What was her Big bro talking about? What could happen in the middle of a town and so early into the night?
As Belle was about to protest, she was flying backwards, stunned and solely by reflex she caught her balance. She was terrified to see people surrounding where she’d been just a second ago. She wanted to help Adrest, wanted to rush in and finally be useful, but she could feel it. She knew she’d be like an anchor dragging down Adrest if she stayed, but Alissa could blow them away in a breath though.
Belle took off sprinting as fast as she ever had, faster than when she’d been running for her own life. She knew she could get back to Ali in less than three minutes, then everything would be okay.
She had only made it a street or two when she noticed a score of figures chasing her, only just barely faster than her. She was panicking, knowing she would only make it halfway before they caught up. She was giving it everything she had, earth magic propelling her steps, body magic to move faster, and life magic to support the muscles. It just wasn’t enough.
Belle knew she was just seconds away from being taken, and resolved to pull out her dagger to fight. Just before that though, a pair of arms wrapped around Belle’s waist, pulling her to the side and into someone. Belle was terrified and thought to bite whoever grabbed her, but calmed seeing the familiar clothing.
Bawling she turned into the abductor, “Big sis Rin! Please go help Ady! He stayed behind with most of them, one of them scared me a lot.”
Rin, who had just walked out a few minutes ago and was jogging to catch up, had never been more thankful for her instincts as she embraced the crying child. “Everything’s okay Belle, just keep your eyes closed for a second.”
Belle obeyed and buried herself in the chest of Rin while she sobbed. Rin’s heart thrummed with a righteous fury as the pitiful little beast-kin cried. The group had just started retreating as they realized who’d interfered. Rin closed her eyes and focused solely on the image of the group of 6 running, then she pictured her blade swinging right through each of them in a line.
Rin hugged the rabbit’s head tight as she drew a blade casually into the air. From it was a breeze that scattered the nearby snow, but for the running figures, it was the reaper’s scythe.
Their legs were still running as the group simultaneously fell over, their bodies separated at the abdomen. Picking Belle up, Rin asked, “Ady is just a few streets ahead, right?”
Belle opened her eyes and nodded, “He’s near the theaters. Please hurry.”
Rin did as she was commanded and took off sprinting, not even using the ground, running on pads of air under her feet to remove any would be obstacles. In just under 15 seconds she found Adrest who was looking rough.
Adrest couldn’t see where his attacks were landing exactly, the large billowing cloaks each wore made it impossible. He could still feel his sword going through flesh though, and soon 3 of the group lay on the ground dead. The attackers hadn’t been expecting this level of resistance, even with the news of their rushed promotion.
The leader was getting frustrated. The plan had been to grab the girl from the weakling and run, but after the man threw their target, he was like a rabid dog and wouldn’t let him break away to chase her.
The leader gave a distracted glance down the street, waiting for the others to return with their prize, but the moment of distraction cost him dearly as Adrest allowed a knife to dig deep into his stomach in exchange for taking the leader’s right arm.
Adrest used his free hand to hold the attacker near, and after dealing a blow to the strongest, he spun ninety degrees to his stabber and pulled as hard as he could manage, slamming his head into the others’.
There was a sickeningly loud squelch and Adrest felt warmth spread as his horns penetrated the other man’s head. He felt a little nauseous, never taking a man’s life so personally, so close. He didn’t count the last time as he had almost no memory after they reached the clearing.
As Adrest pulled his head back the grinding resistance and suction that he could feel just out of eyesight made him a little nautious.
There were only half the original attackers left, they kept their distance now, observing the beast. And that’s what Adrest looked like at the moment, blood rolling down his face, his jacket dyed in blood, both his own and theirs, and that grin. They couldn’t get that grin out of their minds, it was sickening, it didn’t match, it had no place here.
The leader had had enough and ordered the remaining, “Charge him! Buy as much time as possible.”
Adrest was focused on cutting down the men in his way and getting to the leader struggling to keep all of them busy here. Adrest wasn’t sure how long the fight had been going, and he couldn’t risk the man catching up with Belle.
He was slightly too slow though as the leader was able to get some distance, now he just had to meet up with the other team and run. He was just a few paces away when he saw a figure rushing towards them.
As he saw who was carrying his prize, the man cursed. The last person he wanted to see had arrived and looked ready to kill. He made a snap decision and ran.
Rin sighed at the running figure. The trickiest thing about a blessing that cuts everything imagined is that if she had adequate mana and a vivid imagination, space was irrelevant. She simply stabbed through the air in front of her, at the same time a cry of pain sounded as the leader collapsed in a heap on the cobbled ground.
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Rin shook her head as she approached thinking Adrest had really gone all out, a peak B rank looked like he was mauled by a wild animal, even with it being over a dozen to one. Rin’s heart hurt seeing the price Adrest paid though, he had fought like a cornered animal, desperate and furious. He was happy to take a stab for a head, lose a finger to take an arm. He was practically suicidal in this fight, until he happened to see Rin and Belle standing down the street as he was on the second to last one.
Because of that, Adrest was happy to slow down and knocked down the last one after crippling his legs. Finally. Adrest allowed the exhaustion to come. Injuries he’d been desperately suppressing leaked streams of blood, one large patch on his stomach looked particularly dark.
Adrest leaned on his blade dug into the ground with his right hand that still had most of it's fingers, and laughed, “Haha, that’s probably not good!”
Adrest took a deep breath, which he desperately regretted as it irritated his wounds. He shakily stood up on his own, pulled the blade up enough to drag it behind himself and wanted to walk over to the others and pretend everything was fine, but Rin panicked when she saw and rushed to meet him.
She set Belle on the ground and put her hands on Adrest’s shoulders firmly. “No moving! Take this for now.”
Rin shoved a blue pill in his mouth without waiting for an answer and glared at him until she heard him swallow. Instantly, his stomach felt better, and the bleeding slowed to an irregular drip.
“It won’t fix everything right away, but by tomorrow morning you’ll be good as new!”
Before Rin could say anything else, Belle interrupted hugging Adrest’s side, “I’m so sorry Big bro Ady. This was all my fault again. You keep getting hurt because of someone worthless like me.”
Adrest felt he was more injured now than at any point in the fight. “Belle, never say that again. I got hurt because I’m weak, and this happened because Ali and I let our guards down, we were leaving soon and didn’t think anyone we were looking for were around.”
“You were looking for someone?”
Adrest looked over to the confused Rin and felt guilty but incredibly thankful for dragging her into this. “We came to town for a visit to see if we could bait out whoever paid to have Belle tracked and taken. The goal was that they’d attack directly, or bargain for Belle. It’d been a week, and with how empty the town is, Alissa and I thought it was safe.”
Rin felt sick knowing it was a fellow human of her country that would try so desperately to steal a little girl.
“I’m so sorry Adrest, Belle. Let’s go, I’ll bring this guy to Gerard and report what happened. I’ll leave him with the Guild and by tomorrow morning we’ll know everything about your attackers and hopefully who hired them.”
Adrest was tired and happy to agree, “Sorry to force the annoying part on you Rin, I’ll pay you back sometime.”
Rin nodded as she lifted up the trussed up man with a single hand, “It’s no problem at all, I wish I could do more actually. Now go back to the Inn and don’t leave Alissa’s side until we know if there are more. Actually, no. I’m walking you back.”
Rin wouldn’t take no for an answer, and truthfully he was still feeling weak, so he was happy to have an escort back. Rin split up as they got to the front door of the Inn, wanting to get answers as soon as she could.
As soon as Adrest walked in he could actually hear the sound drain away, as if silenced. All that existed was a wide-eyed and horrified Rose, she was trembling and tearing up, springing to action rushing out from the bar.
Opposite her was Alissa, who upon turning around to face the pair went from a healthy wheat shade, to a muted yellow as color drained. Lightning furiously arced off her twin horns, and for just a fraction of a second, Adrest felt a truly horrible killing intent leak from her, Adrest could see the skies raining ash, blood leaking from the ground. Then it was gone. Rose hadn’t even felt it from her own shock.
Rose rushed up, “OH God! Adrest are you okay!? What happened? Don’t move, I’ll go get help!”
Rose was panicking, not even letting Adrest Explain himself, fluttering all around him and Belle, looking for damage. She was about to run out the door, in search of every potion and healer in town. Adrest had to grab her arms before she snuck past him.
Finally getting her attention as Rose looked him in the eyes for the first time since he returned. Calmly he reassured their loving bartender, “I’m mostly fine Rose, I was attacked earlier on the way to the bookshop, Rin caught up and helped me take care of them thankfully. She also treated me and said I’ll be brand new by tomorrow. Just take a deep breath and relax.”
Rose calmed hearing his explanation, and was thankful for Rin yet again. She took some seconds to stop shaking and calm her heart, but when she noticed Adrest holding both her shoulders and staring so intently at her, Rose’s heart started fluttering again, and this time her face took on a rosy hue. “I-I’m fine now, but if you need anything, please let me know.”
Adrest released his grip and was about to make his way to the bar, when he was nearly tackled to the floor by Alissa. She didn’t even give Adrest a chance to speak before a sparkling pill was forced into his mouth for the second time today. Adrest had no way of knowing how strong it was, but his remaining cuts and bruises were instantly healed, and his missing fingers came back in a dazzling flash.
Alissa was glaring at him, but Adrest tried to get her to relax, patting her head. “Relax, we’re all fine and Rin is cleaning everything up.”
“I’m sorry Adrest, I didn’t think anything would happen and I haven’t noticed anyone particularly strong. I should have just gone with you.”
“It’s not your fault Ali, I let my guard down and I learned my lesson. Let’s just forget about it for now, I just want to take a long hot bath and unwind.”
Not quite satisfied, Alissa accepted the answer, knowing the conversation wasn’t finished. She turned to the downcast Belle to Adrest’s side and crouched over to carefully inspect the rabbit. Belle didn’t want to lift her head and meet Alissa’s eyes, so Alissa gave some encouragement in the form of lifting her chin up.
Concern painted Alissa’s face as she inspected for injuries, “Did anyone touch you Belle? Does it hurt anywhere?”
Still sad and replaying the earlier incident on loop in her head Belle almost whispered, “I’m fine, Big bro Ady kept me safe from most of them.”
Alissa had a good idea of what was going on, but knew it wouldn’t do any good talking about it right now.
“Alright then! We’ll let Ady get cleaned up, and in the meantime, I’ll read you something at the bar.”
Not taking no for answer, Alissa scooped the dejected teen up, then sat her on the same stool she’d been using earlier. Alissa pulled out a book at random and held Belle close to her. Alissa couldn’t alleviate all of Belle’s guilt and self-loathing, but she would do her best to show Belle that nothing’s changed and no one blames her.
Rose, finally calm after the roller coaster Adrest had sent her on, was returning from the kitchen. In her hand was a piping hot mug that was gently placed in front of Belle who was starting to settle.
“Brave girls deserve a treat, it isn’t easy to get chocolate so far east this time of year but I’m happy to dip into my stash for you.”
Belles dour look was muffled as she sniffed the air, the sweet scent of chocolate wafting from the piping hot mug. Belle took a sip and her mind was blown at the flavor.
It was creamy and rich, sweet and decadent. It was like she was drinking a cake as the flavors completely coated her tongue, demanding her attention. Belle temporarily forgot her troubles as she was carefully sipping the hot brew while Alissa and Rose looked on like doting aunts.