"Terra," Kaelen warned, gritting her teeth, "I'm letting the force field go in a few seconds. Do you have a plan?"

"Yes," I said, feeling the hidden warmth within me, "Elias, use Corrode on the bees whenever possible, but if they sting you too many times, call Kaelen for a temporary heal. I will charge them together with you. Kaelen, run away as soon as the force field is dismissed and cast the healing from afar."

"Got that. I'm releasing it in 3, 2, 1!"

With Kaelen's shout, the force field disappeared, the sound of glass shattering filling my ears. I could hear Kaelen's quick footsteps pounding on the pavement behind me, but I was mostly focused on the swarm, which was swooping in for another attack. Elias had his hands thrown up and ready to Corrode, fierce determination in his eyes. I raised my right hand, imagining a fireball forming on top of it and ready to be thrown.

Swoosh! Bright red flames erupted from my palm, and I winced at the heat. I wasn't immune to the flames! The fire began to scorch my flesh, and I had to throw it haphazardly at the swarm. It hit some of them, but most of the bees were still unharmed. Trying to distract myself from the pain, I let another fire missile appear. The heat ate away at my skin, causing me to let out a yelp. Elias spared me a glance of worry, but by then the bees had reached us. I split the fireball into tiny bullets, and directed them at a few bees every time. Despite our best efforts, the bees still overwhelmed us.

We were not fast enough, and I could think of nothing that could help us. I turned to the side to see what Elias was doing, and the sight shocked me. He was running away?

Some of the bees followed after him, but more and more started to focus on me. I could not stop myself from screaming as the insects sunk their stingers into me, riddling me with red welts. Elias shouted at me, "Terra, run! I have something..."

However, I tuned him out. Running away... That was easy for him to say, since he was already far away from the reach of the last few bees. Instead, all the insects had started to encircle me, their only target, making it even harder for me to escape. As soon as I tried to break out, I would be met with more pain, and more resistance. Was this how I would be killed, my corpse lying unburied among an angry System-enhanced swarm of bees, because my battle partner chose to flee?

I braced myself, igniting my skin on fire. If I was going out, I wanted to extinguish with a bang. However, as my world slowly faded into red and black, and I burned my way through both my own flesh and the insects' defenses, I could see a dark shadow hurtling towards me. Shouts I recognized as Elias' and Kaelen's reached my ears a second too late, as the boulder of whatever it was hit me and the bees. The world faded to black after that.

--

When I first came to, I could hear vague murmurings that triggered a fierce headache, or maybe that was because of the light piercing through my eyelids and dotting the blank darkness with spots of red.

"I really shouldn't have sent the projectile while she was still in there..." It was... who again? Elias. Right, that traitor... But what was he talking about?

"Elias," came the calm voice - Kaelen, "I know this is hard, but we had no choice. If you hadn't stepped in, she probably wouldn't have made it, and our lives would have been endangered too."

Silence, then Kaelen sighed, "At least she is still alive."

I decided to make it known that I was conscious, so that I could figure out what was going on, so I pushed my eyelids open, and forced myself into a sitting position. The movement startled Elias and Kaelen, who squatted down beside me, cautiously supporting me from either side. I glared at Elias, but did not fight back. Although I was angry, I wouldn't allow myself to come to a judgement too quickly.

"Elias," I said, and he held my gaze, remorse pooling in his eyes, "Why did you run away?"

He ran a hand through his hair, lowering his eyes, "I told you to run, too, but by then it was too late. I had been charging up for a large projectile-based attack to wipe the bees out. I told you before, I could create those things using the stuff I corrode. Sorry for firing the bee-boulder at you. But at least you are bolder now."

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Was that a... joke? Regardless, I was relieved to hear that he was not, in fact, abandoning me in the middle of the battle. Despite having doubts about his words initially, I decided to give him the benefit of doubt when I reconsidered its plausibility. Kaelen's nod of affirmation helped, too.

I scanned my body, temporarily ignoring the flashing notification at the corner of my eyes. Surprisingly, I was almost fully healed, although I could still see hints of red and purple here and there, it did not hurt. I glanced up at Kaelen, who smiled, "It was the first time I ever used the healing lightning, but it went decently, right? Are your wounds still aching?"

Shaking my head, I replied, "No, thanks for using your Skill on me. I'm fine now."

Attempting to stand up, I staggered, wobbly on my feet, but I kept myself up with some effort. Elias and Kaelen stood up as well, and after making sure that I was truly fine, they stepped back to give me some space to look through my notifications.

A Battle Group Member has slain 1x Queen Bee [Lvl. 10]! You gained 500EXP, 200 New Gems

A Battle Group Member has slain 58x Worker Bees [Lvl. 1]! You gained 2900EXP, 1160 New Gems

You have slain 42 Worker Bees [Lvl. 1]! You gained 4200EXP, 8x Stingers, 10x Worker Bee Venom Sacs, 1x Exoskeleton Armor [Unbonded], 1680 New Gems

'Kill 5 Creatures' Quest Completed. Quest Progress: 5/5! You gained 500 New Gems!

You have levelled up! You gained 500 New Gems!

You have levelled up! You gained 500 New Gems!

You have levelled up! You gained 500 New Gems!

2400EXP to next level!

"Your kills give me EXP too?" I asked, surprised.

"Yes," Elias nodded, "We received some EXP and New Gems for your 42 bees slain, too, but it seems that the rewards are halved."

"I feel good enough to continue fighting, but I think we should rest for a while first," I said, and the others agreed with me. There were buildings all around us, and not many people wandering around, so I assumed that there would be some space for us to stay in temporarily.

Leading us through the streets, I picked one building that looked sturdy enough, and turned the doorknob. It opened easily, and I poked my head in warily. The interior was painted a light blue color, and it, surprisingly, resembled what one would find before the System's arrival, with a couch, a fireplace, and a few doors leading further into the house. After a few surveys, I was convinced that there weren't anyone in the house, and pushed the door open fully. We entered, with Kaelen shutting it tightly behind us.

However, as the door had no lock, I was nervous about someone breaking in - it would be as easy as how we got in - so I looked around for something to blockade the door with. Elias quickly caught on, and together, we moved a sofa so that it sat right before the door, holding it shut but not too tight that it breaks the door too easily. With that out of the way, we started to explore the house further. Three of the five doors led to bedrooms, and the fourth had a simple fire-powered stove behind it and some blunt knives. The last was something that did not exist prior to the System's arrival, or at least I had never seen it before.

At first glance, the shelves within it resembled a unique design for holding books, but as we got closer, we realized that there were weapons inside. Weapons! Although they did not look magical in any way, and there were not any guns, it was still a welcomed discovery. It did draw out an uncomfortable feeling within me when I considered that it was there, perhaps intentionally, so that we could fight more monsters.

What the System had in mind when creating this room didn't matter to us much for the moment, though, and we split the weapons, with Kaelen taking the long-ranged ones like bows and crossbows, together with quivers of arrows and other projectiles to store in her inventory. I grabbed the daggers, throwing knives, short knives, and a few spears, mostly the shorter weapons except for the spears and a sword, which I took with much reluctance. Elias Inventoried whatever that was remaining. There were no armor in sight, nor were there any shields, which further boosted the uncomfortable feeling in me. I pushed it down for now, telling myself that I would come back to it after we rest.

"I'm taking first watch," Kaelen offered, and when I opened my mouth to refuse, she glared at me, "No, Terra, you are not going to take any watches for this break. Me and Elias will handle this - You need rest. Right, Elias?"

"Yes, yes, we'll do it."

"Fine, but wake me up when it is time to go," I agreed, lethargy overtaking me as I stumbled into one of the bedrooms, Kaelen and Elias following behind me. Since there were two decent-sized beds sharing the space, I climbed onto one of them while Elias took the other one, leaving Kaelen to sit on the edge of my bed. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out.