67 – Sorting problems out

A ray of healing energy then hit Tom, coming from Morin. And not a moment too early, for another charge from the monster sent Tom to his knees even with the powerful healing energies still flooding his body.

It was with a look of defeat that Tom stared at the gaping maw of the rabid monster, ready to tear out his face. Then Sir Westys was there. The noble brat was keeping the monster occupied with his glowing sword now, managing some grazing cuts and clumsily dodging the monster’s retaliatory claw swipes, buying enough time for Rory to target it with shoddy attack magic.

It took a long time, and a lot of cuts and bruises that accumulated faster than Morin could heal them, but it was four Tier 4 adventurers against a single, weak Tier 4 monster. They won. Sir Westys made sure to be the last to hit the dying creature even as it whimpered and thrashed on the ground, slashing at its limbs and its body before eventually plunging the blade right between its eyes. He twisted the sword once, and the glow of magic intensified as energy was drained from the monster and flowed into the sword.

Ishrin’s interest was piqued for a moment, but it died down pretty quickly. It was an interesting sword only when seen in the context of this planet and region, but it was no heaven defying artifact. His Pebble Sword, even at its current Tier 6 power, was a much better weapon. Perhaps in a hundred years, after draining countless monsters, the sword could become something worth having. Not that Ishrin counted on staying on Prima Luce for that long. He had plans once his goal of securing simple survival was secured, and they did not involve him spending more than strictly necessary here.

“Good job,” Lisette said, deadpan. Sir Westys glared at her, but her expression was unreadable to all except for Ishrin and, in a minor part, Melina these days, and thus the boy could not divine any intent from her face.

He resorted to shrugging, projecting power being the only course of action he could take when talking to someone two tiers above him. He was still bleeding as he struggled to straighten his back, thinking about punishing Morin for not healing him first but showing none of it on his face, as the lessons from his father’s tutors taught him.

“It was just a weak monster,” he said with a scoff at the dead carcass, which was now lacking a core. “It was an easy fight.”

Ishrin twiddled the still bloody core in his fingers, and said nothing even when the boy’s eyes seized him up, daring him to speak. As a Tier 3, Ishrin was Sir Westys’ lesser peer, at least to his eyes, and had he spoken out of turn, then the boy would have been justified to act with violence. Again, to his eyes, but it was clear to all that the noble boy had been searching for ways to throw Ishrin’s party off ever since they stepped foot in the tunnels of the chasm, ignoring the fact that pissing off your protectors was not the smartest of moves. But to him, Ishrin was an usurper taking what he did not deserve, the company of two powerful and beautiful women and thus to him, this was a wrong to be righted in the world.

The two parties continued deeper in the tunnel system of the Chasm. As they ventured further, they encountered more and more powerful monsters for Sir Westys’ team to fight. Their struggles continued in much the same fashion as the first fight, and before long it became clear that they were beginning to take risks that would require Ishrin’s team’s intervention.

Ishrin himself was not in his best shape to deal with the fights, growing ever more distracted by strange sensations and energies that felt familiar yet struck him as things the shouldn’t be there. Chief of them all was the feeling of a very familiar bundle of energy that—by all means—was not supposed to exist anymore.

In the last fight he almost didn’t manage to save one of Sir Westys’ teammates from danger in time with how busy his mind had gotten. He masked it as a lesson for the boy, Rory, to be more careful, but in truth he caught the large creature with his telekinesis at the very last second because he was distracted. The monster, that looked like a boar with glowing tusks and yellow fur, dangled in the air a few inches from the boy’s head for a moment, and then was dropped to the ground unceremoniously.

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It was a good thing that his telekinesis had grown in power, as it had been the only thing faster than spellcasting able to stop the peak Tier 4 monster before it tore the boy apart. But, it had also been at the limit of what Ishrin could manage with so little preparation, making his current power level feel very limiting.

“You are distracted.” Lisette said.

“Yeah, thank you for pointing that out.” Ishrin said.

“No problem. You need to pay more attention.”

Ishrin sighed, centering himself. It was unbecoming of someone as old and disciplined as he was to be lost in thought during combat. The sensation he was feeling was nothing dangerous, at least for now, so he elected to keep it monitored but without letting it distract him. Yet, he soon came to realize that the deeper he went, the more the feeling at the root of his distraction grew stronger. Before long he was forced to face the truth of the matter. He knew of precisely one being in the whole universe who felt like the energy he was feeling.

Liù. His supposedly dead pixie. It was as if Liù was somewhere, in the darkness, and he could feel her but not see her. It was only when a monster literally jumped on him before being obliterated by a rage-filled Lisette who then proceeded to eliminate the rest of its pack that Ishrin was forced to deal with it.

“What the fuck is wrong with you? You are supposed to escort us, and yet we are taking hits left and right while you daydream!” Sir Westys said, yelling. To his eyes, Ishrin was the brute and it was inconceivable that the girls were being forced to fight, even though Ishrin was supposedly too weak to really contribute.

“You do not have the right to lecture him.” Lisette snapped. However, she then turned to Ishrin and looked him dead in the eye. “Ishrin, I think that something is indeed wrong with you.

He agreed with that assessment. “Let’s make camp.” He said. “I’ll sort it out.”

“You better.” The boy spat, and went to sit with his teammates.

A couple of them were wounded, and the thing was that Ishrin really had not seen it happen with how dazed and confused he was, his mind too busy searching for his dead pixie to register the events of the real world. The boy didn’t seem to care that his friends were hurt, instead forcing the healer to mend his superficial wounds and then his armor, all the while complaining. Ishrin began to think, among the many thoughts his mind was flooded with, that maybe the boy was a bit of a spoiled brat.

“What’s going on with you?” A worried Melina said, as she came to sit next to him by the fire.

Lisette, seeing this, scooted over to him and he felt the warmth of their bodies on both sides spread through him. It was very pleasant, and sweet, although he felt a bit uncomfortable. He felt like he didn’t deserve it.

“It’s that feeling, again. Like Liù is here.” He said.

“Oh,” Melina said, and took his hand. Hers was very soft, despite the many battles she had fought.

“I need to investigate it. It’s getting bad.”

“Yeah, it is.” Melina nodded.

“You are behaving very strangely indeed.” Lisette added, and to his surprise Ishrin felt that his other hand was warm and looking down he saw that she was squeezing it.

“I got an idea I want to try.” He said after a moment of silence. “You two go check with the boy’s team, yeah? They look wounded.”

As the girls left, Ishrin overheard Melina ask Lisette about fighting styles and possible pointers they could give to the team they were escorting, although it would probably turn out to be a waste of time to even try to help them. It was an interesting development, seeing them talk so animatedly after a long period of glacial tension between them. It was cute, seeing Melina try to initiate a conversation with Lisette, after so long. Ishrin had seen the looks she had been giving when she thought the dark-haired girl was not looking. Ever since Lisette had stepped in front of Melina to ‘save’ her from the water wisp outside Obscuria.

Lisette, oblivious, had noticed but had failed to understand the implications of the looks she was getting. To her, Melina was simply trying to muster the courage to mend their relationship and failing. A relationship she was now more than ready to begin to fix, taking perhaps further than it was before, but still just a friendship.

Melina, on the other hand, seemed to be hoping for more. Ishrin could somewhat tell that the fox-girl did not know what she wanted herself, but he could see the hope in his eyes. But he could also see that she was conflicted, and indeed she also shot glances at him from time to time, almost as if taken over by guilt.

What a strange triangle they had built. It would be a funny thing if it turned out that Lisette was infatuated with him, thus completing the triangle.

Clearing his mind from the gossip, banishing the image that had come to his mind of Lisette holding his hand after seeing Melina do the same, he eventually took a seat on a large boulder. It was time to sort his problems out.