[ This should be it. ] Lance muttered as he and Zack checked the location one last time before looking around.
They were currently around a cave on an abandoned beach that seemed to be screaming "trap!" to them. Zack didn't care one bit about that as he felt the same sensation passing through his body.
He looked around the entire place to finally find Eva being held inside a cave while her maids were creating some kind of trap.
Zack immediately recognized it as a trapping formation as he opened his skill list. He stared at the lightning movement skill before closing his eyes and activating it.
Suddenly, black clouds started gathering over the beach and hid the sun behind them. Thunder rumbled in the sky before a bolt of lightning shot from the sky and hit Zack.
He felt no pain pass through his body as the lightning settled around him. A burning smell spread throughout the atmosphere as he placed one leg behind before dashing forward.
Sparks of lightning flickered around his body as he managed to reach the cave in a matter of seconds.
The maids inside heard a rustling sound but just as they turned around, Zack chopped their necks off before dropping a spark of his flames on top of their bodies.
It was a series of silent and quick deaths as Zack didn't want Eva to hear the screams of terror.
He found the red-head woman on the ground, her hands and legs bound by a metal contraption with yellow chains coming out of them.
Her eyes were blindfolded with a similar kind of material yet her ears were able to pick up Zack's footsteps and the sound of lightning.
"Let me make a wild guess and say that's either Zack or the main villain who decided it was a good idea to abduct the heroine to make the main guy come out," Eva said in a hopeful voice as Zack smiled.
"I wonder if getting captured turned the gears of your sense of humor." He muttered before bending down and freeing Eva from her restraints.
The rush of adrenaline he felt from earlier had vanished the moment he had killed the maids and found that Eva was safe.
While breaking the restraints on her legs, he also checked her body to see whether she had been injured anywhere. After making sure that she was safe and unhurt, he pulled her to her feet while still keeping her blindfolded.
Eva raised her hands to the back of her head as she was about to untie her blindfold and thank Zack. However, she was interrupted by Zack's hands as he wrapped his hands around the back of her head.
While bringing her head forward, he slowly untied the blindfolds before letting them drop.
"What are you…" Eva began saying but was quietened by Zack's lips.
The black-haired boy pressed his lips over hers as he deeply kissed her. Eva felt heat creeping up her cheeks yet she kept her eyes wide open and stared into Zack's eyes.
He held her in this position for quite some time before finally letting go. His hands then moved down to the back of her spine as he held her tightly in his embrace.
"Mmm…" Eva mumbled but her voice didn't reach Zack's ears.
"Now, let's get out." He then carried her in princess style and shot out of the cave. Since only he could travel at lightning speed without being hurt, Zack decided to move at a slower pace.
But just when he had taken a single step, the whole beach exploded.
[ Nothing is ever too easy for you. ] Lance muttered, finally breaking his silence.
The Phoenix had been quiet since he had felt awkward watching a somewhat private moment. Next time, he would ask Zack to make sure to cut his vision and hearing whenever he would kiss a girl.
'To think I would feel awkward at such a small thing.' Lance thought as Zack and Eva launched into the air.
'Lance, can you sense that?' Zack asked while narrowing his eyes. He summoned Gugnir in his free hand while pointing the lance below.
[ There is a dome-like barrier all around us. That's the first thing you do if you want to fight or trap someone. Just cut out their escape route. ]
'I know that…'
Zack looked down to see humans rising from the ground but there was one thing wrong with them. Their bodies were not made from flesh, bones, and blood.
The human was instead made from black and silver-colored metals and looked straight up. They raised their hands in a synchronized manner and shot thousands of spikes toward the duo.
Zack threw Gugnir down before using his blue flames and burning every single one of the spikes.
"Zack, there are behind us and in the air as well!" Eva shouted as Zack's pupils shrank. More metal humans had appeared in the sky as well as behind him.
Thousands of spikes shot toward him from all directions as he tried attacking and dodging all of them. Despite his lightning speed, Zack didn't dare to get close to even one of the metal humans.
A metal spike at point-blank range especially at such a high speed would be enough to kill Zack and even if he managed to survive or dodge it, Eva was still there with him.
"Good thing my vitality is pretty high…" Zack muttered as he felt a few spikes passing through his body. He didn't feel the pain but could see his health points decreasing.
Zack used his flames to shield as well as kill the metal humans alongside Gugnir however, their numbers were like the undead army he and Emma had fought inside the prison while fighting the warden.
No matter how many he killed, there seemed to be an endless number of them rising from the ground.
"Zack, can I ask you one thing?" Eva asked in a soft tone as Zack swung to the right to prevent a spike from hitting her.
"Eva, can we do this later since we are being attacked? Time doesn't stop when we talk." Zack replied while using his flames to burn through a few more spikes.
"When we first met, why did you try so hard to form a contract with me? You could have just gone to Ray," Eva continued talking as though she hadn't heard him. "Any reason?"
"In my previous life, you and Ray were the only CEOs who were compassionate about their players. As for why I chose you, I guess it was due to the time and place but then, I don't really know."
Zack replied hurriedly as a smile appeared on Eva's face.
"You still haven't changed. You could never answer the same question the first time and you still can't answer it." She said before pushing herself away from Zack.
The latter hadn't been expecting that to happen so Eva easily managed to free her from his grip.
She was directly in the way of the metal spikes however, all of them stopped right in front of her. Eva's eyes glowed slightly as she raised both of her hands and every single metal spike stopped.
"It's my turn to show you that this time too, I can protect myself," A teasing smile appeared on her face. "But for them, I always loved it when you protected me when I couldn't. Now it's my turn to do that."
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