The days of mana training quickly ended with everyone being able to use mana on a below-average level excluding the people that already knew how to control it, these people became even stronger after pushing their selves to the absolute limit, they had to or else all this training will go to waste
It was one day before the bandits were said to arrive, and all of the villagers were doing nothing but relaxing their bodies, after weeks of intense training their body was weakened and exhausted so the best thing they could do is rest, all of the women and children were packing their things and were ready to go and hide in the forest, being caught in the crossfire of the fight would probably cause them great damage, but before they left the men said one last goodbye to them, many were also crying, some of them seemed to accept the fact that they may die, it was a sad thing to see but that was their reality, and they couldn't do anything to change it besides fight
"I'm going to miss you, Rex!"
Zak said as he hugged his boy, Rex was crying over the fact that this may be the last time they talked
"I'm going to miss you too dad! But please don't die!"
Rex said as he began to bawl his eyes out, Zak hugged even harder, he too was trying not to cry in front of his boy
"I'm going to be alright! Just stay hidden and wait for your daddy! After the fight, I will treat you to delicious meals"
Zak said as he picked up his kid, he then left him in the hands of his wife
"Before you leave I want to tell you that I love you so much and I will keep loving you until my last breath"
Zak said as he hugged his crying wife
"Don't talk like that! Just tell me that you will be back"
his wife replied with a forced smile
"Don't worry! I will be back to get you from the forest, make sure you wait for me"
He said with a smile as he waved goodbye to her wife and all the other villagers, the village then became empty, and no one was left besides the people that will fight
"You don't have to be sad sir, I'm sure that we will make it out just fine and you will see your family once again!"
Cara said to the sad Zak in order to cheer him up
"Thank you, Cara, I know I said it a thousand times but I appreciate that you all still stayed here to fight for us"
Zak said with gratitude in his voice
"If it wasn't for Teras then we would have never come here, so you should tell him that, not me"
Cara replied with a smile
"Do you love this boy Cara?"
Zak's question caught Cara off guard but she didn't deny it
"Is it that clear? If yes then why hasn't he noticed yet? Or does he not like me back?"
Cara wondered out loud, Zak then laughed
"You really think he won't like a girl like you? He simply is a dumbass, if you simply tell him straight forwards then I guarantee you that he won't turn you down"
what Zak said made Cara feel more confident but also made her feel dumb about her decisions
"Thank you for all those sweet words Mr. Zak but now that I think about it I haven't seen Teras since last night and it's noon now, have you seen him by any chance?"
Cara asked him, He was as clueless as her
"No idea, he may be walking around the village, I bet that if you search for a little you will find him"
Zak told her, so that's what she did, Cara left Zak and started searching for Teras, she searched most of the spots Teras used to relax at but she couldn't find him anywhere but she didn't give up on searching for him, she continued searching and when she reached a remote place of the village she could hear strange noises, the noises sounded like an earthquake, as Cara was following the sound she found herself near a cave, she silently entered the cave to see what was making this noise and what she found surprised her, it was Teras, he was standing in front of a huge destroyed wall, the wall had many blood stains on it, before Cara could ask him what is happening Teras started punching the wall with mana overflow, each punch made a loud sound of cracking mixed with stones breaking, Cara then quickly pulled Teras away from the wall as soon as she noticed his destroyed hands, they were so beaten up that at some part even the bone could be seen
"What the hell are you doing? You are hurting yourself!"
Cara yelled to his face but her expression quickly changed when she saw his empty eyes, it was like he wasn't the one controlling his body
"Teras how long have you been doing this?"
Cara asked him, but still, there was no answer, Cara then slapped Teras, and that's when Teras finally snapped back to reality
"What are you doing here Cara?"
he asked confused, Cara then began to heal his hands
"Don't you dare move, I will heal and then you will explain everything to me"
Cara said as he settled Teras down, Teras didn't say anything, he simply stayed still as his wounds were closing, Cara was worrying since her mana was slowly running out, even after 4 minutes of continuous healing Teras's hands were still not healed
"Why the hell would you do this to yourself?"
Cara asked him
"It was the only way to get stronger because let's be honest, training these guys won't help much, it will only make the numbers even, the real threat here is the monster and I'm the only person able to fight this thing, but even I couldn't do anything to it... It's fucking frustrating, I train over and over again to become stronger but there will always be someone stronger than me out there to defeat me, I'm tired of this stupid thing happening over and over again so I will even break myself if necessary, I don't care how much I suffer as longs as I turn out victorious in the end, then its worth it! Is this that hard to understand?"
Teras asked as he clenched his teeth, Cara looked at him confused but also sad
"Teras you have to understand that you are not alone, you have us now, we can all fight this monster it doesn't have to be just you"
Cara told him but Teras replied with an aggressive tone
"No we can't Cara, even after using explosion and my mana overflow this monster only got a scratch, I barely managed to do anything more than that, so are you expecting you or anyone else to do anything to it?"
Cara was sad to hear that but she knew it was the truth
"To tell you the truth you were the main reason I push myself harder and harder every passing day but even by doing that I still can't get even near you, so please don't say things like that, I already know I can't touch you in terms of combat or speed or anything really, but that doesn't stop me from improving, so please even if I'm not much, use me as best as you can in this fight, I don't care even if I am a bait for your attack I simply want to prove useful to you for once, and not only be the healer, can you do that for me?"
Cara asked as she lowered her head, after hearing that Teras got up
"You got it all wrong Cara, I'm not saying you are useless, I'm simply saying that you shouldn't go against that yet, because you and I have different things we want to achieve by fighting, what I'm trying to say is that in the long run we all have different dreams and sometimes you have to work more than others to achieve this dream, I don't know about your dream but my dream is to become free so I can search for my past self freely, and to do that I will not only have to become the strongest but also raise my party to be the strongest too, so I won't ever put your life in danger, so please don't worry about me as much as you do, because if I don't make it I simply wasn't strong enough to reach my dream. Before going to sleep I want to tell you something else...."
Teras said as he started exiting the cave
"If things go south just abandon me, I want you guys to live even if it means that I have to die"
after saying that Teras left the cave and quickly headed to the party's house to sleep, he wanted to get as much rest as he could, Cara in the other hand didn't move an inch, she was shocked by what Teras told her but she was even happier about what she heard
'So am I not useless? I'm happy to finally hear those words from someone I care for but what was all that? Sacrifice him? We could never do something like that...'
Cara thought as she got up, she had a bright smile on her face as she walked into the village, Lia and Har spotted her as she was walking and invited her for lunch
"You seem relatively happy, did you finally confess?"
Lia asked her excited, it was the first time Har learned about Cara's feelings but he acted calm even after hearing them
"No it isn't that, I simply feel better that's all, and as for my feelings, they can wait after we get over those bandits"
Cara said with a smile on her face
"Cara we didn't want to announce this to you now but since we can't hold the surprise we might as well show this to someone"
Cara was confused about what Lia said, but she quickly understood when Lia picked up a small spore, she then place it on her stomach, and miraculously a flower bloomed, and a huge smile formed on Cara's face
"Are you..."
Lia then finished her sentence for her
"Yes! I'm pregnant!"
Lia said excited, Cara then let out a slight scream from excitement, and the two girls then hugged tightly
"I'm so happy for both of you!"
Cara said happily
"Judging by the color of the flower is a boy! Have you thought of a name yet?"
Cara asked them as she saw the blue rose
"We haven't thought of a name but we want him to call him something that symbolizes strength since this body will attend his first fight as a fetus"
Har said as he laughed
"Now it's your turn Cara make this clueless guy realize that he needs you"
Lia said as she smacked Cara's back
"I said I will do this after the fight plus now that you mentioned it his hands are a mess so he probably needs my healing ability before the fight starts, after finishing with your lunch please come by our house so we can heal him together"
Cara said as she got up from the table
"We will!"
Lia said, Cara then left them and went straight into the house, but when she returned she didn't see what she was excepting, Teras was sitting at the table eating eggs, somehow his hands were completely fine
"What are you doing? You are supposed to rest..."
Cara schooled him but after seeing his hands she remained silent
"Y-Your hands are healed, what did you do?"
she asked confused
"What do you mean? I simply healed them as I did every time"
Teras's response worried Cara
"Are you saying that you have done this multiple times?"
"Almost every day, and to be honest the first days were hard but after the fifth day it became like a routine"
Cara was beyond surprised by the things she heard
"And you were able to heal your wounds every day?"
"I mean I don't fully heal them but I can bring them in a fine enough condition to fight"
Teras said, before he realized he had finished his food so he got up and went to his and Cara's room to sleep
"I don't know where this talk is headed but I have to sleep so if you would like to continue this conversation then please remind me of it after the fight since I will be sleeping till the next day"
Teras said as he got into his bed at 5 P.M, Cara didn't say anything, she simply watched Teras lay on his bed
'This man really is an anomaly of the world'
Cara thought as she too laid on her own bed, and slowly they both fell asleep knowing completely well that tomorrow their life could be in danger but can you blame them? After what they went through they really deserved to relax