Skarlet sighed, as she lay on her stomach facing the wall, an icy cool sensation coated her back. The cold mixed with the burning pain from her infected wound. Cody had asked what had happened, heh, well a lot actually. She thought, I was killing monsters to raise my strength. I came across a kill request for a red dragon. If I could get stronger I could challenge the dragon, but I wasn't growing fast enough so I looked for harder monsters to fight. There was a commission for a wyvern. I decided to hunt it. It was a B rank quest, I'd only recently become D rank after taking on several large-scale extermination quests solo. I headed out to face the wyvern anyways. . .

Skarlet stepped warily into the clearing, the forest opened up here too reveal a plain dotted with rock formations. In the middle of this clearing was a large formation of rocks that formed what resembled a nest. It was likely created by the wyvern moving rocks from around the surrounding plain to build a place to nest.

This clearing was around halfway between Aguris and Talik, there was a road nearby and the beast who nested here had begun to attack merchant and civilian caravans and carriages. Due to these complications the guild in both Talik and Aguris had set up a bounty contract on the wyvern. Skarlet hadn't officially taken this contract, and technically she was doing something that she'd be scolded for, that is if anyone actually cared about her. But she didn't really care as the beast represented a fresh chance to get stronger and at a faster rate. The danger was simply ignored, and her own recklessness was seemingly not evident to herself.

Skarlet was on high alert as she approached the nest, her ears were constantly moving and twitching while her tail lay low reminiscent of the posture she held when hunting. Her eyes were flickering constantly and her hand was on her sword, already out of her sheath and ready for a fight.

Surprisingly she managed to get all the way to the nest without sensing any danger, she frowned before climbing up the side and peering inside. It was rather spacious, and the interior showed signs of fire, the rocks were charred black. There were three eggs in the center, white with red speckled spots and blotches. As she was examining the eggs a sense of dread began to creep up, she didn't notice it at first until it suddenly skyrocketed and the hair on the back of her neck stood up. Her instincts screamed to run as she felt like she was suddenly dunked into a ice bath, in an instant instinctual reaction she dove forward and twisted her body.

Skarlet brought her sword around to defend herself just in time to see the wyvern's claws reaching for her. Skarlet barely partied the claws, a grating sound that messed with her head pierced the air as she was thrown back. The claws slid down her blade and before she could react, they dug into her arm causing her to loose her grip on her sword.

Skarlet frowned, annoyed that she'd only managed to parry. She fully believed in the sharpness of her blade, and was under the strong belief that if she had struck it against those claws directly it would have sliced straight through.

The wyvern screeched at her as she stumbled face first into the nest, her sword went flying and she only barely managed to not smash into one of the eggs. I'd rather not anger it anymore, especially when I don't have my sword. She grimaced as she got to her feet, her sword had gone flying after she lost her grip.

She wasn't sure where it had gone, but nervousness and fear rose up inside her, she just pushed it away before stepping towards the walls of rock around her. The wyvern seemed to be waiting, she could hear it circling the nest, this caused her to wonder if the eggs were causing it to be cautious.

Skarlet began chanting a fire arrow spell, she pushed around half of her mana into it with the intent to defeat the beast in a single shot. She then climbed up the side and looked around, finding her target she fired the spell. the wyvern roared as it smashed into his side. Suddenly the creature spread it's wings and they erupted in flames, causing Skarlet's heart to sink.

The wyvern she was facing was a fire wyvern, she wasted a bunch of mana just to make it mad. Luckily though it was currently situated on the opposite side from the path to town. Skarlet prepared herself before leaping from the nest, though instead of running immediately her eyes darted around trying to find her sword. This was a bad idea, before she could even react pain sunk into her shoulder and she was yanked into the air. She felt something cold and wet soaking into her shirt, the pain made her dizzy for a moment. She quickly shook it off before taking her free arm and reaching for her knife.

Skarlet struggled to pull her knife from the sheath, the pain, the wind, and the way she was being held made it difficult. Though with a bit of effort she eased it from it's sheath, but just as she had it on her hand, her newest taxi service jolted in the air and caused her to drop it. Her stomach jumped as she frantically tried to grab it, barely catching it between her feet, she sighed as she bent her legs and reached being her back. She winced slightly as her fingers grazed the blade but a determined expression took over as she grabbed the blade and dropped her feet.

Skarlet brought the knife up to her mouth and took the blade between her teeth before wiping the blood from her hand, grabbing the blade had caused a deep cut in her palm. She took a deep breath before gripping the blade and stabbing it into the ankle of the wyvern. Pain burned through her hand as she hacked away at the scales. All this time the beast was flying her higher and higher, she wondered if it planned to drop her. Finally she reached skin and stabbed the knife deep into the flesh, a loud screech ripped through the air and she suddenly dropped. She tilted forward and her body naturally to a spread eagle position.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The wyvern seemed to realize that it had accidentally dropped her and tried to grab her again but she'd already fallen too far, Skarlet let out a scream of pain as she felt it's claws rip through her magic reinforced clothes, sheath, and flesh. Blood drenched her back and she fainted for a moment as her mind witness an explosion of white.

She came to before she splattered on the ground, grimacing through the pain, she began to chant a wind spell. There was no time to heal, she first had to save her life from the fall. Moments before impact a blast of air slowed her decent, but the force of the fall was still to much and she landed on her left foot. Another stab of pain smashed into her ankle as she stumbled and rolled through the grass and dirt. Her wounds burned and the rocks and sticks she rolled over gave her even more cuts and scrapes while also irritating her already existing wounds.

She had the overwhelming urge to lay down and not move, but instinct urged her to move, she dragged herself to her feet and hobbled forward. Though she didn't get far before slowing to a stop as the wyvern hovered in front of her.

She stood up straight, ignoring the pain she prepared a wind spell before bolting forward. The giant fire lizard reacted by screeching and rushing to meet her. Skarlet brought her hand around and at the last minute blasted the air spell and sent herself flying past the wyvern, she stumbled as she landed before forcing herself to run. Her eyes focused on the trees.

When the hair on the back of her neck rose once more she blasted another air spell, subconsciously dumping all of her mana into it.

Skarlet went flying, surprised by the force of the spell she was dazed for a moment before suddenly smashing through a tree branch, she spat out a mouth full of blood as she hit the ground and rolled a few feet. She lay there panting, listening, the wyvern wasn't following.

The trek back to town was painful, and exhausting, the guard at the gate offered to help her. But her stubborn desire to isolate herself kept her from accepting as she pushed him away and stumbled home. She didn't even stop to think about how this reaction was completely different than what she was used to. Scarlett's mana veins had holes in them so she couldn't accumulate mana inside of herself. Her sword acted like a medium to use Mana through, upon losing her grip on it, the flow of mana of stopped. Meaning she had a finite amount of mana before it was gone. That finite amount was used up in trying to escape leaving her with no mana at all by the time she was safe. Leaving her with no way to heal and instead forced to stumble home with her critical injuries.

Cody had called out to her as she was barely making it down the hall leaving a trail of blood behind her, she didn't have the energy to resist as he took the initiative to help her to her room. As she reached it, she stumbled towards her bed as she began to undress, but it was hard. Every movement hurt and the clothes rubbing her wounds was terrible. Suddenly she felt Cody's hands as he tried to help, a deep sense of annoyance and fear rose up and she forced him away. Reprimanding him, but unlike usual he didn't back down, she sighed and relaxed herself. She allowed him to undress her, feeling a slight bit of annoyance as she watched her bra fall off, it was recked. When he finished she let herself fall onto the bed, her consciousness wavered, he asked a question and she answered.

Skarlet was pulled from her murky mind as a cool sensation spread across the wounds on her back, it was kinda nice. In this state of wavering consciousness she forgot her stubborn desire to be alone, she forgot her fear and self loathing. She simply enjoyed the sensations of his hands on her back as he took care of her wounds.

A little bit later she was dragged from her weird floaty state of mind once more as he declared he'd stay the night. Skarlet tried to pull herself up as she protested, but the pain erupted all over her body and she slumped back down with a whimper of pain. The way he was speaking to her made her feel like a stupid child who went out and got hurt while exploring where she shouldn't have been. It was a old but familiar feeling. He feels like my older brother, this isn't too bad. She turned away anyways though, annoyance fought with her contentment as she stared at the wall.

She was unaware that Cody was dealing with similar emotions, and memories of his younger sister was making him feel particularly protective of Skarlet at the moment.

She sighed, the pain in her back hadn't subsided, and the cold and hot of the ointment and infection still raged at each other. Though as the day passed she fell asleep once more, this time, when she awoke the next morning her wound felt better. It still hurt, but the infection had gone down allot.

She kept quite as Cody redid her bandages once again, he commented that her wound was looking much better. Just as he said, he stayed with her the whole time. Around noon he checked the bandages and the infection had practically disappeared. He got help from an adventurer to heal her wounds and now she was just recovering from the exhaustion. The adventurer didn't give his name but seemed to be happy to help the hero, after healing her he left.

"You should be fine now." He told her, she sprang up in response. She was frustrated and impatient cause of how long she'd been laying here doing nothing. Using a wet rag, Cody cleaned the ointment from Skarlet's back. They left a scar due to the length of time, the infection, and the need for stitches. Skarlet winced as she felt Cody's fingers run along the length of one of her scars.

"Hey, don't." She pulled away from him as she got to her feet. She was shoving those pesky emotions down as she was resolving herself to put distance between herself and Cody. Why'd you have to make me care now this is gonna be harder.

"You're about to run back out there right?" Cody asked, Skarlet stiffened.

"W-what if I am?" Skarlet asked as she began dressing.

"Then I'm coming this time, you need to get your sword back right." Cody spoke firmly again, leaving no room for argument. She didn't mind that way of treating her at the moment, it felt protective and warm.

"Fine, but I'm killing the wyvern." She didn't let on her internal emotions as she took her stance.

"Wyvern! You fought a wyvern!?" Cody jumped up, "Do you have a death wish? You're not strong enough to take one of those down. That's a C rank beast at least. "

"Y-eah, It won't be easy, but it won't catch me off guard this time." Skarlet explained as she headed for the door, Cody continued to express the badness of this idea as he followed. Skarlet did her best to ignore him as they left the Inn. Her clothes and armor had mended overnight and were back in peak condition. I can do it this time. And after I beat that wyvern, I'll slay the red dragon next.