Betrayal

Chapter 3- Under the Stars

Y/N's POV: 

"Take that!" I screamed, slashing through the rubbery orange balls. 

I heard laughs come from behind me.

Naofumi Iwatani. My best friend. He sat underneath a large tree watching me. The wind softly blew through his hair and the sun shone through the branches, casting a warm light upon the boy's soft cheeks. He looked so ethereal right now. I sighed, mesmerised by the way my best friend looked.

"Y/N, behind you!" I whipped around and raised my sword quickly. Shrieks sounded as the ball hit my sword, popping loudly on impact. 

I released the breath I had been holding, sinking to the floor. I wiped the sweat from above my brow. A shadow cast over me and I looked up. 

"Fumi!" "How did I do?" 

He gave me a goofy smile and stuck his thumb out. "Good job Y/N". He held out a hand to me, helping me onto my feet. We stood, hands on hips and glanced at the grassy surface beneath us. 

"So... what should we do about all this?" I asked, motioning towards the pieces of orange rubbery material that were scattered around us.

"I think we should try feeding them to the shield". "I overheard somewhere that feeding your weapons monster parts can allow them to level up". "That way I can hopefully gain more power by the time the first wave rolls around". 

I nodded and began gathering the material. Sitting cross- legged, Naofumi held out his shield and I knelt beside him. 

Locking eyes, we smiled at each other, "Let's give this a go, shall we?"

 I hummed in response and started dropping the rubber over the green gem in the centre of his shield. 

My eyes widened, "Wow, it's like a vacuum!" 

Naofumi laughed, "It's got some real suction to it, doesn't it!?" "But hey, I think it worked. My shield has levelled up. If only slightly". 

I clapped my hands in excitement, "Amazing, how long does it say until the first wave starts?" 

After we had left the town, we began experimenting with the shield and it's powers. Naofumi had stated that he noticed a small timer at the bottom of his vision. We figured that the decreasing numbers represented the time left until we were faced with the first wave of monsters.

A week had passed since then and we had kept a close eye on the timer. At this stage, we had only begun killing minor monsters. We had planned to keep getting stronger and slowly we would work our way up to killing stronger and more dangerous beasts. 

"Hmmm, it says 1 month". "So we have 30 days to train and prepare for the wave". 

30 days. Hmmm interesting. "Okay, let's work hard and get stronger!" I cheered. clapping Naofumi on the shoulder. 

He agreed, standing up. It slowly grew darker, the clouds covering up the now setting sun. I stretched, yawning, "It looks like it's going to rain. Let's see if we can find an inn for the night". 

"Right", Naofumi responded, "We don't wanna get caught up in the rain".

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Naofumi's POV:

The wind whipped through our hair, as the sky grew darker. Shit, it's cold.

I peered down at the girl beside. Her hair was flying in the wind, whipping her in the face. I laughed, "You look like a mess". This earned a childish pout from the girl.