After my little pep talk with the girls, they both fall soundly asleep almost instantly. Understandably so, especially with all the action that happened over the span of around an hour and a half. I don’t have a clock with me, though. I’d love to wake them up after at least 6 hours. Maybe I can do that thing that the really smart protagonists do, where they just count the seconds without losing track. Unfortunately, I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, let alone a genius.
It’s about time I look around in this new world, a magical one at that. I’m tempted to just sprint through the forest and take in the view. I quickly pushed that feeling aside. The girls aren’t gonna watch themselves.
I float up from the rock they were sleeping under and double-check their condition.
Akeelo’s got bruises from the abuse she faced, but she looked like she could walk fine earlier. Hopefully that wasn’t just the adrenaline keeping her up.
Emi’s sustained a lot less damage, but I can see a few nicks here and there. However, her nicks seem weird; they have this sort of ink pattern bleeding from it, as if it was blotted on a tissue. It doesn’t look like it was actual liquid though, more like a tattoo that’s under the skin. I’ll have to ask her about it when she wakes up.
With the girls looking relatively fine, I float around the campsite, and search the area for creatures, people, or useful landmarks like a road or a river.
It’s here that I take notice of what’s around me. Under the bright moonlight, I can see the rays pierce the canopy of these tall, robust trees with their crimson leaves and white trunks. Besides the trees themselves and the leaf litter, it’s rather sparse here. Some moss and vines crawl up the trunks, and some saplings are growing wherever the moonlight hits. Other than that, it’s pretty open. There is a faint fog that permeates the area, but nothing that obscures the vision too much. I don’t see any animals, but that’s most likely due to it being pretty dark, with only the moon as my guide. There’s a tiny stream not too far from here, but it’s really dirty with some orange particulates, so I don’t think it’s worth the effort. From what I’ll just assume is the west, since that’s where the moon is headed, I can see a trail leading to somewhere. I rocket up through the canopy, and give a small thank you to Historia as the lights of a walled city come into view. No idea why I did that, she probably thinks it’s weird.
The shining braziers on the gate seem to act like lighthouses, signaling to people where it is during the night. I can see some carts outside the gate, probably waiting for morning to come. It’s still a fairly long way though, but I think we can make it tomorrow before the sun sets. I keep note of where it is, possess a large rock and put it near the campsite in the direction of the road. Hopefully we can get into the city without much issue and get the girls some decent meals with the money we have.
The campsite is as quiet as ever, and there’s plenty of moonlight left. At least I have some time for myself to admire the beauty of the outdoors. You can almost never get a sight like this back home. The infinite expanse of the night sky is terrifying, yet so enrapturing. Can’t really take my eyes off of it. So many colors, and the galaxies are bright and vivid. Got some twinkling stars here and there, and the moon is a whole circle tonight. Are there werewolves here? I hope they aren’t like the ones in stories back home. Or maybe I do want them to be like the ones back home, it’d be really scary if they could do it anytime they want.
My mind wanders off, and I notice the lack of fatigue on my part. Hm. That’s useful.
~Two hours later~
I wonder if I can sleep.
Not that I plan to, but thinking about it, if I don’t get to sleep, how will I be able to rest?
It’s gotten a bit boring, but I don’t want to pull out the book I downloaded from the shelf earlier. I would jump off a cliff if I let anything get to the girls while I’m distracted.
Still, it’s hard not to get bored.
I hear a ping from the right, which gives me a huge scare. Everything’s so quiet, it has me on edge.
Anyway, I look at the right side of my vision, and there I see a notification icon. You know, like the ones you usually see on messenger apps. I assume I can tap on it, since I can scroll down the book pages with my hands. After a little tap, a screen pops up right in front of me. In it, the title bar says ‘Historia”. There’s a little text cursor in a bar on the bottom which looks like it’s a chat box. After a few seconds, a message pops up.
“New updates!
* You can create AR 3D doodles! Just press the pencil icon and let your imagination do the work.
* You now have a search bar! Search for keywords in every book you have downloaded.
* A super secret surprise feature has been implemented! You’ll find it when you need it.”
Patch notes? Where did Historia get that idea?
“I got it after reading your book in the library. I thought it would help if I presented your boons in a form that’s familiar to you.”
Right, she can read minds. I mean, I really do appreciate her for being thoughtful. But that third option looks super sketchy.
“It’s not bad, trust me :)”
That just makes things worse.
*sigh*
Well, those two things are actually huge. If I can make visual aids for Emi, that will help immensely, especially since she can’t see me. And that search bar looks to be underrated. It’s pseudo-instant recollection from a bunch of books I’ve essentially memorized. Information is key, and this should give us the advantage we need when the time comes. Maybe. I hope there are libraries in this world.
There aren’t any catches to this, right?
“Think of it as employment benefits!”
That’s good. That’s one less thing to worry about.
I guess I just wait until these girls wake up. We can follow the road, but I think it’ll be a bad idea to walk on it directly since there might be people looking for us, and being out on the open might get us in trouble. But if there’s a merchant cart, it might be a good idea to tag along, maybe even get some rations and water.
Some light footsteps crunch the dry leaves nearby. I quickly check on it, and it turns out it’s just a tiny creature. Looks like a red lizard.
This is getting a bit stressful, and it’s barely 3 hours into the watch.
~Two hours later~
I’ve been mostly singing to myself for the most part. I tried messaging Historia, but there’s no text box for me to ‘type’ in, so I’m left to my own devices. Might be going a little insane.
I went through a couple of my favorite albums (at least what I remember), so it should be a decent amount of time. It hasn’t been 6 hours yet, but the more time we spend here, the more time our captors have to catch us. We escaped without anyone noticing, so there should be a decent amount of time before they escaped, but the sooner we get to the city the safer we are.
Possessing the bag, I bump it into the girls to wake them up.
‘Wake up, we need to go.’
The girls rise from their beds, barely rested.
After a moment, Emi suddenly panics and looks to see if there’s any danger.
“W-who’s there?!”
‘It’s me, Emi. Calm down, no one’s here.’
The commotion wakes up Akeelo, who doesn’t seem as bothered.
“We’re still alive…”
‘Can you hear me, Akeelo?’
“...Yeah?”
‘Good, good. Pack your things, it’s been a few hours and I also found a road leading to a city. We’ll follow the road, but we’ll also keep our distance so we won’t get caught by anyone. Grab a coin so I can show you guys where to go.’
Akeelo grabs the coin and puts it up. I possess the coin, float away , and go in the direction I put the rock earlier. It’s still dark outside, and the moon’s shifted quite a bit, so the moonlight’s kind of dwindled a bit.
“That’s Miss Alexa, right?” Akeelo asks.
Emi nods. “Yeah, I don’t know if she’s just invisible. All I know is I can hear her in my head.”
“I hope we aren’t just crazy.”
“Would we be out here if we were?”
“Right.”
As we march our way forward, the girls grab some more bread and take sips of water.
In the middle of our trip, the wind suddenly picks up, and from it, an unearthly sight begins to take shape. The forest shifts from the cold glow of the moon to a redder hue. What looks like little embers start falling down from the canopy. Sparse, but I could see these embers for miles from here. The girls are just as awestruck. Akeelo stretches out her hands and catches one of the lights. In her hand, it quickly loses its glow, leaving a tiny black speck in her hand.
Then a thought raced through my mind. Are these actually embers? With all the dry leaf litter lying around, isn’t this just a huge fire hazard?
‘Does it sting, Akeelo?’
“Huh? Yeah, but it’s not much. Why?”
“Uh, guys… I think we have a problem.”
Right on queue, smoke begins to rise from several spots around us.
‘Emi, grab the cloth and knife, then cut some strips off. Soak it with a little water, and cover your nose. Quickly, before the smoke gets too thick.’
Emi scrambles through the bag and grabs some of the cloak, making the makeshift mouth filters.
We then started jogging through the forest, making haste towards where the city was. Wisps of smoke start rising from beneath the leaf piles. Things only got worse once the wind started to blow a bit harder. Once it hit the forest floor, the forest floor started to glow ever so slightly. It was only a matter of time before the forest turned into a blaze.
The girls started going faster once we could hear popping from beneath us, signaling the start of the forest burning in earnest.
‘Hold on, I’ll check how far we are from the city. Just keep running forward.’
I flew up into the sky and took in the view. Parts of the canopy were already engulfed in flames, but the city was decently near, about 15 to 25 minutes of running should get us out of here.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
I float back down to the girls. As we start going down a decline, we start to hear a ringing of metal from below.
‘Hide. We don’t know if they’re friendly or not.’
The girls follow and take cover behind some of the trees. It’s here where the fight comes into view.
There’s a cart that’s crashed on its side, with what looks like 3 people beside it, and 3 people surrounding it. They’re locked in combat, with the people around them holding spears and the people in the middle wielding swords. It looks like a holdup situation from the 3 people wearing brown tunics; bandits, presumably. There’s a knight fighting the bigger of the bunch and another guy with light armor getting ganged up on by two of the spears. It’s tough fighting a spear with a sword, so I’m thinking the young man’s gonna be skewered sooner or later.
The knight yells out, “Francis! You have to get out of here!”
Francis tries to shift to the side, but the bandits thrust together and keep him on toes. One of the spears catches on his leg. His face twists in pain turns pale with fear, while his foes giggle and laugh.
“Nicked his legs, Jel! Let’s wrap this up and scram!” The lankier of the boys giggles maniacally.
“Hehehe, looks like we’ll be feastin’ tonight, boys!” The big man wearing a makeshift chestplate brings down his club on the knight, who barely deflects the hit, which stirs up a bunch of wind and fanning the flames nearby.
The knight’s armor has definitely taken a couple of hits, and he looks to be on his last legs. Only two of the passengers look to be in fighting condition. The other two were what looked to be the coach driver, and a fairly well-dressed man. The driver was cowering inside the wagon, holding the passenger in his arms, unconscious. Everything’s looking pretty bad.
“Boss Thrasher’s gonna turn your old friend into a red stain on the wall! Just give it up, it’d be a waste to have to kill you. I bet we can turn you in for some big cash, or maybe Boss will let us have our way with you, pretty boy.” The other man flanking Francis licks his lips as he circles the young man, who’s pushing through with everything he’s got.
Emi and Akeelo watch on intensely, unsure of what fate awaits these poor souls.
‘We should go around while they’re busy. We can’t do much at this ra-’
Suddenly, I can feel a throbbing feeling in my heart. A feeling I know isn’t mine. Akeelo grinds her teeth in anger, staring with intent at the larger man. Even Emi, who I thought to be docile, harbored the same rage as her friend. Not even the fear of being hurt could overwhelm what she felt.
Then out of nowhere, Akeelo sprints towards the battle and behind the tall man, holding onto the knife we took from the lab.
Thrasher tries to turn to see who’s creeping up on him, but the moment he moves his attention away, the knight thrusts at his head, keeping him in check.
“Eyes on me, you brat!!”
I rocket forward to Akeelo to make sure she doesn’t get hurt. ‘Akeelo, what do you think you’re doing?! You can’t-’
Without looking, Thrasher swipes behind himself with a dagger, which would surely impale Akeelo. So I grabbed the dagger as fast as I could and pulled with all my strength. With barely any leeway left, the dagger misses Akeelo, who rushed for the big man’s leg, behind his knee. She strikes with her body, who then gets tossed out by a strong kick from the Boss. Akeelo slams against a trunk, conscious but out of the fight.
“No! Akeelo!” Emi then runs to Akeelo, but one of the spearmen stands in her way.
“Oioioi, you look like shit, but you don’t look like no Sootface. You lost there, missy?”
Emi is frozen in place, unable to decide whether to run, or get Akeelo.
“Whatever. Come ‘ere.” The man lunges and makes it behind Emi in one quick stride. He grabs her by the collar and pulls her up in one hand. “Night niiight..” With a quick chuckle, he then strikes Emi at the neck, incapacitating her.
‘EMI!!’
Faster than before, I reach out to Emi. I can’t let her die yet, it’s barely been a day. I won’t let my time end here. Not like this. I dive towards her, and the moment my hand touches her chest, everything goes black.
----------------------------------------
Nandorius cursed his frail body, torn asunder by age and battles long fought. He could barely keep up with the ruffian standing before him, and he’s taken way too many hits. The master has trusted him with her little brother, and here they were, in a losing battle amidst a burning forest. He hasn’t been able to deal a significant blow to his opponent, which is keeping him away from helping Francis escape. Nandorius’ injuries have slowed him too much and has prevented him from capitalizing on any openings he could see.
He’s panting, and blood is dripping from his lips. His vision is starting to fade in and out. There isn’t much time left for him to run away with the master’s brother.
A flash of yellow pops out from the treeline, making its way towards the soot-stained bandit’s back. In her hand is a butcher knife, and the glass leaves make her entrance more than obvious. Thrasher looks over his shoulder and sees the girl charging at her, and makes a swing once she comes close. Despite his quick hands, he misses the blonde girl with his dagger. She strikes at the back of the man’s knee with all her might. The bandit winces in pain, and quickly turns around. His kick was too fast for the girl to see. She’s punted away to the side and slammed against a trunk with a thunk.
An opportunity arises. In the brief second it took for him to look away, a blade hacks into the shoulder of the bandit, cleaving right through the plate. Steam pours out from Nandorius’ nostrils and mouth. Slowly, the body slips away from the sword, staining it red and black. Thrasher’s body hits the ground and Nandorius takes a knee and takes a deep breath. The attack almost tapped out his mana reserves, leaving him with little steam left to continue the fight.
Before he can get back up, a frightened voice shouts.
“D-d-d-don’t move, you rotten log! Unless you want me to toss you this kid’s head!”
Another girl came into the battle, but it looks like this one’s knocked out and taken hostage. Nandorius can’t let an innocent girl come to harm. The bandit’s blade is shaking, threatening to nick the girl’s throat. He slowly, but surely, steps away from the fight. Nandorius can’t give chase without risking a life.
He turns to see Francis grabbing his healing ointment and dousing his leg wounds. He should be fine since the other bandit is also retreating, but it might not be enough to get them through the forest in time.
Soon however, Nandorius’ eyes started to float to the little girl grappled by the neck. Despite being sure she was knocked out, he can see her hand slowly rising out of her assailants field of view.
----------------------------------------
I could hear the man screaming as my feet dragged across the forest floor. I haven’t felt sore like this in a long time, where it’s to the point I find it hard to move.
The bright lights of the canopy burning light up my eyelids, and the smoke in the air threatens to choke me out. Sounds of trees falling and fires cracking stir me awake, and the scene completes itself in front of me as I open my eyes.
The guy from earlier has me in a choke, and I see the knife beneath my neck.
“I SAID DON’T MOVE! *pant* *pant* … Shit, I didn’t know there was an old geezer stronger than the boss. I-I’ve gotta get out of here. Roji, come on already!” This bandit is scared out of his mind.
His companion looks at him, and looks at the kid he’s fighting, then looks at his friend, then looks at his dead boss. Takes him a while to decide, but he clicks his tongue and steps back from the fight.
Wait, wasn’t Emi facing a bandit a while ago?
Hold on, that means…
My thought is cut short when the man wrapping his arm around my neck almost trips.
“OH SH- fuckin’ ell!”
I have to think quickly, before I get too far away to get help.
I slowly bring my left arm up, out of the sight of my captor. He’s pretty tall, so I’m hanging off the floor a little bit, just enough to reach his nuts. I clip his balls with my feet, making him reel in pain. Then for a moment, his grip loosens, and I escape from his choke, spinning around to jab his solar plexus*, which knocks his wind out for a bit more. Going for his dagger, I fumble it with the adrenaline kicking in. I then quickly run out and grab some leaves, crushing them to dust and throwing it at his eyes.
“MY EYES!”
The leaves shattered like glass in my hand. I can only guess the damage it did to him as he grabs at his eyes, screaming and on his knees.
“Ow!” The embers are starting to rise in temperature, hot enough to barely hurt me.
“Get back here, brat!” The last bandit charges at me. His spear is at his side, so it looks like he’s trying to grab me to make me into a hostage again. I stand my ground, waiting for him to come to me.
“Emi, run!” Akeelo’s shouting at me, running forth to save me. The knight is also running to me, but they’re both too hurt to reach me in time.
I can’t run faster than this guy, so my best bet is to give him a good hit to slow him down. To catch him off guard, I act a bit scared and go to his left. He takes the feint, and I duck underneath his arms, ready to give him everything I’ve got.
Suddenly, a cold feeling runs from my chest to my arms. My fist gets heavier ever so slightly as time seems to slow down, before the hit registers and I feel the bandit slump over me.
You know that feeling that fighters get in an intense match, where after a few hits, they’re unable to process things and just keep on swinging? I lose my focus, but I still see him clearly. He’s keeled over from the liver hit, which makes you sort of shutdown. I step to his side and out of instinct, bring down a hammer fist on the back of his head. It comes down, and it goes further than I expect. I could hear things snap and crack, but the guy’s skull breaking pierces through it all. Blood squirts on my face and body. The scene is horrid, but luckily I’m too tired for me to register what I see, coupled with the blood in my eyes. I straighten my back, and suddenly,all the bruises Emi has starts to compound on me, making it hard to move, and I lose my balance, teetering back until I trip.
“Emi!”
Akeelo catches me in her arms and gently puts me down. She still has her makeshift mask on her. I try and raise my hand to pat her head, but the battle has left me with barely enough energy to keep me conscious.
I ask if she’s alright. Or at least I try. The moment I take a breath, the smoke fills my lungs, making me cough really hard. Akeelo quickly puts her mask on me so I can breathe. With as much strength I can muster, I turn my head to where the last bandit standing was. I catch a glimpse of my hand. It’s coated in what looks to be almost an inch of black rock. So that’s where my extra firepower came from. How’d that happen? Magic? I don’t really know how I made that, if I did so in the first place.
The rock that coats my hand mimics the pattern of human skin, with large gaps in between. My fist is still clenched since it sort of cramped earlier. I relax my hand, and the rock turns to sand, flowing through my fingers.
From behind me, a gruff and hoarse voice calls out.
“The last one went and turned tail. We need to move before more Sootfaces show up.”
“I’ll carry her.” The young man speaks up. I’m lifted up, and the group starts briskly trudging along. Akeelo’s helping the old man along. I don’t see the coach driver, who I’m guessing ran away as soon as he could.
In the distance, a terrifying cacophony of whooping and hollering approaches us from the other side of the flaming forest.
“It can’t be! Why are they here so fast?”
As if to answer his question, the shapes in the distance begin to take form. They’re not running. They’re swinging. Just like our foes earlier, their faces are blackened by soot, but in a different pattern. There’s more of them. Too many of them. It was easily a dozen of these bandits swinging from branch to branch with things that look like they automatically wrap and unwrap themselves.
“Go!” The old knight pushes the young man to keep moving.
The speed these guys are moving is insane. They’re easily closing in on us, to the point where we can hear the magical ropes they have whipping through the air.
“Yeahyeahyeahyeah!!”
They’re almost around a hundred feet from us, and I can see them brandishing machetes as they get ready to drop in on us.
I don’t think this is winnable. We might be doomed. They might want to keep us alive, but I don’t like my chances.
It hasn’t even been a day yet, and it already looks like Emi’s not gonna make it.
This sucks. We were almost there. Could’ve made it to the city, got some food, and got these girls fixed up. Didn’t account for heroic tendencies apparently. It’s admirable, but I can’t do my job like this. I wonder what Historia’s gonna do about it. I wouldn’t be surprised if she did a full 180 with her personality and sundered me to oblivion. If I didn’t take this job, maybe I wouldn’t even be mad about it. I feel like I wasn’t attached to anything in my old world. But now, I feel bad leaving these kids behind.
50 feet. They’re almost about to drop.
A neon pink blur moves past us like a bullet, and pops underneath the bandits just as they let go of the branches. It explodes into a glowing cloud of glitter, still visible past the growing smokescreen of the forest.
The bandits drop. Some drop on us, some drop behind us, and also in front. A lot of their limbs were turned the wrong way, and in the case of one of the bandits, their neck goes past the point where they are alive. They all drop to the ground, unconscious.
Footsteps crunch the glass leaves as someone else slowly walks towards us again. It’s only one person. The person walks, while our group is still in shock from what happened. She walks into a view, a woman with a pristine white cape and a black beret covering her.
The young man looks on in disbelief. She walks, and soon after, she starts to sprint. In no time, she makes it to the youth, puts her hands on his cheeks and kisses his forehead.
“Oh gods, you’re alive. Thank goodness.”
The youth has me in a princess carry. Looks like I’m in the way of a hug. The woman wipes my face with a handkerchief and looks down on me.
“Are you okay?”
It’s over. For now. I’d love to be skeptical and ask who she is, but that takes too much energy. I really want to sleep.
“I’m sleepy. Can I sleep?”
Now I sound like an actual kid.
She smiles with a soft, warm and radiant glow, and pets my head.
“Go ahead and rest, you’ll be alright.”
“Thanks.”
I just wondered if I could sleep a few hours ago. So much happened, and the stress of not needing sleep is breaking my mind. I don’t know what comes after I wake up, but all I can think of is getting some rest.
I let the fatigue wash over me, and the darkness comes back to embrace me once more.
Good night.