As the fleeing animal drew closer, I tightened my grip on both swords. "Master, you should run," urged Deux. "You're no match for that goblin! That animal is just a Common Fracox, not particularly rare. There's no need to risk your life to save it!"

There were several points on which I wanted to protest at his statement, but I was currently too tense to say anything. I knew I didn't have the skills to properly use the swords in my hands, but still I didn't want to abandon the small animal running for its life. It reminded me of my own situation just a few hours prior. How I wished someone would save me at that time, but no one had. Now I was given the chance to save a life, even if it was doubtful whether my swords would come through in a pinch.

I decided to switch hands, moving Deux to my dominant right hand. That way, if my first slash hit, the monster should at least be weakened. I couldn't use Eins so freely now that I knew its flaw. I was reasonably athletic, so I opted to use a hit and run attack. The monster had spotted me by now and gave a threatening growl at the sight of my weapons. Unlike the first goblin I encountered, this one wasn't armed. That was little consolation as it was still taller than me and much more muscular.

Taking a deep breath, I dashed forward, ignoring the warning cries of Deux as well as my common sense. Closing the distance would shorten the time it had to react to my attack and hopefully I could get a first blow in. With Deux, that should almost settle things. My adrenaline-fuelled sprint brought me up close to the goblin in mere moments and I swung the sabre I held across my body diagonally upwards to the right just as I dodged under its long arms that were stretched forward towards me.

Without slowing my dash, I went past the goblin for a short distance before whirling around. The sickening sensation of cutting into flesh had been transmitted from the sabre to my hand, so my attack must have been successful, but maybe it was too shallow a slash? However, the sight that greeted me almost made me lose my lunch. Dark ichor was gushing from the gaping wound in the goblin's side and it had collapsed on its knees, clutching its wound and groaning in pain. I might have felt sorry for it if it hadn't been so cruelly torturing the fracox just now.

But what should I do now? Finish it off? I balked at intentionally killing something, but at this point it would just be cruel to leave it like this. Deux wouldn't be able to kill it and I wasn't sure if that goblin satisfied the conditions for Eins either. Nonetheless, I had to try. I gripped Eins with my right hand again, approached the goblin from the side cautiously and swung at its neck.

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The sword swung true and its head flew off, puffing into smoke before it landed on the ground. The body did the same a few seconds later. I was left with mix of horror and relief as I sat down on the spot. Fortunately, the goblin's blood had also disappeared when it did, so the ground was relatively clean. After a few moments of being dazed, I heard a whine and recalled the fracox.

It was lying down a distance away, looking too weak and exhausted to move. Was there anything I could do to help it? If left alone it would end up a victim of another monster or predator. I slowly approached it, laying down my swords nearby and crouching low so it wouldn't feel threatened. It weakly raised its head and mewed, but seemed to resign itself and lay down again. It was bloodied in places where tufts of fur were torn off, and its tail was bent at a weird angle. Poor thing. If only I could heal it with magic or something.

I hadn't succeeded earlier, but maybe it was because there was nothing for me to heal? Determined to try again, I took a deep breath, raised my hands over the animal's wounds, then closed my eyes and imagined them being restored. Finally I murmured the word "Heal". Opening one eye to peek, I saw that my hands and its wounds had started glowing! It was actually working! Or so I thought, but when I got distracted, the light faded right away. Oops!

I closed my eyes and concentrated hard again, confident that it would work. I could really heal it! I had magic! After around five minutes of silently concentrating, something licked my hand and I was startled into opening my eyes. The fracox was sitting up and looking at me, looking much healthier than before. Its coat was still blood-stained, but the fur had grown back and its tail was no longer broken. Awesome! I was tempted to raise my arms in a victory pose, but that would only scare it, so I settled for smiling at it and nodding.

"I'm so glad you're fine now. Take care, all right?" I spoke to it.

It seemed to understand what I meant, as it bowed its head and ran off. Phew. Concentrating that hard took a lot of effort. Or was I just tired from using mana? Well, at least the incident had confirmed that I had an affinity for Light magic. Now, if only I could have a handy Item Box too. I slowly got to my feet and went to pick up Eins and Deux...and stopped in my tracks. A person was standing there, looking down at the swords curiously. They then looked up at me and gave a gentle smile, but somehow it sent chills down my spine. Who was this guy who suddenly appeared!?