Chapter 8: Failure

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“......I’ll take care of it.”

Heading towards the I gate and stepped out, If he just left he won’t be far...

“ Wait, Haruki! You can’t go alone!”

Without turning around a directed mana into my legs and ran leaving Sylva behind. I can’t waste any more time

Red armor... It’s gotta be those PKs,....

Dashing down the eastern road I darted past any monsters that were on the road.

Shit where is he? Don’t tell me he went to a dungeon! The only town this roads leads to is Tyrne.... He has to be heading there.

Sprinting even faster I pour even more mana to my lower body. My skin starts to feel the shock as if thousands of needles prickled me. Ignoring my the pain I keep pressing on hoping I don’t lose him.

Come on! Come on!

I ran for a ten minutes and finally spotted him. Beth was unconscious as the PK ran while carrying her under his arm.

As I found him, he looked at me and ran faster!

Tsk, he noticed me....

Raising my arm I shot a lightning bolt aimed at his back but he blocked with a shield.

It’s one of the ones that attacked Sylva a few days ago! He’s got a shield that absorbs magic! Having no choice left I jumped at him while discharging mana tackling him to the ground.

“Shit!” As he fell down Beth was also released

Rising up, he struck his elbow at my face freeing him from my grip.

He distanced himself for a bit and turned facing me.

“What the hell! It’s you again!” he yelled at me drawing his long sword.

I rushed back to Beth at made sure she was okay.

Good looks like she’s still breathing. Relieved I turned my attention back at the PK.

“............What do you want with Beth?” I said in a low voice

“Heh, why should I tell you?” he said while raising his shield

“Though I guess you’ll be dying soon so I’ll tell you before I kill you.”

Not waiting for his explanation I fired of a surprise lightning bolt.

“Hehe, impatient are we” he blocked with shield again while mocking me

“You see, we just wanna borrow the kid.”

“.....Borrow?”

“Come on! I know the kid’s got high level healing magic.”

“Why the hell do you need to do that!” I rushed and slashed my sword as he blocked with his.

“Hey it’s your fault y’know? Cutting off the bosses hand pissed him off big time. Told me to grab a good healer! After all you can’t kill if you’re injured.” He grinned

Pushing me back with a shield bash he thrust his blade cutting my left arm. Seeing another shield bash coming at me I backed off.

With lightning blade I tried swinging at him again but he blocked the strike with his shield.

Hitting the shield the lightning around the sword disappeared instantly.

“HAHAHA! Bad luck fighting me boy. Yours magic isn’t worth jack against me!”

Confident with his victory he started attacking me relentlessly as I could only block desperately trying to find a chance to counter.

As he used his shield to block my attack he thrust his sword again this time hitting my left hand making its grip on the hilt of my blade loosen.

Holding my white katana using the right only I started healing the wound on my left with magic slowly closing it up.

Parrying with one hand only the weight of his attacks felt much heavier as I kept waiting for my left hand to heal.

Noticing my weakness, he started to attack even more viciously causing my to flinch as I started to lose strength. In my arms.

As I saw him swing again a ducked dodging the sword and tackled his shield ramming him.

He was to swing another blow at my side when I caught his wrist with my injured left hand and kicked him at the knees.

Slightly unbalanced he raised his shield not leaving an opening to strike at.

While waiting for him to get up my left hand had closed up the wound and now I could use both hands again.

This time we traded blows as I parried his sword while barely dodging his shield bashes. In other games this guy would be classified as a tank...

With his high defense and shield he could block my attacks while his attacks were slowly whittling down my HP.

The battle dragged on for 12 minutes before I moved back again. We were both breathing heavily as our stamina was close to running out.

“Haah, haah... You’re starting to irritate me.” He says glaring at me

“Why don’t you just leave then!”

“Why don’t you just let me gut you like a pig then.” He smiled with a disgusting expression

Catching his breath he charged at me trying to crash his shield at me.

I immediately step to the side as he missed while I slashed at his back cracking his red armor.

He quickly turned around facing me and started a string of attacks, his stamina was starting to run out because of his heavy gear as I felt each blow getting weaker and weaker.

“Haruki....” I hear a voice behind me

“Beth! Get out of here!!” I yelled at Beth that had woke up

Hearing me yell Beth nodded and started to move in the direction of Rygar

“Damn it....”

I slashed down hard as he blocked with his sword.

I had let down my guard as he seemed out of stamina causing his shield to strike my hands flinging my sword away. Following this he stabbed my thigh making me crash down to the ground as he punched me.

“If I can’t take her guess I’ll just kill her....”

Hearing him say those words my face lost its color.

“STOOOOOP!!!” I yelled as the man chased Beth that was still nearby

At that moment, time seemed to slow down....

I watched as he caught up to Beth and grabbed her arm.

Beth started to struggle as hard as she could, trying to free herself from his grip.

Beth looked at me with fear in her eyes, she called out my name but I couldn’t hear her words. Everything had gone silent.

I tried standing but fell down again dragged by gravity back to ground... Then it happened.

He had thrust his blade into Beth’s chest.

I saw her fall on her knees with tears in her eyes as she kept looking into mine.

As she died her body started to glow and slowly faded away...

“......” I tried to form words but nothing came out

I clenched my fists with my fingernails digging into my flesh as blood dripped down from the palm of my hands. An unbearable weight. That was what I felt in my chest as I saw her body finally disappearing.

“Tsk... gotta find another one now.”

I stayed silent as he walked closer to me again raising his sword.

“Oioi, don’t tell me you’re scared now!!” he grinned

“Hmm? After taking a look at you I think I’ve seen you before...Yeah you’re the little shit Tyler beat up a month and a half ago.”

“.....”

“Yeah, you were the brat asking around everyone about some girl named Hime! Well don’t worry brat after I kill you I’ll find her and send her to you, heheheh!”

Those words woke me up from my silence.

The weight in my chest slowly disappeared , in its place a new feeling formed in me

Hate.... I hated this man who killed Beth, I hate his comrades who don’t value peoples lives, I hate this death game that keeps taking from me

I want him to suffer.... I loathed him deeply from deep in my heart.

Without a word I took out Ascalon and poured mana into it.

I unleashed all the mana I have as electric sparks covered my whole body.

What came out from my body weren’t blue sparks but but deep red bolts coiling around the spear as it spread to both arms and legs.

The red lightning burned my flesh as I stood still ignoring the pain.

You have unlocked a new potential of your magic. Skills effected by this new potential will be updated.

Skill updated

Lightning discharge (Intermediate) lv. 5

Able to produce lightning from various body parts according to players will. Direct contact will also affect user.

With strong will, the emotions of the user will now affect the nature of the lightning created

Mana cost depending on shape and size

In an instant I was already in front of him as I pushed the spear at his shield.

It pierced into it splitting it in half and piercing his shoulder. With my left hand I formed a lightning bolt which I gripped and stabbed intp his arm which made him drop his sword.

With my right l foot I swept his legs sending him on his back.

“Guuuh, you, you piece of shit” he growled “When we meet again I will fucking kill you!!!”

“..........No, we won’t meet again.” I speak without showing emotion

I pulled Ascalon back at stabbed again this time at his stomach.

“GWAAAAAAAAAHH!!!!!!!!” he roared out in pain

Not showing any mercy I stabbed again and again and again. He doesn’t deserve to live....but he also doesn’t deserve a swift death....

I stomped on his wounds causing blood to spurt out soaking my boots in its color.

Satisfied with his suffering and pain I ended it and finally thrust the spear into his head piercing his helmet and skull.

“.....” I was silent as I watch his bloody corpse disappear and finally looked up

“......”

Sylva was standing in front of me as we looked at each other without uttering a single word.

“The girl?” She asked breaking the silence

I closed my eyes shut and slowly shook my head.

“.....I see.”

Without saying anything I picked up my sword sheathing it and started walking back to Rygar.

“Haruki....where are you going?” she asked with worry in her voice

“I have to tell Riley.”

“No! I’ll do it Haruki!”

Ignoring her words a kept walking as she followed me back

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As I reached the gates I saw Riley waiting with bruises covering him.

“Haru! You’re back!! Thank God!!!” he ran up to me

“......”

Riley looked behind me but only saw Sylva, he kept looking around before facing me again.

“Haru? Where is Beth?” he asked me quietly.

“.........I’m sorry.” I shook my head

“What do you mean sorry?!”

“i failed Riley. She died....”

Suddenly I felt pain at my jaw as I was knocked down. Seeing me hit by Riley, Sylva tried to stop him but I held her back.

“Haru... I trusted you....” he picked me up by the collar

He punched me again and threw me down agin.

“Stop it!! Haruki tried his best, at least he did something!!! You were just-“

“SYLVA, DON”T!!”

Riley looked at me with deep sadness clouding his eyes.

“I KNOW! BETH WAS MY RESPONSIBILITY AND I WAS THE ONE WHO COULDN’T DO ANYTHING!!! I ALREADY KNOW THAT!” Riley yelled out with red eyes

“Riley.....”

“I apologize Haruki. Please, just leave me.”

“But.....”

“LEAVE!”

Without more words he left and walked back into the city.

“Let’s go Sylva. It seems only we’re heading to Tyrne.”

She was about to say something but quickly closed her mouth and nodded.

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Sylva was sitting near the fire watching as it consumed the firewood turning it to ash. She glanced at Haruki who was silently swinging and thrusting a white spear practicing various movements and attack patterns.

They had departed for Tyrne right after Riley left them in silence. During the journey she and Haruki barely exchanged words, at that time Haruki was quiet and used his healing on himself to fix his injuries. Even now Sylva saw that Haruki still had a few burns on his skin and bruises from where Riley had hit him

Even though they were simple bruises Haruki didn’t even try using heal ob his face and left it be.

Sylva noticed that the lightning that came from Haruki was now a deep red instead of his usual bright blue sparks.

She recalled what she had seen this morning. After chasing Haruki for some time she had found Haruki standing over a man on the ground looking at him emotionlessly. She had shivered and fell silent as she watched him stab his spear continuously ignoring the man’s cries of pain before finally killing him mercilessly.

Noticing Haruki had finished she watched as he walk towards the fire and sat down in front of her. She was worried that he would break down but instead it was worse. It looked like as if he had no emotions left. His eyes seemed empty without any sign of life or will anymore.

“Haruki, please talk to me.”

“.....I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not.”

Silently he stood up and was about to leave but suddenly Sylva pulled his hand stopping him.

“Haruki, Please!”

“What do you want me to say Sylva? That I’m not fine? That I failed my friends?”

“No, I just want to talk”

“There’s nothing to talk about, I failed to protect a little girl and my failure killed her.”

“You know something else? I don’t regret a single bit after killing someone. No regret, no guilt. Just nothing.”

“We don’t know if she’s dead or not.”

“No, I know she’s dead. I know people die here for a fact but still I was helpless and ended up killing a person!”

“You didn’t have a choice...”

“I did. I and I made my choice after what he said.”

“I can’t protect anything Sylva. Everyone disappears with me being helpless, If you’re near me you’ll end up de-“

Without letting him finish Sylva just wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly.

“Sylva, please let go.”

“It’s alright Haruki, just let it all out.” She held him tighter

“I said I’m fine.”

“ I will protect you Haruki, and you already protect me....”

“.....”

“I trust in you, Haruki.”

Haruki fell silent and just stood there frozen. Looking at Sylva’s face he noticed that she was crying silently as she held him even tighter than before.

Feeling his emotions return to him he too started to let tears flow out of his eyes. He also embraced Sylva and held her close to him. The two dropped to their knees and just stayed there crying silently exposing their weakest side to each other for a long time.

A new skill has been created

Bond of Trust (Passive)

You have given and received a mutual bond of trust that ties you together. You have an unbreakable bond with your companion as the desire to protect each other becomes a solid connection

Defense increases by 20% when with a trusted companion

15% increased EXP gain for enemies defeated together

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