Chapter 27: 27: You must have been so lonely…

FDSIO

Muhahaah...

Longest chapter thus far... Also, the one with which I end this first arc ( if I may call it like this... ). 

Oh, there will be the monster POV as well before we move forward with the story...

Pfiu... Ok, ok... without other intrusions, enjoy the chapter. 

*Roar*

The battle quickly escalated to a mess with the arrival of the newcomers. The already wrecked duo was lucky that some trolls were attracted by the dead body of their companion.

They seemed to drag her back to the cave... I didn't even wanted to know what would happen with her afterwards. At least, they didn't start the business right there... I seriously didn't wanted to see something like that...

*shiver*

” Calm down Elizabeth. They were monsters and that's the fate of everything that gets in their hands. ” I muttered to myself to try and calm down at least a little bit.

I saw a lot of death from the day I came to this world. I killed monsters and wild animals myself, and right now I killed a person. But that... 

For a human being to end like that, I couldn't help but shiver again. I didn't think that I would grow accustomed to something like that and I didn't wanted to do so either.

Also, I inexplicably grew quite fond of my new name lately... Maybe that was because Fiona was calling me like that and I started to become accustomed to it?

*sigh* 

I let out a long sigh and took in a breath of fresh air to clean the mind. Fiona was relying on me to shot them down so I had to rise to her expectations. I was the only one who could do it after all.

Aiming at the one who was swearing non-stop, I let go another arrow who hit him in the back. 

It seemed that this one caused some serious damage because he let go of his sword and yelled in pain. Maybe it hit a weak point in his leather armor because that one was the first arrow to penetrate right through the middle of it.

” Gerrard, get up. ” shouted Ron, trying to get closer to his partner.

” Fuck... Ron, this is... Oh, no, no, no, no... gyaahhhh. ”

Before Ron could get closer to him, one of the trolls jumped at Gerrard and landed a claw on his side. The nearby trolls didn't miss the opportunity and jumped at him as well to finish the work.

” Ron... Roooon... Kughh... R... ” he tried to scream for help but Ron took the opportunity to break through their encirclement when they were drawn by his fallen comrade and fled.

Even though the chances to save him were practically zero at that point, letting him die without batting an eye wasn't the prettiest thing to see. Not that I expected too much from the likes of them in the first place...

The real issue was that he obviously decided to flee in our direction since he saw from where those two new trolls emerged. To make things worse, he was followed by two of them as well.

*tsk*

Taking him down before he came too close to us was ideal, but even with an injured leg and followed by two trolls he was still able to defend against my arrows.

But even so, as he came closer, my aim became more accurate. If not for the fact that he wore a chest plate which protected him form takin a fatal injury, he would have been already dead.

He even managed to take down a troll by stabbing it in the throat when he was about to be bitten by it. I was prepared to shot another arrow when he opened his mouth to spout something unexpected.

” I know that's you, elf girl. ”

I froze for a second but that was it. He didn't need to be a genius to figure out at least that much... If he knew or not who I was had no longer any meaning at that point so I let go of the arrow.

*clink*

” Hooaaa... What a violent girl. That was so close... But that means the other archer is my slave. ” he said, changing his direction to where Fiona was. 

’No, no, no, no...’

I wasn't sure if Fiona could bring him down before he would get to her... And I didn't want for the fight to become something like close combat either. Not with all the monsters swarming around us.

I frantically shot some more arrows but without success. He already managed escaped from the clearing. Fiona didn't manage to land a fatal hit on him either.

’God dammit!’

I rushed to catch to them before the situation escalated even further. I was running and thinking about how to proceed if we were to fight with him in close combat. 

I couldn't help it. He was a goddamn human monster fighting other monsters while taking multiple arrows and still managing to make it through all of that. On the other hand, I was was a goddamn elf which was supposed to be the supernatural being there but I felt more human than he was at that point. 

Where the hell was my superiority? For what the hell was my race proud? For being more human than the actual humans? Where was my magic, my freaking magic, my fire... ball?

” Huh? ”

That was it. Screw with my useless race. If I couldn't use real magic yet, all I needed to do was to improvise it somehow. I took out my spear to make a little improvisation to it before catching to them. 

When I came close enough, the second troll which followed after Ron was already dead and I could see Fiona standing face to face with him. 

She had a furious expression on her face like she wanted to brutally tear his every limb apart.

The bow I gave her was thrown near a tree and she was wielding her sword instead. They slowly circling each other with small steps preparing for the incoming battle. 

Ron seemed to want to start already but didn't afford to be careless with his current injuries. Maybe he wanted to finish before I could catch up to them.

” I don't know how you managed to stop the collar from exploding... but your luck ends here. ” he said while taking out from his pocket a small object. 

I could see Fiona’s expression changing when she saw that thing. Her eyes narrowed and her canines peeked out as she was clenching her teeth.

” Take it easy, you beast. Do you think I didn't have a reserve? One wrong step and I'm gonna blow you up. ” he laughed as he was waving the small device in from of her eyes.

”...”

” Now be a good slave like you should be and maybe I will forgive you just this time. When that elf came here, you will help me out. It's important to catch her alive to make up for all the loses you caused... Alright? ”

”...”

” Say something, you useless beast. ” Ron yelled at her. Since she wasn't responding to him, he seemed to lose his patience. 

This wasn't going in a good direction. I had to do something so I took my bow and shot an arrow at him since his attention was focused on Fiona. 

I hoped to stuck his head with the arrow and end the whole thing there but he reacted faster than I expected and the arrow stuck his shoulder instead. 

” Fucking hell. ” he yelled in anger and moved his sword to block Fiona’s strike. 

*clang*

She didn't hesitate to take advantage of my arrow and managed to make him lose the little object which most likely was connected to the collar.

They exchanged another two or three strikes before I could even take out another arrow. 

” Why, why, why you stupid whore... ”

When I was waiting for them to take some distance as to not accidentally hit Fiona he seemed to lose his mind and started to direct his rage at me.

” I don't understand at all why an elf would go so far to help a freaking beast. An impure beast nonetheless. ” he spoke yet another round of nonsense but for some reason, Fiona stopped her advance when she heard that.

” What's with that face, you whore? Don't tell me that she didn't know? No, no, no... It's obvious that you didn't tell her. Or she wouldn't help you from the very beginning. ” he started to scream and laugh even harder while Fiona was almost frozen in pace.

” My chance. ” he said and swing his sword.

” Fio, take care... ” 

I tried to snap her from that trance but that was a little too late. She barely managed to block it and was thrown down from the impact.

*clink* 

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I shot another arrow to make him take some distance from her and give her some time to get up.

” Hey, hey, hey... Didn't you get it already? She was lying to you. Come out and I'll prove it to you. ” he said enraged from some reason.

I wasn't able to comprehend what was going on with Fiona either. We were pressed by time here while those trolls could come at any moment. 

I didn't understand at all what lies was he speaking about but she seemed to be horrified by it. Even though we could bring him down very easy with the current formation, it seemed to no longer be an option due to the sudden turn of events. Fiona started to tremble very hard for some reason.

I had no choice but to switch to my second plan. Even though I came up with it moments earlier, I wasn't so sure about it anymore. I put my bow back in my ring and took out the improvised spear.

I said improvised, but all I had done to it was to wrap the tip of the spear with my previous clothes and add some embers in between. I was so lucky that I stored some more from the previous campfire. 

I put my hand closer to it and started to use my [Fire Manipulation]. 

It was true that my skill wasn't enough to make actual fire to appear out of nowhere, but at least I was able to manipulate the existing one to some extent. It didn't take long for the choth to burst out in flames and for it to extend almost a whole meter in the air.

” Ughh... ”

I had to act before the fuel would be consumed. Even I was surprised at how effective it was so I started to step in their direction trying to prevent the cloth from burning to fast.

” Holy shit, a magic warrior. And an elf on top of that... ” Ron said with disbelief clearly showing in his eyes. Even so, he was still peeking at Fiona from time to time. He was somehow really bothered by my flaming spear.

”...” I was not a magic warrior or whatever he said, but I wasn't going to point that out to him. Also, it sounded like someone you didn't want to mess with. Even the burning sensation I felt became a bit more manageable as he said these words.

With newfound confidence, I adopted the most serious face I could and pointed the spear towards him. 

” Wait, wait, wait just a moment... I don't understand. How did a slave like her managed to get help from someone like you? ”  he said while pointing his finger at her with disgust. 

” Actually, it doesn't matter... I think I know what she did. She lied to you. What did she tell you? That she was captured from the south, right? ” he said and seemed to wait for my confirmation. 

I just nodded since that was actually the truth.  I had to find out what was going on and what was the reason for this turn of events. 

Looking back at Fiona, her whole body seemed to tense as she saw me nodding my head. The moment our eyes met, she quickly looked down without uttering a single word.

” As expected. Then let me tell you why she lied to you. She probably don't even know what's like to live in the south or how to get there. ” he said with an accusatory tone while pointing the tip of his short at Fiona. 

” Her mother was the one captured and enslaved. After that, she was sold at a brothel as a whore. That slut gave birth to this impure wretch and even had the guts to keep her. She's an abomination birthed from two races. ” he said and spit a big mouth of saliva and blood on the ground as if to clean it from what he just said.

” Just look at her face. If not for the fact that she's impure, do you think that the brothel was so stupid to sell someone with that face and body to us? I'm surprised that they didn't kill her at birth. Something about her mother threatening with her life... Whatever, her mother became an obedient slut so she could raise this impure trash and they let her be. After she died, they sold her to us. ”

”...” I still couldn't comprehend what he was blabbering about. Was I supposed to be disgusted or shocked by that? 

Well, I was. But definitely not because she was born the way she was... I wasn't even upset that she lied to me. Whit that kind of origin, it was perfectly normal and understandable if she wasn't comfortable revealing it.

*sigh*

I let out a sigh and glanced back at Fiona. At this point she was shaking uncontrollably and tears started to flow on her cheeks. 

She was born from a beastkin and most likely a human. While searching through the books from the temple, I happened to stumble upon a paragraph detailing how it was impossible to create a hybrid of two principal races.

But there was an exception. It was a pitifully low chance to happen, but sometimes, a child was born from such a union. The problem was that the child would always inherit just his mother's genes. No matter the combination, the child would be born with his mother's race as if his father didn't even contribute to it at all.

I... didn't know what to say anymore. If she was a real hybrid of two races, I could have understood what he wanted to say. But it was clear that she wasn't. And despite all of that, they were still discriminated and called impure.

*clang* 

As I was stuck in my thoughts, Fiona let go of her sword and dropped on her knees. Looking at her, her face was already a mess of tears. She wasn't even able to say something in her defense.

” Ha? Have you finally accepted your fate? You have nowhere to go, and nobody will accept something like you. Your brain must be damaged to approach an elf from all races... It's almost pitiful. ” Ron mocked her, taking my silence as a sigh of approval. 

While he might have been right that if she happened to approach any other elf, that could have been the case, she luckily stumbled upon me. And I wasn't giving a damn about all that stuff.

It took me a while, but I wasn't so dense to not be able to connect the dots even at this point. 

She was so scared and full of anxiety when she asked about my parents back then. About how maybe I couldn't live in that forest for some particular reason related to my parents... How happy she was when my answers were somehow matching her theories...

I had to be retarded to not understand at this point what she was implying. Ironically, she wasn't completely wrong. 

It was true that I wasn't born from two different species but it was also true that maybe I was the only true half-race that existed in this world. While they all were born just with their mother’s genes, they weren't hybrids. I, on the other hand, was a genuine human in an elf body. In a sense, I was more of a hybrid than she was.

” Let me clean your miserable existence from this world. ” seemingly tired of waiting, Ron declared and started to move toward her preparing his sword. 

An inexplicable feeling of rage burst out from my already pained heart. He was so convinced that she had no value in my eyes anymore, to the point of turning his unprotected back to me? 

Had he forgotten how he followed and tried to kill or enslave the both of us? About how two of his companions were killed just moments earlier? Was his hate so intense to the point of blinding him?

He didn't even manage to make another step before my spear pierced through the back of his neck, making its way through the other side. 

I long lost control of the fire which expanded at the very limit of my ability and engulfed his whole body in a shower of flames. His body dropped on the ground without any kind of resistance. A strong smell of burnt flesh penetrated my nostrils and made me to snap back from my berserk state.

[*Ding: You have killed level 57 Human (Ronald)!] 

[*Ding: You have reached level 25!]

[*Ding: You have reached level 26!]

[*Ding: {Fire Manipulation} reached level 5!]

A quick death wasn't what this wrecked human... No, he was no human. I could not associate something like that with what I once was. 

Let me resume. A quick death wasn't what this wrecked monster in human shape deserved.

” Damn it. ”

The troll which I assumed dead started to move a little so I took the spear from the lifeless body and stabbed the troll through his wide-open mouth in frustration as well. 

*hiccup*  *sob* 

” W-W-Why? ” asked Fiona in a trembling voice. She seemed very shocked and confused by the sudden turn of events.

*sob* 

” I-I'm... I am impu... ”

” Shut up! ” I yelled at her. 

*hiccup*

”  I'm s-sorry...”

” You are not impure. ” I said as she finally raised her head from the ground to look at me.

Her beautiful yellow eyes were stained with tears and her lips were trembling. I could not imagine what kind of life she lived to bring her down in such a state but that was in the past.

I stepped closer to her and bent down to embrace her. She tried to resist somehow but all the physical strength her kind was so proud of was nowhere to be seen. 

She was shivering and muttering implausible things as I embrace her even harder.

” It must have been hard on you... But it's all fine now. ” I comforted her.

” I-I...” 

” Shhhh... Even though we were surrounded by those monsters and we need to get the hell out of here, at least for a moment, you can let it go and cry for a bit... Because, you are no longer alone. ”

” Wwaaaaa! ” and she did.

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