"You both can go to sleep, I'll take the rest of the shift. You'll be responsible for keeping the group alive tomorrow, so get some rest now."

William gulped at Cale's words directed at Philippa and Ben. He didn't dare turn to the group behind him. His gut told him that they were all facing him with a mixture of anger, concern and disappointment, but why, he didn't quite understand himself. However, Cale's statement just now slapped it right in his face. William was no good for the next while and to make it worse, neither was Aletta.

The black-haired mage let warm water flow from the sky at a great distance so that William could wash himself properly. He was the only one of them who allowed himself to still use mana, but William clearly noticed how little of it he was still giving out. He himself just stood in the creature plain completely naked, washing the slime that hadn't been burned in the fire off his skin.

Silently, Cale watched his comrades lie down, sighed, and strode toward William. The latter blushed when he noticed the mages gaze and automatically covered his body. A moment later, the water stopped running and he felt a large sheet being thrown at him. As he reached for it, he noticed that it was a towel, not a sheet. Immediately, he questioned if Cale had actually been carrying a towel around in his pocket all this time.

"Dry off and come with me."

Hesitantly, he followed behind the mage, who was walking barefoot through the forest. Cale had been in light clothing since the moment he had awakened, accordingly he was not particularly well dressed for the harsh environment and especially not for combat. He was led a little further away from the camp, before Cale began to pull a large cloth out of his hand and spread it on the ground. Visibly puzzled, William followed the magic trick with his eyes, but did not question what had just happened.

"Sit down. You're not going to like what I'm about to do."

William, who had wrapped the large towel around his waist, dutifully sat down on the floor and felt Cale come to a stop. At a safe distance of 10 meters, Cale activated his Igrikum and made a huge barrier appear, completely enclosing the two of them. William didn't understand what kind of power Cale was playing with. He was able to maintain his barrier without letting his pure mana take effect, and he made objects appear out of thin air. A moment later, he felt the heat rising and watched as Cale brought out a heat crystal and a fire crystal, activating and discarding each.

"We are in a sound barrier. No one will hear us from the outside and it should be warm enough shortly," Cale finally began, causing another object to appear, a metal rod, before completely blocking his mana exit again. Silently, William nodded as he watched Cale sit down next to him and stare at him with serious eyes. He had calmed down considerably from before, but he still got a little scared by his menacing aura. "Show it to me. All the places where you've been bitten."

Without argument, William started showing off the places with bites, which looked harmless but definitely itched. He had noticed a total of 8 while counting them in the shower, but Cale discovered one more on his back. William was very uncomfortable as Cale inspected his body closely afterwards, injury by injury. Looking at a wound on his thigh, Cale drew circles around the bite mark with his finger and then stared William directly in the eye.

"Do you even realize what you've done?"

William remained silent. He didn't understand Cale's statement. Without another word, Cale leaned back quite a bit and began holding the tip of the metal object over the small, almost blue flame by the fire crystal.

"You're such a dumbass. I specifically told you to be careful, instead you deliberately put us all in mortal danger."

William had a dark premonition when he realized that Cale was heating the metal with the help of the fire. They sat side by side in silence for a while as William nervously watched the tip of the rod turn a red color.

"I don't know what you mea..."

William screamed at the top of his lungs. Hot metal was suddenly pressed against his skin and burned into his body. The pain shot through his body like lightning. Reflexively he wanted to knock Cale's hand away from him, but both his hands were held in a vice like grip. William writhed forward in pain and unintentionally rammed his head against Cale's chest. The swordsman lost all strength, so it was easy for Cale to keep his hands and especially his body away from the hot metal.

"Hold still. We can't wait for Aletta and we have to burn out the dangerous parts like this."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

At the bite wound in William's leg, the worm had been biting for a long time and some of its eggs had flowed in, so Cale burned it out with heat.

"Listen to me, I'm going to tell you exactly what you did wrong today."

Cale lifted the hot metal again, causing William to breathe a sigh of relief, but a moment later the mage began anew. With narrowed eyes, he watched Cale reheat torture tool and panicked.

"Philippa told me that you were the first to run after the scream. What else did I expect? That you'd listen to me when I told you something? You're really lucky Ben came along, who knows what would have happened otherwise."

William's frantic eyes looked up at Cale. His irises were completely black, but he could clearly remember how they were shining with light during the fight, visible to him at a distance.

"You ran away from the group by yourself to help some stranger, and most importantly, without telling us."

Cale again pressed the glowing hot metal to William's wound. He would normally do it with mana, but with these creatures and in the current situation, it was the only way to kill the eggs. But this gesture had a completely different purpose, which William was not aware of.

"You've let us all down. What do you think you're doing? Do you even realize that of the four of you, you are the strongest and bear all the responsibility? What would have happened if a creature had attacked us and I hadn't been there. Do you think Aletta and Philippa would be able to defend themselves long enough - on their own?"

William yelled as Cale gave him a harsh lecture.

"Splitting up in a creature plain is suicide, you should know that. You are stronger in a group than alone and your actions endangered the whole group."

William had his eyes closed. He was trying to endure the pain while at the same time processing Cale's statement with half an ear.

"Second."

Cale took the metal piece away and let go of William's hands, causing him to drop in pain as Cale looked at the burn. He touched his finger to the wound and was about to make his circles again, but William cried out and grabbed for his hand. With tears in his eyes, he looked at Cale's.

"Please. Stop."

"Second", Cale repeated, shaking off William's hand and drawing his lines. The swordsman clenched as he let Cale work on the wound, trying not to cry out again.

"When we were all there. What was the first thing I did, William?"

William heard his words, but couldn't and wouldn't answer. He was afraid that if he answered anything, Cale would ram the searing hot metal right back into his leg.

"Tell me. What have I done first?"

Forcefully, he pulled William into an upright position and stared him straight in the eyes.

"I don't know", the latter answered whimperingly, shaking all over. For a moment he considered calling out to Ben, but he was caught in a sound barrier. If the screaming didn't get his attention, calling his name certainly wouldn't eiter.

"You don't know?"

"No, no. Please don't. Not again."

Cale looked William in the eye, exchanged a glance at the wound, then back at William.

"The bite wound looks okay for now, but we still have three to go."

William felt like he was going to faint these his words.

"Three?", he repeated the number in disbelief and fear.

"What did I do first?", Cale now spoke up for the third time. William was now only held upright by Cale's free hand, the searing pain robbing every ounce of his strength. He tried to hold back his tears and calm himself down, but couldn't.

"You erected the barrier?"

"Wrong."

William shuddered at Cale's curt reply.

"I asked Aletta to check on Ben's injuries."

William swallowed. He hadn't even noticed. He was so absorbed in the battle that he did not notice the arrival of the others - until the glare of the light.

"You weren't aware of your surroundings, and what's worse, you didn't see that Ben was hurt."

Cale's words became harsh and he demonstratively raised the metal piece as if threatening the swordsman. William inevitably began to cry again. He was afraid that Cale was about to reheat the metal yet again. But equally, he realized how foolish he was. If the others hadn't come, who knows what would have happened to Ben. He was so focused on the fight in front of him that he didn't notice anything else. He wasn't really used to fighting with multiple people, so he had simply tuned out the presence of others.

"Turn around, show me the other bite marks."

William shivered at his statement, but did as he was told and turned around. Inwardly, he prayed the others didn't have eggs in them. Cale's hand slid along his body, again tracing the circles around the wound. At a bite mark on his shoulder blade, he stayed longer and made the circles more often.

"Third."

"No, please don't."

"What was your third mistake?"

"Stop asking me these tricky questions and just tell me."

Cale grabbed William by the neck and pulled him toward him. With his back now against Cale's chest, William leaned back and felt Cale's breath on his body.

"I want you to think. Think about what we did and what you did."

Cale's soft voice was like poison to his ears. Cale eased off of him and heated the metal before pushing William forward to get a better grip on his back. William, on the other hand, felt the heat approaching his body and started sobbing.

"Stop crying and answer my question."

Cale drew circles around the bite wound, more forcefully this time. Desperate to ignore the touch, William tried to distract himself with the memory of the fight.

"You kept the barrier up while Philippa shot at the creatures. Ben and Aletta were at a distance from you and from the barrier...", William paused, suppressed his crying fit, and continued speaking. "...and I went through the barrier to help."

"Helping isn't exactly what you'd call it. You ruined the plan", Cale replied almost mockingly. William was silent, processing Cale's statement but not understanding it.

"Why?", he dared to ask, mentally prepared to feel an unbearable pain on his back in a moment. Accordingly, he closed his eyes and clenched his hands while his whole body trembled.

"Last question", Cale returned, letting go of the bite wound and putting the hot metal aside.