Chapter 5: Chapter 2: Shades of Self

Rionara saw her own body being crushed down to a bloody mess once her eyes saw the monstrosity holding the immense club above its head, as if seeing a few seconds ahead of what could happen she tried her best to summon her demonic powers to her aid but no matter how much she struggled the fear of dying was so great that she couldn’t get a hold of her own abilities.

“Rio! Move!”

She heard the knight’s voice as the club went down, her eyes closed instinctively awaiting for her demise but instead of her body being crushed, she felt a strong impact beside her as her body was suddenly lifted by the wind pressure created by the attack.

“Ngh!” Reinhardt managed to deflect the massive club by angling his shield, right after doing so he grabbed a hold of the girl through her cloak’s hood before she was blown away by the wind and tossed her to the elf while also using said motion to reach for his own weapon. “Come at me, foul fiend!”

He shouted as he quickly slashed the kobold’s forearm who yelped in pain before attempting to grab the knight. Elaine managed to catch Rionara and then nimbly rotated around the fight.

Priscilla was directly behind the giant wolf with the living armor right behind her. The first thought that came to her head was to blast the wolf fiend in the back with magic but before she was able to do so Reinhardt suddenly appeared from between the kobold’s legs and tackled her to the ground.

“Gah! Hey! What are you-!”

She noticed a blur of black cleaving the back side of the giant wolf splattering both her face and the backside of the knight with dark crimson blood. She could only keep her eyes closed to avoid getting that disgusting blood inside her eyes.

“Come on! We need to get out of here!”

Reinhardt helped her shake it off and get up. They were going for the staircase but with the kobold’s retaliation, it knocked the living armor over which then fell on its back completely blocking the exit. Once it bested the armored foe the gigantic kobold let out an ear splitting howl that echoed throughout the entirety of that floor.

“The exit is blocked!” Elaine yelled. “Rein what do we do?!”

“Just run!” He held Priscilla’s wrist with his right hand because while she could run, there was no possible way she was able to see with all the kobold blood splashed on her face. “Dame Priscilla clean your eyes as fast as you can! We may have to fight after this!”

All the spell fencer could do was trust the knight leading her as she could barely open her eyes from the sticky blood splashed on her face and the leather gloves were doing a poor job at cleaning it, merely slipping against her face instead of removing the gooey liquid from it.

“Rein! We have trouble!”

Elaine shouted as the way they came from was swarming with lesser kobolds and ratmen, leaving them with the narrow passageway on the left side of the main exit. The elf managed to hunch forward slightly in order to run through it, meanwhile the knight had to squeeze himself sideways in order to not get stuck in the entrance while also leading a blind Priscilla through it. Her shoulders scraped through the narrow walls which prompted her to grunt in pain before shouting.

“W-where are we going?!”

“Though a side passage!” Reinhardt shouted while struggling to run sideways as both sides of his chest plate were being scratched by the brick walls, considerably heating up his torso. “Keep your legs moving and we’ll be fine!”

Priscilla just managed to clean part of the blood off her face, though she was still having trouble opening her eyelids as both of them were still sticking due the crimson ichor. In the front of the group, Elaine still carried Rionara who kept grunting in pain with each step the elf took.

“You’ve got to endure it for now.” The archer said, not taking her eyes off the way they were going. “It’s probably dislocated so try to not move much.”

It was easier said than done with all the running but the girl simply nodded while clenching her teeth. In Rionara’s case, she thought just being alive was a miracle at that point as meeting the ones she stole from just a day ago and surviving the encounter was already a favorable fate for a thief on top of that she could have been left to die as bait but instead was helped by the very person she crossed.

“I’m… sorry…”

Her timid voice managed to reach the elf who shook her head.

“Tell that to Rein, not me.”

They kept running until Elaine noticed a very faint light in the end of the narrow path and upon doing so she forced herself to give a last spur as she, along with the thief between her arms, squeezed through the narrow path. Reinhardt and Priscilla made their way inside the room and as soon as they did, the knight fell on his knees while grasping the leather strap holding his armor together and removed the thoroughly scratched breastplate.

“Are those…?”

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

Priscilla’s dazed voice came from behind them seemingly ignoring the fact her face was still painted red with somewhat dry blood. The faint light was coming off from a cluster of blue crystals attached to the very corner of the rectangular room, it was a spacious interior with an uneven ceiling as if built to resemble stalactites.

“Mana crystals… ha…” Reinhardt grumbled while panting heavily in order to dissipate the extreme heat he was feeling. “Never thought I’d see those on the very first floor… ha…”

“Nevermind that, Rein.” Elaine called. “This girl got a dislocated shoulder.”

“Ha… Ah… I’ll help in a moment…”

He slowly stood up and went over to the elf who let Rio sit against the wall. As she was resting, the knight approached her and began to inspect her left shoulder.

“Wow…” Priscilla walked over to the crystal clusters in order to inspect it more closely. “This is fascinating..” She muttered under her breath. “Finally those academic lessons came in handy.”

She grabbed one of the crystals and tried to break it off the cluster but it didn’t even budge, prompting her to use both hands but to no avail. On the other side of the room, Reinhardt finished inspecting Rionara’s injury and pulled some dark red colored handkerchief from his belt satchel before handing it to the girl.

“Bite down on it.” He gently grabbed her left forearm. “It’ll hurt a lot.”

Once she had the folded piece of cloth between her teeth he began to firmly pull her arm to the side, at first it was a simple discomfort until he put more strength into it and then a wave of pain hit Rionara’s brain prompting her to bite down and wail in agony before she felt release as her shoulder suddenly jerked and it got inside its socket.

“Oh, there we go.” Elaine noticed how the girl’s shoulder was back in place. “It’s amazing you still know how to do that Rein.”

“We were expected to give first aid to those in the frontlines after all.” He placed his left hand near Rionara’s shoulder to inspect if her shoulder was indeed back in place, but just a look at the girl’s relieved face made him sure the job was done right. “I think you should be able to move it after resting a bit.”

“T-thank you… Sir Reinhardt.”

Rionara’s voice came almost like a whisper instead but the knight fully understood what she said.

“You’re welcome, Rio.” He stood up, prompting her to look up to meet his gaze. “Stay put for a while okay? The spell might have soothed the pain but you still need to recover.”

“Mmmm.”

She nodded. On the side, Elaine sighed before scratching the backside of her left ear beneath the kettle helmet.

“Well, now what?” She asked whilst looking around the room without any other apparent exit. “I don’t think we’ll be getting out of here through that way again.”

“Indeed.” The knight was donning his breastplate once again since it had time to cool down, though seeing how scratched the metal was made him look more like a vagrant instead of a proper knight. “It should be safer to wait it out.” He strained his senses in order to focus solely on hearing and after doing so he was able to catch a bit of commotion coming from the other end of the narrow passage. “I’d rather not have to fight against any of those things again.”

“Ah ha!” Priscilla’s voice from the other side of the room made both Reinhardt and Elaine glance at her. “Finally.”

She was holding onto a rather sizable crystal, it was glowing quite faintly compared to the rest of the cluster but she managed to pry it from it nonetheless.

“Oh, did you do it without any tools?”

Elaine approached her, though the noble woman felt her presence she almost didn’t hear her footsteps.

“Ah, no I used the tip of my sword.”

She showed the elf her glimmering broadsword, the details on the handguard, hilt and the lack of any serious scratch or dent showed it was her prized possession, the blade emitted a faint light blue glow similar to the crystal though it felt cold just by being near it.

“Your sword? Wouldn’t that damage the blade?”

The elf asked.

“It has a coating of frostburnt silver so no. It still holds despite all the things I’ve been through with it.”

“Hey Rein.” Elaine called him. “Shouldn’t we also take some of these? It probably fetches a nice price in the guild.”

“Hmmm…” The knight folded his arms whilst slowly shaking his head. “I’d feel bad to ask Dame Priscilla to use her blade for something so trivial.”

“Oh, don’t.” She shook her hand. “As I said, it is coated with frostburnt silver, it won’t get damaged that easily.” She turned around and nudged the blade between the cluster and the wall to try and scrape the entire thing off but she could barely wedge it halfway before getting stuck in place. “Nnnnnngh!”

It wouldn’t budge despite how much strength she was putting into it. Which made Reinhardt worry if her weapon got stuck.

“Can I give a hand?”

He approached her side.

“Oh, please do. I can’t- nnnngh! Seem to be able to- haaargh! Get- Mmph! This thing off!”

She stumbled back gasping for air, both her arms were throbbing from the excess force she put in trying to remove the stuck blade. The knight carefully held the handle with both of his hands before glancing to the spell fencer who was still panting on the side.

“Are you positive this coating will prevent the blade from being damaged?”

She nodded once.

“Only magically enchanted weapons may dent it-” She took a deep breath. “So feel free to yank it out with all your might.”

He spaced his legs apart and took a slow, deep breath.

“Hmph!”

Instead of pulling, he thrusted the weapon while also angling the blade in order to ‘cut’ through the rest of the crystals, severing the cluster from its roots.

“Whoa!”

Once he did so, the uneven ball of mana crystals rolled between his legs, almost hitting Elaine and tumbled towards Rionara who was still sitting against the wall behind them.

“Rio watch out!”

Without any time to react as it went to a full on collision with her body her right hand tried to block it, she accidentally let her powers take control and the inhumane shadow claw tore the cluster into tiny pieces before it could hit her body.

At first there was silence when all three pairs of eyes were looking directly at what was her hand before glancing at her forehead which had two small black horns protruding out of it. Without saying a word Elaine instinctively went for her quiver in order to draw an arrow but Reinhardt stopped her hand while also blocking Priscilla’s way with her own blade as he didn’t know whether or not the spell fencer would attack Rionara.