"ADI, STOP!"
"!!!"
All of a sudden, barely a couple of miles away from their destination, Melinda shrieked in a panic, causing the maid carrying her to grind to a complete halt with a horrified expression.
"What?! What happened!?"
The maid gasped as her face turned ghastly pale, and her eyes moved all around in search of the extreme danger that the gold-haired girl must have noticed to let out that kind of sound.
"Adi…! There is something wrong with the claw. It started itching really bad…! What if I moved too much and broke it?! I want to lend it to Zane and Ross! Maybe Catherine too, if she would want to!"
"..."
Melinda cried out in distress, clinging to the maid, who ended up speechless.
"Of all the reasons to… Wait!"
The maid closed her eyes and began to grumble, only to straighten her back and let out a gasp.
"That's right, my lady! You definitely should remove the Royal Hydra claw from your side and heal you up!"
She agreed wholeheartedly, realizing that although misguided, this was really the best chance to stop the gold-haired girl from putting herself in constant danger with her defense stat being 0 and no way to properly recover her HP.
"Yeah, that too… but, the claw…!"
Melinda cried out while looking around.
"There! We should find some monsters over there to start an encounter! O-oh… do we even have a complete party heal scroll on hand?"
"Of course, my lady. I've prepared plenty, so we have more than enough.."
The gold-haired girl pointed to the thicket by the side of the road and gasped, but the maid reassured her without batting an eye.
"I felt that there was something wrong with the claw since yesterday night's encounter at the mountain… I thought it just shifted or something, but now it started to feel so weird and itchy…! Something must have happened to it…!."
Melinda added after the maid put her down, and both of them walked into the thicket.
The gold-haired girl was clearly more bothered about the item than her own health.
"Alright… let's…"
Then, the gold-haired girl glanced back to make sure that no one followed them and lifted up her clothes to get to the bandages covering the wound with the foreign object.
"..."
The maid by her side turned slightly green upon noticing all the holes actually going right through Melinda's torso, allowing her to take a peek at the scenery behind her…
She couldn't imagine injuries like that not being lethal for humans…
Alas, those weren't the main concern at the moment.
Melinda didn't bother unwrapping or lifting the bandages and tore them apart with such ease as if they were soap bubbles and…
"...eh…?"
"EH?!"
The two girls let out shocked gasps when a fine black powder with a few gold sprinkles poured out of the wound in Melinda's side, leaving a gaping hole.
There was no claw to speak of anymore.
"Did… Did I end up crushing it yesterday!?"
"What if pieces of it are still stuck inside of you, and you won't be able to heal!?"
Melinda gasped in mourning, trying to figure out how the solid claw turned into powder but the maid was far more concerned about potential consequences of said change over the reason of it happening.
"My lady! Wait here!"
"O-okay?"
The maid gasped and rushed further into the thicket, leaving the troubled gold-haired girl behind.
At first, running blindly, the maid soon heard a promising sound of an encounter and instantly changed direction, aiming straight there.
She wasn't mistaken for doing so.
By the small creek, a green-haired young man wielding a gold staff was facing off against an odd creature.
The monster was the size of a bear but had the build of a mole, the only difference being its head and jaws.
The creature that the girl could not recognize had a ridiculously wide mouth. It actually looked as if its mouth was going all around its head and was spiked with triangular barbed teeth.
Kind of similar to one of her acquaintances, actually…
But the maid was too preoccupied with the good of her master to care about it at the moment.
"Wha…!? Hey, lady! Watch out! It's dangerous! He…"
"OUT OF THE WAY, PRETTY BOY!"
*WHAM*
The green-haired human saw the maid and shouted to warn her, but she roared, passed him, and threw a devastating kick at the odd monster's right arm, riddled with impressive claws…
*SPLATTER*
"FTYTYOIUGFJYUTUFG!"
…severing it from its body and causing the creature to stumble back on its own molehill and cry out in agonized gurgling.
"!?!?!"
"Heal party leader, Melinda Fenrioette!"
The green-haired young man's jaw dropped at the sight of the attack, but the maid was already tearing up the healing scroll and shouting out its target as it activated.
"...! It worked….!"
The maid's face suddenly lit up as she sensed the change in the HP of her party member…
"EH?! WHY DID IT STOP?!"
…but then it changed into fear and panic when the supposed complete party heal scroll didn't do its advertised job.
"Heal party leader, Melinda Fenrioette! Heal party leader Melinda Fenrioette! Heal party leader Melinda Fenrioette! YOU TRASH! HEAL MELLY, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!"
The maid's face turned ghastly pale, and she hurriedly pulled out a whole bunch of scrolls with green ribbons, using them one by one and growing more desperate with every next one.
"YTFTYFY!"
The monster she attacked didn't care about her mental state at all. It got up and charged at her, seemingly in its final blaze of glory…
"SHUT UUUUUUUUUPPPPPPP!"
"FG…!"
The maid's expression turned severe, and she howled.
*WHOOSH*
Spinning around and digging her heel into the beast's stomach, she continued the motion—lowering her torso while pushing her leg, carrying the monster up, and launching it into the air with a gust of wind.
"FGHUGgghghghhhhh…!"
"?!?!!?"
The monster's howl grew quieter the higher up it was while the green-haired young man stumbled back and fell on his butt, staring after it with pure shock.
"HEAL PARTY LEADER, MELINDA FENRIOETTE!"
The maid gritted her teeth and cried out, using up the last scroll…
"N-not enough…!? STILL?! How?! Why!? How much HP could she possibly have?! THOSE ARE PARTY HEAL SCROLLS!"
She froze up and trembled at the sight, expecting that the reason behind the poor performance of the consumables was the severity of the injuries of her party member.