I start running to try and stop her onslaught before she causes herself permanent damage. My muscles scream at me with every step. Time feels like it slows to a stop as the sound of each rhythmic strike pierces my heart.
'Crack, crack, crack, crack, crack, crack, crack!'
Tackling her is the only thought flowing through my strained mind, not knowing what else to do.
"Get off me!" The blood from her hands smears my face as she struggles to break free.
"Josh, get over here!" I hold her down as best as I can, but she's much stronger than me. The most I can do is use her light frame against her and bring her back to the ground when she manages to stand up. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Josh plodding over as fast as he can. A combination of snot and vomit drips from his chin. He can only swing one arm because the other is holding his battered abdomen. I flip and tackle Sakura several times before he finally makes it over here. Most of my clothes are covered in her blood at this point. During our struggle, I glimpse how little skin remains on her knuckles. Josh hugs her from behind, and like a switch, all the violence leaves her body.
"Sakura, don't."
"But she hurt you, and I couldn't stop her!"
"Hurting yourself won't make it better." The boiling rage in the air shifts to a contemplative sadness. We all think about what just happened and the words we were left with—this isn't a fucking game.
Those words sit heavy on my heart. I'm still reeling from Tyrion's cutting comments a few days ago, and this is just adding fuel to the fire.
'The monsters in the forest are much less merciful than me.'
While hard to digest after taking the ass beating of a lifetime, she certainly isn't wrong. Pretty much everything in that forest wants us dead. Sakura places her raw hands over Josh's, tightly gripping her stomach.
"Good training today, team. Same time next week?" I can't help but crack a joke with the sad weight of the air. Both of the kids smile at my comment before Sakura responds.
"Go fuck yourself, Nick." That comment pulls a chuckle out of me, at which point I decide to grab a healing potion out of my bag.
"Here, drink this before the damage becomes permanent." Sakura nods lightly and drinks the entire bottle in one sip.
"Bleugh, Gross."
"I've always wondered what those tasted like, but I'm much less curious now."
"It's bad." The wounds on her hands quickly close, and we gather our things to head to class. We garner quite a bit of attention walking around covered in blood and dirt, but we're too tired to care. The three of us sit in class and share smug grins at the reactions of those around us. For some reason, the feeling of surviving an intense struggle brings forth a feeling of superiority.
[This is probably similar to what my brother felt when he got out of boot camp.]
The class proceeds normally after that. Travis talks about another monster found in the forest called the Metapardus. He explains that the Metapardus is a six-legged carnivorous monster that usually hunts on the forest floor but is adept at climbing. Its body looks like that of a leopard without any fur. While not covered in scales, its thick black skin can be difficult to pierce. The jaws of these beasts are filled with rows of serrated teeth, making their bite a devastating attack, but they also have a fear debuff and powerful whip-like tail. Travis goes on to explain the best way of dealing with the Metapardus. They usually use their terrifying visage and fear spell to crumble any defensive maneuvers; when that fails, they will try to draw your attention to their head while attacking from behind with their tail. Fortunately, the Metapardus hasn't been seen in the area for a few years, but they're solitary hunters and may just be avoiding contact with humans. The class ends, and everyone shuffles out, but I notice Shinobu is strikingly absent. I was sure she would have something to say about my appearance. I stop Tyrion as he walks to the main hall.
"Hey, where's Shinobu?"
"I told you to drop it."
"Is she okay?" He ignores me and walks away. Kyle walks out shortly after.
"Hey, Kyle. I'm sorry about what I said to you the other day. I was projecting my problems onto you."
"Shut the hell up. I don't need you to apologize to me again." He quickly walks away as well.
[Did I already apologize to him and forget? Maybe this is why everyone hates me.]
Feeling deflated, I turn back to the kids.
"Good job." Sakura smiles at me, which only makes me feel worse.
"Thanks. Do you two still want to head to the woods?"
"Yes! I worked really hard last night, and I'm super excited!"
"Okay."
We meet Woohee at the den and show her the new designs. Sakura went all out this time, and some of the outfits even come in complementary or contrasting colors. Each set has its little flair; some have patterns while others have adornments. The clothes look shoddily made. However, it's still a huge improvement over leaves. A green set of clothes is set aside, especially for Woohee, who is overjoyed at the gift. We get a solid workout and meditate before finishing the day with a hunt. The next three weeks fly by in a flash. We continue alternating between training at the guild and running laps around the town. We workout, meditate, and hunt every day. Our stats are increasing steadily, and the influx of Punctastar ingredients is swelling our wallets. In the back of my mind, I still want to apologize to Shinobu, but I haven't seen her in class. It's been three weeks now, and my suspicions are rapidly rising.
"Good morning, class! Today, we're talking about the terrain. If you decide to work as an adventurer after finishing this course, you will fight in all types of terrain. While it may be mostly forests and plains in the area, anything can happen in a dungeon." Travis walks to the chalkboard and makes another poorly drawn cave. "Right at the bottom of the cave will be the dungeon core, which can be used to place various terrain traps."
He draws spikes along what is supposed to be the floor of the cave, but it just makes it look like a worm with teeth.
"Can anyone name some types of terrain traps?"
I whip my head around and look at the few people raising their hands. Again, I'm trying not to draw attention to myself, so I keep my hand down. While glancing around, I see Shinobu at the back of the class. She looks horrible. Her hair is in disarray, and her makeup is applied abysmally, just like when I saw her at the tea shop. She's holding her arms and talking to herself, looking like she has just lost a fight or something. I turn back to the chalkboard as my stomach falls out of my body. The feeling of cold fingers running up my neck comes back as well.
"Spikes." Someone shouts out an answer which draws me back to the present.
"Great example, and what have I drawn here?"
"...Spikes?"
"What? No, it's–it's fire. Doesn't it look like fire?"
"I think you nailed it with your drawing. I feel like I could cook dinner over that." I call out an answer sarcastically to try and grab Shinobu's attention. As much as she likes being right, I'm sure she'll jump at this opportunity to call me an idiot. Unfortunately, that's not the case. I peek behind me and see that she doesn't even seem to know other people are around.
"…Alright, there's no reason to be mean." I feel a little bad at how dejected Travis appears after my comment.
"Sorry," I say with a smile and a laugh.
"Anyway, we have fire and spikes. Any other traps?"
"Swamp!"
"Lava!" A few more answers appear after my malicious comment.