Free Web NovelChapter 165: Promise Between Abnormalities
"Where are they?!" Mika asked worriedly as he walked up to the king.
"It seems like they reached the spot where I’ve confronted them today." the king answered.
Hearing that, Mika instantly turned around and was about to leave.
"And where do you think you’re going now?"
The king held Mika back by grabbing his arm.
"I’m going to my friends of course!"
"I haven’t allowed you to leave yet."
Mika was struggling to free himself.
"Your friends are fighting against my comrades. However, I won’t leave here because the matter concerning you and me is far more important to me."
The king gazed at Mika threateningly.
"Tch."
Mika drew with his other hand his rusty sword and stabbed the ground between them.
"I will come back for you! In the meantime, you can have my sword!"
"..."
Unconsciously, the king loosened its grip on Mika, allowing him to run away.
It stared at the rusty sword.
[Have you lost your mind? How could you leave your sword behind?]
Leaving the rusty sword behind also meant leaving Excalibur behind.
"Don’t worry, I will come and get it afterward." Mika replied as he ran.
He saw it as the only method to get away from the king of the jungle. After all, the king knew how important that sword was.
Now, his priority was to get to his friends despite not knowing clearly what their situation was.
He transformed again and spread his wings before he flew above the trees.
[47 seconds left.]
Meanwhile, Zhen and the girls faced a larger number of monsters than back then.
They were at the spot, where Mika was last seen.
Due to the darkness, it was harder to spot the enemy.
"..."
The three faced each other with their backs as they looked out for attacks.
They were already exhausted, which was mainly due to the previous fights, and even received new wounds on them.
Especially, Lily and Sylvia were breathing raggedly.
"I will attract their attention. In the meantime, you two escape from here." Zhen muttered.
"We are retreating...?" Lily asked frustrated as they did not find Mika yet.
"Lily!" Sylvia raised her voice slightly.
"..."
Lily bit her lips.
She understood the graveness of the situation they were in.
The three of them were nearing their limits. They did not know the number of their enemies. It was dark and the enemies had a habitual advantage over them.
"Are you sure about handling them alone, Mr. Bugar?" Sylvia asked.
"Yes."
"..."
She hesitated at first.
"Understood... We will leave then..." she said bitterly.
Sylvia started to run back, dragging Lily with her.
The two disappeared in the darkness and did not look back. They could only notice how everything behind them got illuminated as well as the heat on their backs.
And as they ran, their breathing got even more ragged as their stamina was almost completely drained.
"...!"
Suddenly, the earth rumbled, causing the two girls to trip and fall.
"W-what was that...?" Lily wondered.
"Again...?" Sylvia muttered weakly.
The two struggled as they got up on their feet.
"We’re almost there..." Sylvia said, focusing on their goal again.
However, they got interrupted again when two monsters appeared in front of them.
"What timing..." Sylvia stated sarcastically.
A black panther-like monster and a snake monster.
Just like every panther-type monster, it was humanoid whereas the snake was a lot larger than a normal snake.
"!"
The panther targeted Sylvia first.
She was about to jump to the side, however, due to the darkness she could not see that the snake’s tail was slithering towards her.
"Damn-"
Stopping her movement, the panther was able to land a clear punch on her.
"Sylvia!"
Lily gathered flames around her.
But as she was already weakened and used up most of her magic, the flames were rather weak.
She hurriedly threw fireballs at them but they evaded or blocked them effortlessly.
"Ugh!"
The snake whipped her across the face with its tail.
"Uff!"
The panther followed up with a heavy punch to the stomach.
"..."
Lily fell on her knees as she coughed painfully.
"You little..."
Sylvia was about to use her magic but the snake was one step ahead of her and restrained her body with its tail.
The panther approached them slowly with the snake behind it.
It seemed like the snake was baring its fangs at them as it raised itself up with its mouth open.
"!"
However, at that moment, a spear pierced through its mouth.
Baffled, the panther turned its head to the spear, which brushed past its cheek.
The spear slightly moved away from the panther.
But only for the wielder to swing it back to the panther’s face, sending it and the pierced snake into the depths of the jungle.
[0 seconds left.]
The spear disappeared.
Then, the two girls got up and looked in the direction, where the spear came from.
"Heh... You got us all worried..." Sylvia chuckled weakly.
"..."
Lily was on the verge of collapsing again. freēwebnovel.com
The eyes of Sylvia were also about to close.
The grass and bushes rustled.
But knowing that they were safe now, all their energy left their bodies as they were about to fall on their faces.
"Woah, there...!"
It was Mika, who managed to catch the two just in time.
"Can you help me carry them?" he asked the person, who appeared right behind him.
"Got it." Zhen replied.
"..."
Mika looked at the two girls in his arms.
"I-I’ll leave Sylvia to you then..."
Mika smiled wryly as Lily clung to his chest tightly, making it hard to hand her over to someone else.
"?"
Zhen turned his head to the right.
"Thanks for sparing most of them."
"!"
The king appeared, surprising Zhen.
"It’s fine. The king won’t harm us." Mika reassured Zhen, who was about to take up his fighting stance.
"..."
The king stared in the direction of the space, where Zhen initially stalled the monsters to make the girls escape.
Before reaching Sylvia and Lily, Mika noticed Zhen first on his way.
Seeing that he was surrounded by monsters, he had to help him out first.
But he also knew that it would anger the king if he were to eliminate the monsters. Therefore, he chose to demonstrate his strength to scare the monsters away by making an enlarged Holy Spear fall from the sky and pierce the ground.
"Here. Take this." the king said, throwing Mika’s sword to his feet.
"Hm? You came to me to give it back? Thanks but I thought I’d said that I’d come back for it though..." Mika wondered confused.
"What’s your name?" it asked, ignoring Mika’s words.
"M-Mika Elbar."
"I see."
It stretched its hand out to Mika.
"You can call me Shira." it added.
Mika nervously took Shira’s hand.
"As long as the humans won’t attack us, I will make sure that the monsters here won’t attack a person."
Mika smiled slightly.
"Understood. I will relay that message to the higher-ups."
"Hm."
Shira chuckled softly before it turned its back to them and went back.
"Shira!"
"?"
"I will come back, I promise!" Mika shouted.
Shira only raised his hand up as it walked deeper into the jungle.
Even without stating it out loud, the two knew what the meaning was.
It was a promise to help cure Shira.
"..."
Zhen only stared suspectingly at Mika.
Mika, a boy, whose abilities were far from the norm, conversed with the king of the jungle, a monster, who was also far from the norm.
In other words, it was an interaction between two abnormalities, who had each the power and potential to shake the world.
"Let’s go, shall we?" Mika suggested relaxed.
Thus, Zhen and Mika were on their way to exit the jungle.
[You are pretty confident to make a promise you do not know you can keep. Excalibur could not cure it completely nor do I have not the knowledge yet to help. What makes you think that you could do that?]
’I guess I just have a feeling that this will end on a good note.’ Mika answered in his mind.
[A feeling? How astonishing.]
’Well, with you by my side, there’s nothing we can’t solve, right?’
Mika was smiling on the outside.
The campfire was now visible.
[...]
Just faintly, Mika heard the system’s chuckle.
At the same time, Louis and Ren, who was now awake again, stormed to Zhen and Mika with worried faces.
Louis and Ren checked up on Lily but it seemed like she still would not let go of Mika, who could only laugh awkwardly at the two.
For that night, they decided to camp outside and rest up so that they could leave early tomorrow.
It did not take long for everyone, especially, Mika to fall asleep.
[There is nothing we cannot solve as long as we two stay side by side, huh...?]
Mika did not respond nor did he notice that the system was talking.
[That may be true but...]
The system sounded melancholic.
[The end for us two is reaching soon.]
