Liam was slightly taken aback and was caught off guard as the group of people ran towards them. Everyone else in the group was the same. However, after the girl screamed out for help with desperation on her voice, the stupor they were all in faded.
Artem and Blair were the first to react as Artem pulled his shield up and charged the closest person to him. His focused target was slightly smaller than he was, but that didn’t deter the heavy armored man. Artem didn’t know if the guy had confidence, but the moment he had slammed his shield into him, the confident man’s face had turned into shock and surprise as he suddenly flew backwards from the force of Artem’s body, shield, and momentum.
Blair crouched down and pushed as hard as she could to give her as much speed as possible before pulling her axe out right before striking the other closest person. This woman was taller and a lot more muscular than Blair. She went to block Blair’s strike and succeeded but failed to see the Gravity Orb that had suddenly slammed into both her armor and weapon. Blair used the momentum of her weapon being blocked as it came back and swung it around her body for a horizontal strike.
The big woman went to move to dodge it but failed to account for the new weight difference on her armor and weapon. The edge of Blair’s axe connected with the woman’s chest piece. It wasn’t strong or sharp enough to cut through it, but it was enough to push the armor around, causing the opponent to spin with the weapon. Blair then used her Gravity orb to stack on more weight before stepping in with a thrust kick making her fall to the ground face first.
Roman formed his hands into fists as he channeled Earth mana. After a couple seconds had passed, a rock-like coating formed around his fingers and knuckles. This finished right in time as one of the individuals reached him and tried to slice their short sword down on him. Roman threw an upper cut and rebuffed the weapon back with as much force as he could. Chunks of the rock-like coat shattered off his fist as it came back down. A shocked look fell upon the well-equipped man as his sword flew back up. He was about to react to it but failed as Avery swiftly appeared with a foot driving right into his side, knocking off to the left away from everyone.
Ariyana started chanting a spell as Mercer loaded an arrow, knocked it back, aimed and released it. The arrow flew and collided against the middle of the blade of the biggest man who had swung his weapon at the lanky frail looking man who was right behind the scared looking girl. The force of the arrow was enough to knock the sword of course, missing its intended target and slammed into the ground.
The big man turned to scowl at Mercer but stopped as Gimmel and Liam appeared right in front of him. Gimmel swung his daggers at the man but missed as he surprisingly jumped back enough to get out of Gimmel’s range. The man then swung his swung back around him. He used the momentum to bring it over his head and then down in a vertical strike.
As the man did this, he didn’t pay attention to Liam who moved his empty hand in a swinging motion as he appeared right behind Gimmel. As Liam finished the empty swing he swiftly grabbed Gimmel by the back of his shirt and pulled him backwards as his Earth Hand swung around and slammed his hammer right against the opponent’s weapon. Liam had used Spot Frailty and saw the telltale sign of extensive damage and poor maintenance. The force of the hammer’s strike hitting the darkest red area was enough to shatter the weapon in half.
The big man was shocked as his weapon exploded which was enough of a distraction for Gimmel to come back in to slam a small brown and red orb into the man’s face. A small explosion erupted with enough force to make the man stagger backwards. Liam saw this and was both surprised and amazed by it. The explosion wasn’t strong enough to cause a lot of damage or be fatal, but the punch it had made Liam want to know what it was and if he could make it.
The last member of this attacking group suddenly appeared right by the crying girl, who had stopped not too far away from Liam and Gimmel and went to strike. However, before she could land her daggers on her vines and roots exploded from the ground and snaked around the attacker and stopped her in her tracks.
Cursing, the female tried to struggle free. When she realized she wasn’t going to be able to, she moved her wrist as far back as she could and threw her dagger at the scared girl. The lanky man quickly moved to cover the girl and protect her, but it wasn’t needed as Liam moved his Earth Hand to use the hammer to black the attack. The snared attacker snarled at Liam and was about to shout something, but as she opened her mouth, Gimmel threw a small paper looking orb. It hit the vine that was wrapped right around the woman’s neck and exploded into dust particles. The woman sucked it in and started coughing until she started getting drowsy and passed out.
Liam’s eyes beamed at another exciting new thing he needed to learn from Gimmel but contained himself as he turned back around to look at the other attackers. The four looked furious and outraged, but they understood they were outnumbered and outmatch. Without any hesitation, the bigger man roared out a retreat and started running away. To Liam’s and everyone’s surprise they had left their passed out companion behind. They didn’t even look back to make sure they weren’t being followed.
Liam shook his head as he looked at the others and asked, “Everyone alright?”
“Yeah,” Gimmel, Roman, Avery, and Ariyana responded as Artem, Blair, and Mercer nodded.
“Good,” Liam responded as he looked at the man who was still hovering over the girl like a protective shell. He wasn’t sure what was going or why he was still over her like that but could see that the man didn’t look like he knew the fight was over. Liam wasn’t going to tap on the man in fear he would try and strike at him by accident so instead he called out, “Are you two alright?”
“Go away!” the man shouted with some panic in his voice. “Leave us alone. We don’t know what you want, but we don’t have anything for you!”
Liam was really confused now. these two had ran into the clearing they were in and brought those people in their direction. They then called out for help, but now they were telling them to go away? Liam felt that this could be trouble…well it was trouble the moment they had arrived, but the way the man was acting, and his most recent words seemed like there was a story there he wasn’t sure he wanted to get involved in.
“Well, to be honest, there is something you have that you will give us,” Liam started, cautiously, but also firmly.
“I said…,” the man started back up again, the volume in his voice starting to rise, but was stopped as the girl tried to push the man back and called out, “Tristen, get off of me. You’re squeezing too hard!”
The man didn’t release his hold on her as he shouted, “No. These people are trying to harm you! I can’t allow you to get hurt!”
Liam felt his right eye twitch suddenly. He felt annoyed with the man accusing them of wanting to hurt the two when it was them who had protected them. Hell, Liam had even protected this frail and useless looking man from getting stabbed.
Roman let out a scoff as he stated, “Are serious? Are you really saying that.”
The tone in Roman’s voice made the man slightly jump a bit as he looked like he was hugging the girl even more. Liam could see the girl struggle as she tried slapping the man’s arms.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
“Hey man, you’re hurting her,” Liam called out. His concern for the girl starting to increase the more he saw her arms flail. He looked at Artem and nodded at him, noticing he looked like he wanted to pull him away from her.
Artem didn’t waste any time as he made his way over to them. He gripped the man’s shoulder as he placed another on the girl’s. Blair joined him as she went on the other side. Together they easily pried the man away from the girl. Artem and Blair stood between them as he tried to scramble back towards her.
The girl looked in awe as she looked at Blair’s and Artem’s backs. The man on the other hand, who Liam now recognized as an elf, looked panicked and frantic as he kept trying to get back to the teenage girl. Artem and Blair kept having to push him back as he tried to go through and around them. After the seventh attempt, Blair finally grabbed one of his wrists, spun it around to his lower back, pushed against the back of his knee bringing him down and grabbed the other, holding him there.
Artem turned around to look at the teenager and asked, “Are you alright?” the girl didn’t say anything as she stared at him, tears no long er flowing. Artem frowned as he noticed some cuts and bruises. He channeled some mana and chanted a spell. The elf man, not knowing what spell Artem was about to use, freaked out even more, trying to break free.
His frantic pleas and struggles slowly died down as a calm and warm aura washed over him and the teenage girl. Blair, sensing and feeling the man’s tense body finally relax, released her hold on him. The man stared at Artem with a gaped mouth as he slowly brought his chest up while remaining on his knees. The girl gasped as she felt Artem’s Healing magic wash over her body and heal her wounds. The elf male, finally calmed down, suddenly sputtered, “Bu…but how? You’re an Orc. You shouldn’t have Healing Magic like this?”
“Does it really matter if he’s an Orc? If he wants to use Healing then he’ll use Healing Magic,” Blair commented. Her voice wasn’t loud, but it was loud enough for the Elf man to hear.
The Elf slowly turned his head to look at Blair. A look of bafflement was spread across the man’s face as he said, “That’s not how the Blood Thirst Tribes do things though. None of them would be caught dead using Healing Magic.”
“Good thing he doesn’t belong to the Blood Thirst Tribes then,” Roman retorted.
The Elf looked flabbergasted as he stuttered, “Does…Doesn’t belong to the Blood Thirst Tribes…” A sudden look of understanding dawned on him as he muttered, “He must be a New Arrival…yes..yes…they all must be…That must be the reason why they don’t care and he…”
Liam shook his head as he ignored the mutterings of the man and looked at the teenaged girl and asked, “Are you alright?”
The girl slowly looked at Liam. She looked puzzled at first as she looked at his eyes before looking at the top of his head and then somewhere behind him before looking back at his eyes. With wonder in her voice she said, “You have really pretty eyes.”
She sounded like she had some sort of French accent, but he wasn’t sure. Instead of thinking about that, he was thinking about how Ariyana said the same thing to him when he appeared in front of them back on the fourth floor of the Black Tutorial Dungeon. Remembering that made Liam swiftly look back at Ariyana who was already giggling with Avery and Roman.
Liam narrowed his eyes before turning back to look at the young girl. She must have snapped out of her wonder because she looked like she had said the most offensive thing as she gave him an apologetic look. “Sorry, I didn’t mean…”
Liam waved a hand to stop her. He then looked at her and took in all of her features. She had unblemished porcelain skin that looked to unreal. She almost looked like a doll with how smooth her skin looked. Curly aquamarine hair bounced around her shoulders as she leaned back, looking embarrassed. She had deep dark blue eyes that looked like the ocean. The more Liam looked at them, the more he felt like he would be swallowed by them.
He then felt something swirling around in the air. He was confused at first, but realized what he was feeling was Mana. He activated his Mana Sight and saw blue mana washing over the teenager and towards her back. Liam slowly brought his gaze over her shoulder and saw a pair of glowing blue neon wings.
“Miss Omira,” the elf man called out. His voice had squeaked before coming to a whispered volume as he pointed behind her and said, “Your wings.”
The teenage girl looked shocked and slightly panicked before closing her eyes and focusing really hard. After a few seconds had passed the wings behind the girl had dimmed and vanished from sight. While everyone had seen her wings vanish from sight, Liam saw something completely different. The wings were still there. Instead of them being able to be seen in plain sight they had turned completely translucent. He would have thought they had disappeared like the others if it wasn’t for the faint outlines he was able to see thanks to Mana Sight.
“Liam? Are you alright?” Avery called out as she saw the confused look on his face.
Liam turned to look at her but stopped as he saw something on Ariyana’s face. It looked like recognition. To his shock he saw something else that was right behind her. It was faint outlines that looked like moving leaves. He blinked a few times as he tried to make sure what he was seeing was right, but then remembered that he did see something like that before.
It was when they had met up right after successfully making it through the trials of the fourth floor. She had six light green wings that were shaped like leaves. He had forgotten about them because after they had left the floor that day he never saw them again. Has she been hiding her wings all this time? Why? That was something he would need to ask her…later that is.
Liam deactivated his Mana Sight and turned to look back at the teenage girl as he responded to Avery, “Yeah. Just curious about somethings.” He heard a groan from the others behind him.
“What’s got your interest this time?” Roman questioned. Liam could swear he could hear Roman shaking his head at him.
“First and second,” Liam started as he saw the anxious look on the girls face start to form as he stared at her. Liam swiftly pointed to Gimmel and continued, “Those two orb things Gimmel used in the fight. I have questions for you.”
He saw a slight look of relief on the girls face as he said that but then sucked in a breath as he pointed back at her. “Third and fourth…who you two are and why you were being chased by those people.”
The Elf quickly rose to his feet and made his way over to the girl and helped her up. He then hastily said, “We’re just a couple of adventurers that was heading here from an Elven city called A’ne Thalore. Those fiends came out of nowhere yelling something about fresh meat to kill.” He then scoffed before adding, “Those barbarians. Nothing but muscles for brains.”
Liam never took his eyes off the girl as he listened to the man. While the story sounded like it could be legit, the body language of the girl told another story. There was something in the man’s story that was false. Not all of it, but something in it was.
Liam nodded his head, making it look like he believed them. “Well then, it was a good thing you ran into us.”
“I’d say. Those creeps looked like they were ready to prey on you in more ways than one,” Avery commented.
The young girl blanched at the thought. She then said, “Thank you. When I called out to you I thought maybe I messed up and you were with them.” The young girl saw the scowls on everyone’s faces and mistook it as something else as she hurriedly added, “But I was wrong. I am ever so thankful that I was too. You all saved us.”
Artem and Roman turned their heads to look away from the girl as they both blushed. Mercer, Ariyana, and Avery gave her a warm smile as Gimmel and Blair kept an even face. Liam’s facial expression was neutral before he grinned and said, “It was no problem at all. Do you need us to escort you both to town?”
“No!” the Elf swiftly said before realizing what he did. He then repeated the word a lot more calmly, “No. That won’t be necessary. We aren’t that far from the port town so we should be fine when we get there.” He then looked like he was staring at something far off in the distance. His eyes widened as he suddenly said, “Oh my! Is that really the time? Miss Omira, we need to hurry or else we will miss our meeting with our…” he looked back at the others before carefully saying, “friend.”
Omira looked at him with an anxious look before looking at the others, bowing and saying before taking off with the Elf, “Thank you again for saving us. I do regret having to rush off so quickly, but we are in a hurry.”
As they started running Liam remembered something and shouted out, “What about the captive?”
The elf yelled back, “Do with her as you please. Her companions did attack you as well.”
Before anyone else could say anything the two were gone within the trees. The group looked at each other before looking at their captive who was still passed out while covered in roots and vines. They then looked back at each other and shrugged.
“To the authorities it is then,” Ariyana stated as the others agreed.
Liam kept his eyes on the direction of the two that had ran away so quickly. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he felt that there was more than what they were telling them. A lot more. He then let out a sigh and shrugged as he thought to himself, Oh well. Not my problem anymore.