Hearing her proposed split, I can't help but doubt my ears.
"70-30?! Why don't you just tell me to give everything to you then?"
"You will? You're really nice! Then I'll accept your great offer!"
"It's a figure of speech, idiot."
This isn't good. With the power balance between us, it'll be hard for me to fight for a more fair split.
'But wait... She's a beginner-class lv. 3, while I'm a basic class lv. 2. She's basically ten times as powerful as I am. Isn't a 70-30 split already considered generous to me?'
Such a line of thought passed through my head. After all, with her strength, it wouldn't be hard to hunt a boss-class monster in a beginner-level area like this forest. After thinking about it deeply, in the end, I nodded my head to her proposal.
"Alright, got it. Let's go with that split."
As I muttered that, Toki smiled brightly before cheering to herself.
"Yay! So 100-0, right?"
"Not that! 70-30!"
"C'mon! Be a man and give me everything! I'm a pretty damsel in distress; aren't you feeling pity for the poor me?"
Poor? You? I remember you bragging once that you already have enough money to buy the entire company of Foogle! I spit on the ground while looking at her with a disgusted look.
"Stop with the jokes. 70-30, agreed?"
I extended my hands to her, waiting for a handshake. Toki showed a lonely smile before nodding her head slowly.
"Yeah, I get it. Let's go with that."
She slowly took my hand and shook it with a firm grip. Her hands, despite being a girl's, were full of calluses. Did she practice some martial arts or something? These can't be earned by just being a keyboard warrior, after all.
When she noticed the weird look on my face, Toki pulled her hands away and turned around.
"So? What's the plan, guild master?"
"... What?"
"The plan! I mean, I'm basically the main firepower, and you've gotta earn your worth of the split. So...?"
"Tsk...!"
And here I thought I'd get a free meal ticket. Well, I already have a plan, so it's still the same? I gestured to the spikes that I had set up nearby.
"These here are a part of the trap I set. I was thinking of luring the boss here and letting him fall on top of this, or if he doesn't fall, push him forcefully."
"Hm, hm... It looks feasible if the boss is medium-sized. Then, what's my role?"
Hearing her question, I stared at her face and blanked out. Well, I made this plan for myself; after all, I didn't even expect to find someone to join me in the hunt.
"Ah!"
After I thought of an idea, I grinned at her and asked.
"Can you run fast? You can, right? Faster than me, who's not even in the beginner class yet."
Just from my question, her smile rapidly turned upside-down upon realizing what I was about to suggest.
"What? No! It's a man's job to face danger! I'd rather stay here and clear random monsters that get close!"
"Gender equality, right? You can do it too, even better than me, surely!"
"Eww?! What gender equality? I'd rather choose to get the princess treatment than that bullsh*t!"
All of a sudden, our immediate surroundings darkened. Toki and I quickly shut our mouths and kept our breathing as quiet as possible. However, it was too late. When I looked up, a pair of red bowling-ball-sized eyes stared at me from above.
"..."
"..."
It was a large black beetle, probably a rhinoceros beetle from the long horn on its nose and forehead. However, the problem is its size. Just imagine: if a beetle had eyes the size of a bowling ball, how large do you think its body is?
"Run!"
The trap wouldn't work; after all, the beetle wouldn't even fit on the cliff's entire edge even if it rolled on its side. Before I could even look back to check on Toki, she quickly overtook me with unbelievable speed.
"Damn! Don't leave me here, b*tch!"
I moved my legs desperately, trying to run as fast as I physically could. Never mind getting muscle pains later; as long as I survive this encounter, I'll welcome any penalty!
"Mahiro!"
Toki shouted, making me turn from looking at the forest floor to facing forward. As I did, I noticed a shadow slowly getting thicker and hovering over the spot I was running at.
"...!"
Without hesitation, I quickly jumped to the right. It was a little too late, though, and the spiky ends of the beetle's legs scratched my left thigh, creating a deep gash. I looked at the wound after I landed, and god! I could already see my f*cking bone!
Rather than a cut, it was more appropriate to say that the meat of my thigh got scooped away. The pain made my thoughts slow down, and confusion ate away at all of my senses. I was probably groaning and screaming in pain, but I can't even hear my own voice.
As this occurred, I saw a flash of silver approaching before my body was lifted high into the air.
"God! You're heavy!"
"..."
The owner of the voice that echoed, the one carrying me on her shoulders, was Toki. To think she'd actually turn back to help me. I can't help but feel disgusted with myself for only thinking of saving my own life.
With my shaking hands, I dropped the weighted scythes from my belt, reducing the load by at least 2 kilograms. It's basically a drop in the bucket, but every little thing should help.
The wound on my thigh was pretty severe; blood kept flowing like a broken faucet. I think a major artery or something was ruptured. Probably the femoral artery. With the rate at which I'm losing blood, I'd be dead in just a few minutes.
"Gah!"
I gritted my teeth and pulled out the metal wire that I had brought just in case I needed it for something. It was pretty thin, almost to the level of piano wire, so I couldn't use it to tie my leg and stop bleeding.
I weighed the two choices: losing blood and dying, or using the wire to stop the bleeding but risking getting my legs amputated later. In the end, no matter how bleak the future was, I chose the latter.
Using the wire, I tried to pass it around my waist, but since Toki was busy running, the wire was moving randomly along with the air, making it hard to grasp. Adding that to my blurry vision, I failed spectacularly.
"... Sh*t..."
In the end, I fainted.
After that, I knew nothing of what happened. Not until I woke up.
---
"Hey! Guild master!"
Toki, running as fast as she could, repeatedly called Mahiro by various names but got no response whatsoever. From the contact between her shoulders and his stomach, she could still feel a faint pulse, so he shouldn't be dead yet.
"Damn! Don't die on me, bastard! The other guild members would kill me!"
Finally, the gate came into their view. Toki glanced slightly to the back but found not even a shadow of the giant beetle anymore. It may be big and fast, but it's having difficulty maneuvering through the forest. Toki sighed in relief after noticing this.
Without waiting for the guards to open the gates, she blasted off with a powerful gust of wind under her feet and jumped over the tall gates. After landing, she quickly rushed to one of the guards and pulled his collar.
"Do you know first aid?!"
Her fierce action almost made the other guard move to attack her, but the one who got his collar pulled quickly nodded his head.
"I do. I'm an intermediate-class healer too, so I can help you!"
"Perfect!"
Toki pulled the guy to Mahiro's side. When the guard saw the leg wound, his frown deepened. Before asking any questions, he quickly placed his hand over the wound and closed his eyes. Soon, a faint light fell from his palms, and the wound on Mahiro's leg closed rapidly. In a matter of seconds, the wound completely vanished, only leaving a large gash on his jogging pants as proof of his severe injury.
"It's done. He should be safe now, but I can't restore his lost blood. I suggest taking him to a hospital for a transfusion, just to be sure."
"Got it. What's your name?"
"It's Sergeant McKinley, Ma'am."
"McKinley? Noted."
Toki nodded her head, bowing lightly to the guard. Then she pulled out her phone and dialed a number. After ringing twice, the answer was connected.
"Alexis, call for an ambulance here at Gate C-55... What? No ambulance can go here right now? Then call a f*cking heli for Christ's sake! I need a rescue for this guy promptly!"
Without waiting for the reply from the other end, she quickly slammed her phone to the ground, smashing it completely. After doing so, she took a deep breath before releasing it in a long sigh, pressing both palms to her face as she tried to calm down.
A minute later, one of the military's attack helicopters, an old model of a black hawk, stopped right above them. Two ropes fell from the side as a soldier rappelled down from each. Between the two, a long orange stretcher fell too.
Without wasting a second, they tied Mahiro to the stretcher before signaling for the others to pull them up. The helicopter did as signaled, increased altitude just enough for the dangling three to not bump into any buildings, and rushed to the nearest hospital.
Seeing all this, Toki finally sighed in relief.
Then, with anger in her eyes, she turned back to the forest and cursed.
"You dumb beetle! Just wait for me; I'll definitely make you pay for this!"