As the seconds passed the fire began spreading down the tree, and on top of it, it was all over it and extending fast. This didn’t faze any of the participants of the conflict that was taking place. Shila, Rick, and Benttotopotzki had more troubling issues to deal with, mainly escaping from that deathly battle. The Great Socer and the mauloo continued fighting, and now the illusionary dragon Shila had cast had joined the fray.

“Ugh!! I can’t move anymore!” Yelled Rick as he laid on the field.

Benttotopotzki heard Rick’s plea for help. He wanted to help as he had developed a sense of camaraderie with Rick, something he had never felt before for a human. Sadly this sentiment didn’t align with his capabilities as his help would not be fruitful and would only result in both of them getting killed.

“Sorry, Rick! But…” Benttotopotzki said with heavy heart, “I am not strong enough to carry you!”

Rick didn’t say anything back. He didn’t really care. He didn’t know why he was there, or how he got there. He just felt empty. [So this is how I die… It’s weird… This feeling…] Rick closed his eyes slowly, [I don’t even understand why I felt this way… Ever since I woke up…] The memories he had shared with Shila and Benttotopotzki passed thru Rick’s mind. They were few but still brought a tear to his eyes. He felt no remorse or hate for his friends, he understood the situation all too well, [Benttotopotzki is weak… And Shila did warn me that I would be on my own after…]

“I thought I told you if you ran out of energy you would be on your own!”

[Huh!?] Rick heard a voice. It was Shila’s voice. And it was close, very close. He opened his eyes and reaching out to him was the very owner of said voice.

Shila grabbed him quickly and gave Rick a piggyback ride. Rick and Shila were very close, normally this would have gotten Rick pretty excited. Being so close to a beautiful girl, he thought was not something he was used to, or at least it felt that way at the moment. Being carried like that he was slightly touching Shila’s breast with his arms, not that he was doing that on purpose, he was unable to move, as Shila had said before he was basically “dead weight”. In normal conditions, he would have felt a range of emotions, ranging from happiness to even lust. But his sense of touch had pretty much vanished after the time limit of [Energizia] had expired, so he felt nothing.

“Th…Thank you!” Rick said.

“I could not let you die there, Rick…” Shila said as she continued her sprint. “There’s still much for you to learn about Maratrustra!”

“Um… Yeah…” Rick said, not very convinced.

“Now, do something useful and try to see if there’s anything following us!”

Shila didn’t want to spare a single second looking back, both because she knew she could get scared if she saw that huge bird flying just behind her and because it would be a waste of energy, but Rick could do it, as he was simply being carried by her. He tried to move his neck with all his might, just enough to see if there was anything following them. He struggled for some seconds until he finally moved his neck just enough to confirm it.

“Nope, there’s nothing following us!”

Luckily for them, Rosk, the mauloo that had been fighting with Benttotopotzki, had not chased after them. It had opted to assist his kind in the battle against the Great Socer and the dragon.

“Just… A bit more” Shila said.

Shila’s plan was just to get to a place far enough that the mauloos or that huge bird would not look for them. As the minutes of their frenetic run passed Shila had started to lose stamina, but Benttotopotzki could still keep going for some time. They had run for a couple of minutes when Shila decided to stop. And, perhaps instinctively, as if following orders, Benttotopotzki stopped too.

“This is good enough, I think…” Shila said while taking a little bottle out of her purse.

Benttotopotzki and Rick looked a bit worried. They were far from the battle, but they were still able to see it, so it’s not that like were very far away from the danger.

“Are we… Just gonna stay here?” Benttotopotzki asked Rick. “This is open field, you don’t stay in open field… Unless you want to get killed.”

“I know, it’s weird… Let me ask.” Rick answered, and then asked Shila. “Shila, is this really a safe spot? Shouldn’t we keep running?”

“We?” Shila responded as she slowly put Rick’s body on the field, something he had gotten used to by that time. “By we you mean this little pochie and me, right? Because you didn’t do a whole lot of running, Rick…”

“Yeah… You know what I mean! This doesn’t look like a place where we can-”

Shila put her palm in Rick’s lips, as to keep him quiet. And then she proceeded to powder Rick’s face with the contents of the bottle she had taken out of her purse.

“This is a special powder used to get rid of odors, Unagini Powder, I always have it on me to prevent beasts from attacking me… I thought the [Vigilant Aura] spell I had cast would be enough to protect us… Clearly, I was wrong…”

“So you use this to repel beasts?”

“Yes. Beasts might be stronger than us, but we are more clever and have found ways to avoid fights… But this is not the only cautionary measure I have at my disposal, I didn’t want to use it now, as I have used a lot of my magic, but I will have to cast yet another [Illusia].”

And with a simple thrust of her hand, and of course the use of some mana, some rock clusters appeared in the middle of the field that just seconds ago had been empty.

“Well, with this we will be safe! This is what beasts will see when they pass here, in fact, this is what the normal human eye would see too.” Shila sighed, “But you know, the Unagini powder had worked for me like a charm for quite some time! I don’t know what happened! I even applied some powder to you while you were asleep, and even put powder on the mauloo meat we ate so that no beasts would come!” Shila turned her sight towards Benttotopotzki, “You, little thing, must have been the cause of all this trouble! It probably was your odor that attracted those mauloos!” Shila said as she pointed her finger at it.

“Wh-What is she saying! Translate, Rick!” Said Benttotoptozki, a bit frightened just by Shila’s body language.

“She is saying that the mauloos found us because you were there with us. They probably smelled you, because she uses a powder that repels beasts…”

Benttotopotzki gulped. “Please tell her I am sorry…”

Rick translated to Shila, but she didn’t seem too pleased with the apology which saddened the pochie, “Well… A useless thing like me will only cause trouble, so I might as well go… Thanks for everything.” Benttotopotzki turned and left, but was stopped by Shila.

“I would be heartless for me to just let you go, little thing. Maratrustra would not be happy with that either. From now on you will be my pet.” Shila said as she applied some powder on Benttotopotzki, “What are you waiting for? Translate, Rick.”

“Do You really want me to tell Benito that he will be your pet from now on?”

“Benito? Is that its name? Or did you just make it up?” Shila asked.

Benttotopotzki had understood what Rick had just said, “Ey! My name is not Benito, it’s Benttotopotzki! And I’m no one’s pet!”

“Just look at you! All angry and cute” Shila said as she pet Benttotopotzki’s head.

“I am not your pet!” Benttotopotzki replied a bit angry which surprised Shila, so she stopped petting Benttotopotzki. Seconds later he approached Shila’s hand. “But I definitely like this!” Said Benttotopotzki as he started licking Shila, perhaps in hopes of getting petted again.

Who would have thought?!

Shila and Benttotopotzki, AKA Benito have become friends!

(Or owner and pet, it depends on who you ask…)

Shila & Benttotopotzki have achieved:

[Ally Rank: B-]