Farn’s brain had just begun to process the sight of the monstrous creature before him before he felt another gale of wind. Then, he heard a short, sharp scream and a dull thud. The scream was cut short.

Farn’s chest constricted. Aurelie. He stumbled blindly in the dark, trying to go in the direction of her voice. They needed to stick together. He had already lost someone very close to him. He wasn’t sure he could bear losing someone else so soon afterwards.

Gallo ,slightly more logical than Farn, grabbed five Flame Spheres, rushing forward in a straight line and letting the powder fall. At the same time, he sprinkled a white powder into the flame, making it burn brighter and stronger. Aurelie had given him the powder. ‘I got this from a merchant I helped out. It’s the Sorainellan equivalent of gunpowder, though it doesn’t explode.’ she’d told him as she shrugged, a mischievous smile tugging at her lips. He hadn’t understood what she was comparing the powder too, but he knew the powder was very flammable, and allowed the fires of the spheres to burn for up to ten minutes, as well as making the flame brighter and harder to put out.

The light blinded all of them momentarily, but the humans recovered quickly, while the monster roared in pain and staggered away.

The light allowed Farn to see Aurelie, lying pale and limp against the wall, He took in a sharp breath at the sight of the gaping claw mark across her stomach. She was out cold, the trickle of blood down her forehead an indication that she had hit her head. But his main focus was on the blood gushing out of the wound on her midsection. She needed treatment, and she needed it urgently. But they couldn’t get it here.

“This way!” He heard Gallo shout, and saw that the other man had spotted a crevice that they could squeeze into such that the creature wouldn’t be able to follow them. He gathered Aurelie in his arms and ran towards the crevice. Gallo, for his part, picked up the sticks that had scattered, thrusting them into the fire so that they were aflame, and then dashing into the crack in the wall, Farn hot on his heels.

They had to squeeze through the crack, but it widened out eventually into a mini-cave. Well, actually, it was more like a sphere had been cut out of the cave wall. It was roomy enough for them to be comfortable, but not so roomy that they couldn’t not feel claustrophobia beginning to set in.

Swallowing the new surge of panic and fear, Farn laid Aurelie down gently while Gallo created a small camp fire with the burning sticks so they could see each other. When he finished, he went to Aurelie’s side, gasping when he saw her injuries.

When he had created the fire outside, he’d only glanced at her long enough to see that she was unconscious, and that Farn was heading her way, undoubtedly going to help her. Gallo decided to help all three of them and find a safe location for them to hide in and help Aurelie recover from her injuries.

The second he’d seen the crack on the wall, something in him screamed that that was a safe place, that he needed to go there immediately. He listened to the voice, calling for Farn to come over and bring Aurelie with him. He’d spotted the sticks on his way in, and realized that they would need light in order to heal her.

Regardless, the fact was that this was Gallo’s first time truly seeing the full extent of Aurelie’s injuries. Farn had just set her down for about a minute, but there was already a small puddle of blood forming under her body, and Farn’s own clothes were soaked in the girl’s blood, his palms slick with the liquid. She was far paler than usual, and her breathing was weak and thready.

For the first time in a while, Gallo was truly afraid that the person before him was going to die.

He immediately began to tend to her wounds, summoning his clothes from the storage ring he’d been gifted with when he left Meir Village. He pressed the cloth against Aurelie’s wounds. The pressure naturally brought about more pain, to the point that even unconscious, Aurelie began to shift uncomfortably and made a face. Gallo ignored this, and even her soft groan, attempting to stop the blood flow. She was going to bleed out within ten minutes, if this kept up.

Quickly, his clothes began to get saturated, as well. At this point in time, just as he was panicking, Gallo heard a terse voice grunt out the word, “Move.”

Gallo threw himself out of the way, and a gentle ray of light fell upon Aurelie. He watched as the bleeding slowed, then practically stopped. Next to her, Farn held himself stiffly pointing at Aurelie. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Farn was using a Healing Technique on Aurelie.

It wasn’t strange for Farn to know a Healing Technique, and for Gallo not to. Healing Techniques were far rarer than Martial Techniques, and far more valuable. As such, a normal villager such as Gallo couldn’t learn one, though Farn could, as son of the Village Head of Lejus Village. Not even Aurelie, even with all her contributions to Lejus and Meir, knew a Healing Technique.

Unfortunately, Farn could only keep it up for a minute before he ran out of Spirit Power, practically collapsing as he stopped the light.

“Sorry I couldn’t do that immediately. I knew the technique, but it took me some time to get the movements right.” Farn gasped out from where he kneeled on the floor.

“It’s fine, you did enough. Rest now, regain your Spirit Power. It would be nice if you could stand sentry,” Gallo said gently.

Quietly, he summoned a handkerchief from his ring, wetting it with the contents of his water skin. Farn walked over to the only entrance and exit, sitting down before it, both keeping watch and silently recovering his strength.