'Moved, dammit!' I grunted.
I propelled my limbs onwards and attempted to reach for the girl. However, because of the incantations that the gothic woman said, I could not move a string towards the girl. It was as if my body craved to leave the place and escape.
'Among all the times I need to go, why can't I protect that girl now!' I howled inside my head.
It was just like in my previous life, but this time, something held me back. An unseeable force stopping me from my tracks. Every time I pushed my body forward, an invisible barrier pressed me back, recoiling my body backwards.
'A game of tug of war,' I thought, hoping that I could win the match.
Even in my previous life, I was nothing but dirt. I had no talents or any abilities that made my life fruitful. My family disregarded me like an insect. I met nobody in my life that motivated me to live, except for the little girl I met from the convenience store.
She was not even inside the mart. I didn't even have the chance to talk to the little kid. Did she thank me through my tomb? Will she remember my heroic deed even after I had died?
As I stared at my fore, the gothic girl shared the image of the little kid from the convenience store. It was as if they were together as one, haunting me with a soothing lullaby. Both of them needed my help. These women needed me.
'I can't let you down!' A powerful surge of energy escaped from my body.
A barrier of some sort shattered into pieces as the world around me moved once again. Like a bird flying from a cage, I soared through the horizons and went towards the girl, whom I still did not know by her name.
There was no time left for me, so I had to sacrifice myself for her. I moved to the girl's front and shielded her body and used mine. A violent force crashed against me, forcing me to tumble to the ground.
I wanted to use my magic spell as I did before, but I couldn't. It was like what I had said. There was no time left for me to do anything. All I could think of was to throw my body to the girl, trading lives for the sake of hers.
My body knocked against the bark, almost blasting it into smithereens. The crater formed itself at the centre of the bark, which came from my body banging on the wall. The hole came from my body, which nestled to the ground.
'Gotta move, gotta move, or else that girl is going to be a splash of spaghetti and meatballs!' I punched the ground, using both hands, and went back up. My eyes glared at the hideous bat, hoping for it to notice my appearance.
I raised both of my hands and charged a beam towards the winged creature, but something stopped me. I remembered I was not in this world. The bat made my body shiver in fright.
The sensation came not from any barriers or spells that I knew. I feared for my life. I did not want to die here.
'Why? Should I not be saving that girl?' I asked myself the question.
The bat was a horrible monster and did not exist in my world. But the girl dying in front of me was too much for my mind to handle. I saved someone's life from my experiences. I could do it again for the gothic girl's sake.
'You coward! Don't fear this creature! That girl gave you this life! Cherish that, you bastard! Kamen!' If I could shout, a clamorous voice would echo throughout the forest. But I still had no voice box attached to my body.
My shivering senses turned into something else. It was not hatred that I felt since there was rage feeling up inside my body. All I knew was to save the girl and ran away.
I also needed to kill the bat and take its voice box out from its neck. And if I wished to accomplish that, I needed to do it right now.
Like before, I lifted both of my arms and directed my palms towards the bat. The monster glared in my direction and focused on my figure. I was fortunate enough to draw the bat's attention away from the girl, or else everything I planned to do right now would be for nought.
'[Obsidian beam]' Two words came to mind.
Now that I had realised it, my palm projected a ray of darkness towards the bat. It was the same attack that the placental mammal did to us a while ago.
The bat tried deflecting my strike using the same, this time imbuing more mana into the magic. It did not have any mixed colour from the flare. The glow only had a jet-black colour painted on the beam.
But the arcane I drew from my limbs had a completely unique aura. It had a purple hue mixed with the stream. My dark luminance came into impact with the bat's and ended up colliding against each other. A powerful wave smashed at the middle, forcing the two of us to move backwards from the recoil.
But my battle had won as I saw the glimmer of violet pour into the bat's wings. It wasn't even a close call, considering the amount of dark light I produced. The beam I discharged was three times stronger than the winged beast, despite copying it from the animal.
I knew that was the case, comparing it to the actual ray from the bat.
'I'm sorry, but I need to protect the girl at all costs,' I thought as I beheld the scene in front of me.
The mauve ray coming from my spell consumed the bat and turned it into nothingness. It took the animal fifteen seconds before disintegrating the winged beasts into specs of dust. That was when I realised I had made a grave mistake.
'I was not supposed to kill it! I needed to preserve the bat's body!' A roar escaped my mouth, but it was already too late.
The bat died, with the Stygian sand forming on its body. But before I could relentlessly stab the ground using my cotton fist, a clanking sound reverberated through the woodland. I picked the item, without knowing what it was, and rushed towards the girl.
The gothic woman was more important than knowing what item I received after defeating such a creature.
'Are you alive? Darn it! I don't have a voice!' My eyes rolled to every side, checking for any wounds that the girl had.
There were many slices that the woman received, but no exigent injuries that needed great attention for now. All I had to do was coat the girl with a towel and clean the wounds to avoid getting it infected.
'Thank goodness you're still alive, or else I could've-,' I stopped completing my sentence and carried the girl on my back.
The gothic girl moaned as I rested her body behind me. She had a body as light as a feather, making the trip effortless for me to handle. This gothic girl did not weigh even fifty kilograms despite her size. Was she eating properly during those times when I wasn't here in this world?
What kind of world is this place, anyway? Do they have elves, dwarves, dragons, and other mythical creatures?
I did not know a single thing. But I planned on learning every detail once the girl wakes up, eventually. There was no rush for me to know everything. I needed to finish things one step at a time before moving onto the next block.
'I will make you some soup on our way home.' I mumbled, and saw a rabbit in front of the road.
My eyes glistened upon witnessing a domestic mammal wandering around in the open, begging for me to cook on a stove. Without hesitations, I placed the girl momentarily on the ground and raced towards the rabbit.
I used my [wind gale] to capture the animal. The gust of wind landed on the hare before it could even leap from its place, making the hare motionless on the ground. My attack hit a bullseye and killed the rabbit on the neck.
I did not know how to cook a wild animal on a plate. There were things I needed to do before I could even throw this bunny on the boiling pot! Those steps might include draining all the blood from its body, skinning the rabbit, and even cutting the meat into little slices that could fit in our mouths.
'I will learn this soon. At least we have something to eat,' I told myself, but then remembered something. That reminder made my mood drooped towards the ground.
'Yeah. I'm a puppet. I don't think I need to eat something, do I?' Why would a doll need nourishment when the girl made my body out of cotton and strings?
A defeated sigh fled from my unrealistic skin for a mouth as we returned towards the cave.