Levy, who was walking at the front, looked back, the moonlight tracing her petite, adorable silhouette.
After weathering so much together as a team over the years, they had long since become the closest of friends. She was more than happy to invite her friends over.
So she tilted her head and answered in her usual cheerful, sweet voice:
"It's fine~! It's fine~! We're a team, aren't we?"
At those words, the two innocent boys instantly flushed red, tears of gratitude nearly spilling from their eyes. "Levy!!"
However, they failed to notice the pair of brazen eyes fixed on them from a rooftop a short distance behind them.
They belonged to a man who exuded the aura of a wild beast.
He wore a pitch-black sleeveless robe, with an exaggerated mass of metallic feathers adorning his right shoulder. His unruly black hair hung all the way down to his waist.
Most unsettling of all were the rows of cold iron studs densely embedded in his brow ridges, the bridge of his nose, and the rims of his ears.
Watching the three walk into the center of the park without a hint of caution, the man spread his lips in a vicious grin.
He hunched his bristling back slightly and lowered his center of gravity, every muscle drawn taut like a fully pulled bowstring as he prepared to leap down.
Yet just as he was about to push off with his toes-
A long, cold arm settled on his tense shoulder without warning.
Accompanied by a low chuckle, a slightly flippant voice sounded beside his ear like a ghost's whisper:
"Mr. Stalker, going out alone in the middle of the night can be dangerous, you know!"
Under the cold moonlight, goosebumps erupted all over Gajeel's body.
His pupils contracted sharply,