<span style="font-style: italic">Wait. Where's the angel?</span><br/><br/>Ashton turned his gaze to Claude's back. There was a missing angel.<br/><br/>"Early! Where's the girl?" he yelled.<br/><br/>Claude, with both his hands wrapped around the necks of two demons, turned his neck back. His eyes widened at the missing spot where the girl was, and gave Ashton a desperate look that pretty much meant 'crap'.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Damn it. Damsels in distress shouldn't just disappear like that!</span><br/><br/>Ashton clenched his teeth, running in the direction opposite of the battle. That's where the angel might have went, he thought. The few of them that fought covered the front, left and right. She could have gone<span style="font-style: italic">down</span>or<span style="font-style: italic">up</span>, but such things were beyond Ashton's ability to resolve.<br/><br/>The three girls, Amaya, Serenity and Eve had arrived ahead of Ashton. But a new man was here along with the angel.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">People don't go out here alone in this place unless they're powerful.</span><br/><br/>Ashton cleared his throat, and glanced around. No demons. The few of them seemed to be in some sort of conversation he failed to catch.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">"Didn't really protect you, heh, but I'll stick around. What's your name, angel?"</span><br/><br/>The girl called Eve asked the angel. Ashton didn't know her name either, he realised. Or everyone else's, for certain.<br/><br/>"Introductions are in order, certainly, but there's a-"<br/><br/>Roy popped out from the forest behind Ashton, grinning. "Got 'em all, sir." His hand reached for a crossbow bolt and pushed it into the crossbow, tugging onto the spring mechanism until it became taut. "Who's that new guy?" he asked.<br/><br/>"Bad news," said Claude, appearing behind Roy. He stared grimly at Nathaniel. "Men like that, they're irredeemable. He's a demon.<span style="font-style: italic">Kill him before he kills us all.</span>" His tone was one never likely to come out of Claude, laced with fear, contempt and hate all at once.<br/><br/>Ashton shot a horrified look towards Nathaniel, to Claude, then back to the Nathaniel.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">D-demon? That looks like that? They could be everywhere!<br/><br/>And... how did Early know?</span><br/><br/>He took another look at Claude's defiant's stare, and felt a chill go down his spine.