Three monsters on all sides, a traumatized girl to protect, and a bleeding hand.

I should be panicking, hyperventilating. But somehow, just like with the skeletons back in RLO, despite my heart beating wildly, my mind was clear enough to come up with a plan.

When we had come to Casey’s place, I had dropped off my backpack that contained the magical items we had wanted to test in this world, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have any magical items on me.

Of course, I had the ruby seed, but I couldn’t just use it and leave Wi behind, nor did I have any other teleportation items on me for Wi to use as well. Big mistake.

Next, I had a pair of Barrier Rings. They were magic items with an enchantment that protected the wearer from any magical attacks below a certain level of power. They also had an activatable rune on them which erected a field that pushed away nearby enemies with a cooldown of a couple of seconds.

I immediately reached into my pocket and wiggled my ring and index fingers into the rings.

Lastly, I had two Infinity Shurikens. They were these oddly shaped throwing stars with wisps of cyan light connecting its tips in a way to form the infinity shape. The enchantment on them was supposed to return them back to the thrower’s hand when hitting a target, while leaving a ghostly duplicate in their landing spot for a minute.

They would have hardly been enough to knock the monster away from its pounce earlier, but they should be good enough of a weapon to keep them at bay now.

The question was, how good was my throw? The true form in the game lowered my proficiency with ranged weapons, so…

It didn’t take very long to answer as the monster behind me suddenly pounced in our direction, making Wi squeak in surprise.

I quickly palmed one of the shurikens with my uninjured left hand and whipped it in the boar’s direction in an unexpectedly smooth movement. It lodged itself inside its gaping maw, instantly returning back to my hand and leaving a ghostly shuriken-shaped light in its place. The boar roared in pain but I didn’t stop to marvel at my throwing skills as I let fly the same shuriken again. This time, it bounced off the beast’s skin.

Unfortunately, now that I seemed to be occupied with one of their friends, the other two decided to attempt a pincer attack from both sides. I twitched my ring finger and prayed for no magic failure to happen this time as I activated its rune.

Naturally, that was when things went wrong.

Oh, the three boar monsters were knocked out of the barrier’s range alright… But so was Wi.

With a scream, Wi flew out of the ring’s field away from me and my expression turned to horror. I immediately turned off the ring and dashed after Wi.

Luckily, because of the way I positioned myself, the boars were both ejected in different directions, giving me valuable time and distance away from the threats.

Wi slammed into the ground with a pained moan, but before she could recover, I was already there, picking her up in a princess carry, trying to ignore the pain from my right hand as I did so.

Stolen story; please report.

“Sorry, sorry! I didn’t think it would count you too!” I apologized under my breath but wasted no time in dashing away from the stunned pigs.

Wi’s only reply were more panicked squeaks.

A stray thought pointed out that I had no problems carrying her even though my only regular exercise had always been the gym class. Sure, she was quite small and scrawny but…

I ignored that thought for the moment.

I ran around the trees, trying to figure out a way back to the keep, but unfortunately, I had no idea. Between being in an unfamiliar place, the homogeneity of the flora, the fact that the site of the secret teleport entrance was almost impossible to see, the mad dash to catch up to Wi, and the subsequent fight, I had absolutely no idea where I even was in relation to the castle or the teleporter. I couldn’t see anything on the horizon either, the trees blocked my view.

I grit my teeth in frustration and continued to ignore the pain in my hand.

Unfortunately, despite me being way faster in this form than I had any business being, the boar monsters still trumped me in speed. They were breathing down my neck in mere moments and my attempts to shake them off proved fruitless.

My mind whirled, trying to figure out a way out of this situation, when one of the pigs threw its mace-shaped tail forward and it crackled with electricity. My eyes widened moments before a bolt of lightning shot out of it into my back before I could react in any way.

I expected pain. I expected to be tossed around.

It never happened.

The bolt hit an invisible wall a hair's breadth away from me and dissipated into thin air. I didn’t miss a step, but still felt flabbergasted at the boar’s attack failing for a brief moment.

Then I remembered the ring’s other function and couldn’t help but wonder why that attack counted as magic despite being from another world where rules of magic were completely different.

Again, I shoved that train of thought elsewhere to focus on what was important right now.

“Wi, take one of my rings!” I yelled out as I danced out of the way of another tree. She looked up at me, eyes wide, mouth quivering, panic and indecision clear on her features.

“Quickly!” I insisted as I pulled her into a position where she could take one of the rings off my left hand that was still supporting her.

She must have seen something on my face because she finally complied, reached around, and wrestled a ring out from my index finger.

“Wh-what now?!” She looked at me, still fearful, but with a hint of hope and determination on her features.

“Put it on and then try to activate it!” I shouted before jumping us over a bush just as another lightning bolt hit the invisible anti-magic wall my remaining ring was generating.

“H-how?!” she asked even as her shaking hands attempted to put the ring on.

“It’s hard to describe! Just focus on activating the rune on –” Even before I finished the sentence, I felt the surge of air around me as the barrier came to life and pushed away the boars who had been about to bite into my legs. Luckily, it hadn’t pushed me away.

I skidded to a halt and hastily deposited Wi back on her feet.

“Okay! Just do that again if they get close!” I advised as I pulled the Infinity Shurikens out of my pocket again with my left hand and launched them, one at each boar. I briefly noted that the third boar wasn’t with them anymore.

The left shuriken lodged itself into one boar’s jaw but the other one bounced off the other one’s hide. It didn’t matter though, both shurikens were already back in my uninjured hand, and I continued the assault, aiming for the eyes and open mouths.

Now that we weren’t surrounded and Wi had a way to defend herself if any of them got close, it was child’s play to keep them from pouncing at us. It didn’t take long for the two squealing monsters to give up on getting to us and turning tail.

Just as I was to breathe out a sigh of relief, I turned to look at Wi again, and my eyes went wide.

Right behind her, a giant multi-legged monster, that previously melded in with its surroundings, emerged from behind the greenery and loomed over the girl.

“Use the ring!” I shouted even as I flung my shurikens up at the beast. But they pinged off of its thin legs, barely leaving a scratch.

Wi’s eyes widened as well and she whirled around even as her ring activated again and pushed the giant monstrosity back. Unfortunately, it was too big to completely toss to the side like with the pigs. But it was enough for me to get close, pick Wi up, and dash away again before the monster recovered.

A piercing screech resounded through the forest and I tried very hard to ignore the fact that we were being chased by a giant green spider while my right hand was injured.

Just like in the dream.