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It was interesting to note that the light from the road did not highlight the figure. Since the figure does not turn back or change its walking pace, I slowly follow it with a safe distance between us. Well, as safe as you can call the situation I was in. The odd feeling of unease makes me act as cautious as I possibly can.
Suddenly a flash of light pierces my eyes and I hear a rustling sound. My eyesight returns just in time to see the trees falling down on the figure I followed. Only the figure is no longer there — it jumped back. The jump was so strong that the figure flew a dozen meters and with a loud thunk crashed into a tree. By a hair's breath, the head of the figure misses a branch of the tree. That branch tears the cape the figure wears and as the figure drops down the tree trunk, the cape that was covering the figure's head is ripped away. What is revealed are the delicate and feminine facial features, short golden hair and long pointy ears.
So this is what is going on. The obligatory 'saving the damsel in distress'-event, and an elf at that. I bet she is some kind of a princess, because chances of encountering non-princess elf under such circumstances are vanishingly slim. Or at least that is what I am led to believe according to all the stories I have read. Still, what is it with all these events? The pacing of this story is just too messed up: concentration of cliches for the first day is way too big.
My first impulse is to go check whether the figure was alive and if it needed help. Normally that is what I would do. The issue is that the current event is clearly artificial. It was arranged by somebody and the perpetrator is probably around here somewhere. Running away would definitely be smarter choice right now. A choice I am not allowed to make. The option of running away is tightly sealed by two pairs of red eyes approaching from the forest.
"I should have made a detour". This is the thought I have when I see these red eyes. I dispose of that thought as quickly as it emerges. Not because it was incorrect, but because regretting that decision right now would be even worse.
The two crawling creatures are some distance away, so I can only discern their general shape which resemble that of a wolf. I have a bit of time to prepare. Quickly I put on the bracelet, that I received in infirmary, on my right arm and took the Chlymea crystal. Concentrating on infusing the Ether into the crystal I just hope everything will work this time. Fighting two beasts barehanded is not something I want to do. Actually, if this fails, then I will definitely run away. With no weapons the fight will just be a suicide.
As I am trying to infuse Ether into crystal, I do not get the feeling of a wall that was there previously. Ether appears to pour freely into the crystal. These are the good news. Unsurprisingly, there are also some bad news. Already tired from earlier today, I couldn't concentrate properly. The blue bar in my mind's eye starts rapidly dropping. At around one tenth it stops and a light comes from the hand in which I hold the crystal. With a flash a sword appears in my hand.
At least you can technically call this a sword. It definitely has a shape of one, but the length is closer to that of a dagger. Barely thirty centimeters in length, it is uncomfortably short. I do not want to let the beasts this close to me. Making a spear would probably have been more adequate. Shaping it as a sword was probably due to my preconception that weapons with no definite shape are supposed to be shaped as swords, with pompous names and some kind of cool-looking overdrive to "unleash the true potential".
And now I'm getting on some really weird tangents in my thought process. I need to stop trying to escape this reality and focus. I need to focus!
Swinging the sword around a few times I try scaring the beasts away as well as get the feel of its weight. Only the latter succeeds. The beasts are now close enough for me to see them. Two meters in length and covered in black scales like a shark they seemed like some exotic breed of hounds. A really predatory and aggressive looking breed of hounds. Hellhound is the name that felt appropriate for these creatures. They are not afraid of the sword, but as I swung it around, they began walking slower and started circling around me from both sides.
As hellhounds are getting closer I begin getting frantic. My mind gets blank and all I can do, is to continue swinging the sword around. Standing in stupor, I just can't bring myself to move from the spot. Not knowing what to do I start looking around in hopes of finding a way out of this mess. Fangs, trees, fangs, vines, fangs... Did I mention fangs? Those are really big and getting too close. Suddenly, my glance hits the supposedly unconscious elf. I notice that her green eyes are open, but she is still not moving. Even her pupils aren't moving. To my surprise this actually calms me down. It makes me feel calm and confident, like earlier in the library. Able to move and think again, I try analyzing my options.
While leading hellhounds away from the elf sounds chivalrous, it is not the most reasonable course of action. First off, there is nothing to indicate that both hellhounds will follow me, should I try to escape. And secondly, if I manage to wake her up, odds of our survival would significantly rise. So I start moving towards her.
As I move, one of the hellhounds finally gets close enough and pounces at me. The claws moving closer, I try blocking them by swinging the sword with all my might at the hellhound. Still in midair, the hellhound responds by swiping with its claw at the sword. With a loud metallic clank the claw hits the sword. The impact is so strong, that I can't hold the sword in my hands. Just as I lose the grip, intuitively, before the sword gets flung away, I manage to move it into my inventory.
Thrown off-balance by the disappeared sword, the hellhound isn't able to continue it's attack, so it just drops to the ground. This is my only chance. Driven more by adrenaline than anything else, I throw my right hand forward towards the hellhound. The hellhound is about to bite my hand, when I retrieve the sword from inventory back into hand. Driven by inertia from the impact with the claw, the sword that emerges in my hand goes straight towards the throat of the hellhound. As if knife through the butter, the sword slashes through the neck of the hellhound and decapitates it.
The blood from the neck splashes on me. Some of it hits my eyes, effectively blinding me. With no time to feel relieved I turn back to where the growl from the second hellhound is coming from. All I see is a blurry shadow rapidly getting closer. I have no time to block with a sword or even raise it. The shadow fills my eyesight. Pushing the sword down as strong as I can, I moved it to inventory. Only to summon it immediately afterwards.
The sword materializes right between me and the hellhound. As the hellhound lands on me, it impales itself at the sword, dying in a way, that is similar to the first hellhound. That is the end of the good news. I am hit with a burning sensation from my right shoulder diagonally through the chest. I feel as if I was cut in half. Right after that the handle of the sword that is impaling the hellhound hits my stomach, knocking all the air out of my lungs. And finally, as if that is not enough, the body of the hellhound itself hits me and topples to the ground.
With no clear eyesight, chest burning all over and mind fuzzy, I am lying on the ground with the hellhound on me. Suffocating under this weight, I muster last of my strength to push the hellhound off me. My eyesight got a bit better only for me to realize that I got from the frying pan into the fire. The two dogs I somehow managed to kill turned out to be scouts. Before me are at least eight more and I have no strength to stand, let alone fight them.
I am afraid of the dogs and understand that there is nothing I can do about them, but I still have trouble taking everything here seriously. I try to act as if everything is real, but somewhere deep inside I have a feeling that this is a game, so I just didn't panic. Actually, even if I did, there was nothing I could do. Some mythical power boost would be really good right now, but hounds are getting closer and I don't feel anything besides exhaustion.
One of the hellhounds gets close to me and is ready to attack when a beam of light hits it. On the forehead of the hellhound a black spot emerges. As it does, the hellhound dropped dead as if it is a doll whose strings are cut. Turning around to see my saviour, I am quite surprised. Standing behind me is the elven girl. That itself isn't too surprising, since I was half-expecting that. Now that I see her facial features properly, I notice that she is quite young. Based on her appearance I would estimate her to be less than 20 years of age. Although, if lore is to be believed, her appearance meant nothing, she can just as well be 200 years old. What really shocked me was the rifle she held in her hands. What kind of self-respecting elf uses rifles? Bows! Elves are only allowed to use bows! Everything else is hypocrisy! Have you ever heard of an elf using guns? That's just wrong.
Meanwhile, oblivious of my thoughts, the girl is methodically sniping the hellhounds. It took her eight shots to kill all eight of them. With no visible injuries, the hellhounds just dropped dead after being hit by a beam from the rifle. Finished with the doggies, she talks to me in a language I don't know, but somehow understand:
— Thanks for stalling them. You okay there?
There goes my confidence. My best effort at fighting with all I had was reduced to stalling. While I did not feel too miserable at being saved by the girl I tried to save, my confidence took a hit at seeing her sniping hellhounds so effortlessly.
— Let's just say that I would appreciate if you helped me get back to the infirmary.
— "Back"? You were there already? You're quite an unlucky guy.
Her voice was quite melodic and cheerful.
— I am tempted to agree with that.
The rifle in her hand shrunk in size and turned into a familiar shape of Chlymea crystal. She put it into her pocket, came closer to me and took my hand. On the periphery of my consciousness I notice that her hand is unexpectedly rough as she was helping me up.
— Thanks. Any ideas on who and why organized that?
— I don't know much about other contestants, so even though I got some leads, there is not much I can do with them.
Even though she tries to sound cheerful, her voice is a bit strained.
— I see. Are you okay yourself?
— No need to worry. I'm fine. Probably broke a bone from the impact with that tree, so I should get checked up at the infirmary.
We start walking back towards the infirmary.
— This is the first time I hear somebody saying they have broken bones in such a cheerful manner.
— What is there to be sad about? Both of us survived and with a rather minor injuries. Why wouldn't you be cheerful?
Looking at that smile my mood gets up a bit. In a sense she is right, surviving is a good thing. Sometimes it's these little things that make difficult situations bearable.
— I won't deny that, but you do realize that it is likely we will get forced to try and kill each other in the near future?
— But you don't have any intention of killing me right now.
— Well... No, but...
— Then there is nothing to worry about. I will worry about it when that time will come.
Again, I can't deny her point of view. What she is saying is essentially correct, but you don't normally meet people like that.
— You seem to be quite carefree.
— Is that so?
— Yes, I just don't understand how can a person be this cheerful when just this morning he was told that he has to have multiple death-matches if he wants to survive.
— I do dislike killing, but if there is nothing I can do about it, then there is no point worrying about it.
— So, from your reaction I take that life and death situations aren't something too new to you?
— Well, no. I would assume such situations aren't anything new to anyone who got here.
I understand what she means. Only the strongest people were called here, and becoming a strong fighter implies killing somebody along the way. Hence I was puzzled myself why I was summoned here. I am a good gamer, but being strong at games doesn't really translate well to combat expertise. If I assume this to be a game, and that assumption seems more and more appealing with every single event that has happened thus far, these things would make sense. On the other hand, should I assume this to be real, I just can't find the reason for me being chosen. The explanation "I have a strong Ether Link", that Rue gave me, just doesn't add up.
I thought about hiding the fact that I am a total novice, but decided against it. First of all, from the fight with hellhounds she did see my skill, or more accurately the lack of thereof. In addition to that, right now I have no chances if I were to fight her. Worst case scenario is that she will know that I suck. There are good and bad points about this, but I'm just too exhausted and don't have strength to come up with any lies.
— That's not exactly the case for me.
— You want to say you haven't actually been in life-threatening situations?
— I want to say that I haven't been in something you could call a fight since high-school ended.
— Then why are you here?
— Seems I got caught up in a loophole of the selection process.
— Nedix loves you, huh?
Thanks to the translation spell, I understood that by Nedix she meant some kind of goddess of misfortune.
— While I appreciate the concern, could we please move to the topics that do not include rubbing salt on my wounds.
— Afraid not... That paralysis spell was really strong, so I don't think I have much strength to talk at all.
Then why was she keeping up with the small talk? Though to be honest I am on the verge of collapsing myself, so rest of the way we walk in silence. Arriving back at the infirmary I am greeted by a cheerful voice of the spirit:
— If you wanted to spend a night here, you didn't have to beat yourself up so much.
Neither I nor... Come to think of it, I haven't asked for her name. Anyways neither of us have strength to complain. The spirit presses something on the table and a shelf with medicine to the right opens like a door. A row of four metallic coloured pods gets revealed. These pods have transparent lids, some unknown writing on the sides and are a bit less than three meters in length.
— Please get undressed and lie down in one of the pods.
I am so tired that I just do what I am being told. This is the moment about today that I will come to regret the most. You see, elven girl is undressing close to me, but I am so tired that the idea to look in her direction hasn't even occurred to me. Oh, the missed opportunity! I fall asleep as soon as I lie down in the capsule.
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