The hyenas lunged. Roderic swung his blade, fending off one of the beasts, while Lyria loosed arrows with deadly precision. Elowen raised her hands, summoning a shield of water to protect them, but the hyenas were relentless, driven by a fierce determination to protect something unseen.
Amidst the chaos, Alden felt a sharp shove from behind. He stumbled forward, directly into the path of a lunging hyena. The beast's claws raked across his side, and he screamed in pain. Elowen turned, her eyes blazing with visible fury, and cast a spell that seemed to that sent the hyena flying back, but the damage was done.
"Lyria, cover me!" Elowen shouted, rushing to Alden's side. She placed her hands over his wounds, chanting a healing spell, but the boy's injuries were severe.
"Who pushed him?" Roderic demanded, his voice thick with anger as he fought off another hyena.
"No time for that now!" Lyria called, firing arrows in rapid succession to keep the hyenas at bay. "We need to retreat!"
Roderic glanced at Alden, then at the relentless hyenas, and nodded. "Fall back! Now!"
The group fought their way back through the forest, Elowen and Lyria providing cover while Roderic carried the injured Alden. The hyenas pursued them to the edge of the forest before finally retreating, their cackles echoing ominously in the adventurers' ears.
Once they were safe, Roderic gently laid Alden on the ground. Elowen was using her water magic to clean the wound and also heal Alden. Water and light mages were the healers of this world and thus most of water mages knew rudimentary healing.
"Hold on, Alden," she whispered. "You're going to be okay."
Alden's eyes fluttered open, his face pale but determined. "Someone pushed me," he said weakly, his voice barely audible.
Roderic's expression darkened. "We'll find out who," he promised, his eyes scanning the group. "But first, we need to get back to the guild."
"Yes." Both Lyria and Elowen agreed and took big steps towards the city of Distant Wind. By the time they reached the city, it was evening and small lamps were being lit in various homes of the city and also occasional street lights which was also made the place lively.
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They took Alden to the hospital and left him there after leaving him the coins they were required to pay him. With that the three of them left.
"Roderic, you are quite bold for pushing the boy. If he was dead, our reputation would have plummeted and the Guild would have deducted points from our stars." Lyria said as they came out of the hospital in a hushed voice.
"Hmph. This boy dared to ask for one extra silver coin from us just because the previous bellboy was sick. Serves him right." Roderic didn't feel an ounce of pity. All three of them had been keeping up a facade on their faces for Alden not to notice.
"Don't do it again. Any more blood loss and he would have died," Elowen said. Nobody would recognize that the kind and gentle water mage and healer could have such a cold look in her eyes. Alden was being treated at the hospital at the moment by the non-mage healers (rudimentary doctors).
It was 10 pm when Alden was discharged from the hospital. He was pale and could hardly walk. He had lost a lot of blood and there was no technology for blood transfusion here, so he had to regain the blood he lost. The wounds had been stitched a bit and he was asked to remain in the hospital for 2 days, but that would cost 30 copper coins each day.
He chose to go home and just rest. As he walked slowly towards his home, he felt a sharp pain in the wound. But he was determined not to go back to the hospital and dragged himself through the lonely lane. It had started snowing heavily as winter was reaching its peak in these months. His teeth clattered in the cold, but his resolve and perseverance carried him through the snowy night.
He took a turn into an alley, but before he could take more steps, he felt the world spinning in front of him. His eyes couldn't focus anywhere, and before he knew it, his face hit the ground. Alden was lucky that the ground was now filled with soft snow, or he would have had a broken nose or teeth for sure.
Alden hit the ground with a thud, and it wasn't loud enough for anyone to hear in the snow-covered winter, but one person did. That person was Aric himself. Alden had hit the ground right in front of the home of Robin, and Alden was lucky enough to be at home in Distant Wind at that time.
Aric came out while wearing a coat over himself. It had been a few days since the results were out and he had received his AI partner. In his previous life, snow was a luxury for him as he had only seen it once in his life.
Distant Wind was high up North, and thus snow was commonplace. After dinner, he would always come to the city to enjoy the snow and just look outside, enjoying some hot drinks he brought from Echorysia. It was on one such night when he saw Alden crashing on the lane.
He looked around for a bit and couldn't find anyone. After some hesitation, he proceeded to come out. He had already sent the drones into the surroundings to see if this was some kind of assassination attempt, but he couldn't find anyone suspicious.
Aric, after coming close, could see that Alden was bleeding and the snow was now tinted with red. He didn't want to play the hero, but the attire of Alden was enough to understand that this kid came from a poor family, and he couldn't just leave him to die under the snowy night.
And thus he went ahead, pulled him up, and took him home.