Chapter 55: Cornered

I ran with Alicia as fast as I could. I didn’t have any idea where to run or someplace to hide. My mind wasn’t thinking about that. My only objective was to stay out of their range. Justine’s magic was a sign that she was getting closer. I didn’t know if I was close enough for her to send an attack, but I didn’t want to stay there and find out.

“Ah… Ah…!” Alicia breathed heavily. The poor girl didn’t have the conditioning to run as much as we needed.

“Alicia, please hold on a bit. We are almost there,” I said to her, trying to encourage her. But where exactly is “there”? Where would I hide to protect her from danger? Ironburgh? Would I be capable of arriving there?

I started to hear the rustle of leaves accompanied by hasty footsteps. The sound was starting to get closer and closer, and then a gunshot was fired, cutting at my left and hitting the ground. At that moment, the ground opened in front of me and Alicia thanks to a block of ice erupting from the earth. An ice bullet.

I was ready to walk around the block, but then, without a bullet being shot at us, a wall of ice rose in our way. Meters and meters of ice, with 3m (9.84ft) of height, spreading a white frosty draft through the forest. The wall, created by magic, was something that would take a while to bypass. But it was too late.

I could hear footsteps just a few meters away. They were already here. Running was not an option at this point, because our enemies were finally in our sight. Two women in white military uniforms were getting closer to us. But still, my body was frozen, refusing to turn around and face them.

On my left there was a gorgeous woman with short black hair and glasses. I believed she was a bit taller than me, maybe 1.72m (5’8’’). If there was an ideal type of secretary for fictional stories, she would be it. Justine was walking towards me with her cold, sharp eyes. The left one, with a mole below it, had its sclera red. I imagined that it was because I destroyed her magic before. And she was clearly pissed at me.

On my right was her leader. Erina was a bit smaller than Justine and me, about 1.68m (5’6’’) in height. She had that wine-red hair tied in a messy bun, the strong color contrasting with her white clothes, and an amber eye that looked like a cat’s to me.

“Oi, oi, I think the fun is over. Now, could you turn around so I could see your faces?” the Silver Fang Captain said in a laid-back voice, as if she had already won.

Looking out of the corner of my eye, I checked their status once again.

[

Name: Erina Ashburn

Level: 10

Class: Gunner

Health: 90 points

Mana: 70 points

Strength: 15 point

Defense: 9 point

Magic: 7 point

Agility: 10 point

]

[

Name: Justine Blackwood

Level: 9

Class: Mage

Health: 70 points

Mana: 80 points

Strength: 4 point

Defense: 8 point

Magic: 18 point

Agility: 8 point

]

I mentally compared it with my current situation, adding Alicia to the equation. And we were nowhere close to their level.

[

Name: Richard Forster

Class: Valkyrie Tamer

Level: 2

Valkyries: 2/3

Health: 60 points

Mana: 15 points

Strength: 6 points

Defense: 1 point

Magic: 2 points

Agility: 3 points

Status Points: 0 points

]

[

Name: Alicia Ludvila Von Astrea

Level: 1

Class: Saintess

Title: Valkyrie

Master: Richard Forster

Health: 40 points

Mana: 40 points

Strength: 1 point

Defense: 2 points

Magic: 6 points

Agility: 3 points

Status Points: 0 points

]

My status and level were below theirs, and Alicia was in the same situation and didn’t have combat experience. Their stats were like a wall that me and Alicia couldn’t go through.

It wasn’t wise to face them in a fair fight. I decided to do as Erina said for a while. If an opening appeared, I would take them down and escape with Alicia. If I didn’t give up, it wasn’t over. I sighed deeply, suppressing my fear, and turned around.

“Eh?” Erina’s cat eyes analyzed me for a second, and then she let a surprised sound escape her mouth. I kept staring at her, showing no fear, waiting for her next words.

“H-He is…!” she said hesitantly. She looked nervous while looking at my face.

“Ms. Erina, what’s wrong?” Justine asked her superior with urgency, worried about her behavior. “Did you know him?”

“He is handsome!” Erina said out loud, surprising everyone around her.

“Eh?” I was speechless, taken by that unexpected turn.

Erina turned to her friend, her eyes shining as if she was looking at her first love. “Justine, he is like… totally my type! I should talk to him… but what should I say to him? Justine… ?”

Justine looked at her old friend and Captain, her eyes filled with a mix of anger and disgust. She tried to hold her feelings, but she burst like a pressure pot. “Erina! Do you have no shame?!”

Erina looked scared by her reaction, her eyes wide open and her mouth dumbfounded. “Why did you scream at me like that?”

Justine continued to rage against Erina, her index finger trying to pierce her Captain’s cheek. “Are you crazy? You woke me up in the middle of the night, made me run towards them, and now you are acting like you fell for him at first sight.”

“Justine, you are hurting me~” Erina cried, but Justine didn’t care at all.

’Maybe this is our chance!’ I thought inwardly. I took Alicia by her hand, and slowly I tried to walk away from them. However, I stopped where I stood when an ice projectile, as large as my sword’s blade, landed next to my foot.

“Don’t you think about running away!” Justine turned her cold eyes at me. I was sincerely more afraid of her than Erina after this. Justine went back to Erina, standing face to face with her.

“What is more important: rescuing the princess or finding a boyfriend?” she asked her.

Erina, when she heard that last part, finally snapped. “Do you know how hard it is to find a man that is my type in this world?! I’m a woman, but I also have my needs.”

Justine looked at her as if her old friend was a waste of energy, and finally said, “You’re helpless.”

…

After their little fight, Justine finally gave us proper attention. Erina was the leader, but the woman in glasses was more eager to confront me.

“You, your name is Richard Forster, right?” she asked me in a serious tone. I nodded, and she sighed in response.

“So let me get straight to the point. Do you know who this girl by your side is?” she asked me.

“Why do you want to know?” I asked her back.

“She’s a missing person. We are responsible for bringing her back to safety,” she said in a calmer voice, but Alicia was trying to hide behind me, afraid of her.

“Yes, I’m pretty aware of who she is,” I responded to her.

“That makes things easier!” Erina broke her silence, directing herself to me. “You just need to give her to us, so we can fulfill our work.”

“You’re not going to kill me?” I asked in a tense voice.

“Not really,” she answered in a laid-back way. “We have orders to rescue Alicia and an order to kill another person, but we can talk about this later. You’re not much involved in this, so if you give her to us, it’ll be all solved.”

She said it with a happy and cheerful voice, but I wasn’t convinced. “You’ll bring her home?”

“Yeah, but first we’ll bring her to our boss. He must’ve been really worried about her, so the orders are to bring her first to him.”

“So no deal!” I responded to her earlier question. They were planning to give Alicia to her uncle, Gerard, leader of the Silver Fang and the man that ordered her death. “I’ll never give Alicia to you.”

Erina’s cheerful expression broke into pieces, and Justine looked more impatient than before. Alicia might have thought that she would try something against me, because she jumped right in front of me with open arms, trying to shield me.

“Lady Alicia…” Justine called her by name.

“Wait, please. Rick is only trying to protect me. I’m not being kidnapped or anything. I am following him by my own will,” she said desperately, worried about what would happen to me.

“Lady Alicia, stay back—” Erina was interrupted by a monstrous sound, a guttural growl echoing through the trees.

All four of us turned our heads the moment we heard heavy steps. Something was coming in our direction.

“It’s not possible! Why is that thing here?!” Justine asked nervously, her eyes filled with fear. Erina didn’t respond; she was too busy pointing her gun at it.

A silver and black wolf came from the woods, much bigger than the ones Sarah was training against. The creature opened her big jaw, showing us her sharp monstrous teeth, ready to tear us apart.

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