Volume 2 Chapter 1: Part 2: His Journey Through The Forest

"Huff, Huff. Lucia! Pick up the pace!" One guy shouts out loud. He looks to be in his mid-twenties. Light brown hair and a slender face. He would be called a handsome man if not for what's happening to him now.

He's running for his dear life. Blood and dirt smeared on his face, and his armor was broken and cracked.

His state is just wretched.

This isn't the only thing as he's carrying a girl over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She's worse for wear compared to him. A large bite wound from a beast covered her shoulders.

These two aren't the only ones. The three behind the guy look like they have gone through a tornado.

And behind the five are a horde of monsters chasing after them. Onyx's thoughts are on the dot.

Dammit! At this rate, they're going to catch up to us! The monsters are catching up to them. Noticing this, Stewart grits his teeth. And he makes his decision, "Everybody! On my mark! We turn and fight!"

With how things are, running away isn't an option anymore. The best option is to fight. It's only a matter of time before the monsters catch up to them.

"Barrett and I will be at the front! Etta, prepare your magic, and Lucia, cover Etta and protect May!" While they run, Stewart quickly gives out his order and hands May over to Lucia. The others nod. Lucia and Etta start to run ahead of Barrett and Stewart, getting into position.

"Everybody turn around now!" The moment he shouts this, Barrett holds up his ax and shield, blocking the monsters in the front. He starts swinging his ax furiously at them.

But that's the worst decision at the moment. A tiger-like monster sees an opening and pounces towards Barrett's waist! Before the tiger can get his waist, what it got is a sword through its mouth.

It was Stewart's sword.

"Barrett, don't move so much. The monsters will take advantage." Stewart covers Barrett's back, staring down at the monster.

"I'm not trying to. I can't move the way I want with all these wounds." Barrett's body is covered with different wounds, making his movements dull.

He can't control his strength like he used to.

"Just keep the movement to a minimum." Stewart kicks one of the monsters jumping on top of Barrett's shield. They need to be as compact as possible and keep the movement smaller to save energy.

"We don't need to take the monsters down. Just stall them enough till Etta casts her magic."

Behind the two of them, the mage, Etta, has already started casting her magic. And the assassin, Lucia, covers her. She stabs the monsters who slip past the front lines.

"Just keep the monsters at bay for now." Stewarts knows they will have the upper hand once Etta casts her magic.

"On it!" Barrett does the same as he pushes back the monsters as much as possible. But it's a struggle.

Cuts and bruises are etched into their bodies. It's a losing battle from the get-go.

"Is it done?!" Stewart screams out. His arm was taking the brunt of the damage. He feels they're about to give up any second. Just holding onto his sword is becoming difficult.

"She's almost done with the chant!" Lucia slices down another monster. But then, her expression turns bright, "Captain, back away now!"

Seeing how the sphere of fire blazes even more, she knows the magic is ready to fire!

Stewart and Barrett's grim expressions instantly brighten hearing her words. They quickly back behind Etta and Lucia. And that's when Etta fired.

"Blaze Inferno!" The sphere of fire explodes out, destroying everything in its way. It's an enormous inferno, torching all the monsters in sight.

"Seriously, the vice captain's magic is so deadly." Barrett sucks wind as he looks at the raging inferno. He'd seen her use magic many times before.

Even if he has, he still can't help but be shocked by how much damage it could do.

"Ugghh." Etta starts to wobble back and forth. And then, she slowly falls down.

"Etta!" Stewart quickly catches the mage.

"Sorry, Stewart. I used the last of my-ughh." Etta isn't able to finish her sentence as she loses consciousness.

"Don't worry about it. You did a good job. Leave the rest to me." Stewart doesn't need her to finish her sentence. He knew. Etta did what she needed and gave them a chance to escape.

The rest is up to them.

"Etta!" "Vice-captain!" Lucia and Barrett look at her in worry. Stewart shakes his head,

"You don't need to worry. Etta used too much mana." Picking her up, Stewart turns to the two,

"Let's get going. Who knows how many are going to come with the loud explosion." Stewart isn't a fool. Even if they took out the monsters right now, that doesn't mean it's over. With such a loud explosion, beasts will be coming their way soon.

"Alright, I'll carry- Stewart, watch out!" As Barrett was going to pick up May, he quickly rushes towards Stewart and tackles the two away! And then,

Bang!

Barrett's bearlike body flies across the area, smashing into a tree.

"Barrett!" Stewart shouts out, surprised that their vanguard was blown away so easily. But he can't worry about Barrett right now. There's a bigger problem at hand. He looks at the raging fire where the arm came out from.

"Blood kongs." Through the fire, giant ape-like demons look down at the group. Black markings cover the entire body and red skin with the shade of blood.

The four apes were unaffected by Etta's last-ditch effort.

"What do we do, captain?" Lucia asks with a pale face. With Barrett going down and Etta unconscious, it's a 2 on 4.

"Lucia, grab the rest and make a break for it! I'll stay behind and stall for you!" Stewart quickly gives out his order. The blood kongs walk through the magic blast like nothing. Singed fur is the only thing that happens to the beasts.

"But-" Lucia knows. Her captain can't handle those blood kongs. Not as he is right now.

"I'm the captain! Do as I say!" Hearing him shout, Lucia can only grit her teeth as she picks up May and Etta. She dashes over to Barrett, wanting to pick him up as well. But there's no way the blood kongs will let her do whatever she wants. Two blood kongs jumped in her way and let out a frightening roar.

Lucia's expression tensed up. If it had been any other time, the blood kongs would be manageable for them to deal with. But with all these injuries, it's damn near impossible.

Blood kong's skin is too thick for her to cut down with her strength right now.

"Get away from her!" Seeing her intercepted, Stewart rushes towards her side, wanting to take down one of them. But he overestimated himself.

As his sword connects to the blood kong, it does nothing. There isn't any force to it at all! What?! Stewart's expression pales. He didn't expect he would be so exhausted not to even cut the beast.

The blood kong doesn't even look at Stewart as he swats him down like a bug!

"Captain!" Lucia shouts out loud. But it's too late. Realizing she's the only one left, she doesn't know what to do. It's impossible to run away as four pairs of eyes lock onto her.

"C-come at me! Do you think I'll give up!" Lucia raises her two daggers, ready to fight to the bitter end. But she's no different from Stewart. She's running on fumes too.

I can't fight too long.

Fighting too long isn't needed as a blood kong punches at her! She dodges it. But what comes after is another fist slamming down onto her.

That connected.

"Argh!" Lucia spits out blood as her body smashes to the ground. Is this really the end? Lucia doesn't want to believe it. But she can't do a thing but watch the blood kong's arm coming at her, wanting to squash her to the ground.

But that never came.

Thud.

What? She hears a thud sound instead of a squish. Lucia turns to see the blood kong's arm next to her head.

"!" Lucia's eyes kept blinking, not realizing what transpired. But the roaring sound makes her snap out of the shock.

"Thank goodness I came here in time." Lucia looks up and sees a hooded man standing between her and the blood kongs.

"You ok?" The hooded figure asks.

"Who-ughh." Lucia was about to ask who he was. But she falters. She can feel her ribs stabbing into her, stopping her from talking.

"Don't talk right now. We can talk later after I finish these guys off." The hooded figure says as he stares down the blood kongs.

...

With its arm sliced off, the blood kong grew furious! How dare you cut my arm! That's what its face said. It raises its other arm, ready to smash it down like a hammer!

"Tch." The only thing Onyx did was snort at it. He raises his sword up. When the fist came into contact with the blade, the blood kong's fist split into two!

Before it can even react, Onyx jumps on top of its bloodied arm and runs towards the head, cutting it off without any trouble.

Too easy. That's what Onyx thought. He turns over to the other three, and he charges at them! In an instant, Onyx sliced off two more heads!

Onyx's actions are swift and precise compared to the wild movements of the monsters.

"Now then, what are you going to do?" Onyx stares down the last blood kong. The expression on the beast's face says it all. It saw death behind Onyx. It quickly dashes away, not wanting to lose its life.

"Good choice." Onyx doesn't look at the blood kong anymore as he walks over to the girl. She looks worse for wear. But nothing compared to her comrades.

She's making a cautious and confused expression. As Onyx gets closer to the girl, she shouts out,

"Stay back!" Lucia became wary of Onyx. His strength was unfathomable. Instantly killing three blood kongs is something even her party can't do!

Thinking about why he's here is something that made her cautious.

The hooded figure halts his movements when he hears how scared she is. But he starts to move again. Lucia wants to back away, but her body won't allow this to happen.

Raising his hand, Lucia thought she was going to get it, but then,

"Don't be afraid. I'm here to help." He places his hand on top of her head, stroking it. His voice is gentle, consoling her like an elder.

"..." Hearing all of this, Lucia's heartbeat goes crazy. Her face turns to beat red.

Seeing her calm, for the most part, Onyx hands her a red vial, "Drink this. It'll heal most of your internal wounds." Potions are in the bag too. Drinking it will heal wounds.

"Thank you." Lucia takes the vial and drinks it. She feels the wounds healing. But not entirely. While she drinks it, Onyx walks over to the bearlike man and the handsome guy.

"I'll carry these two. Can you bring the other two?" "Understood." Lucia slowly gets up and goes to pick May and Etta up. She follows Onyx, and he leads her to the riverside.

"Hear catch." Onyx tosses Lucia some bandages, herbs, and potions, "Use those to bandage the girls. I will do the same with the guys." Lucia nods and starts to treat her friends.

Onyx does the same. He pours the potion onto the guys' wounds and bandages them up.

"..." "..."

Finishing treating the four of them up, Onyx put them into his tent to rest. And now, Lucia and Onyx sat near the fire.

Awkward.

That's the feeling Onyx got. He doesn't know what to talk to her about after they clean their wounds. But then, something broke their silence.

Grrrrrr!

The sound came from Lucia. More specifically, her stomach.

Her face turns red, hiding her stomach. Seeing this, Onyx laughs and brings out some jerky and fruit.

"Here, have this. It may not taste good, but it'll give you the energy to survive." Onyx realizes most of their gear is in shambles. So they shouldn't have any food right now on them.

"Thank you for the food." Lucia takes him up on the offer again and begins to munch down on the food.

"So, what's your name?" Onyx realizes he doesn't know her name.

"Lucia. What about you?" Lucia says as she continues to stuff herself with the fruit. She's in the same boat as Onyx. The jerky is a little too much for her to handle.

"My name is Onyx. So what are you doing out here"" Oh. Onyx said the wrong thing. The moment Onyx asked this, Lucia's expression tensed up.

Knowing the expression on her face, Onyx doesn't speak further as he gets up, "I'm going to sprinkle some monster blood around here." He hands her a blanket, "Use this and get some rest. Sorry that I can't give anything else."

Four people in his tent are the limit.

"This is already enough." Taking care of her comrades and even saving them is more than enough. As she goes to bed, Lucia says, "Thank you so much for saving us."

"Don't mention it. Just get some rest for now." Onyx doesn't say anything else as he walks off to sprinkle the blood.

Lucia snuggles into the blanket even more, and she slowly falls asleep.

...

"Ngghhh." The next day, Stewart wakes up from his sleep. Where am I? His mind is hazy, not remembering what happened yesterday. As he looks around, he notices he's in the tent.

And he isn't alone either.

Beside Stewart is Barrett, and on the other side, he sees May and Etta.

"Guys!" Stewart screams out. He remembers everything about it. But seeing how the four are breathing softly, he sighs in relief.

Thank goodness.

"Captain, you're awake." Hearing Stewart screams so loud, Lucia walks into the tent to see him awake.

"Lucia, what happened?" Stewart gets off the ground.

"Uggh." But the pain from his chest is enough to stop him from moving. Even after the potions, it didn't heal all the wounds.

"Captain, don't get up yet. You got hit by the blood kong." "Lucia, is he ok?" As Lucia talked, another voice overlapped with hers. Stewart looks to the side to see a hooded figure.

"Who are you?"

"Captain, he's the one who helped us."

"Huh?"

"Lucia, you tell him about it. I'm going to check and see if monsters are coming over." Onyx leaves the tent, and Lucia explains what happened when he was knocked out.

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