Lena's scream was enough to alert Alana, Lucian, Cynthia, and Cora in hiding. The four were not far away from the storage room. Out of sheer luck, the quartet had found themselves facing a hole in the ground, enough to fit them all. On top of that, the area was covered by ivy plants. Lucian had suggested going down the hole and staying there, the hole being not deep. The tetrad were on the verge of processing out their hiding tactics, when Lena's scream—scream for Leon invaded their ears. Alana was the first to turn on her heels and run through the heavy rain, almost instantaneously. The other three followed the girl soon.

With the Qiang in one hand, Alana would have thrown the weapon at the remorseless Dragonesian at once. But it was statistically not possible. Alana needed more force to at least be able to injure the flying Dragonesian.

The girl threw her bag at one side as she pointed the Qiang at the Dragonesian. Lena breathed a sigh of relief.

While running through the torrential rain, Cora's feet slipped on the muddy path and eventually, the girl lost balance. Lucian and Cynthia halted their steps to help the young girl up when the sixteen-year-old girl held onto his wrist.

"Go, and help Alana," Cynthia, although stated forbearingly, sorrow danced in her eyes, "She needs your help."

Lucian glanced at Cora who was checking her scraped knee, then back at Cynthia's unwavering face. He looked over at Alana struggling with the Qiang, as the spear-like weapon missed the designated target every single time. Sending a small nod to the Kiorsa sisters, Lucian sped up his feet and finally reached the floundering girl.

"Let me help you," Lucian kept his hand on Alana's shoulder, thus taking the attention of the girl who was on the verge of hurling the Qiang for the second time.

It would be an understatement to say Lucian was startled to see Alana's teary face. It was a vague concept to be true whether Alana was in reality shedding tears, or it was just the rain streaming down her cheeks. Either ways, she was in great pain and Lucian could feel it. She was writhing inside with the absolute thought of not being able to save Leon.

With the mere thought of not being enough. Lucian could highly relate to what the girl was going through, since both of them had willingly become the protectors of the group. What protectors were they if they could not even protect one of their teammates?

Without wasting any time, Lucian positioned himself beside Alana and lifted the heavy weapon, pointing it at the flying Dragonesian.

"On the count of three," Alana mumbled, her voice taking a shaky turn, "Let's do this, Lucian."

"On the count of three," Lucian repeated, agreeing with the girl, "We can do this, Alana."

"One," both Alana and Lucian made the grasp around the handle of the Qiang tight.

"Two," with Lucian's command, the two pointed the sharp blade at their enemy.

"Three!" Alana yelled out loud and soon the Qiang was flying with great force towards the Dragonesian woman who had her clutches around the frail Leon. As soon as the Dragonesian woman's wings faltered, Alana wanted to jump out of pure joy. But it was only for a moment. Soon, her wings regained strength and she resumed her villainous endeavour.

"Get back here!" with frustration bursting out of her, Alana screamed out. Defeated tears made their way out of her black orbs. The loud pitter-patter of the rain was able to drown Alana's scream of agony, but it was not able to decrease the whirlpool of emotions butchering her mind. A sobbing Lena crouched down beside the hysterically weeping Alana. She wrapped her arms around the girl who, for the first time ever, shed uncontrollable tears in front of others.

Not the first time though, she had allowed Leon to see her in such a state before.

The Leon, whom she had not managed to save.

By the time Cynthia and Cora had reached the three, and were having a hard time in digesting the harsh truth, Alana had already given up. She was never the one to yield, at least first. Alana always went ahead to put up a great fight, whether it be verbally, physically or through mental ability. Even if Alana was wrong, she refused to ever give in to her opponent. That is how she grew up. She was stubborn.

And now, the same Alana Thornheart had accepted defeat as through her blurry vision she witnessed Leon being taken towards his death.

Lucian appeared to be just as shocked as Alana. Perhaps he too had submitted himself to the thought of being vanquished.

Meanwhile, Cora could no longer view the scene unfolding in front of her. Similar to what Lena had done, the little girl began throwing pebbles in the utmost hope of being able to save the helpless Dragonesian boy.

Hope was the only thread that they could hold onto. The only thread which was slowly being snipped off from them.

And then, as if the optimistic hope refused to leave them behind, a jarring sound rang through the air. It was so loud that even the inundated rain could not prevent the reverberation from rising higher and louder than ever. A cacophony of sounds burst out, which erupted from the Dragonesian woman's throat.

Through a layer of indistinctness, the five stared up at the unpredictable event taking place.

A sharp and shining blade was pierced through the Dragonesian woman's right wing, thus causing an obstruction in the path of her flight. Accompanied by strident screeches, the Dragonesian woman attempted to pick up her prior pace but she could not. Flapping the left wing in desperation was not enough to keep her in the middle of the air. The continuous grating voice screeched obstreperously.

The hope had gifted them an opportunity, at last.

Soon, the Dragonesian began falling down through the torrential rain with loud howls. However, with that was falling an unconscious Leon as well.

"Fucking shit," Alana cursed under her breath as she hastily brushed away her tears and got up on her feet. It did not take long for her to run as fast as she could towards the boy, who was close to crashing with the hard ground.

There was a possibility that he would not die, being a Dragonesian, but it was not the time to form assumptions. At the very least, Leon could become paralyzed like his brother Eluscan.

Alana screamed out in utter frustration while she made her way through the rain, which had now taken the form of cats and dogs from the pouring drizzle. Lucian, Lena, Cora and Cynthia were right behind the girl, all running as fast as they could.

It was ridiculous to think Alana would be able to save Leon. She was too far away from the falling Dragonesian. And even if she did catch Leon, it would be her risking her own life. Ultimately, they would both become heavily injured if Leon crashed into Alana's body with much force. She could even die.

But the girl did not care. She did not care whether she would die or end up causing harm to her body. Alana Thornheart was in great despair as she slowly released the thread of hope which had given her a great opportunity.

Alana watched with horror in her eyes as Leon almost met with the ground.

Almost. But he did not.

Not that the boy transformed magically into his dragon form. Rather, a net caught him and safely brought him down on the ground.

Soon enough, the five had reached Leon, who was caught up inside the net. When they engaged their time in disentangling the unconscious Dragonesian, a whoosh sound invaded their ears. Or rather, numerous whoosh sounds invaded their ears.

When they turned their attention away from Leon, a shocking event took place.

Aerial, circular carpet-like platforms, similar to the vehicles they had seen on their arrival at the Main City, came into their view. Covered inside a transparent, hard glass, several people who were riding the vehicles, followed suit. Surprisingly, they belonged to different age ranges. Adolescents, to fully grown adults, to senior citizens. There could have been at least eighty such vehicles, approximately, containing those individuals. The five only stared in wonder, nervousness, and cautiousness as more vehicles came rushing in and crowded around them, out of nowhere.

A sudden realization rushed through Lena, and she did not hesitate to voice out her thoughts in pure astonishment.

"They are all humans."