolishly grabs Ilya's staff with his left hand to assist, however, that limb quickly begins to experience the same torture and is currently stuck in a life-threatening predicament.

Ilya's highly enraged by Mark's actions while mildly bending her posture down. "You better wise-up or you'll be the first!"

Mark halts his screaming, valiantly glares at Ilya with bloodshot eyes and screams out in a ragged voice, "FUCK YOU! I'LL NEVER GIVE UP, ESPECIALLY TO A FUCKING SPELLCASTER!" The bony Caucasian cocks his head back again after shutting his eyes as he cries in pain.

Ilya, unable to stand what's occurring in front of her, finally removes the gold staff from Mark's restrained appendage as she had to forcefully yank the battered human's left hand off because of how firm his grip was. Not even a couple of seconds later, the accessory-endowed girl witnesses Mark lose consciousness and slumps to the street with fragile breathing escaping his mouth. Then, Ilya makes her staff vanish as she observes Mark while feeling a sense of loss, swings her body to the left since that's the direction the hazel-eyed teen was originally headed and calmly leaves Mark alone without saying anything else.

*Scene Change*

The sound of the wind is all that can be heard at the moment as Sano, who had straightened his head from its slanted posture, and Ryan stay on top of the roof they were last seen, each's back facing the other's without either of them looking at their adversary, while awaiting for an opportunity to arise.

Nearly a minute passes like this until Sano vaguely removes the end of Ruyi Jingu Bang that was resting on the roof with a knowing grin visible.

Because of that mere action, Ryan hurriedly stands sideways with his left foot toward Sano while fully extending his left arm outward as his right arm's poised across in front of his chest, both Carbine Rifles aimed at the black-haired boy's backside, and releases a volley of shots.

In response, Sano swiftly twirls Ruyi Jingu Bang between his right hand's fingers and positions it behind himself to deflect the oncoming projectiles without deviating his gaze from what's ahead of him. After managing that, the golden-eyed young man chuckles as his staff continues rotating, however, is soon greeted by Ryan's presence that's barely a meter away while still in the same position and attempts to jam his guns into the staff's path so he can launch another round with no interruption. It takes less than a second for Sano to react as he adjusts his footing enough to swerve his body around in a pendulum motion, causing the tanned teenager to face Ryan while keeping Ruyi Jingu Bang behind himself, with his head down quite a bit and cheerfully comments, "You're fast!"

Not mindlessly shooting his Carbine Rifles, Ryan sternly peers at Sano with both arms remaining stretched toward his left, however, are pointed over the staff-wielding gentleman's head due to his lowered composition as he smoothly says, "So are you, but I wonder..." The beige-haired man torques his hands downward to aim the pair of Carbine Rifles at Sano's face without moving his arms. "Who's faster?"

With that, two shots are fired in unison and are headed toward Sano's face, however, missed thanks to the jacket-wearing boy pulling his head back and to the left side. Once he does that, the spiky-haired individual spins himself in a clockwise motion while ceasing Ruyi Jingu Bang's rotation to hold it near opposite ends after horizontally placing the weapon over his lower back and tries to strike Ryan's stomach considering the Nemesis affiliate remains standing sideways.

Ryan doesn't allow that to happen though, since his right arm was just above his abdomen, and parries the attack via the rifle in his right hand hitting Ruyi Jingu Bang's end that was the closest.

Because of that, Sano tilts to his right, having been thrown off balance a little by his assault's deflection with his back turned to Ryan, while urgently thinking, "Not good!"

The reason for that thought was due to Sano knowing real well that Ryan would take advantage of his precarious situation, which the purple-eyed male did by planting his left Carbine Rifle onto the teenage boy's left temporal region while stating with a sense of triumph dwelling within, "Looks like I am."

Just as Ryan pulled the trigger, Sano leaps back, despite how his positioning was, and successfully dodges the bullet that instantly crashed into the roof, leaving a tiny, smoldered impression. Having done that, the golden-eyed person agilely does several handsprings, maintaining at least one of his hands upon Ruyi Jingu Bang during the process, until positioning himself closely to the building's front edge while facing Ryan with his orange staff mounted behind his neck via both hands back to where they were previously and rebuttals somewhat casually, "Don't be jumping to conclusions. This fight's only getting started, so the question of who's faster will stay unanswered for a while."

Ryan looks right at Sano with both hands dropped and demonstrates a hint of skepticism. "You think so? Well, that won't change who'll be victorious. Logically speaking, that'll be me."

Sano cocks his head westward, curiosity taking over. "In what way is that logical?"

Confidence emanates from Ryan as he methodically opens and closes the fingers around his rifle's handles without losing his grip on them thanks to his index finger gently residing atop the trigger while his thumb insures the two weapon's placement from the other side. "Isn't it clear? My guns give me a long-range means of attack. That means I don't even need to consider narrowing the gap between us, ever. You, on the other hand, use a staff that's just good for close or mid-range combat." He softly laughs prior to placing his left hand on his cowboy hat to slant it backwards a tad while retaining his grasp on the left Carbine Rifle. "For that alone, logic dictates that I'll win."

Sano raises his left eyebrow and gives off an amused attitude. "Are you really trying to use logic in a world full of extraordinary things? I would've never seen that coming."

Ryan's fairly confused by Sano's words while taking his left hand off his hat, but has it lifted to the level of his left shoulder. "What?"

Sano removes Ruyi Jingu Bang from behind his neck, keeping a nice grip of it in his right hand while temporarily having his left hand away from the staff, as he expands his right arm outward to his side with his orange weapon becoming an extension of his limb. After accomplishing that, the tanned young man brings his left foot forward, slides his right foot backwards, puts his left hand under his right hand to firmly hold Ruyi Jingu Bang as well and promptly swings it a bat while fervently yelling out, "Extend!"

Upon Sano's command, Ruyi Jingu Bang stretches to a remarkable length and effortlessly reaches Ryan's distance, who was originally uncertain of what the black-haired gentleman was doing, but now is completely surprised by the staff's unprecedented change. Before Ruyi Jingu Bang made contact with his face, the Nemesis personnel jerks his left hand that kept on being raised to shoot the staff in the hope of derailing its trajectory. Unfortunately for him, that didn't even delay Ruyi Jingu Bang as it slams onto Ryan's left cheek and hurls him toward his right, making the long-haired man lose his cowboy hat, while hitting the roof multiple times in a very painful way. Eventually, Ryan flies off the building he and Sano stood atop of for quite some time prior to harshly face-planting on the next one while skidding along it briefly with both feet in the air until halting.

As Ryan lies down unceremoniously while releasing a disgruntled groan, Sano nonchalant hops to the building with his staff lowered, having reverted back to its usual size, and is only held in his right hand. Then, the jacket-endowed boy walks up to Ryan as he twirls Ruyi Jingu Bang back and forth while leisure talking. "Get why I said it? My Ruyi's a Magical Item like your guns, but with one major difference that doesn't include its length changing ability." Sano stops a couple of meters behind Ryan, who has yet to budge an inch. "You wanna' now what?"

Ryan puts both hands on opposite sides of his head to assist him in getting up and does so without much strain as he sustains possession of his Carbine Rifles. After doing that, the Caucasian stands upright with his right hand placed on the side of his neck nearest to the appendage, cracks it while still facing away from Sano and replies in an uninterested tone. "I'm assuming you'd tell me 'cause it won't affect our fight, so I'll respond by saying that I don't care." Ryan slowly directs himself toward Sano, his handsome face scratched up and red due to the collision with the roof's tough surface, as an intense glare is present. "I will say this much though. You proved that logic could be horrendously wrong. Now, I'll have to fight you more seriously."

Excitement consumes Sano as the golden-eyed teenager spins Ruyi Jingu Bang around via both hands while taking several steps back to create space and then points one end at Ryan after positioning the orange staff toward his left. "I'm glad to hear that!"

Ryan chuckles menacingly while gradually pulling his right hand from his neck. "You won't feel that way for long." The purple-eyed Nemesis affiliate slightly reduces his height as he navigates both arms behind himself with the duo Carbine Rifles' barrel pointed downward. "You mentioned the word EXTRAORDINARY before, right? It's funny that you did. In the gang I'm a part of, called Nemesis, there's three who fit that category in my opinion. They're Isiah, Ed and myself." Ryan sneers a bit. "In reality, the leader of our group isn't anything special. He just has the ambition needed for us to kill off all Spellcasters, hence why we follow him. If I had met his older brother Nash instead, I'm pretty sure I would've sided with him."

Hearing Nash's name being said causes Sano to become quite astonished until innocently asking while cocking his head to the left, "Are you referring to a guy with a mean killing streak, messed up personality and liked using chained weapons?"

Ryan narrows his eyes out of suspicion without switching his stance. "That was awfully precise and accurate. You must've met him."

Sano nervously smirks and repairs his head. "Dude, I killed him."

Disbelief overcomes Ryan, his eyes profoundly widening. "Preposterous! Unlike Bash, Nash has real potential! Trash like you could never kill him!" The beige-haired individual gets very mad while gritting his teeth and unexpectedly arrives a couple of inches from Sano before furiously shouting, "I won't accept that!" Ryan steers his arms toward Sano, not allowing much of a gap for his opponent, and relentlessly fires.

Sano hastily plants an end of Ruyi Jingu Bang upon the roof and says in an ordering voice, "Extend!" He's then elevated to the air, barely avoiding Ryan's attack, while staring down at the enemy with a faintly astonished look and jokingly mutters, "He sure took that well." Sano's immediately under gunfire once he finished that sentence as Ryan wasn't deterred at all by the staff-wielding young man's actions and has both projectile-shooting weapons aimed skyward.

Not long after, the golden-eyed male mounts his right foot on Ruyi Jingu Bang to propel himself enough so he can easily swing the orange staff above his head without reducing its length while quickly shifting his hands appropriately to do so, paying minimal mind to the shower of bullets heading towards him during his airborne circumstance, and eagerly swings it back down with a lot of force behind it, making Sano flip forward, as he lets out a wholehearted battle-cry.

Ryan, not wanting a repeat of what transpired earlier after fully understanding that Sano's appearance is a deception, jumps to his left and evades the strike as he keeps on firing at the spiky-haired teen without diverting his concentration. "Better luck next time, not!"

Sano smoothly twists his body around as the young person yells while managing to avoid ammunition that was dangerously close to hitting him, "Retract!" His weapon responds accordingly at the same time he rapidly begins spinning upside down in a counterclockwise motion with Ruyi Jingu Bang blotting the following plethora of bullets thanks to its owner bringing the staff over his head and rotates it in the opposite direction. This shortly leads to numerous shots being repelled back at Ryan, who's forced to scramble around with minor irritation emitted as he refuses to refrain his assault, while a little bit of time passes like that until Sano commences to descend without really stopping his circular movement. Then, the golden-eyed lad progresses a significant distance to be in front of Ryan so he can finally halt his and Ruyi Jingu Bang's twisting, putting Sano's face to be aligned with the beige-haired adversary as he continues being upside-down, and is prepared to thrusts the closest end of the orange staff at Ryan's jaw from below.

Ryan tries to dodge Sano's staff again while not very concerned by the quick advancement from the tanned gentleman since he hasn't lost faith in his speed, however, is unable to act in time because of letting his ego go to his head and immediately is struck where Sano intended, which causes the Nemesis associate's teeth to slam shut before they shatter under the blunt impact.

Concurrently, Sano brims passion within his eyes and stares at Ryan as he sternly remarks, "Oops, looks like you were wrong 'bout me on both the count of me not beating Nash and the whole you being faster thing." He lightly chuckles while launching Ryan backwards with unbelievable velocity before Sano says in a somewhat mocking manner as Ruyi Jingu Bang's poised toward his left yet again, "Better luck next time... Not!"

Ryan flies through the air without being too far from the rooftops he's presently traversing over against his will, his broken teeth scattering everywhere, and gazes at the day-time sky with a spaced out expression while thinking, "No...! I'm not gonna' lose here...! After everything I put up with, after everything I wanted to achieve...! I'm not gonna' get killed by trash that I don't even know what he is!"

Sano elegantly veers himself forward with assistance of his last attack's momentum and lands on his feet while having his back toward Ryan's general vicinity. Right after that, the spiky-haired teen retains Ruyi Jingu Bang next to his left rib section as he mildly adjusts the end protruding behind him and mischievously smirks prior to uttering, "Extend."

Once that word's uttered, during Ryan's uncontrollable flight, the purple-eyed man's eyes abruptly widen at the instance a thin, cylinder-shaped figure casts its shadow upon him while several meters skyward, resulting in his demeanor being completely clouded by despair. This lasts until the vastly elongated staff hastily goes down toward Ryan and aggressively impales him in the face as he's cruelly sent through a building's roof because of all the might Sano inputted into that strike. It then doesn't even take a few seconds for the sizable structure that Ryan collided through to break apart and crumble to the ground with an immense amount of smoke forming.

While the smoke partially expands around, Ruyi Jingu Bang steadily returns to its initial length before Sano briefly twirls it, easily slides the orange staff into the grey lace's two openings that always sustain his Magical Item to his back when he isn't fighting via his left hand alone and lackadaisically confronts the mass of smoke multiple buildings ahead by turning clockwise with both hands now gripping Ruyi Jingu Bang while happily chuckling at what he's observing.

A moment later, the smoke dissipates to reveal the afflicted building's destroyed confines with countless ruble draped all over Ryan's basically demolished body, his eyes having rolled to the back of his head and mouth wide open while showing what little teeth he has left, as his lifeless body lies on a pool of blood that was generated from many deep gashes noted.

*Scene Change*

The wildlife living close to the shrine where Ren, Rebecca and Bash were last demonstrated frantically rush away from the recent gunshot's banging noise while the curly-haired girl's voice can be heard fervently calling out in dread, "REN! REN! GOD, NO! REN!"

Not long after Rebecca's cries are let out, Ren's displayed with red blood altering the color of his blue shirt where his abdomen's located, having received a direct shot from a single bullet, and clenches at the injury via his right hand to hold down the bleeding while concentrating on what's in front of him. As he does that, the young Spellcaster's totally overwhelmed by pain and unconsciously stumbles backwards several times, nullifying the small advancement Ren had made.

Rebecca's eyes are practically flooding as the tears trickle up her face due to her still having her head slanted back with a look of dismay radiating, forgetting all about her half-naked situation and persists on crying out of worry.

Seeing Rebecca like that causes a sinking feeling to hit Ren in the pit of his stomach and can't manage to remain standing, quickly leading to the blue-eyed boy to fall onto his right side with his eyes shut, while barely four meters from the steps he traversed a minute ago.

Meanwhile, Bash stays hovering over Rebecca with his right arm extended forward, firmly possessing one of his revolvers in the hand belonging to the same limb unlike he was an instance prior to this, and comments without a shred of remorse, "The maggot finally falls! About fucking time! Now I can get back to enjoying my one true love!"

Rebecca desperately shakes her person around in another attempt to free herself after closing her eyes and screams in a distraught way, "NO! I'D RATHER BE DEAD!"

Bash's greatly annoyed by Rebecca's rejection while inhaling through his mouth and then strongly hits her across the face with his revolver without consideration after angrily yelling out, "Filthy whore!"

Rebecca's head snaps to the right as she released a fragile outburst of agony without reopening her eyes and sobs while quivering a lot.

Ren temporarily flinches at the sound of Rebecca pain-induced cry with his left hand struggling to help him get up, it being placed on the stone floor in front of his chest, while some of the blood seeping out of his midsection travels to his thumb and hasn't yet opened his eyes as he feebly mumbles, "Rebecca..."

Simultaneously, Bash points his revolver at Rebecca's left temporal region, applies sufficient pressure so she can't move her head very much with his left hand planted on top of the blonde female's chest and talks while extremely upset. "You don't know the meaning of gratefulness, do you?! That's what you're supposed to be feeling at this moment! I saved you, I fed you, I took care of you and I'm giving you the honor to become a woman by yours truly! The fuck's the matter with you!" He removes his revolver from Rebecca's head to point it at the downed Ren without looking and asks despite the teenage dame's eyes continually being shut, "What is it about that maggot that you want his junk inside of you over mine?!"

Rebecca's hurriedly retorts with distress. "That has nothing to do with it! Someone like you doesn't know how to love! I used to be so happy that I was around you because you saved my life, but you're just a heartless jerk! Ren isn't like that at all! He really cares about me for who I am and loves me! That's the reason I want to be with him and not you!"

A dumbfounded expression engulfs Bash as he faintly pulled his head back until rage resonates within his black eyes and coldly states, "You're really a fucking, filthy whore...!" The Caucasian Nemesis leader fiercely jams the revolver's nozzle back onto Rebecca's temple, causing the sapphire-eyed chick a large sum of discomfort, while allowing his fury to explode and draws closer to the pinned girl. "If it wasn't for the fact that I hate fucking corpses, I'd kill you right now, but like I said before, you aren't getting off easy unless it's on my-"

Ren's voice bravely resounds from ahead of Bash and Rebecca, immediately gaining their attention with urgency surfacing, after shouting out, "Hey!" The charm-wearing lad becomes the main focal point while on the edge of his feet, his physical condition gradually deteriorating with every second passing, as his right hand keeps clenching his wounded torso. He Doesn't try to make a move onward to prevent any chance of him falling back down and utters while gasping for air, "How many times... Do I gotta'... Tell you?! Get... Off her!"

Rebecca's eyes light up with hope emanating, even though she's still restrained by Bash, as her tears don't halt and joyously shouts, "Ren!"

Bash ferociously bites his tongue while a mad demeanor overflows. "Holy fuck! I swear you're the most resilient maggot I've met by far!" The white-haired gunner pushes his left hand off Rebecca's chest, ignoring how that could be painful to the blonde, and takes his revolver off her head as well to utilize the hand wielding it in zipping his pants shut since that's all planned on undoing to violate Rebecca. Afterwards, Bash places the gun-wielding appendage on top of his cowboy hat, making sure it's well fastened, while his composure resets itself. "You know what, for that, I'm actually gonna' play along with your pathetic demand!" Bash soon stands up, however, remains over Rebecca while meagerly raising his arms after stationing them on opposing sides of his person and questions in a patronizing way, "Anything else, valiant knight? That's what you pretty much are, you know. Doing everything to save and impress the damsel, even if it kills you." He suddenly exhales out of enthusiasm. "Oh, the nostalgia! I wish I could go back to being a kid and play hero!"

Frustration appears on Ren's face as the auburn-haired teen glares at Bash and heavily pants while thinking, "This guy won't ever... Take me seriously, but..." He pauses to get a big gulp of fresh air and then thinks with determination expelling as he experiences minor rejuvenation, "That's fine with me! He'll eventually slip up 'cause of it and that's when I'll take him down, so please help me one last time Magic Booster! For Rebecca!" The diamond-shaped charm flickers a weak light, signifying a low possibility of it aiding Ren, however, the fellow doesn't notice that since he's currently immersed in the helpless view of Rebecca.

Making eye contact with Ren, Rebecca's heart starts to race and earnestly desires to give him some sort of encouragement. Sadly, all her crying has choked-up the entrapped girl, not permitting her the ability to speak for the time being, as Rebecca's vision gets awfully blurry thanks to her nonstop tears flowing out.

Fortunately for Rebecca, Ren doesn't need her to say anything as the words he swore by repeat through his head almost endlessly, giving the cropped-haired individual more than enough to fight on and sharply nods at Rebecca in assurance.

Bash, noting Ren's focus on Rebecca, becomes profoundly agitated with both arms dangling near his sides and grovels, "I hate being ignored, damn it...!" The cowboy wannabe points his revolver at Ren once more while shouting in an ordering tone, "Look at me!" The gun shoots without warning, penetrating the center of Ren's collarbone, as blood profusely spurts out.

Both Ren and Rebecca are rendered inaudible, shock plaguing them, before the blue-eyed boy slowly starts dropping forward with a vacant composition.

Very pleased with himself, Bash maliciously smiles while keeping his right arm outstretched. "I bet you're looking at me now, huh?"

Ren weakly retorts in the middle of his descent as he's smirking. "Not even... I'm always looking at Rebecca, one way or the other... Especially when your ugly mug is around..." A red wave of magic unexpectedly expands from Ren's being and says with every ounce of strength left, "Reality Bend!"

Incredibly, Bash and Rebecca are able to see the fluctuating red that soars out of Ren, although they're both humans, while quite uncertain to make of it as they scan the surroundings to investigate if the essence will affect anything. Not long after that, rapid footsteps head straight to Bash without giving him an opportunity to react much other than veering his gaze forward and is met by an uninjured Ren, causing a bewildered gasp to escape the Nemesis leader.

Ren hurriedly ducks his head under Bash's continually extended arm, insuring that he won't get shot again, as he avoids accidentally stepping on Rebecca's head with his left foot and lunges at the black-eyed Caucasian while releasing a scream of valor. This results in Ren tackling Bash with the Magic Booster giving him enough magic to alter the strength of their collision, sending them nearly ten meters away from Rebecca, prior to the white-haired man's back hitting the stony terrain hard. Pain promptly reflects on Bash's face thanks to the spine-tingling impact as he loses his cowboy hat at the same time the black revolver escaped his clutches. A mere couple of seconds go by until Ren, who's presently atop of Bash, pulls his head from his enemy's torso to promptly turn his head toward the left so he can set his sights upon Rebecca and urgently yells out with both hands firmly planted in the crook of Bash's arms, "Run, Rebecca! I'll hold him down as long as I can!"

Rebecca quickly sits up as she's facing Ren, her arms covering the curly-haired girl's torn apparel with her legs crossed, while clearly concerned. "But-"

Ren cuts Rebecca off with anger added while beginning to have difficulty keeping Bash restrained thanks to the man regaining some of his barrings. "Don't fight me and just go! I can't use Reality Bend anymore! If he catches you, I won't-"

Bash interrupts Ren this time by tugging his body enough to force the teenager to refocus on the enraged adult, swiftly leans forward and headbutts him in the chin with all the might he could muster in his pinned position as Bash let out a rough grunt.

Disoriented by the sudden attack, Ren commences teetering backwards with his right eye shut while fairly hurt and groans a tad. Unfortunately for the dazed boy, that small window permits Bash the ability to throw Ren off via a strong jerk of his body going to the right, making the cropped-haired Spellcaster's face slam onto the floor and gets bruised at the bridge of his nose.

Rebecca gasps in horror as she maintains both arms across her partially exposed being.

In the meantime, Bash scans the area for his revolver with an immense amount of anger brimming, however, can't spot it anywhere and gives off another grunt. "Fucking damn it!" He commandeers his attention toward Ren before hurriedly getting to his feet and marches up to the still hurting boy's right. "I've had enough with your nonstop pestering, maggot!" Bash lifts his right foot and stomps down onto the back of Ren's head, causing a distraught cry from the lad with his face pressing against the stony floor. Having done that, the coat-wearing human intensely stares at Ren while unable to take any enjoyment in the predicament and states in rage, "I'm gonna' bash your head now! That's fitting for a maggot! I should've know better! I kept wasting energy shooting something that's normally disposed of with a foot!"

Rebecca bends forward as fear devours her again. "Ren!"

After hearing Rebecca's outburst, Bash gawks at the sapphire-eyed dame with his rage climbing. "You gotta' fucking shut up! He isn't some superhero, Rebecca! He's a filthy maggot!" The Nemesis leader reverts his concentration to Ren and starts repeatedly stomping on the helpless youngster. "And he'll die like one in a matter of moments!"

Ren tries to endure the punishing onslaught from Bash via gritted teeth as his eyes are closed and thinks, "Shit...! I used the last bit of Magic Booster's help to mix in a reality of me not ever getting shot by this guy, but that was all I could do...! My body's too weak and that cheap tackle only pissed him off more...!" The auburn-haired individual painstakingly opens his eyes while vaguely shifting his head to the left to focus his vision on Rebecca one more time and is heartbroken to witness her dismay because of him as something in his head cracks out of nowhere.

Right when that occurred, Bash gets ready for one final stomp, intending it to be the most powerful, until a gunshot echoes prior to a lead bullet passing in front of his nose, narrowly missing it. Following that unexpected attack, the black-eyed man snaps his head toward his left since that's where the projectile originated from and immediately sees a scared Rebecca holding the Colt Gun she always carries in her left holster, Bash being dumb enough to forget to take it, as she's pointing the white/grey weapon at him with both hands that are currently trembling.

Ren's eyes widen with an upset demeanor taking form as he stays lying on his stomach and shouts in a strained voice, "Rebecca...! I told you to... Never shoot!"

Rebecca flinches while ashamed that she disobeyed Ren's request and faintly lowers the gun.

Madder than ever, Bash suddenly grabs his left revolver via the hand belonging to the same side and draws it from his own holster and points the weapon at Ren's back. "Stop ignoring me!"

Panic overtakes Rebecca as she temporarily observed Bash pulling out the black revolver and frantically adjusts the Colt Gun's aim before screaming with her eyes shut, "NO!" She then presses the gun's trigger as the bullet comes out while forcing Rebecca to be blown back a bit and luckily strikes the left side of Bash's revolver, making the white-haired adult unintentionally let go of it.

Bash instantly switches his attention to Rebecca with a death glare while uttering in an intimidating manner, "Rebecca...! You cheating whore! How dare you shoot me with something I gave you?!"

Ren quickly rolls to his back, revealing that Bash's lost revolver was underneath him, as he gains possession of it and directs the projectile-shooter at the cruel gentleman with both hands. "I wonder how you'll feel if I do it then!"

Just when Ren completed that sentence, Bash looks at the teen out of the corner of his eyes with despair emanating. "What?!"

Not wishing to reply and accidentally allow this perfect opportunity to slip by in the process, Ren courageously shoots the gun with his arms recoiling a lot more than the Colt Gun did to Rebecca since it's very powerful in comparison as the tiny bullet passes through the section where Bash's right lung is stationed.

Bash experiences an enormous quantity of agony rush all over his body, blood spurting out of the wound, while staggering backward with his left hand mounted on the afflicted region after dropping the revolver it possessed and tries to hold back several gagging reflexes.

Simultaneously, Ren tosses the revolver to the far left via his right hand, feeling that it did enough, and hastily rises to his feet. He then turns toward Rebecca's direction and sprints away from Bash as he shouts in a commanding way, "Rebecca, get up! We're leaving!"

Rebecca doesn't respond to Ren due to being entranced by everything that just transpired with the Colt Gun lowered on top of her lap until seeing something and screams in terror, "REN!"

With a mere three meters dividing him from Rebecca, Ren's neck is shot at the back as the bullet travels its insides and exits out the front. Immediately after that, blood gushes out of both sides with a spaced out look generated, the light in his eyes beginning to fade. Then, the auburn-haired boy's body sways to the right prior to going the other way, harshly hits his left side upon the floor and unconsciously rolls onto his back with Ren absently staring at the treetops above him.

Rebecca, profoundly enveloped in sadness, stays stunned for a moment and then desperately crawls toward Ren once she brings herself back into reality, having holstered the Colt Gun since she's too accustomed to doing that instead of leaving it on the stone terrain. As soon as she reaches Ren, the blonde plants her hands on the charm-wearing individual's chest to shake him over and over with tears relentlessly pouring down her face while passionately crying, "Ren! Ren! Please, answer me, Ren! Ren! Don't do this to me! We're supposed to run away together! You said that you'd protect me and take care of me! I trusted you! How are you gonna' do that if you die?! DON'T DIE, PLEASE!" Rebecca screams that last part after closing her eyes again.

Ren faintly coughs while peering at Rebecca with his lifeless, blue eyes. "I'm sorry."

Rebecca's eyes instantaneously reopen, consumed by happiness, as the teenage damsel embraces Ren while still crying. "Ren, you're alive!"

Ren sighs with blood flooding his mouth little by little, making it extremely hard for him to talk well, and continues gazing toward his left while faintly talking. "I wish I could go farther back with my power and bend reality so that you'd never had met Nemesis. I hate that I can't."

Rebecca shakes her head a bit without releasing her hold on Ren as she rebuttals in discontent. "No! If you do that, I would've never met you! I don't want that! No way!"

Ren permits a weak smile to form because of what Rebecca said and then randomly asks in a tired tone, "What took you so long...?"

Confusion replaces Rebecca's discontent before she pulls away from Ren a bit to make eye contact with the slowly dying youngster with the flow of her tears starting to let up. "What? What do you mean?" The sapphire-eyed female abruptly feels a presence behind her, hurriedly checks to see who it is via turning her head toward the left and sees that Dante's the one Ren's talking to, which surprises her greatly.

Dante gives Ren an apologetic expression with both hands in his pockets and honestly answers. "Sorry. I forgot about you two for a minute. I'm guessing that made a big difference, huh?"

Rebecca becomes furious because of Dante's words while mildly leaning in the green-eyed young man's direction. "You forgot?!"

Ren halfheartedly chuckles without taking his eyes off Dante as his time in the world of the living ticks away. "Was it really that? Are you trying to put the blame on yourself when we all know this happened because I'm too weak?"

Dante calmly shakes his head. "Nope, it's the truth. Anyway, I already told you that you aren't. After all, you protected the girl you love. Weak people can never do that."

Ren contentedly smiles with a teardrop going down his right cheek after leaving his eye. "Thanks for that and the opportunity to prove my love to Rebecca. You're a good friend."

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...