Averting my eyes, I notice Elisa's ears twitch before she sprung up to tell me something,
"I think I hear someone. They're probably stuck in a fight, judging by the heavy footsteps."
That must be him, who else would wander in this damp and dirty forest at this hour.
So we run to the source of the sound, keeping our center of gravity low, as not to slip on the mud, which slowed us down ever so slightly.
'But maybe that was the reason why we came late that day.'
The scene was clear, illuminated in the moons bright light: The beast was huge, as tall as the boy, even while crawling on four legs, that looked uncannily human.
Beneath the raging monstrosity, a boy, crawling on his fours, just as the creature is, trying to desperately get away from the horror behind him.
The sight of this beast was enough to haunt me for the rest of my life: never have I seen a monster so horrifying, even in the countless media I've consumed back on earth.
It caused my weak legs to shake uncontrollably and my eyes to shiver at the sight of the abhorrence. I wanted to run away, that was all I could think of, yet my legs failed to move.
In horror, I couldn't even hear Elisa scream at me, urging me to go now, or else the boy might die.
In the end, she gave up trying to scream in order to wake me up, pushing me down the hill we were standing on as we spectated the scene.
As I slid down the slippery ground towards the monster, I met its gaze for a second. The deadly stare sent my feelings into overdrive, and my instincts were screaming at me to defend myself. So I did the only thing I knew: I summoned the [Halberd of the valiant hero], causing the extreme winds to stir the air. The beast felt the cold sensation, turning its attention towards me.
It must have thought the boy to succumb to his injuries, so the creature didnt bother toying with him anymore: it had now found new prey to feast upon.
Leaving a trail of slob and pure bloodlust, it dashed at me before I could even find my footing on the slippery ground.
I was scared. I was scared but I knew that if I showed it, I would die.
Suddenly overshadowing my fear, excitement filled me. Excitement at the opportunity to face a strong opponent.
So as I was calmly facing the approaching creature, I lifted the halberd through the thick freezing storm.
As soon as it entered my attack radius, a shiver ignited my heart, ordering my hands to crash the weapon downwards like a guillotine, which was met by the monster lifting its clawed feet to block the blow.
And although my attack managed to cut through its ugly foot, the velocity behind its dash thundered down on my body, slamming my body into the dirty mud.
lying down on the brown muck, I lift myself, feeling my muscles tear with every move.
'I didn't expect a mindless monster like this to actually defend against an attack. There must be something special about this one.'
But the monster didn't leave me with time to think, as even with only three legs, its speed still maintained. So it dashed again, ripping its small mouth open, leaving a gaping maw.
This time, I felt a different urge coursing through my body, leaving an innate desire. It felt like I had an extra limb, that was just raging to be used.
So when I spoke the words to summon the spell, it was as if instead of my actual body, it was something else taking hold.
"ACTIVE SPELL, AFTERSHOCK.", upon which my halberd cocked in position, ready to strike the beast like a machine, waiting for its commanding variable to be fulfilled.
As the mob was just close enough to get grazed by the tip of the halberd, it came crashing down, resulting in a shallow cut on the monsters snout.
But before I could panic at the useless nature of the ability, the cut on its snout started releasing a lavish green light, dissipating in the night sky.
So as I sidestep the dazed beast, the green entanglement burrows through the beasts skin, petrifying the area around the cut and growing in size, eventually leaving the entirety of its head turned to stone.
So slowly losing tempo, the stone-headed beast stumbles in its dash, falling brutally on the ground.
It is dead.
Out of complete adrenaline, I had completely forgotten the boy and Elisa during the fight. So, while my legs were still shaking from the excitement, I scrammed for the boy, that had already been taken to lie on Elisa's lap.
But when she saw my return from the fight, she put down the boy and rushed to me.
"Yukiko! Are you hurt anywhere?!", she said hastily, patting down my body in the process.
"More importantly, is the boy okay?", I said, before a surplus of notifications streamed through my vision.
[Level up]
[Level up]
.
.
.
Then, blurting over the notifications, making it hard for me to focus, Elisa answered hesitantly.
"I'm not sure. I tried disinfecting his injuries so maybe if we bring him to a hospital quick, he can make a recovery."
So I quickly motioned for Elisa to follow me, as I grab the motionless boy and put him over my shoulder.
'He's lighter than I thought, or have I gotten stronger?'
It took another two hours for us to find our way through the dense forest, until we finally arrived at the city.
Running through the mostly empty city, we try our best, asking the few people we saw, if they know a doctor.
Until we reached one, that could help.
"Uncle! Do you know if there are any medics nearby?", Elisa blurted out to the old man, that had just left his house.
"You need medical attention? What happened?"
"No time for that, can you help?"
"Come in, please.", he said after seeing the weapon I held.
As we straddled into the house, the owner quickly prepared a cushioned surface for the heavily injured boy.
The first thing he did was check his pulse, upon which a grim expression filled his face.
He looked back at us and slowly muttered, "I can not treat this boy, he has already succumbed to his injuries, it seems. Are you positive that he was alive when you found him?"
Although I was surprised, at the moment, only a reminiscent feeling could be expressed by my overflowing heart. But as I looked over to Elisa…
Her face was completely filled with horror. Petrified, yet slowly shivering, as she looked at the man who let us in.
"T-This can't be…", she said, as she slowly creaked her head towards me, meeting my gaze.
But before I could say anything, her body fell towards me, causing me to step back, as i caught her.
"Young Hero, I'm sorry that I couldn't be of help. Is there anything else I can do for you?", the man said coldly, presumably already being familiar with such happenings.
But I was too overwhelmed to answer, grabbing Elisa by the waist and carrying her, as I pull the lifeless corpse of the boy over my other shoulder.
"T-Thank you. For your help nonetheless.", I said, walking out of the door, stuck in a daze.
This was my first mission in this new world. This world that I thought to be a second chance, a chance for me to do everything right.
And how did it end like this?
Carrying a corpse over my right, and my passed out comrade on my left, my legs still shaking from everything that happened that night.
'At this point, I would rather die than bring the dead boy to his hopeful father, that was still awaiting his return at home.'