Chương 19: Lending A Shoulder

Ignoring Alka's taunt, Smohl stumbled over to the two elves that had gone down in a tangle of limbs when the Trunkback had thrown one at the other. Dropping hard to his knees, the elf checked their pulses. At least one of them must still have been breathing, as the leader quickly turned and yelled over his shoulder.

"Puwen! Rouse Shia! Eigan is dead but Woad still breathes. We need her magic!" Vin and Alka watched as Puwen shook off the remains of whatever the Trunkback's roar had done to him, stumbling his way over before practically collapsing beside Shia; the unconscious elf that had cast the spell. Reaching into a small pouch on his side, he pulled out some sort of crushed up herb, holding it directly under Shia's nose.

It must have been some sort of natural smelling salt, because the snake-like elf's eyes flew open immediately, and she began retching, recoiling from the herb." Broken branches, what's going on?!" She cried, her eyes watering as she took in the scene before her. Seeing Smohl crouched over their fallen comrades must have been enough for her to put the pieces together as she quickly got to her feet and ran over.

Taking one look at the downed elves, she crouched down, gently placing her hands on the scarred elf's body." Renewal." She said, her hands glowing as mana flowed from her into the scarred elf. Vin watched in wonder as the elf's many broken bones seemed to shift back into the correct position, and the lacerations covering his body knitted themselves closed before his very eyes.

Shia kept her hands on her comrade's body as the magic did its work, but as the seconds passed, Vin began to notice the sweat dripping down her face. Focusing on the sensation of the magic, he thought he could feel her mana pool rapidly thinning, and the woman appeared to be straining to squeeze out every last drop of what she had left.

Eventually she got to the point where she'd used so much mana no amount of straining would produce anything more, and she fell to her hands and knees, gasping for breath as sweat poured off her in buckets. It must have been enough however, as Smohl sat back with a sigh of relief, a small smile on his face.

"It was enough, Shia. Woad is stable for now."

"Of course… he is…" The woman got out between rasping breaths, her own shark-like grin plastered on her face.

"I'm… amazing…" During all of this, Alka stood in control of Vin's body, watching the scene play out before her with sword in hand. Vin knew their minute was rapidly ticking down, but he wasn't sure what the right move was here. Did they flee from the battered and beaten down elves while they were distracted? Did they continue on to meet the mysterious Ancient Ones? The only thing he knew for sure was that if Alka moved to strike the remaining elves down he would yank control back before she could reach them.

Their party had suffered enough from the Trunkback as it was. Thankfully, Alka didn't try and lunge forward to finish what the Trunkback had started. To his surprise, she calmly walked over to the first elf that had fallen, picking up their scabbard from the ground and sheathing their sword. Grabbing his fallen pack, she secured both once more on his person. Before Vin could start to wonder what was going on, he found himself jerked back into his own body, once again in control of himself.

'Something is wrong in this forest,' she said.

'I can only assume that the Great Reset your stony friends talked about must have happened to everyone brought to this new world. These people fought like skilled warriors, but their attacks had no force behind them. Other than that one's Piercing Shot, which must have been his first capstone skill.'

"Interloper," Smohl called out, startling Vin as the elf stood up and frowned at him.

"... thank you for saving our lives." The words seemed almost more painful to the elf than the Trunkback's roar had been, but he said them anyway.

"Clearly you possessed the skill to have fled at any point while we were distracted. Instead, you chose to stay and slay the monster for us. Why?" Vin stared at the elf that had argued he should be killed on the spot to his comrades. Sighing, he turned to take in the two dead elves; each one a mess of broken bones and ruptured organs. He felt his stomach lurch at the gruesome sights, but he managed to keep his lunch down, if only just barely.

"Is it that hard to believe I just don't want to see people die?" Smohl said nothing, staring at him for a few more seconds before turning toward his comrades.

"Puwen. You and I will carry Woad back to the village. Shia used too much of her mana and needs to rest. Interloper," he glanced over his shoulder.

"... you should come with us."

"Smohl, you can't be serious-" Puwen began before Smohl cut him off with a raised hand.

"Not as a sacrifice of course. Not after what you did for us." Smohl pursed his lips, his expression pained.

"... I should have listened to Puwen from the beginning. You should meet with the Ancient Ones. Maybe you will be able to help us. Either way, the choice is yours." Having said his part, Smohl strained to pick up the scarred elf, and Puwen quickly joined him. The two of them began making their way through the forest once more, albeit far more slowly now that they had an unconscious elf to carry.

Shakily getting to her own feet, Shia turned and gave him an uncertain grin, her pointed teeth still sending small shivers down Vin's back.

"I don't suppose you'd be willing to lend me a hand?" She asked, pushing a few strands of hair that had come loose from her braid behind her pointed ears. Until now, Vin had been a little distracted by the whole held at arrowpoint situation to really take in the elves completely. He'd noticed their clothing consisted of little more than bark and leaves, but he hadn't realized just how weird it truly was.

Like the other elves, Shia's clothes appeared to consist of interlocking leaves woven together as if they were some sort of natural chainmail, with a few thin pieces of bark acting as additional armor attached to her via woven vines. Vin could only assume either there was some magical element involved, or that the elves favored mobility over armor, as the entire outfit looked like it wouldn't stop so much as a butter knife. Looking at her, Vin had to admit Shia herself was rather attractive.

Her skin looked almost unnaturally soft, and like the rest of her party, she was in incredibly good shape. Vin could easily think of a dozen people he'd met in his travels back on Earth that would have thrown themselves at her feet if they'd ever met her in person. Shame he couldn't stop imagining those pointed teeth ripping out his jugular every time she smiled. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Doing his best to ignore the shivers her smile continued to send down his spine, he stepped forward and offered the elf his arm. Clearly not expecting him to actually help her, Shia quickly hid her surprise behind another shark-like grin and gracefully accepted his arm, leaning heavily on him as they followed the other two.

Vin realized pumping all of her mana into her spell must have been far more draining on the elf than she was trying to let on, as it felt practically more like he was carrying her than just helping her walk.

"Are you okay?" He couldn't help but ask as her legs refused to stop shaking.

"I'm fine," she grinned, sending a fresh shiver down his back.

"Just used up a little too much mana back there. Had to make sure Woad would pull through."

"I noticed. That was an impressive spell you used. I sensed you funneling your mana into him."

"Ah, a mage yourself, are you?" Her grin widened at the compliment.

"I should have suspected after finding those objects of power in your pack."

"Well, a wanna-be mage I suppose," Vin admitted, sheepishly thinking about his ability to sense rocks compared to the elf's ability to command a forest to fight for her and to heal severe wounds.

"I only know one spell so far. But I've been dumping all my attribute points in magic the past few levels, and I have the Spellcraft skill!" Despite her looks, the elven woman still terrified him. However, she was the first person he'd met that seemed to have a good handle on magic, and he'd be a fool to waste the opportunity to learn.

"Well now, that's all you really need to start your journey to becoming a mage. That and a willing teacher of course."

"Who taught you your magic? The Ancient Ones?" Suddenly the thought of meeting the people Smohl had been planning on sacrificing him to excited him. What was a little risk of death when the supposed all powerful murderers might teach him a spell or two? His newfound fascination toward magic might be starting to become unhealthy. Snorting at his question, Shia shook her head.

"The Ancient Ones have far more important things to do than teach me magic. No, I learned from my master. A Druid far more powerful than I could ever hope to reach. Even before our powers were stripped from us." This last sentence was muttered almost too quietly for Vin to hear, but the words were spoken with both anger and longing.

"Did your people also lose their levels and skills about three months ago?" He asked, earning a shocked look from the elf." Also? You mean it wasn't a targeted attack on our Sacred Forest by the surrounding kingdoms?"

"No, it definitely wasn't," he confirmed.

"Though the truth might not actually be any better. What do your people think happened?"

"The surrounding kingdoms have always been angered by our Sacred Forest lying directly between them. Only a few weeks after they formed an official alliance, we suddenly found ourselves stripped of our levels and a massive portion of our Sacred Forest gone; replaced with strange terrain that hadn't been there the day before. We waited for the knights to ride in and attack us in our vulnerable state, but they never came." Shia stared off into the distance.

"If it wasn't the surrounding kingdoms, who was it?" Oh boy, this never gets any easier. If this keeps up, I should have business cards made with this information printed on them or something. Refining his explanation a bit further every time he went through this, Vin quickly informed her of what he knew about this new world. To his surprise, rather than shock or disbelief, Shia sighed in relief once he was done.

"Oh thank the Ancient Ones! These past few months we've been waiting with bated breath for the kingdoms to finally come and finish their attack, never knowing which day would be our last. If what you say is true, we no longer need to fear being run down and our Sacred Forest destroyed!"

"I mean, yeah that's good and all… but aren't you worried about the whole 'ripped from your world' thing?"

"So long as we have our forest and the Ancient Ones, it doesn't matter where we are," Shia smiled.

"Not to mention defending the forest from roaming monsters had grown increasingly perilous in the months leading up to losing our levels. Many of our peoples' lives were lost, so hopefully this gives us the chance to heal and regrow. Even my master, unquestionably the strongest of us, nearly lost his life defending the Sacred Forest from a flying monster five times the size of that Trunkback. If we'd suffered many more attacks like that, we would have been finished." Five times??

Vin struggled to even imagine a creature that large, let alone think about fighting one. It sounded like the corruption he'd heard about from the stone villagers truly had spread across the entire universe.

'I sure hope we get to fight something like that before you give me my final rest!' Battle junkie, Vin thought, not willing to risk whispering the insult with the elf literally hanging off his arm. The two of them walked in silence for a bit. Vin didn't know how long it took for someone's mana to replenish from near empty, but Shia didn't seem to be in any rush to let go of his arm. After a few minutes, Vin decided to try his luck.

"So I was wondering…"

"I'm sorry, but it is highly taboo for my people to sleep with those that come from outside the forest," Shia sighed, shaking her head.

"As much as I would love to partake in your flesh, I'm afraid I must decline."

"What? No!" Vin said, possibly louder than necessary. Partake in my flesh? That sounds way too much like she wants to eat me.

"I wanted to know if you'd be willing to teach me any of your magic!"

"Oh… well, that is a different matter!" Shia grinned, giving him a fresh look at her pointed teeth. Seriously, what did her diet consist of, pure gristle?

"Assuming the Ancient Ones don't sentence you to death, I'd be happy to teach you a spell or two as thanks for saving our lives. I always wanted to try being someone's master, but I am not old or strong enough to take on a student just yet."

"Well, I'd happily be a test student for you." Vin's mind went to the two spells he'd witnessed the Druid cast. Both Entangle and Renewal had seemed extraordinarily useful, and he'd be happy to learn any such spells from the elven woman. While imagining what she must have been like before the Great Reset, a thought crossed his mind.

"Did you lose access to your spells when you lost your levels? I know everyone lost their attribute points and skills, but I haven't really met any spellcasters yet."

"Some of them. Spells that were granted to me via my class were lost, but the spells I'd learned through devoted study and with the assistance of my master remained with me. However, a good number of them require more mana than I currently possess with my reduced magic attribute, and my focus is no longer high enough to maintain the runic formations within my personal mana, so I am unable to cast them as I am now." Ah, that makes sense.

He'd wondered how losing a spell he'd spent hours or days learning would have worked. He was thankful to hear the System wasn't just scooping large chunks of memory out of peoples' heads. That would have been a tad concerning.

"Shia!" He heard Smohl's voice from up ahead.

"Is the interloper still with us?"

"Yes, he's still here!" She called back, giving Vin one more pointed smile.

"Well then hurry and catch up!" Smohl called back, sounding exasperated.

"The village is just up ahead! It's time for him to meet the Ancient Ones."