Is this really a Game?!

Beast was looking at the woman who was creepily smiling at him, the dark purple bow in her hands shinned ominously under the lights of the warehouse as she caressed it carefully while looking down at it.

"Human" She spoke. "Why are thy here?"

Her head rises and her purple eyes look straight at Beast, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He immediately draws an arrow and notches it on the bowstrings, ready to fire it off at any given moment.

"Oh my, so nervous, hehe" The woman puts a hand over her mouth as she giggles shyly. Her arm slowly rises as she goes through her hair with it, the platinum blonde hair acts like silk as it moves. It would have been a mesmerizing sight if not for the pale skin and purple shining eyes she possessed.

"Alright, I will play with you." The woman smiles again as she lifts her bow in front of her with her left hand. The right hand goes to the bowstrings which she gently pulls back while aiming at Beast with the smile still on her face. As the strings get drawn back to their fullest she blows a kiss at him as a purple light materializes on the bow the moment before she releases the strings.

Beast's eyes widen in shock as he lifts his hand and activates the shield on the armband. The purple light was pure mana in the shape of an arrow, the woman released the bowstring and it crashes on the green-colored shield in front of Beast's face, if not for his quick reaction he would have been dead now.

"Oh, you managed to dodge, perhaps you are more capable than I thought." The woman looks at him with an amused expression while Beast pulls back the bowstring quickly and launches an arrow straight to her face.

Swish

The arrow travels through the air quickly before stopping right in front of the woman's face. She had managed to catch the arrow at the very last minute with her hand. She gently runs her fingers over it before applying force and breaking it.

"You didn't even apply any mana to that attack, please don't think such rudimentary attacks can hurt me." She looks over at Beast with a more somber expression now, the attack was harmless to her, yes, but the speed of the attack was above expected, it took Beast only a bit over a second to launch it, that applied to everything, notching the arrow again, pulling back the strings and aiming at her only took such little time.

Beast and she look at each other again and break into a run. They move towards the shelves and launch arrows at each other with incredible speed and precision. The arrows zoom past their heads, get blocked by some of their skills and defensive measures, or simply get outright dodged.

The bout only lasted for a short period of time before they reached the shelves but even that was enough to make Beast panic a little, the woman's archery skill was at least the same level as his, something he found hard to believe.

As they get behind the shelves the fight doesn't stop, every time one of them was visible an arrow would be launched. It was a tense fight above any Beast had participated before, even the time he was alone in the dungeon couldn't be compared to this.

The speed, precision, and skill the woman had shown so far were on par with his, that was of course not counting skills as neither one had attacked with any yet.

Beast's biggest advantage right now was the fact that the woman didn't know about his wolves, if used at the right moment they could be the thing that wins the battle for him.

"Little boy, I can feel that you are quite restless right now." The woman's voice could be heard ringing through the warehouse. "Don't tell me you are scared of me, that would break my heart, hehehe."

Beast uses his skill to magnify his sense of hearing, even though the wolves weren't here and he couldn't use it to its fullest potential it should be enough to determine where the woman was. Beast focuses and listens, he tries to pick up any nearby sounds, breathing, footsteps, anything.

A couple of seconds pass before he hears a sound, his heart suddenly stops as a gentle inhale could be heard at the end of a shelf right next to him. He jumps down while turning around in the air with his bow aimed straight forward.

The woman was shocked that her sneak attack was unsuccessful, her arrow hits nothing but air as Beast was already near the ground, he launches an arrow at the woman and manages to hit her in the middle of her chest before he hits the ground heavily.

"You actually hit me." The woman stands there in a daze as she looks at the arrow pierced in her chest. Lifting her head slightly she looks at Beast before pulling the arrow out.

"Unfortunately for you, you should have aimed here." She points at her head with the arrow she pulled out. The wound in her chest was there and it was deep, yet barely any blood came from it. The little that did was pitch black and resembled ink more than blood.

The woman smiles and throws the arrow at Beast, hitting his leg with it. Beast grunts slightly as the arrow pierces his leg, although not deeply. Quickly he gets up and disappears behind another pair of shelves before the woman could launch an arrow at him. She narrows her eyes and goes after him, set on killing him as fast as possible.

Beast runs with all of his might, trying to lose the woman that was pursuing him relentlessly. Many arrows had already zoomed past him, some managing to wound him slightly.

As he turns at yet another shelf he stops as he sees an open area in front of him, it was impossible for him to continue running away now. He takes an arrow and clutches it with all of his might, ready to attack the woman in close range.

As the silhouette of the woman appears he immediately stabs down with his arm held high. The woman stops in her tracks, surprised to find Beast waiting for her, her arms go up as he blocks Beast's attack with her bow. Beast immediately used the bow he was holding in his other hand to hit her in the stomach, but the result was less than satisfactory, it was the same as before, the woman had no reaction towards pain.

"Useless, you should already know that this body is simply a vessel, no matter how you damage it I won't feel anything, the owner of this body is almost gone." The woman speaks, this time with a different voice, a voice that sounded incredibly old and ethereal.

Hearing her words Beast's eyes widen in anger, he lets go of his bow and simply lets it hang on his left arm while he grabs the woman by the collar, he lets go of the arrow as well and simply grabs her bow.

Holding both the bow and collar he takes a step forward and pulls the bow with all of his might while at the same time turning his body clockwise and lifting the woman from the ground with his left arm. With a violent force he judo throws her down on the ground. She tries to stand up but finds herself surrounded by three wolves, the two green wolves immediately bite her hands while a big black wolf holds her neck in his mouth, ready to break it any moment.

"You, you are a summoner?" The woman asks in disbelief while looking over at Beast who was aiming at her with his bow. "No, these animals, you're a tamer!"

Right before Beast could launch his arrow at the woman a purple light flashes around her and an incredible amount of mana erupts from her, launching him and the wolves backward.

The woman's body starts bleeding as some parts of her skin get cracked, it was evident that the ability she just used as a final resort of sorts, something that would hurt both her and the enemy.

Cough! "You have done well to force me to use this." The woman slowly gets back up while lifting the bow. "You should feel honored to die under my bow, young human."

Beast was down on one knee while an arrow was aimed straight at the woman's face. Looking at the sight she laughs.

"Hahahahaha, marvelous, but this is still your loss, this body is only a vessel, remember?" The woman smiles gently at him as his eyes widen. Almost simultaneously they release their bowstrings and launch an arrow at their perspective targets.

Looking at the purple arrow that was slowly approaching him Beast sees his life flash through his eyes, his earliest memories when he was a little boy, his parents, friends, and other loved ones. He remembers his first kiss and the first time he embraced a woman under the cover of the night. He knew it was impossible to block the arrow, there was simply no time.

Looking at his approaching death he simply smiles.

Slash

A black shadow suddenly bursts up from the ground, both the woman's and Beast's arrows get cut in half by it.

Looking behind the woman Beast could see a bloodied Shadow who was shrouded by darkness, his pupils were red as he stared at the woman with his arm outstretched.

"Bind."

Numerous shadows burst up from the ground and pierce through the body of the woman before binding her arms and legs firmly. One of the shadows goes up to the mouth of the woman and stops her from biting off her tongue.

"S- Shadow?" Beast looks over at Shadow with shock, his friend was very different compared to his usual self, the atmosphere around him was incredibly dark and eerie. Looking further behind Beast was able to see the bloodied body of the draif that Shadow fought, one of its wings was cut off and was on the ground near it.

"What happened?"