Survive in the parallel world, please!

157 Don’t leave people behind, please! part As fate would have it, everyone ended up gathering on the same point at the same time. Anne, Ryu, Sera, Bob, Luke and Risa, they all arrived at the same location within less than ten hours.

Luke, who still hadn’t recognized Anne who was spitting blood out of her mouth and didn’t have a clue on what was going on, simply stood in front of Sera preventing Lea from attacking her.

“What’s going on Sera?”

“Anne is dying!”

“Don’t- be- such a drama- queen- I’m fine”

Anne said in between gasps for air, with a voice that sounded more like a deflated baloon than a person speaking.

“Anne, is that really you?”

Luke turned to check on her using his consider skill. It might have seemed like he was being careless, when in reality he did it on purpose to distract Lea from Risa’s attack.

A quick swing of Risa’s sword was sure to end Lea’s life on a single hit, but that was only if she landed it which wasn’t the case. Lea moved her neck right at the last second allowing the huge blade to go over her head harmlessly.

.....

After seeing herself completely surrounded by enemies, Lea took some distance from everyone. Bob, who was the slowest in the party, was finally able to reach Anne and give her the medicine they recently brewed.

“This tastes like Luke’s cooking”

Anne scoffed making everyone but Luke laugh, but she wasn’t joking at all, the medicine tasted really bad.

“If you don’t like it, don’t drink it”

Luke shrugged.

The soldiers, who had been sprinting behind Lea all the way to where the heroes were located, were completely exhausted and abandoned by the priestess. Once they realized their circumstances, the soldiers attempted to turn tail and run away.

They were dutiful, but not suicidal.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Risa closed up on them.

“This... uh...”

“Miss Risa, please bring them over”

Sera asked her. It wasn’t even a difficult task, all Risa had to do was walk slowly towards the soldiers herding them towards the group.

“Please, have mercy on us, we were simply following orders”

“I know, we’re not going to do anything to you. I simply wanted you to know that you were betrayed by your captain, he’s working for the sacred empire”

“I figured that out”

One of the soldiers replied.

“Then why are you following his orders? they’re not going to let you off, if the kingdom finds out about his doings he’ll be executed!”

“But... he’s our captain”

One of the men said, not even he was certain about the reason why he had to obey a traitor.The truth of the matter they were trained over the years to not cuestion orders and simply follow them blindly, footmen were the weakest in the army, but more importantly they were also the cheapest to train.

Whenever the army needed cannon fodder, they would simply send them in mass with the sole purpose of gaining a couple seconds for a high ranking officer or adventurer to recover.

“That may be so, but don’t you think you’d be a lot more useful to the kingdom if you were to come back bearing those news? A traitor among the ranks of the empire, and a captain at that, is sure to earn you at least some sort of reward”

The soldiers got excited at the prospect of earning some money and reputation, it goes without saying that being able to leave the place with their heads still on top oftheir shoulders was also a great incentive.

“I’m feeling a lot better now”

Anne said as she stood up as if nothing had happened, her pierced lung seemed to have healed completely and her healthpoints were almost to the max. Luke’s medicine was the product of luck, but it didn’t make it any less effective.

“Now can someone please fill me in?”

Risa was still confused about what was going on, she didn’t know anything about the silver haired woman in front of her. She thought they already succeded in rescuing Sera and didn’t understand the reason why they weren’t walking back to Celarent yet.

She had been on the road for weeks, sleeping on the hard ground and enduring all sorts of hardships, partially due to Luke’s company.

“I’ll fill you in alright”

Luke replied with a luscious smile. Risa would usually reply with a flirtatuous joke with the intention of embarrassing him, which was actually pretty hard because Luke had no sense of shame at all.

But what happened instead was Anne’s hand smacking the back of Luke’s head with a clapping sound.

“How can you tell such things to a lady!”

“I like her already”

Risa smiled at Anne with an amused expression.

“Mister Ryu... he came for me!”

Said Sera blushingly.

“Oh right! we need to hurry before they get to him!”

“Those weaklings?”

Risa pointed at the cowering soldiers.

“Not them! the paladin!”

While Bob and Luke remained unfazed, Risa’s eyes were wide open. A paladin was the empire equivalent of a B rank adventurer, but some were even stronger than that. She herself was considered an upper C rank adventurer, not only she was strong but she had been working as a ranger for a long time near Celarent. The only reason why she was still hasn’t been ascended to B rank was because she had but a single class. She already visited the oracle to get a second class, but now she had to learn all the archery skills before she could be considered a dual class.

Everyone gathered their belongings and ran into the forest, leaving the dumbfounded soldiers behind.

When Lea found Stefan, he was already fighting Ryu, but more than a fight it was a one sided beating.

“I can’t believe this, how can the divine providence be favoring a heathen like you!?”

Stefan gasped for air, while Ryu was in top condition. That was because of the pills he had been taking, his pharmacy skill allowed him to turn any potion into pills. The process was a bit complicated without the proper equipment, but there was a reason why he made them instead of potions.

While he was still looking for his pets he had more than enough time to gather medicinal herbs, but he lacked spare containers to make potions. Instead of that, he made a paste with the herbs and then dried it slowly at the campfire.

They weren’t as effective as potions, but crafting them kept him busy and focused.

“Would you shut up already?”

Ryu was losing his patience. He had been fighting with all he had from the start, but despite landing many hits and causing some damage, Stefan kept healing himself completely voiding his efforts.

It was a standstill were one part would attack relentlessly and the other would defend flawlessly.

The arrival of Lea at the scene didn’t go unnoticed by Ryu, who pounced on her like a wild beast.

It made sense to take down the weakest enemy first, especially if it was someone adept at healing. But a paladin’s strenght wasn’t in raw power, unless they were fighting the undead or evil forces, they weren’t good at the offense.

But that didn’t apply if there were allies in the battlefield.

“Sacrifice!”

The paladin activated his skill and took the damage that was to be inflicted upon Lea. Stefan’s outstanding defense capabilty allowed him to withstand the fatal blow, while Lea turned on her barrier immediately, making it impossible for Ryu’s sword to reach her.

“Now you made a big mistake young man, this skill allows me to soak up the damage directed towards one of my allies”

“Sounds like the only thing I need to do now is beat the crap out of that woman and you’ll be helpless”

“That’s not all, after sacrificing myself to protect an ally my attack power increases. The more damage I receive protecting others, the more damage I can inflict. And you just tried to kill her! mwahahaha!”

Stefan laughed like a maniac, but Ryu wasn’t amused. He was starting to feel tired and the effect of the speed potion was starting to wear out, he didn’t have any more potions and his pills would do him no good at all.

Lea didn’t have to attack Ryu now, all she had to do was use her barrier to keep him at bay while Stefan was free to do as he pleased.

Stefan held the hilt of his sword tightly and jumped on the already tired Ryu who now was fighting defensively.

Clanking sounds echoed in the forest disturbing the peace of the creatures that called it their home, but none of them dared to appear at the scene. Ryu swung his sword to the best of his capabilities, but his technique was rough at best, while the paladin had years to polish his swordmanship.

Steel against steel collided in a frenetic battle, until Stefan’s sword broke near the hilt giving Ryu a much needed respite.

“How could my sword break before yours did!?”

Stefan was flabbergasted, but didn’t wait to hear an answer as he drew his spare weapon. It was a heavy morning star with a minor enchantment that emited sparks whenever it hit something or if it was waved in the air.

It’s effect was mostly cosmetic, but it did look scary enough.

Ryu, now cornered against Lea’s barrier tried to block a hit from Stefan, but the chain wrapped around his sword and he was hit in the face leaving him completely defenseless.