A couple of days later.
Lena has left jack behind as she went to slay a monstrous-wolf pack.
Apparently Lena was running low on money, so she is planning to loot as much as she can from the pack and sell it at the next village.
Jack had tried to join in with Lena, but she was persistent on him not fighting.
"Why does she even keep me around..." Jack says as he kicks the pebble close to his foot. He is standing next to a Y path split. In the middle of the split a notice is left. (Monstrous-wolf pack hunting grounds be safe). Lena had ran in after ordering him to stay behind.
"I can see her condition... Both her 'mana bar' and her 'health bar' are clearly visible... but I don't really know how accurate this is. Her mana bar is acting weird... it keeps draining itself and then quickly regenerating, but the amount is so minimal I doubt she would notice unless she was able to see the mana bar itself, and not only that, but it's also only half way full... it's been like that since I read her full name that one time. Why did she even get angry about back then?" Jack rants to himself.
"her 'health bar' is perfectly full so I'm guessing she isn't fighting anything yet... or could it be she is just completely dominating? I haven't seen those 'monstrous-wolf' thingies, but they do not sound very wholesome..." Jack said as he moved in a circle, repeating the same movement.
He then suddenly stops, slumps his shoulders, and heaves a heavy sigh.
"why am I even here... If anything I'm just a liability... Back then she gave me the choice to leave, was that an indirect way of kicking me out? All I do is follow her and live off-of her own hard work... what if this was a lie? what if she just up and left? her health ba--- HER HEALTH BAR!!!" the boy suddenly shouts as he realizes the sudden change in front of him.
Lena's 'health' had dropped to less than half and her mana was basically at its last stretch.
"N-no no no no no no. I have to do something something something something." The boy repeated as he quickly ran in the direction Lena took entering the woods.
Then as he is panicking he notices another abnormality. A weird yellow bar has suddenly appeared in the middle top of his view. It had just out of nowhere jumped... and once again it did as if it had doubled. And once again... this time fully disappearing with a pop up message saying. "Congratulations!" and a "Lv3 Achieved." under it.
(What?) the boy thinks as the pop up disappears on it's own.
But then he quickly again notices the dangerous situation of Lena's health.
"Shit Shit Shit Shit! Not again Not again Not again Not again Not again!" The boy screams as he runs as fast as he can.
Is this even the right way? Will I even find her? Or rather can I even reach her? She took a while to reach her own destination what chance do I have?
Then he suddenly stops. This time not out of shock nor surprise, but out of fear.
(What if I run into one of them? What could I even do? Die? No... Not again... No... Th--- No...) The boy shrinks down and holds his as he rolls up into a ball like shape.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." the boy repeats.
and then once again the yellow bar appears this time as if 'filled' although it has no barriers around it, he can feel it being 'filled' and then as if spamming him a the same pop-up appears and instantly disappears 3 times finally stopping at the last message. "Congratulations! Lv6 Achieved."
The boy stares at it as he slowly tears up, Lena is on her last bit of health while her mana has slowly started going back to its half point.
"Huh?"
Another pop up suddenly appeared. "Notice! You have unlocked: Lv5 Condensed air breeze."
"What?"
And then he can hear the sound of heavy breathing in the distance, it's barely audible, but it's there.
He stands up slowly trembling and takes slow steps towards it. Finally when he is close enough he hides behind one of the trees from the slowly approaching silhouette, taking a peak he immediately rushes towards it.
"Lena!" She had completely run out of breath, she was a complete mess. She was holding her left arm with her right, her right still being clad in that heavy looking gauntlet, it seemed like she had twisted a bone in her left. Her cloth were a complete mess with cuts and tears all over them. Multiple bite marks covering her whole body, and on top of that completely covered in blood from head to toe. as she looks up at the boy who is racing towards her, a slight smile raises to her face, which is completely covered in blood, right before collapsing.
"Lena! Lena! Get up!" The boy immediately drops down to the ground where Lena had collapsed and raised her head as he slight slapped her cheek.
"W-what am I supposed to do?!?! Uhhh... ummm.... What should i do? what what what!" the boy is panicking as he looks around in the empty woods.
"D-Do we have any bandages? No we don't... we have absolutely nothing in that bag other than some cooking equipment and a couple of vegetables..." The boy's panic slowly dies down as he realizes how powerless he is.
"I really can't do anything... What can I even do..." The boy says looking down at the bloody Lena.
A woman many times larger than him, a woman who had taken care of him, a woman who he had unknowingly admired. A woman he will not see again... or not.
*cough* *cough*
"Lay me down... dumbass." Lena said.
"Y-You are alive!" The boy said as his face started to tear up and smile.
"O-of co-ourse I am... Now lay me down..." She says staring at the boy with her left eye barely open.
"O-ok!" The boy replies enthusiastically.
"Is there... any... r-rock around... or right... the bag... do-do you have it?" Lena says weakly.
"N-no I left it behind..." The boy says his smile turning into regret.
"then a rock... any rock that would work as a pillow..." Lena says closing her left eye.
"Ah! ahhhhh" the boy frantically turns his head around.
"That!" The boy says as he quickly picks up a rock that's short in length yet slightly wide.
Although it would be perfect for him, for someone as big as Lena it's a bit uncomfortable.
"Fuck it..." Lena curses weakly.
"Now my pants rip them... what's left of them at least..." Lena says with another weak cough at the end.
The boy looks towards them to then really realize how teared up they really are, will these even work for bondage replacement? But without speaking his doubts he follows Lena's instructions.
"I'm sorry... but if you can please... yours too would be very helpful..." Lena says slowly losing consciousness.
"If... if... if..." The boy can see Lena debating with herself as she swallows her words.
"If what!" The boy shouts.
Lena takes a look at innocent boy and says.
"If it's not enough... use the corpses' cloth back there..." She says falling unconscious.
The world suddenly falls silent.
"c-corpses?" the boy questions.
"Is she talking of the monsters? Of course she is right?" The boy copes and continues.
"R-right..." he uses Lena's sword to cut whatever cloth he can, from both himself and her, but does a very terrible job at it.
"I-i hope it works at least..." he says terribly wrapping the clothes he had cut cut around the bites on Lena.
"t-this is not enough..." the boy had cut off his sleeves and his pants were basically turned into shorts, they were the only thing he had left from his 'home' yet now they have been reduced to nothing but tattered cloth, but even that sacrifice wasn't enough.
"I-i guess I should check it out..." The boy says reluctantly going towards where Lena was coming from.
as he makes sure to leave a slight trail he finally finds a huge opening in the middle of the forest, with the signs of a huge battle.
corpses, body parts, organs, a sea of blood. That's what that opening was. Many wolf like corpses lay all over the ground, and among them are those of humans, Adventurers. And sitting in the middle of all that is a massive Monster. It's furry and has massive fangs, most likely a larger than average... no this is way beyond average, This thing is a whole separate being compared to the lonely wolf corpses, It's around the size of 5 or 10 of them, but it's dead. It's days of reckoning are over, and it's corpse looks almost pitiful. Multiple weapons are stabbed onto it, one of it's limbs has been severed, and both of it's eyes have been cut deep.
Jack immediately falls to his knees at this scene.
(People are dead. A lot of them. Yet Lena has made it back... right? she did come back right? I-I didn't imagine that right?) The boy questions the world.
"Fuck! Fuck Fuck Fuck FUCK!" the boy curses as he defiles the human corpses, cutting off their bloodied and ragged cloth.
"Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry." The boy repeats thinking to himself it's for the better, if it's to save someone's life this is justified... right?
Just then as he was doing his work, He notices something on one of the corpses. There is a cut on him, not that of a bite, nor one that could be made from a fang, But a clean sword cut, and noticing that he sees the same on the others. He gulps down his built up saliva and continues trying not to think too much about it.
he takes what he feels like enough and dashes back to Lena.
(What happened there. how did such a bloody scene come to happen, and that cut...) The boy runs as all kinds of thoughts run through his head.
Finally reaching Lena he does a terrible job at patching her up, but that's the best he could do.
Hours later.
Lena slowly opens both of her eyes, realizing she is awake she quickly shuts her right eyelid.
She is looking straight above, it's only tree leaves with gaps exposing some sunlight.
She turns her head slowly to the right, and sees the boy sitting down hugging his knees looking at her in fear.
"Don't worry kid, this won't kill me." She says in a weak voice.
"Y-you... What happened back there..." The boy says his mind still completely taken by the bloody scene.
"So you went..." Lena says turning her head back to it's original location.
The boy doesn't reply and just continues to hug his knees.
"When I had arrived there, a small group of most likely silver adventurer's were taking on the pack of monstrous-wolfs. I Decided that I should just watch and not interfere, but then an alpha appeared. It's the big one, many times bigger then the rest. It appeared seemingly out of nowhere and attacked the party's magician knocking him out. The rest of them started to panic, which is when I decided to help them slay it. After all I didn't want to just sit and watch them die, That's not what they would have done... So I jumped in quickly introduced my mastery and started guiding them. We had to take out one Alpha and 3 to 5 regular wolfs, My memories a bit hazy so I don't remember their exact numbers, anyway after a tough battle I was the only survivor. Even though I had tried to save them I failed. I'm sorry." Lena says.
"L-Liar." The boy claims.
"You are lying!" The boy stands and points at Lena.
"I saw it! I saw the the slice mark on the corpse! Those couldn't have been made by a wolf's fang! Y-you cut him down!" The boy says shaking.
Lena turns her face towards the boy, a saddened look covers her face.
"Yes. That's true. I did cut him down. I had no other choice." Lena said with breaks between her lines.
As if excusing herself she continues.
"He started it. I didn't want to do it. After all it's wrong right? To want to kill another. It is, isn't it? so why... why..." Lena's expressions turns into despair.
The boy's look worsens, now both of them look at each other with distrust. No, One is distrusting, the other is begging.
Lena turns her face back up and continues.
"We defeated the pack without anyone dying. Although it took a lot from us, no one died. The party had collected up together and started checking on each other. Whispering and talking to one another I just left them be and took what I felt like was my fair share of the loot. It was then that I was attacked, by none other than those I risked my life for. Their swordsman silently approached me with the full intent to kill me. I was able to avoid the first attack while blocking it with the gauntlet, After that they all attacked me at once. All 4 of them, even the mage who would've been dead seconds ago. All 5 of us were completely worn out, which is most likely why they thought they had the advantage. they were completely right. Under normal circumstances I would have no chance, but it wasn't. Looking at them my vision turned red, I questioned them, I questioned myself. And as I did all I can say is my body moved by itself, and once I was back to myself I saw it. 3 of them Dead from the slashes of a sword that isn't mine. I had taken their support swordsman's sword and used it against them. The tank's Axe and the support swordsman's sword were both deep into the alpha's body so I had most likely just pulled it out. A lone man stood in front of me, He was tightly gripping his sword. My body was at it's absolute Limit. During that blackout they had gotten me good, I could feel parts of my body pierced, most likely by condensed water bullets, and my left arm was twisted, and on top of all of that a I had multiple bite wounds from the fight against the wolfs." Lena says.
"Continue..." The boy said.
"..."
"Continue!" The boy demanded.
"He stood there, Begging for his life. I, coming to my senses, put the sword down and looked at him slumping my entire body. I didn't want any of that, I never wanted to kill another. I never did... But Life isn't so merciful. That man was beyond reason, He had lost all contact with his sanity. When he saw me put my sword down he didn't take at as a sign of stopping, but instead an opening. Mindlessly running at me I easily step to the side as he swings his sword into the air. That man was a husk of his former self merely swinging his sword. He kept at it as I effortlessly just step to the side. I Looked at him, I looked at them, I looked at everything. Why? can you tell me jack? why did that happen?" Lena says turning her head towards him.
"..." The boy says nothing.
"Of course you can't. Because all of this, It's what I chose. It's because I was selfish, It's because I played favorites. For someone who for all I know is dead. I may be just mindlessly running after a ghost, and this is my punishment for that. B-back then, I should've said no. I sacrificed my career, my relations, and my life. No, I never had any in the first place..." Lena says slowly tearing up.
Jack looking at Lena's miserable state calms down and sits down leaning his back to a tree.
"So I killed him. I could've easily left him be, but that would've left us in danger. A single word from that man and many more would have come! So you understand right! why I had to do that! I d-did I-it b-b-because... B-b-because *sniff* I-I-I... *sniff*" Lena was sniffling as tears had run down her face for the first time in a while.
Jack says nothing and just watches her.
Lena continues to let out her feelings as her body continues to hurt even more.
"Y-you *sniff* Did a very *sniff* terrible job at this." Lena says noticing the terribly excuse of wrapped clothes around her body.
"Sorry." The boy says with a depressed reminiscing look on his face.
This whole time, Lena and the boy, stayed in the "party".