The wait for the rescue party form had been agonizing for me, to say nothing of what it had been doing to Benny. He spent every day on the verge of a meltdown, and he channeled that manic energy into an insane work ethic. Neither of us had the mental fortitude to deal with other people right now, so we took on monster duties.

We spotted a small herd of devil goats. The name came from the crazy belief that demons had created certain monsters, but the name had been around too long for there to be any hope of changing it. Benny ran straight at them once he caught sight of them, leaving me in the dust. He had been getting increasingly impatient and erratic in his fighting as of late. He leapt out into the middle of the herd, scattering them for a bit.

He hacked and cleaved his way through them, but he wasn’t paying attention to his flank. A couple of devil goats were charging at him with their horns. I was still too far away, so I had to use my explosive jump to catch up; fire magic didn’t do much to these things, so I channeled my arcane magic towards them and let the magic lose stability, blowing them up. They flew over Benny, who jumped up and sliced them both mid-air.

I landed smoothly, but got blindsided myself, a devil goat ramming into me. I bounced across the field as it continued to chase me. I started to channel an attack, but a giant axe sliced through the goat, taking its head off.

Benny ran up and offered a hand to help me up, which I gratefully accepted. “You okay?”

I'm fine. Don’t worry about me, but you’re going to get hurt if you keep rushing out like that. Nymia would be pissed if you got hurt while she was gone.

A silver lining of Nymia being gone was that the honesty aura wasn’t compelling me to say that my ass was probably eight different colors of bruised right now. Benny didn’t need that on his conscience right now.

“Yeah, I know,” he said quietly.

We harvested the goats and started running again. I had to admire his determination. I was ready to curl up in a corner and cry, but he spent his time and energy improving himself so he could help his Nym when the time came. His dedication pushed me to do the same. Both of us came to the conclusion that in order to help prevent Nymia from doing something stupid without us, we would need the speed to better keep up with her. So most of our constant training was devoted to improving our running skills. Benny was getting pretty fast, so I had to hone my launching quite a bit to keep up.

I was still getting used to thinking about him as Benny. It was exciting, to have a nickname for someone—to be able to claim something unique with him that no one else had. The rush of that feeling was why I had been brainstorming so hard on the nickname for Nymia. I felt a tingle run through me whenever she called me ‘Bea.’ I really missed hearing her call me that. It was almost scary how much I missed her. My brain kept trying to tell me that falling for her this hard this quickly was just a fantasy.

We made our way back into the capital and towards the Guild with our haul. Just like every other day this week, Benny ran up to Go- like he did every day

“Is the rescue mission ready yet?”

This time, though, Go-Go gave us an even more blinding smile than usual. “Yup yup! Got you two C rank teams and a pair of B Ranks. Their tank is recuperating here, so they’re free for a bit!” She kept talking as she processed our harvests and contracts in a flash, but we were too excited to care what she was saying.

We rendezvoused with the team outside the gates. Both C Rank groups looked to be about the same age as Nymia and Benny. I recognized some of the faces from the fight at Freshna, but I don’t think we had ever actually talked with them. I noticed a few glances that made me uneasy, but I tried to keep a positive outlook. Besides, I had Benny around.

Although, with how high-strung he’s been this week, him getting protective might end up with a body count.

They started introducing themselves, but I was too busy trying to quell my own anxiety to catch on to most of their names. I at least was able to pay attention when the B-Ranks introduced themselves.

“I’m Bailey and this is Bentley.” The woman speaking was a merlady, a species I had only ever read about. Her sides and back were littered with gorgeous red scales, but her front was surprisingly soft and human-y. She had long flowing blue hair like she was the heroine on the cover of an adventure book. Her words were soft, but carried a strange firmness, like a natural leader.

Her partner had scruffy blond hair and was clearly attempting to grow a beard, but it was not working out.

Not that I’m going to be the one to tell him that.

He seemed much more laidback and was smiling at everyone. It reminded me of Nymia, so perhaps he was more competent than I was imagining.

Bailey continued talking, and I snapped to attention. “I’m a mage specializing in water magic. Bailey here is a frontline attacker, mostly dodging and weaving. I’m going to be in the backline, casting and giving out commands when needed.”

One of the C rank teams looked a little irked at that, but they at least had the grace not to say anything. The team was three humans, so it was hard to tell if it was because Bailey was a merperson or they were just generally arrogant. Considering the looks that Benny and I were getting, I was banking on the former.

Hello, I am Beakim, and this is Corbin. I will be guiding us toward the target, but I will rely on the scouts here to show us how to get there. I paused to give them some time to read and for me to compose myself. I also have an aura that can alter behavior, so please do not come within three meters of me unless necessary.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I hated doing this. Not only was I talking to a bunch of strangers, but I was basically in charge of leading them, at least in terms of navigation. The B-Ranks would hopefully take the lead on party decisions; people who would dismiss the amount of experience needed to get to B-Rank, both in levels and in knowledge, weren’t likely to last long as adventurers.

With introductions out of the way, I led us in the direction of Nymia’s mark, concentrating on the thrum of it in my soul. The feeling of that mark was my tether to sanity. Being able to feel my bond with her was such a relief. And whenever I focused on the bond, the memory of me placing it surged back, making me blush.

The C Rank teams, us included, largely kept to themselves while we traveled. Bailey and Bentley, however, floated between the three groups. Bailey would have us rotate attack duties for every monster encounter. Fortunately, we had good scouts, so we weren’t blindsided by any monsters. Apparently, one of the lizardfolk in the C Rank team had the ability to see heat, and the human team had someone that had a skill that gave them an incredible sense of smell.

That is not a sense I would enjoy having enhanced. Especially with how free Nymia and Benny are with their…bodily gasses.

The lizardfolk, Sal, called out a group of five heat trails approaching.

Bailey called out, “Beakim and Corbin, you’re up.”

Benny shot off and I tried to catch up. Again, he dove headfirst into the group. As I got closer I saw that they were sporici, a venomous reptile-like creature. I grew alarmed as I saw Corbin leaving himself wide open as he cleaved one in half.

I launched myself forward to close the distance and lanced with a spear of fire a sporicus as it leapt towards Benny’s exposed back. I rolled and landed. Another sporicus came skittering towards me at an alarming speed. I used my arcane magic to set off an explosion right in front of me, destroying a few of its limbs and launching myself backwards in the process.

Maybe I should’ve taken that explosion resistance skill.

By the time I landed, Benny had finished off the last one. He looked over his shoulder to see I was more or less fine, and went to work harvesting the monsters.

The rest of the party came over. I noticed Bentley looked a lot less relaxed now. He was staring daggers at Benny, but Bailey grabbed her partner’s shoulder and shook her head. I dusted myself off and rejoined them.

That night, I saw Bentley pull Benny aside after dinner. I tried not to snoop, but my eyes kept wandering over to them. Bentley was gesticulating very angrily and pointing at Benny. I got up and started to walk towards them, but Bailey caught me.

“Nothing to worry about,” she said. “You were good out there today, covering for your partner like that. Bentley is just reminding him that he needs to look out for you, too.”

Benny and Bentley returned to the group, and Benny wouldn’t look me in the eye. I had no idea what was going through his head, but I knew it wasn’t good.

Nymia would know what to say.

Instead, I let the silence hang and tried to sleep.

Hopefully, things will be better tomorrow.

The following day we left the relative comfort of open fields in our travel as the path we took strayed further from the capital into untamed wilderness.

“I’m catching the scent of a lot of monsters this way. I think we should take a detour around this section of forest to get around it,” the human scout said.

“Noted. Beakim, what’s your skill saying about our target destination?” Bailey asked.

A few kilometers. I put an arrow pointing in Nymia’s direction, straight through the forest. The thrum in my soul had been getting stronger and stronger as we got closer, and it was harder and harder to stand still.

Bailey pulled up the map and grimaced. “That would set us back a couple of days to go around the whole thing.”

Bailey looked at me and at Benny, who was silent but pacing and balling his fists till they turned red under his fur. She took a deep breath. “I understand it’s riskier, but we’re working against the clock here; this is about saving kids, so the sooner the better.”

“Oh, fucking come on! What does that devil know?! Her friend is probably dead and dropped in a ditch somewhere.”

I winced at the ‘devil’ remark, but tried to hold my ground. Both my partner and I have skills confirming she is alive. She is out there on her own trying to help kids, and I won't let you disrespect her like that. I hoped that they couldn't notice how much I was trembling as I wrote that.

The leader of the scout’s team came storming at me, and Benny was suddenly standing between me and him. His back was perfectly straight as he glared up at the pissed adventurer. “What’s your problem, furball? I just want to have a chat with our all-knowing fucking sage over here.”

“Step back or get knocked down.” Benny’s reply was curt and filled with barely-contained fury.

I looked over at Bailey for input, but she just shrugged her shoulders and let it play out.

The guy started trying to walk through Benny. “Oh, please. You? You’re barely tall enough to suck my di–” the asshole’s words were cut off as Benny slid behind the guy and promptly suplexed him, tossing at the end instead of planting him into the ground.

“Try it again, and I’ll fertilize the ground with the shitstain you call a brain.” Benny was practically snarling.

The guy tried to lunge at Benny, but Bentley got in the middle of them. “Alright, time to act like grown ups, people. We are professionals here to do a job–a job saving children, I might add–so try acting like it, ‘kay?”

The guy’s team was staring daggers at us, and I knew Benny or I would have to be on guard at all times. The other team just looked incredibly nervous. I didn’t think they had been at this adventuring thing long, so they were probably new to tensions like this in a party.

I hated how familiar it was for me.