"Kyaaah!"
Dismayed by the scene in front of her, Saotome screamed and sank to the floor.
Feeling weak in the knees, she was unable to make any attempts to run away.
A puddle of warm golden liquid leaked out under her.
"What the fuck is this thing doing here!?" Ren shouted, knowing that he could've been the one who died since he was only a few meters away from Jay.
But if the zombie dog had targeted him instead, the outcome would've been totally different since Ren was still in a somewhat good fighting condition.
With blood spraying out of the headless body, Jay's body collapsed to the ground.
Everybody had stopped running and braced themselves to defend against the zombie dog.
Akira saw one of his muscular slaves nearby, so he quickly crawled over and hid behind him.
After he inspected his skill, he laughed out loud, "Hahahaha, although I didn't get [Limit Break], I managed to steal his other skill, [Double Experience]."
With his words, the rest of them remembered the actions Akira took, making contact with jay and calling out [Skill Steal].
"Being able to only steal one random skill every 10 level sucks, but at least I will be able to level faster now! Hahaha!"
While Akira was boasting about his accomplishments, Saotome didn't pay any attention to his words.
Instead, she was looking over towards Jay's headless body.
"N-n-no… Jay, how could this happen to you…"
Although she was grieving over his death, her mind was already planning her next course of action.
Her eyes glanced over towards Akira for a few seconds before looking away.
'Tch, not him, too weak and scrawny.'
Next, she looked over towards Kio.
Observing his calm demeanor, she was tempted, but seeing how Riko was stuck to him like glue, she gave up.
Then, she then looked towards Takumi, who was further behind Kio.
Seeing how frightened Takumi was, shaking in fear and mumbling something, she quickly moved her sights to the next person.
Looking at the other side of the zombie dog, she saw the intimidating aura of Ren, who stood close to a few of his female slaves.
Resolving herself, she made up her mind.
On the other hand, Kio was thinking, 'I knew Akira was up to no good. Thank god he wasn't after any of us.'
Taking out his chipped iron sword from earlier, he held it in front of himself, ready to defend him and the girls from the zombie dog.
At this moment, Yuki shouted out loud, breaking his concentration.
"My back, it hurts!!! Kio, please help me!"
Hearing the words directed at him, Kio thought the zombies had already caught up to them and attacked Yuki.
He quickly turned his head around to check on her.
Misfortune never comes alone, as the zombie dog dashed towards Kio, right when he looked away.
In Kio's field of view, he could see Yuki on the ground, with no other zombies closeby. However, three large bloody marks were visible on her back, with dark red blood still dripping out of the wound.
Further behind her, he saw a white projectile shot out of Takumi's hands, heading towards his direction.
Before he even had a chance to react, he felt a hand shoving him to the side.
Riko, who was standing close to him at that time, had quickly shoved him out of the way, trying to save him from the zombie dog who had already jumped mid-air.
She felt a sense of relief, being able to save him from the zombie dog's attack.
But in the next second, she saw a bright light fly beside her, followed by excruciating pain in her left arm.
Everything happened too fast for most of the people here.
However, Luna witnessed it all from Kio's back.
She saw the zombie dog jump to attack them, followed by Riko's shove to save his life. Then a mana ball discharged from Takumi's hands and flew towards the zombie dog, even though Kio and herself were in his line of fire.
The mana ball only grazed by Riko's side, but it took half of her arm with it.
Luckily for them, the zombie dog wasn't able to dodge the attack and its head splattered from the mana ball.
"AHHH!!"
Riko screamed out loud, never having felt this much pain before in her whole life.
"Riko!!!"
When Kio figured out the course of events, he felt a mix of emotions.
He was shocked by Takumi's haphazard attack, and frustrated at his lack of focus and power.
Although he was grateful for Riko's timely save, he felt regret for needing to be saved in the first place. His heart ached for being protected by the one he was supposed to protect, and what caused him to feel even worse was letting her get hurt.
Tears rolled down his eyes as he quickly thought of a way to help her.
'Since this is a fantasy world, there must be healers or potions here!'
He kneeled down beside her and pulled her into his embrace, "Riko, stay with me! I'll quickly find a way to help you!"
With blood flowing out of her arm, he took out some gauze bandages, then wrapped it around her wound.
Feeling a bit faint, she asked him, "Kio, is it dead? Are we safe for now?"
"Yes, we're safe for now. The zombie dog died right after you saved me, and the regular zombies are quite a distance behind us."
"That's a relief…"
Taking out something from her inventory, Kio recognized it to be the Teleportation Crystal that he observed in detail back in the white space.
"Riko, don't tell me you're going to use it now…?"
Ignoring his question, she decided to just let him observe.
The crystal shattered and the silhouette of a person slowly appeared.
When the silhouette finished materializing, it turned out to be Miyu, Riko's sister.
Miyu was confused by what just happened.
She was sitting on Kaori's bed a moment ago, and then she started to fade away.
The next thing she knew, she appeared outside, with many people nearby who she had never seen before.
The only reason she didn't completely freak out was because she noticed Kio and Riko in front of her.
However, looking at her sister, she noticed that half of Riko's arm was missing, with blood soaked bandages wrapped around it.
"Riko!?! What happened to you!"
Unable to tell if she was dreaming or not, Miyu approached Riko for a hug, trying to figure out something from her warmth.
"Miyu, Kio will explain everything later. For now, please listen to what I have to say."
Nodding her head, Miyu started crying a bit after she noticed the seriousness in Riko's tone.
"First... Kio, can you store these for Miyu?"
Riko took out all the clothes she had in her inventory for Miyu, as well as her backpack full of supplies, and handed it to Kio.
He quickly stored them away, trying to prevent others from discovering it.
"Miyu, if I don't survive this, make sure you listen to everything Kio tells you okay?"
"N-noo… big sister… don't leave me too…"
As if a dam erupted, tears flooded out of her eyes. Miyu had already witnessed her parent's deaths just yesterday, and now she might have to see her big sister die in front of her.
Not willing to let go of her sister from her embrace, Miyu continued to wail nonstop.
While gently patting Miyu's head, Riko continued, "Miyu, this world is filled with danger. Promise me you will always stay by Kio's side, okay? Aside from him, I don't know if there's anyone else we can trust."
Taking a glance at Luna, Riko didn't feel like correcting her words, since she barely knew anything about Luna.
"N-noo… don't leave…"
"Miyu! I'm being serious here! Promise me or I won't ever forgive you even if I die."
"Sob… hic… fine… I promise..."
Getting Miyu's words of confirmation, Riko felt a bit more relieved.
Next, she looked towards Kio and asked him, "Kio, if I don't make it, can you promise me to take care of Miyu, no matter what happens? Please."
Although Kio had been silent during their conversation, tears were silently streaming down his eyes nonstop.
"I promise I'll take care of Miyu. But Riko, don't give up so early. I will find a way to heal you soon!"
A gentle smile appeared on Riko's face as she heard Kio's words.
Witnessing Kio's affection for her, Riko felt like now was the best time to release all the feelings she had bottled in her heart.
Opening her mouth slowly, with a bit of hesitation, she uttered, "Kio, you know... I had always lov-"
Looking at the three of them as if they were in their own world, Yuki became irritated and yelled, "Kio! Can you please help me!"