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Hazard finally stopped, and she stopped with him, the kirin panting a bit and looking over to the wolf, seeing him sitting his eyes over at something in front of them. "Before this," he muttered and she switched her sight over to where he was looking at. Monstrous figures emerged from within the shadows the various objects around the park had cast, shaping up to look like four-legged creatures, with burned skin and flesh covering their bodies, backward twirled horns donning their dobeman-like noggins, the tip of their thin tails had a sharp, scythe-like blade. They came out of the shadows, about six of them, snarling at Hazard's and Sasuga's direction, seemingly making them their targets.

"Wha... What are those?!" Sasuga's eye widened in fear from seeing such hellish looking creatures before her.

"Hellhounds," Hazard answered her.

"What?! Wait, how do you know..."

"We don't have time for this! They're coming!" Hazard retorted and grabbed her hand, pulling her with him as he ran to the other way. The Hellhounds howled and chased after them.

Sasuga did her best to keep up with Hazard, but she was holding him back, not able to run as fast as he was. The Hellhounds were catching up to them fast, and Hazard didn't want to deal with them around Sasuga, so he picked her up in his arms, carrying her as he sped up, the Hellhounds picking up their pace as well. Sasuga was surprised by how fast Hazard was running, it was almost abnormal, speeding through the empty park and trying loose their tail. He almost made it out of there, but encountered a little problem that prevented him from succeeding, as two more of these monsters appeared from out of nowhere in front of him.

"Shit!" Hazard cursed. The Hellhounds that were chasing them coming in from behind and surrounding them.

"Wh-What're we gonna do?!" Sasuga worriedly said. Hazard paused to think, figuring out a way to overcome this dilemma, but he needed Sasuga's help.

"Sasuga, I need you to do something for me, but it's risky. Can I count on you?" Hazard rumbled to her. Sasuga wasn't sure what was going on, but she trusted Hazard and timidly nodded. "Okay, I'll hold them off, while you go back to my place and bring me my sword."

"Your... sword?"

"You'll find it under my bed. Don't worry about me, I can handle this. Can you do this?"

"Y-Yes... Yes! I'll bring it to you! Just be careful!" Sasuga agreed and Hazard nodded to her with a confident smile.

"Alright, ready? Here we go!" The golden wolf hopped up high and jumped over the two hellish dogs that confronted him from front, landing a couple of feet behind them and immediately putting down the kirin. "Now go! Go and don't look back!" Hazard shouted at her, startling Sasuga a little, but she understood and ran as fast as her hooves could carry her. One of the Hellhounds saw her fleeing and attempted to go after her, but he received a swift kick on the face from Hazard, dropping against another of his friends, both of them yelping in pain. "Boy, did you pick the wrong wolf to mess with," Hazard smirked, crackling his knuckles as he faced the bunch of demon hounds solo.

Sasuga was making her way to their building, running as fast as possible. Luckily for her, it wasn't that far away from the park; all she needed was to cross the street and run a couple of blocks to reach it. She found it pretty odd how sparse and empty the streets were, she couldn't find a single soul and ask for help. She didn't have time to think about that, though, Hazard was in danger and he was counting on her, she hurried over to the other side of the street and just she was heading to her way over to sideway pavement, she heard a loud growl coming from behind her. She shrieked and instinctively ducked, a Hellhound missing her as flew right over her head and smashed through a store front glass. She whimpered as she struggled to stand up again, noticing two more of them coming from behind her, the one that crashed through the store window bouncing out of it, snarling at her as drool were dripping from his sharp jaws. Now she was panicking. Were they new ones that just showed up and did they go through Hazard? She seriously hoped it was the former.

They barked at her and she flinched out of her shocked state, quickly running away from them and heading towards the building. She was almost there, only two more blocks left, but the Hellhounds were relentless, catching up to her. They were going get her if she didn't do something. One of them did, lunging at her from the back and Sasuga tried to avoid him, but she tripped and fell to the ground. The other two rushed over to her, and Sasuga was forced to hurry into an alley to save herself from being mauled to death. She ran through the dark alley, praying that it would have another opening at the other side. Unfortunately for her, she only found a dead end.

"No!" the distraught kirin cried, pounding her fist into the dead end wall. She then heard the growling and footsteps of the Hellhounds closing in on her from behind, turning around to face them and stepping away till her back was against the wall. They got closer and closer, licking their saliva covered muzzles, inching their way towards their fresh prey. She really believed this was it, this was how she was going to die. With nothing else to do, she surrendered to her fate and closed her eyes, waiting for that dreadful moment of being eaten alive. One the hounds howled and leaped at her, lurching his open jaw and ready to rip her apart, but instead, he got sliced into two, splitting apart and dropping into a bloody heap of flesh. Sasuga squinted her eyes open and saw a large figure standing before her, wearing a long cloak over himself, with a larger-than-life broadsword being held behind his back. She blinked in disbelief, she wasn't dead. She was saved. Saved by this mysterious hero, who she could barely tell his looks from darkness.

"Go on. I'll cover you," the cloaked swordsman spoke in a deep, gruff voice.

"Huh...?" Sasuga mumbled, still a bit shaken up.

"The sword. Go get him the sword. He needs it, fast," he rumbled, reminding her of her main goal.

"Oh! O-Okay! Thank you!" Sasuga snapped out of it and gathered her guts to go past the two remaining Hellhounds. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes shut, dashing onwards. The beasts were too occupied by the mysterious swordsman, they let her slip from them in unexpected moment. They belatedly realized that she was gone and tried to chase after her, but the cloaked swordsman swooped down on them, his two-handed broadsword getting in their way.

"You're finished," the swordsman merely uttered.

As for Sasuga, she finally arrived at the building they lived in and rushed over to Hazard's apartment and going straight to his bedroom. She looked under his bed and searched there for a minute, and sure enough, found a long sword, placed inside its sheath. She was still awestruck by why would Hazard have a cool-looking sword like this, but now was no time to ponder. She grabbed the sword, and as heavy as it was, she carried it between her arms and rushed to her way back to the park where Hazard was waiting for her.

At the park, Hazard was getting his work cut for him, having to face off five Hellhounds by himself, the sixth one already got a taste of the bloody steel pipe he was holding in one hand. He was holding his own better than expected, but without his sword, he wouldn't last for too long. One of the demon dogs lunged at him, but he batted him off with a powerful swing of the pipe, the Hellhound whining as he fell over his back, but soon got back up.

"Man, this is getting dull," Hazard grumbled, wearing out, panting a bit. A Hellhound attacked him again from the side and he hit him with his pipe, but he couldn't fend off the other one who jumped at him from the other side, pouncing him and pinning him to the grounds on his back and making him loose the steel pipe. "Crap!" Hazard gritted his teeth, fighting off the demonic hound, struggling to keep his sharp fangs from nipping into his neck, fending him off with his bare hands, the jaws closing in on him by the seconds.

"Haz!" Sasuga yelled out to him, actually making it back safely, his sword held firmly between her arms.

"About... fucking... time!" Hazard grunted, shoving off the Hellhound of him with a kick on the guts and flipping backward, getting up on his feet. "The sword!" he called out to her, reaching out for it with his hand. Sasuga collected all of her strength and tossed the heavy sword at Hazard's way. A Hellhound were lurching at him from the back at the same time, and just as he was about dig his fangs on the wolf, Hazard fetched his sword from the air, unsheathing it and spinning himself around with a slash, cutting off the demon's head in a swift move. Purple blood gushed out of the decapitated beast, his served head rolling over to the ground before the fearful eyes of his mates.

"Who's next?" Hazard exclaimed, holding his sword in a battle stance. The Hellhounds growled at his smugly attitude and charged at him all at once. Hazard grinned toothfully and dashed at them as well in a nimble speed, dispatching each one of them, slicing and dicing them to lifeless pieces.

Sasuga watched in shock as he made short work out of them, easily finishing them off in a blink of an eye. Who the hell was he and what in the hell was going on?

After Hazard had finished killing the Hellhounds, their dead bodies evaporated into black ashes and vanished into thin air. The golden wolf sheathed back his sword, walking over to the astonished Sasuga.

"Thanks for bringing the sword, I owe you one," Hazard thanked her gratefully.

"You're... welcome. Wh-What? Hold on a damned minute! What's going on here!? What were those things!? Why were they after us!? And where did you learn to fight like that!?" Sasuga fervently bombarded him with questions.

"Uhh... well, they were demons," Hazard simply answered.

"Demons?"

"Yeah. From the demon realm."

Sasuga stared blankly at him for a minute, and before he knew it, she passed out and was about to collapse to the ground if it weren't for Hazard to get a hold of her.

"Hey! Sasuga! Are you okay!? Sasuga?!" Hazard called out for her in concern, but he couldn't blame her. That was too much action for her for one day, and too soon, as well.

***

Sasuga found herself waking up from her unconsciousness, getting her bearing and seeing that she was in her bedroom. It was early morning in the next day, and she couldn't remember how she got here, squeezing her mind to recollect her memory. Her head were pounding from a splitting headache, groaning groggily as she rubbed her forehead. She checked her watch and suddenly gasped.

"Oh shit! I'm late!" she realized she was getting late for school, remembering that she had an important assignment to do. She hastily freshened up and got dressed, leaving in a hurry. She then stopped when she saw Hazard's apartment, and deiced to check up on him. "Haz? You're home?" she knocked on his door and let herself in. "Haz?" she called out for him, but got no answer. He was out, apparently. She sighed and left as well, she wanted to ask him about what happened yesterday and make sure it wasn't all a dream, or more like a nightmare. She exited her building, and missing the bus, she had no choice but to walk to the university. She couldn't get her mind off yesterday weird event. Did it really happen? Were those scary monsters really demons? What Hazard got to do with all of this? And who was that mysterious cloaked savior with the huge sword that saved her life? She was in complete lost of thoughts, not fully aware of her surroundings.

"Hey lady! Watch out!" a loud voice then yelled out all of the sudden just as Sasuga was crossing the street, and before she even realized it, a gigantic SUV was speeding its way right at her direction. It happened so blinking fast, she couldn't react, or had the time to, as she was so startled and terrified, her whole body simple froze up in its place as if she was paralyzed, her eyes widened to the max at the in shock at the huge car headed right at her. But the imminent crash didn't happen, as the SUV hit the breaks just in time, the tires screeching like a banshee's shriek as they were grinding hard on the asphalt road, fortunately stopping just a foot away from the stiffed-up Sasuga. The surrounding bystanders gasped at the scene; them too frozen on their feet. It took Sasuga a few seconds for the realization of her escaping a horribly painful and bloody death to sink in, dropping down on her knees, her legs feeling like jell-o from the fight, and finally returning to breathe again, albeit in a squirmy manner.

"Oh my God! Are you all right, miss?!" the SUV driver got out of his car and rushed over to the knelt kirin, kneeling down to her and placing what seemed like two very huge hands on her shivering shoulders. Sasuga took a couple of seconds before she was able to answer, swallowing her throat after that mind-nerving ordeal, lifting her head up to face the one who had caused it her.

"Y-Yes, I'm... fi... ne..." Sasuga stammered when her eyes fell over at the one kneeling in front of her, widening out again. A largely built male lion, wearing a business suit sans the coat and tie, was crouched down on one knee to check up on her. Sasuga's eyes trailed his figure from the bottom, seeing that large foot that he was sitting up on with those heavy legs, each as big as a tree trunk, covered in fancy-looking dark-blue pants. Her eyes continued to go up, checking out his seemingly muscular top figure, the strapping muscles on his belly, broad chest and brawny arms very apparent and bulged under that single layer of white fabric that was his shirt, which had its couple first buttons undone, revealing a hint of his beefy chest. She had to actually tilt her head all the way up to finally see his face, and saw it she did, leaving her baffled by the lion's extremely handsomeness. A true leonine appearance, with a wide, squared muzzle and a big black snout, a thick blond mane covering the top of the sandy-tanned furred head and going all the way down to his sturdy shoulders and to his chin, giving him an attractive looking blond beard that covered most of his neck area. His charming bright-blue eyes met hers as her looked down at her in obvious concern, and that left her utterly dazzled, gazing up at him as if time has frozen. To put it simply, she had never seen a man this striking and gorgeous in her whole life.

"Miss? Are you all right? Are you hurt anywhere?" the burly lion worriedly asked in a gruff and deep voice, his hand slightly squeezing on Sasuga's shoulders. They were big enough to cover her whole shoulders and half of her arms, which were what Sasuga needed to bring her back from her moment of awe, blinking and quickly blushing by the big lion grabbing her with his hands.

"Oh! Oh, yes! I-I'm fine! I'm not hurt!" Sasuga quickly replied as she stood up on he hooves, dusting herself off as the lion did the same, towering her, over taking the kirin a bit; he was over 7ft easy. That made Sasuga blush more as she looked up at him as he breathed out in relief.

"Oh, that's good. I almost run you over. I'm sorry, but I thought the light was green, wasn't it?" the SUV driver spoke again in his deep manly voice, explaining the situation. Sasuga blinked and looked over to the back, noticing that the traffic light was indeed going red on her side of the road. Most likely she was too absentminded when she crossed the road she didn't take heed.

"Is everything okay here?" a male red-feathered falcon in a black traffic police uniform arrived at the scene to check on the situation, among a decent number of crowd.

"Y-Yes, officer, everything's fine. Sorry for the trouble..." Sasuga apologetically answered, feeling quite embarrassed to have caused such a scene because of her clumsiness.

The officer frowned, "You better be careful when you cross the street, ma'am." He advised her and went back to his post, as did everyone else when it was clear it was nothing serious, but Sasuga's scales was still blushing green.

"Are you sure you're all right?" she then heard the lion speak again and turned to him, turning even greener.

"Y-Yeah... thank you. I'm sorry, my mind wasn't with me," she apologized again, bowing slightly to him.

"That's quite okay. I should've known better than to speed in a busy district like this," he said coolly, probably to lift up some of the tension off of her. "Where were you heading, if I may ask?" the lion then asked her all of the sudden.

"Um, I was just heading to school," Sasuga timidly replied. He nodded and went over to the passenger side of his car, opening the door.

"Come on, I'm going to drive you there," he candidly offered and took Sasuga by surprise.

"W-What?" she blinked. "Oh, that's okay! I can walk, really! It's not that far away and..."

"Please, I insist. It's the least I can do after almost running you over. I wouldn't feel right otherwise," he persisted, gesturing with his hand for her to get in a tactful manner after putting away his coat and tie that were laying on the passenger seat that he apparently left there, placing them on the back seats instead. Not having anyway to turn him down, she decided to accept his offer. Although she knew better than to tag along with complete strangers; especially after that Slaughter fiasco she had to endure not long ago, something told her that his intention wasn't ill meant and that she could trust him.

"Okay..." Sasuga finally agreed, drawing a smile on the lion's face, which in turn made her flush; he incredibly looked more handsome when he smiled, she thought. She climbed in passenger seat of the SUV and he did the same after gently closing the door behind her, driving away soon after.

"Where to?" he asked.

"Huh? Oh! Um, 2663 Dalin's street," she pointed out her address and he nodded as he headed towards that destination. The whole time they were in the cat together, and none of the spoke a word, the eerie silence was unnerving to Sasuga. She thought to come up with something to say, but she didn't know how or what. She was already feeling too embarrassed by that spectacle she made and didn't want to bring it up, so she decided to best keep quiet until he brought her home and forget about the whole thing. She didn't want to totally forget about this lion, though, not this soon. It was really nice of him to offer her to drive her home, being secretly delighted by that. She never imagined a man this good-looking would pay any kind of attention to her, but this guy was so kind and gentle, making her admire him even more. With the corner of her eyes, she gave him subtle glances, checking him out again. He looked so dreamy to her, and she found herself getting a bit hot, even though the car's air conditioning was turned on.

They were faced by a red light and had to make a stop, and the lion took this opportunity to properly introduce themselves to each other. "Oh, I haven't caught your name." He turned to face her and surprised the distracted kirin, who immediately turned away and tried to act casual, hoping that he didn't catch her looking.

"Oh, umm, it's Sasuga. Sasuga Temple," she answered, a bit flustered.

"Seif Lowefang. Nice to meet you, Ms. Temple," he replied back with a delighted grin, reaching out his right hand for a handshake. Sasuga paused nervously for a second at first, but she smiled back at him and returned the shake, although it was a bit awkward, considering how big his hand was in contrast to hers.

"Nice to meet you too, Mr. Lowefang." His hand felt rigid, yet his grip was tender as it held her smaller hand. It felt nice to her, how warm his handshake was. He had to pull it away, though, as the traffic light turned green and he returned it to the steering wheel, driving away.

To be continued...