"Well, that was unexpected." One of the men spoke. He had a neutral expression like he didn't care what happened to the knight, as if he already planned on killing him.
Joren smiled at Tessa and motioned her to come closer to him. In shock from a human head exploding right next to her, she slowly moved to Joren and he used his mana force to wipe all the blood and brain pieces off her face and body.
'Joren!' A voice appeared in his head, startling him slightly. He was used to voices in his head but usually one of a female, this one was a male and it sounded awfully similar to Sir Carter.
'Dad? Is that you?' Joren joked
'What? No! It's me, Sir Carter. I'm using one of the few arcane spells I know to connect everyone to my mind to allow for mental communication.'
Joren made a mental note to learn telepathy.
'I'm just going to say this outright. We stand no chance against them. I can maybe take one of them, but not three. Even with our number advantage, we are still at a deficit. So I want you to take Tessa and get out of here. We'll hold them off for as long as we can.' Sir Carter started talking to the three individuals to stall for time as he spoke to everyone telepathically.
'What?! No way! I'm fighting!" Joren retorted
'No Joren, Sir Carter is right. Everyone is stronger than you so we stand a better chance of holding them off. Not to mention you have the lightning element and you can increase your speed. You should escape with Tessa.' When Glenn said this, everyone agreed with him. Joren wasn't surprised that Lenny or Arnold agreed, but Derry and Pantera's agreement shocked him to the core.
'But you could die!' In all honestly, Joren still felt like everything was fantasy, like a video game. Every foe he faced was like a mini-boss or a tough boss. He managed to overcome them without losing any of his friends. But now, his eyes finally opened to the reality that he was in. This is real life and he shouldn't take things for granted.
'Pease Joren!' Everyone pleaded
'Fine! Let me do something first though.'
'What do you-' Joren started speaking before Sir Carter could finish
"Umm, Miss, you're really pretty." Joren stared at the lady with his cute eyes.
"Aw, you're cute yourself. What's your name sweetie?" She asked
"It's Joren! Are you here for her?" Joren pointed to Tessa and she jumped slightly as he was putting her in the spotlight.
"That's right." one of the men chimed in. "If you hand her to us, we'll let you go." He spoke firmly but not friendly. He wanted them to know that this situation was under their control.
"Really? Okay, thank you! For a second, I thought we were all going to die. Question, does she need to be handed over unharmed or can she be roughed up a bit?" Sir Carter turned to Joren with a confused expression, not just him, the knights and the mercenaries all looked at him wanting answers to what he was doing. Tessa was visibly angered that Joren was considering trading her for his life.
"As long as she's alive." The man smiled
"Great!" In a split second, Joren rocketed to Tessa and struck her chest with his palm. The force behind his strike was enough to cause harm to a person, but not enough to break their bones. Lightning mana surged throughout her body shocking Tessa from the inside.
"Y-You...bastard." Blood flowed from her mouth and nose as Tessa spoke weakly. Her eyes rolled back and she passed out, falling on Joren's shoulder.
"Well, now that this is taken care of, here you-" Joren paused and looked visibly uncomfortable. He looked up in the sky and fear coursed through his entire being. Feeling the strength evaporating from his body, he slowly pointed to the sky, sweat beads dripping from his face as he looked pale.
Everyone didn't understand what was going on. One moment Joren was talking all casually, then the next, he was shaking in fear. Then they noticed him pointing toward the sky.
"Oh fuck! What is that?! Run! We have to run!" The knights and mercenaries looked into the sky to see what Joren was talking about and the three people here for Tessa turned around to see what it was as well. When they noticed what was in the sky, they all froze, not in fear, not in shock, but simply because there was nothing in the sky.
The sun shined like it always did. The clouds moved the same way they had for thousands of years. The only thing in the sky that caught their attention was a small bird cawing as it flew deep into the clouds.
"Hahahahaha! That was good!" Sir Carter, who finally caught on, laughed his ass off. When the others also caught on, they also laughed really hard. The three people turned around and were confused about why they were laughing. It wasn't until they noticed that Joren and Tessa were gone that they finally understood what happened, they were tricked.
"Oh hoho!" Mana surged around the three enemies with immense force and pressure. They were angry at Joren for tricking them and even more pissed that they fell for the oldest trick in the book "You all won't get away with this." One of them spoke.
The Knights and mercs could feel how intense the mana from their enemies was. It was almost overbearing, but they stood firm and got into their battle stances.
"Glenn!" Pantera shouted
"Yeah?!"
"When this is over, I'm choosing the jobs from now on!" With that, they all engaged in battle.
...
Joren soared through the sky, carrying Tessa on his back. Using his lightning, he was able to move a lot faster than normal which was also hard on him because he wasn't used to moving at such speeds.
Originally, he was on the ground maneuvering through trees and running in an unorthodox pattern to shake off any pursuers if he was being followed, but he thought it would be easier if he just ran in the air. It took a lot more energy to do so, but he did it anyway since he had mana to spare.
He ran all day and didn't stop to take a break. He would be damned if he let his friend's sacrifice go to waste so he didn't stop even though he was tired.
Hours later, Joren was visibly panting and his body was covered in sweat. He left the sky and landed on the ground to search for a place to rest. He was about a three-day journey from where Glenn and the others were but that didn't mean anything. His enemies were in the 5th circle, they could catch up with him in a few hours, a day at most.
However, Joren already assumed that was the case and already took precautions. As he scanned his surroundings, he found a cave, probably home to some mana beasts. He went in, put Tessa down, and relaxed for a bit.
He took out some essentials from his storage ring and made the area a bit cozy. Chairs to sit on, beds to sleep on, and a few pots and pans to make some dinner. He started a fire and started preparing a meal. A few minutes later, two large dark wolves appeared and snarled at Joren. He wasn't bothered and threw them some meat. Suprised at his actions, the wolves sniffed the meat and then ate it.
'Shadow wolves. We have a bad history, but don't worry, I'll be nice.' He threw a few more pieces of meat at them and they are it graciously. No longer being hostile, they walked further into the cave and sat down to rest.
"Ughh." Tessa groaned weakly. She slowly opened her eyes and perked up. "What happened?" She looked around, unfamiliar with the setting, and started panicking.
"Calm down, you're safe, for now, that is," Joren spoke without looking at her as he was still preparing some food.
"Y-You! How dare you! Why did you attack me!" She yelled, anger filling her voice as she stared at him with bloodshot eyes. She was so angry that she was shaking.
"Bitch, I said relax. Let me explain." He told her everything that went down in his head when Sir Carter spoke to him.
"I-I see. But that doesn't explain why you attacked me."
"The tracking bug latched on your mana core. I used lightning to shock your heart, forcing it to stop beating causing you to die for a bit, but in the same instance, I spread my lightning throughout your body electrocuting the bug killing it. After it was dead, I jumpstarted your heart and the rest is history."
"Y-You did all of that in a second?" She questioned as if he was stating the impossible.
"Well, yeah." He shrugged. "You coughed the bug out while you were unconscious on our way here. I threw it away and fried it before it hit the ground. I knew it was dead but I couldn't be too sure. Now they will have a hard time finding us."
Tessa looked at him in disbelief. She didn't know what to say, what to do. She always talked down on commoners but now one had not only saved her but is currently putting his life on the line for her. Normally she would have believed that it was a commoner's right to die for nobles, but now, she feels grateful to him.
Little did she know that the feelings she had right now were influenced by the servant sigil Joren placed on her while she was sleeping.
'Hehe, bitch. I was going to put the salve sigil on you, but I decided against it. You should be thankful I'm so nice.' He continued to cook dinner as he kept thinking about the possibilities of the future.