Episode 17

Suddenly, the smell of burnt flesh filled the air. That's when I had realized what actually happened. The noise shot a fireball straight at the tibia muscle on my left leg, which was now stinging with excruciating pain.

"Urgh!" I fell to the ground, clutching my leg in my hands tightly.

"Haruka!"

Momoi came up to me as she sat down and took a look at the spot where the fireball had hit.

"No, it's worse than I thought. That attack burnt almost half the skin off. She won't be able to battle right now..." Momoi informed the others.

"No, it's okay... I-I can still fight, I just need to know how to fix this wound..."

"No, Haruka, you are going to rest. I'm going to use my powers to heal it but it's not guaranteed a full recovery."

"Bu-"

"Haruka, a part of being a hero is to know when to fight and when to stop. You have to stop."

"Fine..."

"O sacred water, mend this wound with thy cleansing power. 'Sanatio Aqua'!." While Momoi chanted, pure, clean water flowed from her staff and enveloped my leg.

"W-Woah... It almost feels like nothing ever happened." Amazed, I stood up with ease.

"Well, that's because this spell uses the element of water to mend injuries. The magic prevents wound infections since it cleanses the cut internally then it heals it. But like I said, you still need to rest."

I was still feeling reluctant of staying behind but eventually agreed, "Okay, I don't think I have a say in this now... But, you guys need to hurry up and beat the noise."

"Alright and make sure you don't do anything dumb while we are busy." Tokiya spoke those words before he and the others headed off in the direction of the noise.

(Wait, was he saying that because he's concerned about me? I guess he has changed, huh?)

Thinking that thought, I couldn't help but smile.

Tokiya's POV

(I don't know why I felt bothered about Haruka being left by herself right now. I guess, my feelings are slowly starting to change, huh? But why...? Well, I need to forget about it now, I have to be focused if we want to succeed in completing this mission.)

As I tried ignoring those thoughts, we managed to arrive in the noise's territory.

"ROARRR!!!!!!"

"Can't you ever shut up for a while? Well then, I guess it's about time someone taught you a lesson... Hyaaahhh!!!" I yelled as I jerked forward, dashing to the noise, and used my sickle to harm its leg.

"Woah, nice shot!"

Just when I had thought the noise was hurt, I glanced at its leg once more and witnessed the wound close up within a matter of seconds.

"What...?"

Not a single scratch was shown.

"Tch...! The reapers were right, five-star noise are a pain... Guys, this thing has regenerative abilities! It's going to be a lot harder to defeat than I had thought."

"Awe seriously? What are we meant to do now?!"

"We have to try attacking it with a different strategy. Fighting it directly won't aid us in any way, we have to try injuring it from the inside."

"Hmm... The inside, huh...? I think I've figured out an approach but I'm going to need one of you to distract him first."

"You sure?"

I nodded at Nagi's question.

"Well if you insist, alright here goes nothing... HEY, OVER HERE!!!" Upon Nagi's sudden shouts, the noise turned around, its eyes fixated on Nagi.

"YEAH I'M TALKING TO YOU, YOU ANNOYING MONSTER! CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!!!"

Nagi began racing around the place mockingly, trying to catch the noise's attention, and thankfully, it managed to work.

(Great, now's my chance...!)

While the noise was occupied with Nagi, I ran in its direction.

(Good, its head is low which means...)

Just as I found the opening I was looking for, I leaped into the noise's muzzle.

(Well, this is sickening...)

I was in the mouth of the noise which reeked of flesh, enveloped in darkness.

"Well, time to finish what I came here for, I can't stand staying in here for any longer... Hyah!"

"ROOAAARRRRR!!!"

Suddenly, the noise ruptured, revealing Tokiya who fell to the ground and landed with expertise.

.

.

.

"Wow, Tokiya that was awesome!" Nagi exclaimed as he came running towards me.

"That was a smart strategy." Momoi followed behind.

"*Sigh* This is disgusting..." That's when I recognized that I was smothered in a sticky, foul yellowish substance.

It was clearly from the noise.

"Yeah, you certainly need to get yourself cleaned up soon. Anyway, we need to go back to where Haruka was, she must be waiting for our return."

Back to Haruka's POV

"Oh come on, what's taking them so long...? This is what I hate about being left behind, it makes me feel so restless!"

Just when my uneasy feeling was about to reach its peak, my phone vibrated in my pocket.

"Oh, did they win?!"

I eagerly took out my phone and read the same, familiar message on the screen once again.

"You have successfully carried out the mission. Congratulations on not dying. But this means that things are going to get tougher and tougher.

Good luck."

"*Gasp*! Yes, they managed to defeat the noise!" I exclaimed with relief, jumping up and down with joy.

At that moment, the others arrived and noticed me.

"Congratulations guys, you ended up completing the mission!" I shouted as I ran up to them.

"Oh Haruka, it seems that you've recovered perfectly. *Chuckle* Thanks but it wasn't that simple."

That's when I saw Tokiya at the back who was covered in some sort of yellow liquid from head to toe.

"W-Woah! What happened to you?"

"Long sto-"

"That's technically from the noise, man you should really have seen what he did back there! It was awesome!" Nagi blurted out, cutting Tokiya mid-sentence.

"So, what did he do?"

"You see, the noise actually had regenerative powers so we weren't really able to harm it from the outside and rather, from the inside. So because of that, Tokiya went into the mouth of the noise and ended up injuring it from over there!"

"Wow, Tokiya... That's honestly pretty cool!"

"...Thanks..." He spoke in almost a whisper.

(I suppose he is gradually changing.)

"So, what do we do now, we still have nine hours left until our next mission? I guess it's our second free day then?"

"Right. Well, we certainly don't have much to do so why don't we just take a stroll around town like our last day off. We really didn't have enough time to relax because of this mission." Momoi recommended.

"That's actually all we can do. Well then, come on, what are we waiting for, let's go!"

And with that, we pressed our pins, exiting the place, and heading back into Solaire. Just as we were peacefully walking through the large streets, we got caught up in quite a situation.

"Hey, you there, you guys are players right?!"

Suddenly, a random girl came up to us, her deep, turquoise eyes stared at us with excitement and her bright, orange hair was tied up to the right in a shoulder-length ponytail. Accompanying her was a tall guy, his snow-white bangs were swept to his left, allowing only one of his pink eyes to be seen.

"Umm, yeah...? Who are you guys...?" I asked, feeling really confused.

"We're players just like you! My name's Asumi and this guy here is my partner, Yamato. I handle the spear while he has fire powers." The young girl introduced herself as well as her partner, who didn't even pay any attention whatsoever as he stared in a different direction.

"Oh, wow, I've never met other players in this world before! My name's Haruka. This is my partner Tokiya and these are Momoi and Nagi who are also partners."

"Alright, enough of chit-chatting, here's the real reason I called out to you guys. You see, in this realm, you could also challenge other players for practice, challenges, or to earn bonus points in the game which are a huge advantage. I've been seeking for a long while now for some fellow players and I finally found you all. Now, we're gonna battle!" Asumi explained

"Wait, what...?!" I was totally in shock after hearing Asumi's challenge proposal.

(Seriously, just when I thought we could have a moment of relaxation!)

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