Lucio was running through the dark forest with a few others running along with him. His group had separated from the main crowd and Aarah led them through the forest.
Although, now she was in the middle of the group. There were very few men, only about four including Lucio and about nine maids and Aarah. If they met their assaulters, the group would most likely end up dead.
Lucio was the only one in the group who wasn't actually exhausted. Even the men were panting slightly and some of the maids were wheezing, unable to control their breathing.
Aarah was the only female who did not look like she would collapse any second.
Lucio had grabbed her hand and ran into the forest while a few men and maids followed them away from the chaos. He did not know if they were spotted by the enemy so he continued running.
'My job is done here….' He thought as he looked at the girl running in the middle of the group.
Lucio felt a tap on his shoulder and he turned around to the other side. One of the other three men pointed to his right, almost 45-degrees to his right.
Lucio looked at the place and spotted a clearing, but since he did not want to stop at such an obvious place where people could easily spot them, he shook his head.
*BAM*
Lucio fell down and the next second, another man fell. Two of the four men had taken the other two hindrances down before looking at the women, some of who were panting and some who had fainted due to the sudden shock.
Before Aarah could gather her thoughts, she felt an arm around her throat and another closing in tightly around her mouth and nose. Her back was against one of the remaining men who were conscious as she saw the other walking towards her maids with Lucio's dagger in his hand.
She felt her vision go blurry and soon, everything became dark.
*****
Aarah opened her eyes and found herself inside a cave with the only light source being an oil lamp. Lucio was on the ground beside her, his eyes closed and on the back of his head was clotted blood.
She could hear moans and cries outside the cave. She felt despair and darkness envelope her as she continued to concentrate on the voices outside, so she shook her head and looked at her surroundings.
A few unconscious maids and the other unconscious man were placed against the cave's walls. The man didn't look too injured so, Aarah started kicking him on his chest, trying to wake him up.
A few kicks later she gave up and tried to wake Lucio up, only to fail miserably.
She gave up and pretended to be unconscious, hoping that the vile men did nothing to her.
*****
Lucio felt like his head was about to explode when he regained consciousness. He opened his eyes and saw everyone limp, sleeping in an unnatural position.
It took him a few seconds to recall what happened and realised that none of them were sleeping, instead they were knocked unconscious.
Lucio felt muddleheaded as he sat up when he heard the "noises" outside, confirming that the people who attacked him was outside, having their twisted form of fun.
He suddenly felt a touch on his stomach and realised it was the spoiled brat who was older than him.
Aarah suddenly felt tears stream down her face when she saw Lucio sitting up. Whether it was because of fear and helplessness due to the present situation or the looming dread of what might happen to her, she didn't know.
She lightly tapped him with her toes and he gazed at her before ignoring her completely. Anger replaced all the emotions in her as she kicked him hard in his stomach, which only made him retaliate with his own kick, which hit her right at the centre of her abdomen, sinking in.
"Tch. This is a life-or-death situation and you want to play games?"
Lucio's words brought her back to reality.
He motioned her to bite his ropes off, which took her quite a while to understand. She didn't want to do it but his glare convinced her that if she didn't, she would probably get another nice kick.
It took her a minute or two to undo the knots and Lucio stretched before drinking some tea from his costrel, which cleared his mind, making him feel better.
His head still hurt but he had to ignore it if he wanted to get out of his predicament, alive.
Lucio undid the ropes that tied up Aarah's hands and gave her a stone that was the size of both her hands combined. Then, he walked to the only man left in the cave.
A hard slap to the face woke the man up and the first thing he did was shout like a fat pig. At least that's what Lucio saw him as.
Lucio didn't have any weapons on him, so he grabbed a stone nearby and ran towards the entrance before hiding behind a rock.
Aarah acted like she was tied up while the man ran out.
Lucio cursed the man inwardly but there was nothing he could do but follow him out as he converted two hundred exp points to strength.
[
Name: Samael
Age: 14
Title: Herbologist
Job: Escort
Stats
Strength: 0.8 -> 1 (Conversion ratio= 1:1000 EP)
Agility: 0.8 (Conversion ratio= 1:2000 EP)
Stamina: 1.2 (Conversion ratio= 1:1000 EP)
Vitality: 1.1 (Conversion ratio= 1:1000 EP)
Senses: 2.3 (Conversion ratio= 1:2000 EP)
Magic: 0.3 (Conversion ratio= 1:10000 EP)
Experience points: 203 -> 3
(Exp points can be converted to stats. Minimum conversion value is 0.1 of any stat.)
Skills:
Magically gifted
Tenacity
Bank
Inventory
Inspect
]
The man who ran before him tried fighting one of the men while Lucio looked for the other. A second later, he saw the other man stab a dagger at him.
Lucio was not in a position to block the dagger, so he simply swung the stone with all his might.
A dagger pierced Lucio's abdomen as he swung the heavy stone onto the man's head, making him faint on the spot as blood gushed out of the place where the stone had hit.
Lucio's body automatically moved towards the two men who were brawling on the ground while a dagger lied a few meters beside them.
Lucio couldn't bend too low as the dagger was stabbed into his abdomen. Removing it would make him bleed faster while keeping it restricted his movements.
So, he waited for the right moment, the moment when the pig was on the ground and the other one on top. Unfortunately, his wish wasn't fulfilled as the piggy simply fell onto the ground as he had bled a lot from a cut in his arm.
The man tried to crawl to the dagger but Lucio kicked him right across the face, before taking the risk and smashing the man with the stone in his hand. His hand felt numb while he felt the dagger go deeper.
The pain assaulted him all together. He felt like screaming his lungs out but held it all in as he took out some stems of the Green Snake Plant.
He held a handful and twisted them to get a green pulp out of it. Satisfied with the method, he took off his shirt and the chainmail which had not helped him in the slightest.
'This chainmail is shit. It was supposed to block even sword strikes but a mere dagger broke through the chain links. Pathetic.'
He squeezed the bundle of stems, making the pulp fall onto his wound, which was still pierced by the dagger. He felt the area burn as he squeezed more, covering the bundle with the juice.
He then took out a cotton roll and let it absorb all the pulp before pulling out the dagger and pressing the thick folded cloth on his wound.
Aarah walked out when the sounds of fighting died down. A few women lay down on the ground, wearing nothing while three men were bleeding.
Lucio was trying to tie a cloth around his waist, tying to cover the wound, only to fail every time. Tears streaked down his face as he bit his lower lip in pain.
She weighted her options for a few seconds before she walked towards him to help.
She barely took five steps when a loud voice reached her small ears.
"OYE SAMAEL!! WHAT HAPPENED HERE?"
Lucio looked towards the sound, knowing who it was just from the sound and saw Mark running towards him. Amelia followed right behind him with her father who did not seem to want to get involved.
Mark helped tie the cloth, only to make Lucio wince in pain, but the blood had stopped flowing.
'At least it was affective.' Lucio thought as he thanked him.
"Thanks, but what are you guys doing here anyways?"
It was Amelia who replied as she walked closer,
"Well, thanks to my dear brother, we got lost."