***

Sitting in the warm embrace of the bright orange campfire were Emily Ulvet and Marie Holftman.

Marie was busy roasting another wolf meat skewer, while Emily was in deep thoughts.

'What should I do with him', she pondered. Although Theodore did prevent her from being bullied before, he also made Arthur misunderstand her. 

Sighing, she was about to just sleep through the night when Marie's shout woke her up from her drowsiness. 

"Enemies!"

Trusting Marie's perception, Emily took out her mana artillery. The device was basically a mini-canon, but its destructive power and area-of-effect was second to none.

"Shit! Where did that guy go when we need him", Marie cursed under her breath.

Soon enough, footsteps could be heard from the dark. 

Not waiting for the enemies to approach, Marie fired a shot. The high-pitched whistling sound of the arrow splitting through the air could be heard from miles away.

Wooosh—!

Marie didn't know whether her shots landed or not, since it was still dark. Nevertheless, she continued to rain arrows down on the direction of the enemies.

"Marie! I will stun them! Prepare your shots!", Emily shouted as she finished loading a shell and infusing Lightning attribute mana.

BOOM—! bzzzt—!

Emily's artillery was fired. The shell exploded into silvery white lightning, stunning the monsters.

The area around the explosion of lightning was lit up for a split second, but Marie didn't take this chance to shoot her arrows, as she was too shocked to do so.

The enemies were wolves, but not the same kind of wolves that they faced this morning. Instead, their fur were pitch black. Normally, they'd think that they were Black wolves, an <F> ranked monster. However—

"THEIR SCLERAE ARE BLACK!", Marie shouted in realization.

Black sclerae that looked like the depths of the Abyss, along with black colored fur, they weren't monsters anymore. Instead, they were—

"Void beasts...", Marie could hear Emily's small murmur.

Although these void-corrupted wolves were only a tad bit more powerful than their normal counterparts, being at <E-> rank, the implications of such creatures being here were... extremely horrifying. It could only mean that—

"Goddammit! Are Void fiends involved?", Marie cursed yet again. Her profane language was something you wouldn't expect from the Hero of Light's childhood friend.

Whether Void fiends were actually here or not, Marie didn't have time to care, as the wolves were slowly but surely approaching them.

BOOM—!

That was Emily's second shell, and it contained the Fire attribute, engulfing 5 Void wolves in flames; However, they were still alive. Thus, Marie and the artillerist had to defend against 12 Void beasts by themselves.

Wooosh—! Wooosh—! Wooosh—!...

Marie fired multiple arrows, but the Wolves didn't die in one hit like before.

'Shit! Just where is he!', She cursed Theodore under her breath. Although she absolutely hated his guts for beating her precious childhood friend up, she had to admit that he was useful in his own right. If he was here, then maybe they wouldn't struggle as much as they were right now.

Hearing multiple explosions nearby, Marie glanced at the Wolfkin to see how she was doing, but Emily wasn't faring any better either.

The barrel of her artillery had exploded under the intense pressure of firing several shells in such short amount of time, and Emily was lying on the ground, bleeding, possibly due to being too close to her artillery when it exploded.

Marie clicked her tongue. 'At least she managed to take out some'

Even if they survived this encounter, Marie judged that Emily would just be dead weight afterwards. After all, a sharpshooter without their weapon is almost useless.

The bonfire had already extinguished a long time ago, but as Marie's eyes got used to the darkness, the dim moonlight was enough for them to make out the figure of the Wolves. There were only 4 of them left. 

Wooosh—!, an arrow was fired, this time piercing a wolf's head, instantly killing it.

However, there were still 3 left, and they were only 2 meters away from Marie.

"SHIT!", Marie cursed out loud. She looked at the wolves and gulped as she broke down in cold sweat. She was sure that their sharp claws and jagged teeth would rip her entire being apart.

One of them leaped towards her, not giving her time to reload. 

Time seemingly stopped for Marie. As the wolf was just inches away from her, she started to reminisce about her childhood.

'Arthur... I wish you were here', she thought. Her only regret was that she couldn't see her beloved childhood friend for the last time. 

Marie had already accepted her death—

bzzzzt—! BANG—!

—She closed her eyes, not caring about what was happening around her anymore.

<[Splice]>

She just wanted to endorse herself with happy memories with Arthur in her last moments.

Swish—! Swish—! Swish—!...

—Whimper!

"I haven't died yet. God really is benevolent. He slowed down time for me so that I can fill more of my mind with Arthur in my last moments"

"Hey Marie!", she suddenly heard a familiar voice.

"Ah, why do I have to hallucinate the bastard's voice now! I want my darling Arthur to be the last thoughts I had before I die, not this"

"What the fuck are you saying?"

"Something's wrong with my brain. Come on! Think of Arthur, not the annoying bastard!"

THUD—!

"OW!", Marie lets out a scream as she felt pain on the top of her head.

Annoyed, she opened her eyes and glared hatefully at the culprit, who was, to her surprise, Theodore.

His clothes were a bit torn and drenched in black blood. On his back was Emily, who had a considerably severe burn on her right arm.

Both of them were looking at Marie with a disturbed and somewhat concerned gaze. 

"What the fuck was that for?", Marie cursed as she massaged her head.

"You wouldn't wake up from... whatever that was if I didn't do so"

Marie remembered what she had just said and hung her head down low in embarrassment. 

Theodore chuckled at the sight. "Oh! My benevolent god! I want to spend my last moments with Arthur. Oh! Please grant me my wish!"

Marie's face was flushed red with anger and embarrassment. Not wanting Theodore to mock her any further, she changed the topic. "Ehem! Enough about that! What happened to the wolves?"

"I killed them"

"Alone?", Marie was surprised.

"Yes"

She looked at Theodore in suspicion, but soon let it go. After all, he was the only person who could fight at that time.

Theodore turned his back on Marie and was about to confirm if there were any more wolves lurking in the dark, but he was stopped by Marie's shout.

"Hey! Where were you? We could have saved a lot of trouble if you had gotten here sooner"

"Didn't I tell you that I was taking a piss?"

"That's not what I meant! Why would yo—"

"Stop talking", Theodore's tone suddenly turned serious as he examined a wolf' corpses; Only one of its sclerae was fully black.

"Not good...", he muttered in a barely audible voice.

"What's not good?", Marie asked as she heard his mutter.

Elves truly had exceptional hearings.

"Everything. Now carry Emily on your back and follow me", Theodore said as he handed the confused Emily over to Marie.

"Where are we going?", asked Marie.

"To save Arthur's ass", replied Theodore in an urgent tone.

Marie wanted to ask more questions, but sensing the atmosphere around Theodore getting increasingly scarier, she kept her mouth shut and followed him.

---

***

'That was really fucking close', I grimaced as I thought back to what had just happened.

I was just really gone for just 5 minutes for a piss. What I didn't expect was hearing explosions in the middle of my business. 

'If I was just a second slower', I shuddered at the thought of a main character dying due to my carelessness.

However, what surprised me wasn't that the Void beasts attacked us. No, that was well within my expectations. 

Instead, it was because they attacked us at this time. Originally, they were supposed to attack in the last day of the lesson.

I really hoped that those Void beasts were just stray ones and weren't involved with the Darkest night, but upon examining their eyes, I confirmed that they had just been corrupted recently. Thus, they were definitely related to the incident.

It also meant that my plan had gone to shit. Now, I needed to find Arthur or Raun as soon as possible. 

—HELP!

—SOMEONE! PLEASE SAVE ME!

Pleas for help could be heard throughout the forest. However, I paid them no mind, as my priority was to find Raun and Arthur.

"Shouldn't we help them?", Marie asked with a concerned gaze.

"Do you want Arthur to die?", I replied in annoyance.

Marie still looked reluctant, but upon mulling over Arthur's safety, she bit her lips and obediently followed me.

We continued running aimlessly through the forest. The results were... less than desirable. Almost half an hour had passed, and there were still no signs of Raun or Arthur. But as I was about to reconsider my approach, I saw 2 familiar figures.

"Where are you going! Arthur isn't there!", Marie screamed.

"Just go find Arthur yourself!", I shouted back. Arthur's situation shouldn't be too bad. So right now, this took priority.

I looked back and saw Marie running off to another direction, looking for Arthur. 'So she isn't going to help after all'.

Sighing, I ran towards the figures at top speed.

---

***

"..."

"..."

"..."

Two boys and one girl were sitting in silence in their camp. It was Raun's group.

Amelia stared at Raun with her eyebrows furrowed, trying to sort out her emotions. Although she still hoped that Raun had not abandoned her, she knew the chances were slim, as let alone approach, Raun had been avoiding her for the whole day.

Seeing that Raun was looking back at her with the same complicated expression, she averted her eyes elsewhere. 

Watching this awkward exchange, the third member of the group tried to ease the atmosphere. "Stop it guys. You two have been at it for the whole day!"

"Adam... it's more complicated than you thought", Raun said; Amelia also nodded to his words, albeit reluctantly.

Seeing Adam, the mage of Raun's group, sigh in defeat, Amelia couldn't help but to feel bad for him. He was just an unrelated student who got caught up in the tension of her relationship with Raun. Not just that, Amelia knew that he had been trying to mend the awkward atmosphere for the whole day, but of course, to no avail.

Noticing that Adam had given up and fell asleep against a tree, Amelia also lets out a small sigh. She too wanted to sleep like him.

Her eyelids felt heavy, and her movements were sloppy. She was, without a doubt, extremely fatigued. After all, she healed most of her teammates' injuries during the day. 

Although that much normally wouldn't warrant the amount of exhaustion she was having right now, she opted to heal Raun without making direct contact, which made her spend much more mana than usual. Thus, she couldn't heal anyone now, even if she wanted to.

Her eyes were about to close, when a loud scream suddenly knocked the drowsiness out of her.

"ARGHHHHHH!", She could heard Adam's bloodcurdling scream from right behind her. 

Startled, Amelia quickly turned around, only to see a Dire bear, with fur as black as the night sky, biting on Adam's shoulder and ripping his arm off. Blood and gore splattered on the tree he was leaning on.

"H- Help me!", Adam cried for help as he desperately reached his remaining arm out to Amelia; However, Amelia was too shocked to even register what had just happened.

She couldn't believe a monster got that close to them before anyone noticed. Their party was just too unbalanced. A healer, and Tank, and a Mage, none of them had high enough perception to spot an enemy from miles away, but they should have at least sensed the faint presence of the bear when it was closing in on their camp.

The aim of the class was to teach students how to deal with situations where a party lacked certain important aspects, such as a sharpshooter's high perception. But now, that seemed to have backfired.

Raun woke up from his stupor a beat faster than Amelia. He immediately rushed towards the bear. But alas, he was too late; Adam's body was already mutilated beyond recognition. His innards spewed outside, leaving a pool of blood under his mangled corpse.

Holding in his urge to vomit, Raun dashed right in front of the bear, and used [G - Shield bash], aiming to push the bear as far from Amelia as possible. 

However, the bear clawed Raun's shield, breaking it into pieces and sent him flying into a nearby tree, almost snapping the tree in half from the impact alone.

Even someone who had no medical qualifications could tell that Raun was out of commission, much less someone trained in the art of healing like Amelia.  

'I- it can't be', Amelia broke down in cold sweat. From the impact alone, she could tell that most of Raun's bones were broken.

The bear turned its attention to Amelia and charged towards her; Amelia was petrified. She tried to move her legs but to no avail. The only thing she could do was to stare into its pitch black eyes which felt like a bottomless abyss.

Just as she was about to accept her fate, however, a figure dashed in front of her. It was Raun.

[Earth spike], She could hear he chant; A spear of earth with protruded from the ground, launching itself towards the bear. But it was for naught, as the monster just shrugged off the hit without any visible damage.

Still petrified, Amelia slowly turned her gaze towards Raun. The front of his body was cladded in layers of rocks.

She gulped upon realizing what Raun was trying to do. He was going to block the bear's charge with his body.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? RUN!", Amelia shouted in tears. She knew that Raun was still forcing himself to stand despite having broken most of the bones in his body. If he had played death, maybe the monster would have overlooked him.

Amelia was sure that Raun could hear her desperate pleas, but surprisingly, Raun didn't move from the spot.

"M- move! You idiot!", She pleaded him again. After all, she knew Raun's personality best. She was sure that he just didn't want himself to look pathetic in front of her, even if it meant that he could be severely injured, or even killed.

"AHHH!". Just as Amelia guessed, he was really trying to hold in his pain, but he ultimately failed. Raun was already forcing his body to its limits, standing upright while having broken the majority of the bones in his body. And the bear charging straight at him, shattering layers upon layers of his earth armor didn't help either.

Fortunately, Raun's attempt successfully halted the bear's charge, but at the cost of him flying through the air yet again and crashing down right behind Amelia.

Using this opportunity, Amelia immediately turned behind her and started healing Raun. But—

"W- why can't I...". Amelia didn't have enough mana to heal.

All she felt at that moment was regret. If she wasn't so hard-headed this morning, maybe she would have had enough mana now to get Raun back to top shape. 

Steeling her resolve, Amelia decided to buy time for Raun to recover and run away. Although she knew it was absolutely useless, she didn't want to sit and watch the one she loved die. However—

"Amelia! Get back", shouted Raun as he got up again, ignoring his body screaming in pain, and walking past Amelia, standing between her and the bear.

"W- why are you g- going so far for me", she sobbed. Didn't he love Krista so much that he abandoned her?

"Because... I still love you. I know that you have another relationship now, but I couldn't help but still feel affection towards you. That's why... I'm ready to sacrifice myself for you"

Immediately, Amelia realized that what happened in the last few days was just—

'A misunderstanding?'

Regret welled up inside her. She wanted to tell Raun that she too loved him from the bottom of her heart. But, it was too late to do so. She could only pray and hope for some divine intervention to at least save Raun from this situation.

The bear rushed towards them again, baring its jaws open, trying to swallow them in one fell swoop.

This time, Raun used his bare body to block it. No Earth magic, no mana protecting his body, no nothing. 

He knew that he would be nothing but a mangled corpse as soon as contact was made, but he was willing to accept his fate if it meant Amelia could live for just a second longer.

Thus, he closed his eyes, and embraced his inevitable death.

BANG—!