Tyom had witnessed a life and death situation, as soon as he caught his breath and saw that Poltas was still in the water he couldn't help but yell.
"MISS POLTAS!!!!"
This first thing Poltas heard as he surfaced was a scream.
"You barely came out of the water, why are you already yelling?"
"..."
"What?"
"I thought the weevilians got you."
"Did you even see how inefficient they were. How could they get anyone except a child like you."
After barely recovering from the weevilians attack, Tyom was attacked again by Poltas' words. To reduce his discomfort Poltas began to squeeze his clothes, paying no mind to Tyom's feelings.
"You called those creatures weevilians, do you know about them?"
"Of course. Weevilians are large phytophagous creatures that live near their feeding sites. They don't usually attack other creatures. But we stole their food, so I think they are angry with us."
"Hmmmmmm."
To Poltas the creatures were just a mutated version of beetles or some other insect, yet they were actually a normal species in Floretia.
"Are they dangerous for us?"
"They are neutral creatures, so they don't harm anyone usually. But since we met them underwater, they might try to throw poisonous slime at us."
What insects threw poisonous slime. Forget mutated, this was a cursed version of beetles.
"How does that work?"
"I don't remember the exact time but it should take about an hour for them to produce poisonous material."
The weevilians had already climbed out of the lake and were approaching the duo.
Based on Poltas' calculations, they started plucking plants about half an hour ago. If that had triggered the weevilians, they must already be halfway done making poisonous slime.
The weevilians appeared to be much more agile on land and unlike Poltas they were not burdened by any wet clothes, which further increased their agility.
Forced into a battle, Poltas had no choice but to take out his weblet, which luckily was waterproof, and quickly enable battle-mode.
He had previously noticed battle-mode during his browsing. Its description stated that it could only be used when facing enemies. Until now Poltas had not seen it light up, but finally it was available.
The battle-mode, unlike auto-mode, did not take away consciousness, it only took control of Poltas' body. Under the battle-mode's control, his untrained body began to move tactically.
Poltas had no sensation from the rest of his body anymore and could only watch as his leg extended to kick the nearest weevilian, while the spear in his hand impaled another weevilian on the right. His right hand moved back with great force, not only freeing the spear of the dead body but also cutting the limbs of a second weevilian.
Tyom had barely pulled out his dagger when he saw Poltas deal with three weevilans within a few seconds. He was utterly amazed by the situation.
'Miss can fight so well. No wonder she wasn't troubled by the bakery intruders before.'
Poltas was in a daze as his body bent and moved in ways he had never used it before. He prayed for his back after his body leaned back, far enough to resemble the popular scene from the Matr*x.
There were 5 weevilians total, and within a few minutes Poltas had killed them all off. Tyom was stunned, while Poltas instead of being ecstatic was immediately feeling all sorts of muscle strain, soreness and pain from possibly fractures.
He opened the weblet with his stiff hands and fainted after reading the notifications on it.
'Due to lack of user and battle-mode compatibility, fighting movements will be restricted to protect the body.'
'Enemy potential is far higher than the user. Bending movement restriction has been turned off.'
'Body has gone into overuse mode, please turn off battle-mode.'
'Enemies eradicated.'
'Battle mode has been terminated. Due to overuse the user might experience immense discomfort once normal sensory and motor functions resume."
Tyom had hardly processed Poltas' victory before he saw the lady fall over. He rushed to her, turning the body over to find that the person was visibly uninjured and breathing, but unconscious for some reason.
He had often been in situations where people got injured, yet instead of developing a proper response, Tyom's first reaction was to panic and find the keeper. But out here in the forest, there was no keeper. After panicking and self-blaming, Tyom tried to lift Poltas up.
The body was too heavy for him to carry, so he half-dragged it to a nearby tree and propped it up. Using his bare minimum medical knowledge, he checked Poltas' vitals.
After ensuring that her condition was stable, Tyom ran all the way back to the town for help.
"Ke….he….Po….ple…"
He was out of breath as he asked the keeper for help. Brandial was confused at Tyoms level of exertion. It shouldn't make him this breathless to run from the bakery to the post office.
"Take a deep breath Tyom. What happened?"
He regulated his breathing and accepted the cup of water from the keeper before telling her about Poltas' condition. Even in his panicked state, Tyom did not reveal everything about their plan, afraid that he would be reprimanded for dragging Poltas into danger.
Brandial was alarmed at hearing that Poltas had fallen unconscious. They sought Darshel, who was enjoying his day off at the spa, and went back into the forest to bring Poltas back.